m around, for they are a good deal more
afraid than they were. But then there was quite a lot of them through
these parts to-day."

"Did you see Colonel Butler and his party?"

"Oh, yes," answered the settler, as though he pitied the ignorance of
his listeners, "I have had them under my eye ever since they came out of
the fort. Do you know that I came very near capturing them all?"

Ned replied that they had no knowledge of such a startling fact.

"The minute I laid eyes onto them, I made up my mind they were up to
some deviltry, and I watched them--watched them as a cat does a mouse. I
heard that old rascal say something about his looking for the purtiest
lady in the valley, and I knew at once he meant Mrs. Perkins, and that
roused my dander, as you may guess, and I swore I would go for him. I
was so mad that I was determined to snatch the whole party, and I laid
my plans to do it."

"And how was it that you failed?"

"By the merest slip in the world. My plan was to follow close behind,
dogging their footsteps, and picking them off one by one till they were
all gone. It would have been a big thing, wouldn't it?"

"Most certainly it would; and why did you fail?"

"Wall, I'm just telling you; it didn't take me long to fix up all my
scheme, and I had just drawn a bead on Colonel Butler, having Captain
Bagley in a line, too, so that I was sure to fetch them both, when I
happened to remember that my gun wasn't loaded. I drew off to load it
with an extra large charge, when something must have told them of the
danger that threatened, for they moved off and before I could find them
again it was so dark that they couldn't be found, and so by that narrow
chance they all escaped."

CHAPTER IX.

BORDER BRAVERY.

Mr. Perkins having been allowed to relate his own story--in the telling
of which he drew a pretty long bow--his listeners judged it was time to
do something practical. He was asked therefore whether he could inform
them where to lay hands on a boat with which to cross the Susquehanna.

"Do I know where a boat is?" he repeated, as if surprised at the mere
idea that he could not give the information. "Why, of course I do.
There's one only a short distance from where we are standing this very
minute."

"Perhaps you refer to the one which Colonel Butler appropriated for
himself," suggested Ned, whose faith in the man was considerably
lessened by what he told them.

"No such thing; I'll put one in your