es performed the part of
scouts, and the progress was uninterrupted by any incident worth
mentioning until late in the afternoon.

The sky, which had been of a threatening character for several hours,
now became overcast, and it was evident that a violent storm was about
to break upon them. This being the case, there was nothing to be gained
by pressing onward, and the settlers accordingly halted for the night.
A sort of barricade was made around the wagon, so that, in case of
attack, a good resistance could be made, and the oxen were secured fast
to the wagon. Stakes were cut and driven into the ground, and a strong
piece of canvas, which had been brought for the purpose, stretched
across them in such a manner that a comfortable shelter was afforded
those whose duty did not compel them to brave the storm.

These arrangements were hardly completed, when a dull, roaring sound,
like that of the ocean, was heard in the woods. It came rapidly nearer,
and in a few moments the swaying trees showed that it was passing
onward over the camp. The frightened and bewildered birds circled
screaming overhead, the rotten limbs and twigs went flying through the
air, and thick darkness gathered at once over the forest. A moment
later, several big drops of water pattered through the leaves like so
many bullets and immediately the rain came down in torrents. The
thunder booming in the distance, then sharply exploding like a piece of
ordnance directly overhead, the crack of the solid oak as the
thunderbolt tore it to splinters, the incessant streaming of the
lightning across the sky, the soughing of the wind--all these made a
scene terrifically grand, and would have induced almost any one to have
sought the shelter offered him, convinced that the only danger at such
a time was from the elements themselves.

But with the Riflemen the case was far different. They well knew that
it was just at such times that the wily Indian prowled through the
woods in quest of his victims, and that at no other period was his
watchfulness so great as at one like the present. Thus it was that
three of the Miami Riflemen braved the terrors of the storm on that
night, and thus it was that all three were witnesses of the occurrences
we are about to narrate.

The storm continued without intermission almost the entire night. The
only change perceptible was in the thunder and lightning. The flashes
of the latter grew less and less, until several minutes frequen