it die down into a
great mass of coals that threw out heat like a furnace. Over this he
hovered and felt the cold which had clutched him like a paralysis
leaving his body. Then he wrapped the two blankets around the painted
coat and slept in fair comfort till morning, sure that the intense cold
would prevent any movement of the Indians in the forest.

But the dawn disclosed a river frozen over to the depth of four inches,
and his canoe, which he had taken the precaution to put on land, would
be useless, at least for several days, as the ice could not melt sooner.
Most forest runners, in such a case, would have abandoned the canoe, and
would have gone on through the forest as best they could, but Henry had
learned illimitable patience from the Indians. If the cold put a
paralysis on his movements it did as much for those of the warriors. So
he looked to the preservation of the canoe, and boldly built his fire
anew, eating abundantly of the deer and wild turkey and a little of the
bread, which he husbanded with such care. At night he slept in the canoe
and occasionally he scouted in the country around, although the
traveling was very hard, as the deep snow was covered with a sheet of
ice, and he was compelled to break his way. He saw no Indian trails and
he concluded that the hunting parties even had taken to their tepees,
and would wait until the thaw came.

His task for the next seven or eight days was to keep warm, and to
preserve his canoe in such manner that it would be water tight when he
set it afloat once more on the river. He built another brush shelter,
very rude, but in a manner serviceable for himself, and with a fire
burning always before it he was able to fend off the fierce chill. The
mercury was fully thirty degrees below zero, but fortunately the wind
did not blow, or it would have been almost unbearable.

Henry chafed greatly at the long delay, but he endured it as best he
could, and, when the huge thaw came and all the earth ran water, he put
his canoe in the river once more and began to paddle against the flooded
current. It was a delicate task even for one as strong and skillful as
he, as great blocks of ice came floating down and he was compelled to
watch continually lest his light craft be crushed by them. His perpetual
vigilance and incessant struggle against the stream made him so weary
that at the end of the day he lifted the canoe out of the water, crept
into it and slept the sleep of exhaust