im. The two reappeared in a minute, carrying
a spacious canoe of birch bark.

"Simon an' me took this," explained Boone, "before we went south for our
friends, an' we hid it here, knowin' that we'd have a use for it some
time or other. We'll crowd it, but it'll hold us all."

They put the canoe upon the water, and the five got in. Boone and Kenton
lifted the paddles, but Tom Ross at once reached over and took the
paddle from the hand of Daniel Boone.

"It shan't ever be told uv me," he said, "that I set still in a boat,
while Dan'l Boone paddled me across the Ohio."

"An' yet I think I can paddle pretty well," said Daniel Boone in a
gentle, whimsical tone.

"'Nuff said," said Tom Ross, as he gave the paddle a mighty sweep that
sent the canoe shooting far out into the river. Boone smiled again in
his winning way, but said nothing. Kenton, also, swung the paddle with a
mighty wrist and arm, and in a few moments they were in the middle of
the river. Here the light was greatest, and the two paddlers did not
cease their efforts until they were well under the shelter of the
northern bank, where the darkness lay thick and heavy again.

Here they stopped and examined river, forest, and shores. The fleet at
the southern margin blended with the darkness, but they could dimly see,
high upon the cliff, the walls of the fort, and also a few lights that
twinkled in the blockhouse or the upper stories of cabins.

"They're at peace and happy there now," said Daniel Boone. "It's a pity
they can't stay so."

He spoke with so much kindly sympathy that Henry once more regarded this
extraordinary man with uncommon interest. Explorer, wilderness fighter,
man of a myriad perils, he was yet as gentle in voice and manner as a
woman. But Henry understood him. He knew that like nature itself he was
at once serene and strong. He, too, had felt the spell.

"They won't be troubled there to-night," continued Boone. "The Indians
will not be ready for a new attack, unless it's merely skirmishing, an'
Adam Colfax and Major Braithwaite will keep a good guard against them.
Now which way, Simon, do you think the camp of the Indians will be?"

Kenton pointed toward the northeast, a silent but significant gesture.

"There's a little prairie over there about two miles back from the
river," he said. "It's sheltered, but safe from ambush, an' it's just
the place that Timmendiquas would naturally choose."

"Then," said Boone, "that's the place we'll