n' across your leggins. Reckon
that wouldn't happen, 'less you was in a pow'ful hurry."

"You're right," said Henry. "Now, Jim, you've been holding that venison
in the air long enough. Give it to me, and after I've eaten it I'll tell
you all that I've been doing, and all that's been done to me."

Long Jim handed him the slice. Henry took a comfortable seat in the
circle before the coals, and ate with all the appetite of a powerful
human creature whose food had been more than scanty for at least two
days.

"Take another piece," said Long Jim, observing him with approval. "Take
two pieces, take three, take the whole deer. I always like to see a
hungry man eat. It gives him sech satisfaction that I git a kind uv
taste uv it myself."

Henry did not offer a word 'of explanation until his breakfast was over.
Then lie leaned back, sighing twice with deep content, and said:

"Boys, I've got a lot to tell."

Shif'less Sol moved into an easier position on the leaves.

"I guess it has somethin' to do with them scratches on your leggins."

"It has," continued Henry with emphasis, "and I want to say to you boys
that I've seen Timmendiquas, the great White Lightning of the Wyandots."

"Timmendiquas!" exclaimed the others together.

"No less a man than he," resumed Henry. "I've looked upon his very face,
I've seen him in camp with warriors, and I've had the honor of being
pursued by him and his men more hours than I can tell. That's why you
see those briar scratches on my leggins, Sol."

"Then we cannot doubt that he is here to stir the Six Nations to
continued war," said Paul Cotter, "and he will succeed. He is a mighty
chief, and his fire and eloquence will make them take up the hatchet.
I'm glad that we've come. We delayed a league once between the Shawnees
and the Miamis; I don't think we can stop this one, but we may get some
people out of the way before the blow falls."

"Who are these Six Nations, whose name sounds so pow'ful big up here?"
asked Long Jim.

"Their name is as big as it sounds," replied Henry. "They are the
Onondagas, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras. They
used to be the Five Nations, but the Tuscaroras came up from the south
and fought against them so bravely that they were adopted into the
league, as a new and friendly tribe. The Onondagas, so I've heard,
formed the league a long, long time ago, and their head chief is the
grand sachem or high priest of them all, but the head