that we must go on. Eet ees is
the only thing we can do."

"But how?" said Adam Colfax. "We cannot use up all the ammunition that
we have in these battles. If we were to reach Pittsburgh in that
condition we'd be a burden instead of a help."

"But as Mr. Drouillard says, we can't go back," said Truesdale.

They sat dumbly a minute or two, no one knowing what to propose, and all
looking toward the southern bank, where they believed the chief danger
to lie. The dark green forest made a high black line there in the night,
a solid black until it was broken by a pink dot, which they knew to be
the flash of a rifle.

"They are jeering at us again," said Adam Colfax.

"'Tain't no jeer, either," said Thrale, as five or six pink dots
appeared where the one had been, and faint sounds came to their ears.

Lyon confirmed the opinion of his brother scout.

"So many wouldn't let off their guns at once jest fur fun," he said. "I
wonder what in tarnation it means!"

The spray of pink dots did not reappear, and they turned their minds
once more to their great problem, which seemed as insoluble as ever. The
flowing of the current, gentle but deep and strong, swung the
_Independence_ a little further from the two lines of boats, but those
on board, in their absorption, did not notice it. Three or four minutes
passed, and there was the report of a rifle shot from the southern bank,
followed an instant later by another. Two bullets splashed in the water
near the _Independence_.

"We'd better pull back a leetle," said Drouillard. "We are drifting
within range of ze warriors."

"So we are," said Lyon, laying his hand on a sweep. "Now, what under the
moon is that?"

He pointed to a dark object, a mere black dot on the dusky surface of
the river. But it was not a stationary dot, and in its movement it came
toward the _Independence_.

"Shorely they don't mean to come swimmin' to attack us," said the other
guide, Thrale. "That's a human head on top uv the water an' thar's a
body belongin' to it under the water. An' see, thar's another head
behind it, an' behind that another, an' likely thar's more."

"Eet ees certainlee the warriors trying to reach us on the water," said
Adolphe Drouillard, and, raising his rifle, he took aim at the first
swimming head.

"Hold a little," said Adam Colfax, pushing down the barrel of the
weapon. "Look, as they come closer now, you can see a fourth and a fifth
head and then no more. Five swimming h