nitou! It was his arms and legs that got him away,"
snarled Girty.

His tone was insolent, domineering, and the dark eyes of Timmendiquas
were turned upon him.

"I said he was a favorite of Manitou," he said, and his words were edged
with steel. "Our friend, Girty, thinks so, too."

His hand slipped down toward the handle of his tomahawk, but it was the
eye more than the hand that made the soul of Girty quail.

"It must be as you say, Timmendiquas," he replied, smoothly. "He surely
seemed to have been helped by some great power, but it's been a bad
thing for us. If he hadn't come, we could have taken Fort Prescott with
our first rush. Then with our cannon on the hill we could have stopped
this fleet which is coming."

"I have heard that in the far South this fleet beat another fleet which
had cannon," said Timmendiquas.

"Yes," said Girty. "Braxton Wyatt was there and saw it done. Red men and
white were allied, and they had a ship of their own, but it was blown up
in the battle. But here our cannon would have been on a hill. It is a
long way to Canada and we cannot send there for more."

"We can win without cannon," said White Lightning with dignity. "Do you
think that all the nations and all the chiefs of the great valley are
assembling here merely for failure? Have we not already held back the
white man's fleet?"

"We've certainly held it for a few days," replied Girty, "but we've not
taken Fort Prescott."

"We will take it," said Timmendiquas.

Henry listened with the greatest eagerness. He did not wish to miss a
word. Now he understood why the fleet had not come. It had been delayed
in some manner, probably by rifle fire at narrow portions of the river,
and it would be the tactics of Timmendiquas to beat it and the fort
separately. It would be his task to bring them together and defeat
Timmendiquas instead. Yet he felt all his old admiration and liking for
the great young chief of the Wyandots. The other chiefs were no mean
figures, but he towered above them all, and he had the look of a king, a
king by nature, not by birth.

Henry hoped that they would stay and talk longer, that he might hear
more of their plans, but they walked away toward the camp fire, where he
could not follow, and, rising from the bushes, he passed swiftly between
the fire and the river, pursuing his journey down stream. He saw two
more Indian sentinels, but they did not see him, and when he looked back
the flare of the camp fire