ver in August."

Raoul offered his jug. "Help you forget the heat."

Kingsbury grinned, thanked Raoul and took a big drink. His cheeks
reddened, and he dabbed at his thick brown mustache with his fingertips.

"I don't hear much shooting on shore," he said, handing the jug back to
Raoul, who took a swallow before setting it down.

"Just what I was thinking," said Raoul. "Where the hell are all the
redskins? I figure there's about a thousand left. They can't all have
crossed the Mississippi before we got here unless they had a whole fleet
of canoes."

The _Victory_ had caught one canoe in midstream when she arrived on the
scene. Raoul's militia sharpshooters had blanketed it with rifle fire,
killing all six Indians aboard, and the overturned canoe had drifted
downstream, out of sight.

Raoul picked up a brass telescope from the chart table and studied the
riverbank, moving the circular field from point to point. He saw plenty
of militiamen, but no sign of Indians.

"Look," said Kingsbury. "Militiamen coming back out of the woods."

Raoul swept his telescope back over the riverbank. Men in buckskins were
dragging their rifle butts along the ground, sitting down on the river's
edge and splashing water on their faces, shaking their heads angrily,
raccoon tails on their caps wagging.

One man did emerge from the trees with a big grin, holding high three
bloody scalps dangling from hanks of black hair. Another man led two
Indian ponies. So, the Sauk still had a few horses with them.

Kingsbury said, "Looks like they only met a handful."

Raoul drummed his fingers on the polished oak sill. "A rear guard. The
rest could have headed north. But I don't think they did. They were
aiming to cross the Mississippi."

His telescope brought closer an island north of the Bad Axe mouth, about
fifty yards out from the Mississippi's east bank, thickly covered with
spruce and hemlock. He saw two bark canoes with stove-in bottoms beached
at the island's southern tip. Between the island and the riverbank the
water had a pale green look that said it was shallow.

"I've got a feeling most of the Indians are hiding out on that island."
His pulse quickened and his breath came fast.

His first thought was to land on the island with his men and flush the
Indians out. But there could still be a couple of hundred warriors left
to the band. No, they'd have to use the six-pounder first.

"Captain Bill, sail along the west side of that is