utiously, lest he disturb them in their
pursuits.

He saw many muskrats and rabbits and also the footprints of wildcats. A
magnificent stag, standing knee deep in the water, looked at him with
startled eyes. He would have been a grand trophy, but Henry did not
fire, and, a moment or two later, the stag floundered away, leaving the
young leader very thoughtful. What had the big deer been doing in such
difficult territory? It would scarcely come of its own accord into so
deep a marsh, and Henry concluded that it must have fled there for
refuge from hunters, and the only hunters in that region were Indians.
Then they must still be not far away from the marsh!

It was such a serious matter and he was so preoccupied with it that a
huge black bear, springing up almost at his feet, passed unnoticed. The
bear lumbered away, splashing mud and water, stopping once to look back
fearfully at the strange creature that had disturbed it, but Henry went
on, caring nothing for bears or any other wild animals just then.

When he returned, however, he was bound to take notice of the vast
quantity of wild fowl in the swamp. Every pond or lagoon swarmed with
wild ducks and wild geese, and hawks and eagles swooped from the air,
splashed the water, and then rose again with fish in their talons. Two
big owls, blinking in the light, sat on the bough of an oak. Another
flight of wild pigeons streamed southward. The life of the swamp was so
multitudinous that Henry and his comrades could have lived in it
indefinitely, even without bread.

When he was back on the oasis he said nothing of his meeting with the
deer and the significance that he had read in it, thinking it not worth
while to cause alarm until he had something more tangible. Another week,
and there was a perceptible increase in the autumnal tints. All the
green was gone from the leaves. Red and yellow dyes, not yet glowing,
but giving promise of what they would be, appeared. The early flights
southward of more wild fowl, taking time by the forelock, increased, and
in the minds of some of the five came thoughts of leaving the swamp.

"They must have given up the pursuit by this time," said Paul. "They
wouldn't hunt us forever."

"Looks that way to me, too," said Long Jim.

Henry shook his head.

"Some of the warriors have gone away," he said, "but not all of them.
Red Eagle, the Shawnee chief, is a man who thinks, and a man who holds
on. He knows that we couldn't sink through t