to the brave man. Warriors of the allied tribes, are you ready
to yield Kain-tuck-ee, over which your fathers have hunted from the
beginning of time, to the white man who has just come?"

A roar burst from the crowd, and with a single impulse fifteen hundred
voices answered, "No!" Many snatched their tomahawks from their belts
and waved them threateningly as if the hated white man already stood
within reach of the blade. Even the old veterans, Yellow Panther and Red
Eagle, were stirred in every fiber, and shouted "No!" with the others.

"I knew that you would say 'No,'" continued Timmendiquas, "although
there are some among you who lost courage, though only for the moment,
and wanted to go home, saying that the white man was too strong. When
the fleet reached the fort they believed that we had failed, but we have
not failed. We are just beginning to tread our greatest war path. The
forces of the white men are united; then we will destroy them all at
once. Warriors, will you go home like women or stay with your chiefs and
fight?"

A tremendous shout burst from the crowd, and the air was filled with the
gleam of metal as they waved their tomahawks. Excited men began to beat
the war drums, and others began to dance the war dance. But Timmendiquas
said no more. He knew when to stop.

He descended slowly and with dignity from the mound, and with the other
chiefs and the renegades he walked to a fire, around which they sat,
resuming their council. But it was not now a question of fighting, it
was merely a question of the best way in which to fight.

"Besides the fleet, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and thirty or forty men
like them have come to the relief of the fort," said Girty.

"It is so," said Timmendiquas.

"It would be a great stroke," continued the renegade, "to destroy Boone
and Kenton along with the fort and the fleet"--he was as anxious as
Timmendiquas to continue the attack.

"That, too, is so," said Timmendiquas gravely. "While it makes our task
the greater, it will make our triumph the greater, also. We will watch
the fleet, which I do not think will move yet, and when our warriors are
rested and restored we will attack again."

"Beyond a doubt you're right," said Girty. "We could never retreat now
and leave them to enjoy a victory. It would encourage them too much and
discourage our own people too much."

Timmendiquas gave him a lightning glance when he used the phrase "our
own people," and Girty for