firing his rifle until it grew hot to his hands. He was not
conscious of the passage of time. His brain burned as if with a fever.
He felt now and then a great throb of exultation, because the white army
was always advancing, only a little, it was true, but still it was an
advance, and never a retreat. But the throb of exultation presently
became a throb of rage. The advance of a sudden ceased entirely. The
Indians were gathered in such heavy masses in front that they could not
be driven back. Their front was one continuous blaze of fire, and the
whistling of the bullets was like the steady flowing of a stream.
Timmendiquas, despite his disadvantage, had marshaled his forces well,
and Henry knew it.

The boy began to have a great fear that they would be driven back, that
they would be defeated. Was so much blood to be shed, so much suffering
to be endured for nothing? His thoughts went back a moment to Fort
Prescott and the women and the children there. Theirs would be the worst
fate. He put one hand to his face and felt that it was wet. He was
seized with a furious desire to rise up and rush directly into the flame
and smoke before him. He longed for the power to win the victory with
his single arm.

A lull of a few moments in the firing came presently, and the darkness
instantly closed in again. A long, triumphant yell came from the
Indians, and the white men replied with a shout, also triumphant. Henry
was conscious then that his eyes were smarting from the smoke, and he
coughed once or twice. He half rose to a sitting position, and a hand
fell upon his shoulder.

"Come, my boy," said a voice in his ear. "We want you and your comrades
for a new movement. We've got to take 'em in the flank."

Henry looked up and saw the mild face of Boone, mild even now in the
midst of the battle. He sprang to his feet, and, with a sort of wonder,
he saw his four comrades rise around him, unhurt, save for scratches. It
did not seem possible to him that they could have come so well through
all that fire. He did not think of himself.

"Come," said Boone, and the five went back a little space, until they
came to a clump of trees beneath which Adam Colfax, Major Braithwaite,
Drouillard, Simon Kenton, and few others were talking.

"I hate to risk so many good men," said Adam Colfax.

"It must be done," said Major Braithwaite. "It's our only chance, and we
must take it while the darkness lasts. The day will break in a half
hour."