the Iroquois attack from
ambush. He knew that the rashness and confidence of the borderers,
especially when drawn together in masses, had often caused them great
losses, and he was resolved to prevent a recurrence at the present
time if he could. He had made these urgent requests of Gray, instead of
Colonel Butler, because of the latter's youth and willingness to take
advice.

"I'll have the forest beat up continually all about the town," he said.
"We must not have our triumph spoiled by any afterclap."

Henry and his comrades, wrapped in their blankets, lay in a row almost
at the edge of the forest. The heat from the fire was still great, but
it would die down after a while, and the October air was nipping. Henry
usually fell asleep in a very few minutes, but this time, despite his
long exertions and lack of rest, he remained awake when his comrades
were sound asleep. Then he fell into a drowsy state, in which he saw
the fire rising in great black coils that united far above. It seemed to
Henry, half dreaming and forecasting the future, that the Indian spirit
was passing in the smoke.

When he fell asleep it was nearly daylight, and in three or four hours
he was up again, as the little army intended to march at once upon
another Indian town. The hours while he slept had passed in silence, and
no Indians had come near. William Gray had seen to that, and his best
scout had been one Cornelius Heemskerk, a short, stout man of Dutch
birth.

"It was one long, long tramp for me, Mynheer Henry," said Heemskerk,
as he revolved slowly up to the camp fire where Henry was eating his
breakfast, "and I am now very tired. It was like walking four or five
times around Holland, which is such a fine little country, with the
canals and the flowers along them, and no great, dark woods filled with
the fierce Iroquois."

"Still, I've a notion, Mynheer Heemskerk, that you'd rather be here, and
perhaps before the day is over you will get some fighting hot enough to
please even you."

Mynheer Heemskerk threw up his hands in dismay, but a half hour later
he was eagerly discussing with Henry the possibility of overtaking some
large band of retreating Iroquois.

Urged on by all the scouts and by those who had suffered at Wyoming,
Colonel Butler gathered his forces and marched swiftly that very morning
up the river against another Indian town, Cunahunta. Fortunately for
him, a band of riflemen and scouts unsurpassed in skill led the way,