to go," replied Henry; "do
fighting for you if you need it, and hunt game for you, which you are
certain to need."

The weather-beaten face of the farmer worked.

"I thought God had clean deserted us," he said, "but I'm ready to take
it back. I reckon that he has sent you five to help me with all these
women and little ones."

It occurred to Henry that perhaps God, indeed, had sent them for this
very purpose, but he replied simply:

"You lead on, and we'll stay in the rear and on the sides to watch for
the Indians. Draw into the woods, where we'll be hidden."

Carpenter, obscure hero, shouldered his rifle again, and led on toward
the woods. The long line of women and children followed. Some of the
women carried in their arms children too small to walk. Yet they were
more hopeful now when they saw that the five were friends. These lithe,
active frontiersmen, so quick, so skillful, and so helpful, raised their
courage. Yet it was a most doleful flight. Most of these women had
been made widows the day before, some of them had been made widows and
childless at the same time, and wondered why they should seek to live
longer. But the very mental stupor of many of them was an aid. They
ceased to cry out, and some even ceased to be afraid.

Henry, Shif'less Sol, and Tom dropped to the rear. Paul and Long
Jim were on either flank, while Carpenter led slowly on toward the
mountains.

"'Pears to me," said Tom, "that the thing fur us to do is to hurry 'em
up ez much ez possible."

"So the Indians won't see 'em crossing the plain," said Henry. "We
couldn't defend them against a large force, and it would merely be a
massacre. We must persuade them to walk faster."

Shif'less Sol was invaluable in this crisis. He could talk forever in
his-placid way, and, with his gentle encouragement, mild sarcasm, and
anecdotes of great feminine walkers that he had known, he soon had them
moving faster.

Henry and Tom dropped farther to the rear. They could see ahead of them
the long dark line, coiling farther into the woods, but they could
also see to right and left towers of smoke rising in the clear morning
sunlight. These, they knew, came from burning houses, and they knew,
also, that the valley would be ravaged from end to end and from side
to side. After the surrender of the fort the Indians would divide into
small bands, going everywhere, and nothing could escape them.

The sun rose higher, gilding the earth with glowing light,