of us skeered was Simon," corrected the great pioneer,
"and then he skeered us by the way he carried on."

"Well, any one of you would have been just as much frightened as he, and
I suspect the rumpus he created had something to do with the panic of
the Shawanoes; but you are right; it will not last long, and it may be
over already."

The habit of caution to which all the rangers were trained asserted
itself. Grasping their rifles firmly, they involuntarily assumed a
crouching pose and stepped lightly forward, as if afraid the slightest
footfall would betray them. They glanced to the right and left, and more
than once fancied they discerned shadowy forms stealing here and there
in the gloom.

It was natural, perhaps, that a different and somewhat peculiar feeling
should influence the two families of settlers. They felt as if they
would ignore the existence of enemies in their immediate neighborhood;
they would forget that any danger of that nature ever threatened them at
all, and devote their utmost energies to hurrying forward to the
flatboat. They held their gaze in that direction, and tried to pierce
the gloom and see nothing but the single object upon which their hope
was fixed.

Mr. Ashbridge and his wife clasped a hand of Mabel between them. Mr.
Altman and his wife clung to each other, while George Ashbridge had
fallen slightly to the rear with Agnes, while the rangers seemed to
straggle irregularly forward, as they had done when pushing through the
woods, but, in truth, they were advancing in accordance with a
well-defined idea of the best course to follow at this time.

Finley, Kenton and Boone held their places at the head, and the
fugitives speedily reached the river side, where the unpleasant fact
became apparent that the wind, which had been blowing so long and
steadily, had dropped to a degree that it could no longer be of any help
to them.

CHAPTER XXII.

PUTTING OUT FROM SHORE.

Not a moment was to be lost. Everything depended upon boarding the
flatboat and pushing off at once from shore. The party was so large that
the craft was sure to be crowded, but its buoyancy was sufficient to
carry still more.

To most of the party hurrying on board, the silence and inactivity of
the Shawanoes were incomprehensible. That they had been partially dazed
was fair to believe, but it could not continue long. The presence of the
boat, with its sail still spread, against the bank, must tell the story