Christie frowned again.
Today is Monday; there are six days until the weekend.
Baron Lep noticed his hesitation, and once more gestured toward the opposite riverbank: "Look, there are over a thousand fierce Indians over there. At any moment, they could burst out of the thickets and shoot your soldiers with poisoned arrows.
"But if I can persuade them to accept the debt proposal, you'll be able to occupy that land without losing a single man."
He leaned forward again, lowering his voice: "Just the ammunition you'd save would be worth thousands of US Dollars."
Christie narrowed his eyes. Indeed, as the Frenchman said, defeating a major tribe like the Cherokee, it was perfectly normal to report three or four thousand dollars' worth of ammunition consumed. If the Indians truly withdrew on their own, that money would all be his.
