. When they finally entered the woods they curved a little,
and then, keeping just far enough ahead to be within sight, but not
close enough for the bullets, Henry led them straight toward the camp of
the riflemen. As he approached, he fired his own rifle, and uttered
the long shout of the forest runner. He shouted a second time, and
now Shif'less Sol and Tom Ross joined in the chorus, their great cry
penetrating far through the woods.

Whether Braxton Wyatt or any of his mixed band of Indians and Tories
suspected the meaning of those great shouts Henry never knew, but the
pursuit came on with undiminished speed. There was a good silver moon
now, shedding much light, and he saw Wyatt still in the van, with
his Tory lieutenant close behind, and after them red men and white,
spreading out like a fan to inclose the fugitives in a trap. The blood
leaped in his veins. It was a tide of fierce joy. He had achieved both
of the purposes for which he had come. He had thoroughly scouted the
Seneca Castle, and he was about to come to close quarters with Braxton
Wyatt and the band which he had made such a terror through the valleys.

Shif'less Sol saw the face of his young comrade, and he was startled.
He had never before beheld it so stern, so resolute, and so pitiless. He
seemed to remember as one single, fearful picture all the ruthless and
terrible scenes of the last year. Henry uttered again that cry which was
at once a defiance and a signal, and from the forest ahead of him it was
answered, signal for signal. The riflemen were coming, Paul, Long Jim,
and Heemskerk at their head. They uttered a mighty cheer as they saw the
flying three, and their ranks opened to receive them. From the Indians
and Tories came the long whoop of challenge, and every one in either
band knew that the issue was now about to be settled by battle, and
by battle alone. They used all the tactics of the forest. Both sides
instantly dropped down among the trees and undergrowth, three or four
hundred yards apart, and for a few moments there was no sound save heavy
breathing, heard only by those who lay close by. Not a single human
being would have been visible to an ordinary eye there in the moonlight,
which tipped boughs and bushes with ghostly silver. Yet no area so small
ever held a greater store of resolution and deadly animosity. On one
side were the riflemen, nearly every one of whom had slaughtered kin to
mourn, often wives and little children, and o