great")
"closed to you."

"Ohezu--do you mean the Ohio?" asked Henry.

"In your language, the Ohio," replied the young chief with dignity, "but
the Wyandots had given it its right name, Ohezuhyeandawa, long before
the white people came."

"I suppose you're right in that," said Henry reflectively, "but your
name for it is too long. Ohio is better. As for our fleet, I think, in
spite of what you say, that it will make its way up the Ohio to
Pittsburgh, although I do admit that the dangers are great."

White Lightning merely shook his head. His dignity would not permit him
to argue further with a prisoner. Henry regarded him with secret
admiration. He did not believe that the chief could be over twenty-five
or twenty-six years of age, but his great qualities were so obvious that
it seemed natural for him to lead and command.

The chief stepped back into the line, Anue gave the signal, and the band
resumed its rapid march toward the northeast. So swift, indeed, was the
pace of the warriors that none but the forest-bred could have maintained
it. They never stopped for a moment, striding on over the ground with a
long, easy step that was like the trot of a horse, and almost as fast.
Nor did they make any sound. It was like the passing of so many ghostly
forms, phantoms flitting through the wilderness.

Henry noticed bye and bye that the pace increased. The legs of the
warrior in front of him worked with the speed and regularity of
machinery. But no perspiration appeared upon the bare brown neck, there
was no evidence of fatigue, and Henry was sure that all the others were
moving with the same ease and vigor. He wondered at first at this new
speed, and then he divined the cause. It was to test him, and he was
sure that some sort of signal had passed between Timmendiquas and Anue.

This was a picked band of warriors, there was not a man in it under six
feet in height, and all were lean, but muscled powerfully and with great
shoulders and chests. They had an intense pride in physical strength and
prowess, such necessary qualities to them, and they would show the white
prisoner, large as he was and strong as he looked, how much inferior he
was to the chosen warriors of the Wyandots.

Henry accepted the challenge. They did not know his natural powers and
the perfection of his training. He answered them, stride for stride. He
filled his lungs with the fresh air of the woods, but he kept his
breathing steady and regular. N