n to shout, as if to encourage one
another and to frighten the foe, and the sweep of the wind and the rain
mingling with their yelling gave it an effect tremendously weird and
terrifying. Nature also helped man. It began to thunder again, and
sudden flashes of lightning blazed across the stream.

"Don't fire unless you see something that you can hit," was the order
passed down the lines by Adam Colfax, and the fleet pulled steadily on,
while the hail of bullets from either shore beat upon it. Many men were
wounded, and a few were killed, but the fleet never stopped, going on
like a great buffalo with wolves tearing at its flanks, but still strong
and dangerous.

The smallness of their boat and the fact that it lay so low in the water
made for the safety of the five. The glare of the fires threw the bigger
vessels into relief, but it was not likely that many of the warriors
would notice their own little craft.

There was a blaze of lightning so vivid that it made all of them blink,
and with a mighty crash a thunderbolt struck among the trees on the
south bank. Paul had a vision of a blasted trunk and rending boughs, and
his heart missed a few beats, before he could realize that he himself
had not been struck down.

The whole fleet paused an instant as if hurt and terrified, but in
another instant it went on again. Then the bullets began to sing and
whistle over their heads in increased volume, and Henry looked
attentively at the southern shore.

"I think that warriors in canoes are hovering along the bank there and
firing upon us. What do you say, Sol?"

"I say you're right," replied the shiftless one.

"Then we'll let the _Independence_ take the lead for a while," said
Henry, "and burn their faces a little for their impudence."

The boat turned and slid gently away toward the southern shore. The
light cast from the fires was brightest in the middle of the stream, and
they were soon in half shadow.

"Can you make 'em out clearly, Sol?" asked Henry.

"If I ain't mistook, an' I know I ain't," replied the shiftless one,
"thar's a little bunch o' canoes right thar at the overhangin' ledge."

"Sol is shorely right," added Tom Ross, "an' I kin reach the fust canoe
with a bullet."

"Then let 'em have it," said Henry.

Silent Tom raised his rifle, and with instant aim fired. An Indian
uttered a cry and fell from his canoe into the water. Henry and the
shiftless one fired with deadly aim, and Long Jim and Paul fol