is this? What is this? What is this?" stuttered Alloway in his
wrath.

"We seem, sir, to have been run over by a herd of buffaloes," said
Wyatt, smoothly.

"And does this sort of thing happen often in these woods?"

"I can't say that I've heard of such a case before, but even if it's a
single instance we're the victims of it."

Alloway glared at Wyatt, but he knew that he could not afford to quarrel
with the young renegade, who had great influence with the tribes. He
picked up the fragments of his red coat and looked at them ruefully.

"I didn't know that the herds were ever so large in this forest
country," he said to Blackstaffe.

"It's seldom so," said the older renegade.

"Is it their habit to rise up at midnight and gallop over men's camps?"

"It is not."

"Then how do you account for such behavior?"

Blackstaffe shrugged his shoulders and spoke a few words in their own
tongue to the chiefs. Then he turned back to Colonel Alloway.

"The chiefs tell me," he said, "that the buffaloes were driven by a
demon, an immense figure, preceded by whirling circles of fire. The evil
spirit, they say, is upon them."

"And do you believe such nonsense?"

"A continuous life in the deep woods gives one new beliefs. I thought I
caught a glimpse of such a figure, but when I tried for a second look it
was gone. But whether right or wrong you can see what has happened. Our
camp has been destroyed and with it most of the canoes. We have lost
much, and the Indians are greatly alarmed. It is superstition, not fear,
that has affected them."

"In my opinion," said Braxton Wyatt, "it was a trick of Henry Ware's. He
drove those buffaloes down upon us."

"Very likely," said Blackstaffe, "but you can't persuade the Indians
so."

"Nor me either," said Alloway gruffly. "You can't tell me that a
backwoods youth can do so much."

"But," said Blackstaffe, "our scows were blown up, our lashed canoes
were sunk, and now the buffaloes have been driven over us. It couldn't
be chance. I think with Wyatt that it was Ware, but the chiefs are not
willing to stay here longer. They demand that we return to the great
camp in the morning, and that we abandon the attempt to take the cannon
up the river."

"Which means an infinite amount of work with the ax," growled Alloway.
"Well, let it be so, if it must, but I will not move tonight for
anything. At least grass and trees are left, and I can sleep on one and
under the other."

The chief