ois were coming up on either side, and luck had enabled them to
catch him in a trap.

They were so near that they fired upon him, and one bullet nicked his
glove, but he was hopeful that after his long rest he might again stave
them off. He sent back no defiant cry, but, settling into determined
silence, ran at his utmost speed. The forest here was of large trees,
with no undergrowth, and he noticed that the two parties did not join,
but kept on as they had come, one on the right and the other on the
left. This fact must have some significance, but he could not fathom
it. Neither could he guess whether the Indians were fresh or tired, but
apparently they made no effort to come within range of his rifle.

Presently he made a fresh spurt of speed, the forest opened out, and
then both bands uttered a yell full of ferocity and joy, the kind that
savages utter only when they see their triumph complete.

Before, and far below Henry, stretched a vast, white expanse. He had
come to the lake, but at a point where the cliff rose high like a
mountain, and steep like a wall. The surface of the lake was so far down
that it was misty white like a cloud. Now he understood the policy of
the Indian bands in not uniting. They knew that they would soon reach
the lofty cliffs of the lake, and if he turned to either right or left
there was a band ready to seize him.

Henry's heart leaped up and then sank lower than ever before in his
life. It seemed that he could not escape from so complete a trap, and
Braxton Wyatt was not one who would spare a prisoner. That was perhaps
the bitterest thing of all, to be taken and tortured by Braxton Wyatt.
He was there. He could hear his voice in one of the bands, and then the
courage that never failed him burst into fire again.

The Iroquois were coming toward him, shutting him out from retreat
to either right or left, but not yet closing in because of his deadly
rifle. He gave them a single look, put forth his voice in one great cry
of defiance, and, rushing toward the edge of the mighty cliff, sprang
boldly over.

As Henry plunged downward he heard behind him a shout of amazement and
chagrin poured forth from many Iroquois throats, and, taking a single
glance backward, he caught a glimpse of dusky faces stamped with awe.
But the bold youth had not made a leap to destruction. In the passage
of a second he had calculated rapidly and well. While the cliff at
first glance seemed perpendicular, it cou