finish. It was the purpose of the Mohawk to place his companions on
the other side of the stream before daylight, but he convinced them that
there was nothing to be gained by hurrying in the business.

As the weak force at the station of Wilkesbarre would be on guard
against the approach of all enemies, especially during the darkness of
the night, it would be a matter of difficulty, as well as one of extreme
danger, to secure admission at that time. For this reason he preferred
to do that part of his work in the daytime, when he could have an
opportunity to use all his senses, and not be taken at a disadvantage.

CHAPTER VII.

THE REPORT OF A GUN.

There was one matter that caused Ned Clinton so much uneasiness that he
appealed to the Mohawk to know whether some attention should not be paid
to it. That was the report of the gun which they had heard while on the
way to, and only a short distance from, this place. If a gun was fired,
it followed that some one must have fired it, and the probabilities were
the marksman was not far away. Such was the view of the young scout when
he reflected upon the affair. Furthermore, nothing seemed so likely to
attract the notice of friend or foe, at night, as the blazing camp
fire--the most conspicuous object possible at such a time in the forest.

Lena-Wingo was not the one to forget an occurrence like the firing of a
gun, and when the question was put to him by Ned, he answered in the
most satisfactory manner. Upon his first approach to the camp fire, when
conducting his friends thither, he had made a complete circuit of the
place, walking so far from the blazing sticks that the reconnoissance
was as complete as it could be made. Failing to detect any sign of
danger, he concluded that there was none. The gun whose report they had
noticed he believed was fired by some white man who was lurking in the
neighborhood, in the hope of being able to protect his property, or,
more probably, with a view of securing something in the way of food, it
might be, for a party of fugitives in hiding at no great distance.

There were many instances of such flight and concealment during the few
days of, and succeeding, the massacre of Wyoming. Parties of men and
women, who had not been demented by the atrocities that marked that
dreadful era in the history of the settlement, were, in some instances,
wise enough to seek some good hiding-place before exhausting themselves
in the frantic effor