her. Then
the stars followed, leaving only a black sky which hid Henry well, but
which did not hide the smaller camp by the river from him.

Watchers had been spread out in a wider circle, but he had no difficulty
in approaching the fire, built on the bank of the river, around which
sat the two chiefs, the renegades and the British officers. Henry saw
that the faces of all of them expressed deep discontent, and he enjoyed
the joke, because joke it was to him. He understood the depths of their
chagrin.

"We'll have to carry the cannon on the canoes, and maybe they'll fall
into the river," said Alloway querulously. "How in thunder the blowing
up of those scows was managed I don't understand!"

"Several of the warriors saw a canoe floating down, sir, just before the
explosion," said Cartwright, "and it must have been no illusion, as a
canoe is gone."

Cartwright had missed his horn of powder after the excitement from the
explosion was over, but he supposed some Indian had used the opportunity
to steal it, and he said nothing about his loss from fear of creating a
breach.

"In my opinion, sir," said Braxton Wyatt, smoothly but with just a trace
of irony, "it was done by Ware and his comrades."

"Impossible! Impossible!" said Alloway, testily. "The careless Indians
left powder in the scows and in some manner equally careless it's been
exploded. The tale of the canoe that floated upstream of its own accord
was an invention to cover up their neglect."

"Do you wish us to translate for you and to state that opinion to the
chiefs?" asked Blackstaffe.

Alloway gave him an angry glance, but he had prudence enough to say:

"No, of course not. After all, there may have been a canoe. But whatever
it was it was most unfortunate. It delays us greatly, and it preys upon
the superstitions of the warriors."

"They are very susceptible, sir, to such things," said Wyatt. "They
dread the unknown, and this event has affected them unpleasantly. But
I'm quite sure it was done by Ware, although I don't know how."

"Ware! Ware!" exclaimed Alloway, impatiently. "Why should a force like
ours dread a single person?"

"Because, sir, he does things that are to be dreaded."

Yellow Panther, who had been sitting in silence, his arms folded across
his great bare chest, arose and raised his hand. Braxton Wyatt turned
toward him respectfully and then said to Colonel Alloway:

"The head chief of the Miamis wishes to speak, sir, and if you w