ng hours,
but now it was louder and fuller, and it spoke with a clearer voice.

The boy turned on his buffalo robe. There was no light in the cabin now,
but his face in the darkness was like that of one inspired. He awoke
presently. The voice was gone, but he could still hear it, like a far
sweet echo, and, although he knew it to be a dream, he considered it to
be fact, nevertheless. Something had spoken to him while he slept, and,
confident of the future, he fell into another sleep, this time without
dreams.

When Henry awoke the next morning Daniel Boone sat by his couch. His
comrades awakened, too, one after another, and as they sat up, Boone,
out of the great goodness of his soul, smiled upon them.

"You are woodsmen, fine woodsmen, all of you," he said, "an' I want to
talk with you. Do you think the great chief, Timmendiquas, will draw
off?"

"Not he!" exclaimed Henry. "He is far from beaten."

"An' that's what I say, too," repeated Boone in his gentle voice. "Adam
Colfax and Major Braithwaite think that he has had enough, but I'm
warnin' them to be careful. If the warriors could crush the fleet an'
the fort together they'd strike a terrible blow against the
settlements."

"There is no doubt of it," said Henry. "Timmendiquas, so long as he has
a powerful army of the tribes, will never give up such a chance."

"Mr. Colfax thinks they've suffered so much," continued Boone, "that
they will retreat into the far north. I know better. Simon Kenton knows
better, and we want you and one or two of your comrades to go out with
us and prove that the warriors are still in a circle about the fort an'
the fleet alike."

"I'm your man for one," said Henry. All the others promptly volunteered,
also, but it was arranged that Paul and Long Jim should stay behind to
help the garrison, while Henry, Shif'less Sol, and Tom Ross should go
with Boone and Kenton. But it was agreed, also, that they should not go
forth until night, when the darkness would favor their forest inquiries.

The five had slept very late, and it was past ten o'clock when they went
out into the large, open space that lay between the houses and the
palisade. All signs of the storm were gone. The forest might give proof
of its passage, but here it was as if it had never been. A gentle wind
blew, and the boughs moved softly and peacefully before it. The sky, a
deep blue, showed not a single cloud, and the river flowed a stream of
quivering molten gold. The f