ntained two warriors. Henry
inferred from the way in which they scrutinized the river and the bank,
that they were sentinels. Well for him that the bushes grew thick and
high. The penetrating Indian eyes passed unsuspecting over his hiding
place, and went on, dropping slowly down the river to a point where they
could watch the white boats. A hundred yards in that darkness was
sufficient to put them out of sight, and Henry again pushed boldly into
the stream.

The young blockade runner now had a theory that the sentinel boats of
the Indians would keep close in to the shore. That would be their
natural procedure, and to avoid them he swam boldly far out into the
river. Near the middle of the current he paddled once more up stream.
Only his head showed above the surface and the raft was so low that no
one was likely to notice it. The wisdom of his movement soon showed as
he made out three more canoes near the Kentucky shore, obviously on
watch. Toward the north, at a point not more than seventy or eighty
yards away he saw another canoe containing three warriors and apparently
stationary. Others might be further ahead, but the darkness was too
great for him to tell. Clearly, there was no passage except in the
middle of the stream, the very point that he had chosen.

Many a stout heart would have turned back, but pride commanded Henry to
go on. Fortunately, the water lying long under the summer heat was very
warm, and one could stay in it indefinitely, without fear of chill.
While he deliberated a little, he sank down until he could breathe only
through his nostrils, keeping one hand upon the raft. Then he began to
swim slowly with his feet and the other hand and all the while he kept
his eyes upon the stationary boat containing the three warriors. By dint
of staring at them so long they began to appear clear and sharp in the
darkness. Two were middle-aged, and one young. He judged them to be
Wyandots, and they had an anchor as they did not use the paddles to
offset the current. Undoubtedly they were sentinels, as their gaze made
a continuous circle about them. Henry knew, too, that they were using
ears as well as eyes and that nobody could hear better than the
Wyandots.

He decreased his pace, merely creeping through the water, and at the
same time he swung back a little toward the southern shore and away from
the Wyandots in the canoe. But the movement was a brief one. To the
right of him he saw two more canoes and he k