new that they formed a part
of the chain of sentinels stretched by Timmendiquas across the river. It
was obvious to Henry that the Wyandot leader was fully aware of the
advance of Logan, and was resolved to prevent the passage of any
messenger between him and Clark.

Henry paused again, still clinging to his little raft, and holding his
place in the current with a slight motion of his feet. Then he advanced
more slowly than ever, choosing a point which he thought was exactly
half way between the Wyandots and the other canoes, but he feared the
Wyandots most. Twenty yards, and he stopped. One of the Wyandot warriors
seemed to have seen something. He was looking fixedly in Henry's
direction. Boughs and stumps of every sort often floated down the Ohio.
He might have caught a glimpse of Henry's head. He would take it for a
small stump, but he would not stop to surmise.

Holding the planks with but one hand, Henry dived about two feet
beneath the surface and swam silently but powerfully up the stream. He
swam until his head seemed to swell and the water roared in his ears. He
swam until his heart pounded from exhaustion and then he rose slowly to
the surface, not knowing whether or not he would rise among his enemies.

No one greeted him with a shot or blow as he came up, and, when his eyes
cleared themselves of water, he saw the Wyandot canoe cruising about
sixty or seventy yards down the stream, obviously looking for the dark
spot that one of them had seen upon the surface of the river. They might
look in his direction, but he believed that he was too far away to be
noticed. Still, he could not tell, and one with less command of himself
would have swam desperately away. Henry, instead, remained perfectly
still, sunk in the water up to his nostrils, one hand only yet clinging
to the raft. The Wyandots turned southward, joined their brethren from
the Kentucky shore and talked earnestly with them. Henry used the
opportunity to swim about a hundred yards further up the stream, and
then, when the canoes separated, he remained perfectly still again. In
the foggy darkness he feared most the Indian ear which could detect at
once any sound out of the common. But the Wyandot canoe returned to its
old place and remained stationary there. Evidently the warriors were
convinced that they had seen only a stump.

Henry now swam boldly and swiftly, still remaining in the middle of the
stream. He saw several lights in the woods on the so