to
find it, and don't find it, he'll come back there again; he'll examine
the ground, and will diskiver my footprints; he won't know whether the
moccasins belong to a white man or one of the varmints, but he will get
an idee of why the thing didn't float down instead of up stream. Wal,"
muttered the ranger, "it'll take sharper eyes than his to trail a canoe
through the water, and I don't think he'll git this ere craft ag'in in a
hurry."

While those thoughts were in the mind of Kenton, he had re-entered the
boat again and taken up the broad ashen paddle.

The reader will understand the difficult task that was before him. From
the clearing to Rattlesnake Gulch was all if not more than two miles. It
was his work to reach the latter point by the time that night was fully
come.

Ordinarily this would have been so easy that it could not be considered
in the nature of work, but above all things it must be accomplished
without the knowledge of the Shawanoes, who, it may be said, were on
every hand. A sight of the ranger stealing his way up stream, and the
halt of the pioneers before reaching the place fixed upon for the
ambuscade, could not fail to apprise the Indians that their intended
victims had no intention of walking into the trap set for them.

Since the war party would never knowingly permit the settlers to escape
them, an attack was certain to follow; and though the veteran rangers,
under the leadership of Boone and Kenton, were confident of beating them
off, yet more or less casualties were certain to follow an attack. Some
of the helpless ones would suffer; probably several would be killed or
carried off, which meant the same thing.

To avert these woful afflictions was the cause of the extraordinary
precautions on the part of Boone and Kenton, especially the latter.

Enough has been said to show that the problem Simon Kenton had set out
to solve was anything but a simple one.

The arms which swayed the paddle, however, were sturdy and muscular, and
could keep to the task for hours without sensible fatigue. Kenton did
not mind a simple obstruction of that nature, and, indeed, would have
been glad because of the curtain thus offered if it had continued all
the way.

Once more and again was the frail craft impelled beneath the limbs, its
progress ceasing almost at the moment the paddle was withdrawn from the
water.

During these brief intervals of subsidence, the ranger listened intently
for such sounds a