to the fierce red men, who ought to be as quick to recover from it as
were the pioneers.

It mattered not that the wind had failed. The one point was to get the
flatboat away from land, and out into the stream. That done, a long step
would be taken toward safety. The ambuscade would be flanked and
avoided.

"You can't hurry too much," said the missionary, beginning to show
nervousness now that the critical moment was at hand. He helped the
women on board, and did what he could to prevent the confusion caused at
this juncture by the crowding. He expected that a volley would come
every moment from the gloom along the shore, and therefore held his
station where his body would be most likely to shield the helpless ones.

Amid the confusion there was something approaching order, and it can be
said that no time was thrown away. Within a minute of reaching the
flatboat it seemed that every one of the pioneers was on board.

"Lay down," whispered Boone, addressing the settlers especially; "the
varmints are sartin to fire afore you can get out on the river--"

"Dar goes dat canue," called Jethro Juggens, who managed to be the first
on board.

The little boat had been swung around and fastened to the farther side
of the more bulky craft, so as to allow the latter to approach nearer
the land. The youth was doing what he could to aid his friends (really
doing nothing), when he observed the canoe several feet away with the
intervening space steadily increasing.

"Jump over after it," commanded Kenton, who himself would have done what
he ordered but for the need of his presence on the flatboat.

"Drop dat boat!" shouted Jethro, addressing (with a view of impressing
those around him) an imaginary foe. At the same moment, leaving his gun
behind him, he leaped overboard and swam powerfully toward the little
craft. The clothing of the youth had not yet dried from the wetting
received by his bath earlier in the evening, and at this sultry season
of the year a plunge in the river was pleasant than otherwise.

Jethro ought to have noticed that while the canoe was drifting with the
current it was also approaching the middle of the Ohio. That could
hardly take place without the interference of some one.

But the powerful youth noted not the significant fact, and swam with
lusty stroke straight for the little boat that had changed hands so
frequently during the last few hours, and been the cause of more than
one furious wrangle. On