the thick
darkness under the trees, he could not perceive even the outlines of
his figure. Jonathan followed close behind. Their progress was slow,
for even the trained woodsmen could, with difficulty, make their way
through the trees, and Nat's only index, as to the direction to be
taken, lay in the feel of the bark of the trunks.

After an hour's progress, he whispered:

"We will stop here till daylight. We can't do any good at the work. We
haven't made half a mile since we started."

It was a positive relief, to James, to hear the scout's voice, for not
a single word had been spoken since they lost sight of their pursuers
in the darkness. The fact that he had ventured now to speak showed that
he believed that they were comparatively safe.

"May I speak, Nat?" he asked, after they had seated themselves on the
ground.

"Ay, you may speak, captain, but don't you raise your voice above a
whisper. There is no saying what redskin ears may be near us. I guess
these forests are pretty well alive with them. You may bet there isn't
a redskin, or one of the irregular Canadian bands, but is out arter us
tonight. The war whoop and the rifles will have put them all on the
lookout.

"They will have seen that we were pretty well holding our own, and will
guess that, when night came on, we should give the canoes the slip. I
guess they will have placed a lot of canoes and flatboats across the
lake, opposite Crown Point, for they will know that we should either
head back, or take to the woods. I guess most of the redskins near
Crown Point will have crossed over at this point, as, in course, we
were more likely to land on this side. I had a mighty good mind to land
whar we was over there, but there are sure to be such a heap of
Indians, making their way up that side from Montreal, that I judge this
will be the best; but we shall have all we can do to get free of them."

"Why didn't you land at once, Nat, after we lost sight of them, instead
of crossing over?"

"Because that's where they will reckon we shall land, captain. That's
where they will look for our tracks the first thing in the morning, and
they will know that we can't travel far such a dark night as this, and
they will search every inch of the shore for three or four miles below
where they lost sight of us, to find where we landed. They would know
well enough we couldn't get ashore, without leaving tracks as they
would make out, and they would reckon to pick up our t