rom himself that he liked their praise, but he tried to
disclaim credit.

"I was merely a little luckier than my comrades," he said, "but don't
you let them surprise you, Major. Keep a good watch. Since those cannon
were blown up and sunk, you can hold them."

"We'll do it or, in the name of Neptune, we'll die trying," said Major
Braithwaite.

"I'm thinkin' we kin do it," said Seth Cole.

Then Henry was over the palisade and gone, slipping away so quietly that
Major Braithwaite was startled. The boy was there, and then he wasn't.

Henry dropped over the wall on the side next to the river, which he knew
to be the safest way of departure because the least guarded. Twenty or
thirty yards from the fort he lay among the bushes and listened. He was
full of confidence and eager for his task. Rest and sleep had restored
all his strength. He had his fine rifle, a renewed supply of ammunition,
and had no fear of either the wilderness or the darkness.

He crept down through the bushes much nearer to the bank, and he saw a
half dozen Indian canoes moving slowly up and down the river not far
from the shore. They were patrols. The warriors did not intend to be
surprised by another dash from the fort. Henry indulged himself in
silent laughter. His comrades and he had certainly put a spoke in the
savage wheel.

He watched the boats a few moments and in one of them he saw two white
faces that he recognized. They belonged to Braxton Wyatt and
Blackstaffe. Again Henry laughed silently. He remembered the look on
Braxton Wyatt's face when he threw him into the Ohio. But Wyatt deserved
much more than to be hurled into muddy water, and the villain,
Blackstaffe, was worse because he was older, knew more, and had done
more crime. Henry raised his rifle a little. From the point where he lay
he might reach Blackstaffe with a bullet, but he could not do it. He
could not shoot a man from ambush.

He moved carefully along the side of the cliff down the river. It was
steep footing, but it would be perhaps impossible to pass anywhere else,
and he proceeded with slowness, lest he set a pebble rolling or make the
bushes rattle. He reached the place where they had scrambled ashore
after burning the flatboat and he paused there a moment. His mind
returned to the two mysterious shots that had saved them. Could he have
been mistaken in his surmise, and could it have been Shif'less Sol and
Tom Ross or perhaps Long Jim who had fired the timely bullet