n came to a halt and as
before talked in a low voice. The point was where the wood was more
open, so that the moonlight which found its way among the limbs above
showed their forms quite plainly. More than that, enough of their words
were audible to enable the listening Shawanoe, who had crept dangerously
near, to catch their meaning.

The Winnebagos turned off at almost a right angle and left the trail
behind them. The ground was broken, but they had not gone far, when it
became evident that they were following another path, though it was so
faintly marked that no eye except that of an American Indian could have
discovered it in such an uncertain light.

As they advanced, the surface became not only rougher, but the grade
which they ascended was so steep that it would have been tiresome to an
ordinary traveler.

Suddenly Deerfoot himself wheeled aside from the indistinct path to
which the Winnebagos clung and passed lightly and with great speed
through the wood where no one had walked before. So swiftly did he make
his way, that, though he crossed a deep ravine and went a considerable
distance, it was less than live minutes before he came back to the
shadowy trail.

Instead of keeping along this path, in the same direction as that of his
enemies, he turned about and advanced to meet the red men who had dared
to come that way. He walked with his usual noiseless step, and stopped
on reaching the edge of the ravine over which he had leaped when it
crossed his path only a few minutes before.

This gully was more than twenty feet in depth, and about half as wide.
The trail led to the edge on one side, continuing on the margin directly
opposite, so that any one who wished to keep to it was perforce
compelled to leap the chasm--a slight task for any Indian, though it
would have been easy to make a bridge by means of a fallen tree.

The moon was now directly overhead, so that a flood of light fell into
the craggy ravine, lighting up the gray rocks and bowlders, the
prostrate trees that had fallen from the sides, the vegetation along the
slopes and the mossy grass that had been watered by the torrents when
they roared through. The trees grew rank and close to the edge at the
top--so close that some of them had slidden off and fallen part way
below, carrying the gravel, sand and earth with the prong-like roots
part way to the bottom.

So faint was the mark of the trail opposite that even with the help of
the moonbeams,