ng into the south, an' then he
bolts off into the north, like an arrow out o' the bow. I follows him
lickety-split to bring him back, but he runs so fast I can't ketch him."

Paul smiled.

"I've one father and mother already," he said, "and so I have no use for
two. Rather than cause embarrassment, I came away as quickly as I could."

"You did come fast," said Henry dryly.

"It was mighty fine of all of you to come after me," said Paul earnestly,
"and to risk your lives to save me from the Shawnees. But I knew you'd do
it."

"Uv course," said Tom Ross simply. "The rest uv our party would hev come,
too, but they were needed back thar in Kentucky. Besides, we could spare
'em, ez it took cunnin' an' not numbers to do what we had to do."

"What's our next step?" asked Paul, who was in the highest of spirits--his
imagination, with its usual vivid rebound, now painted everything in
glowing colors.

"We are going northward," said Henry.

"Northward?"

"Yes, it's necessary. There's some great movement on foot among the
tribes. It's not the Shawnees alone, but the Miamis and Wyandots and
others as well, though the Shawnees are leaders. War belts are passing
between all the tribes, and we think they are joining together to destroy
all the white settlements in Kentucky."

"An' some renegades are helpin' 'em," said Tom Ross. "They may hev better
luck than they did when they attacked Wareville."

"Yes, an' there's Braxton Wyatt," said Shif'less Sol sorrowfully, "He's
cunnin' an' revengeful, an' he'll do us a power o' harm. Paul, you ought
to a-let me put a knife in atween his ribs when I had the chance. I might
a-saved some good lives an' a power o' sufferin'."

Paul did not reply, but he was not sorry that he had interfered. He could
not see a bound youth killed.

"I think we'd better be goin' now," said Tom Ross. "We've got to keep to
the north, to throw the Shawnees off the track, an' then we'll come back
an' spy on 'em."

"An' me with only ten hours o' rest got to git up an' start to runnin'
ag'in," said Shif'less Sol plaintively.

"Wa'al, no, you needn't run," said Tom Ross, grinning. "You can jest walk
for about forty hours without stoppin'!"

Shif'less Sol heaved a deep sigh, but made ready. Jim Hart undoubled
himself, cracked his joints, and said deliberately:

"Ef I wuz ez lazy ez Shif'less Sol Hyde, I'd a-stayed back thar in the
East, whar a feller might jest sleep hisself to death, an' no Injuns to
t