eir feet to the
smoldering fire. The chiefs soon followed them and elsewhere the
warriors also rolled themselves in their blankets. They seemed to think
that he would not come back, reasoning like the white men that the
lightning would not strike in the same place twice.

So he waited long and patiently. This quality of patience was one in
which the Caucasian was usually inferior to the Indian, but in the
incessant struggle on the border it was always needed. Henry, through
the power of his will and his original training among the Northwestern
Indians, had acquired it in the highest degree. He could sit or lie an
almost incredible length of time, so still that he would seem to blend
into the foliage, and now as he lay in the bushes some of the little
animals crept near and watched him. A squirrel, not afraid of the fire
in the distance, came down the trunk of a tree, and hanging to the bark
not five feet away regarded him with small red eyes.

Henry caught a glimpse of the little gray fellow and turning his head
ever so slightly regarded him. The red eyes looked back at him half bold
and half afraid, but Henry had lived in the wild so much that the two
felt almost akin. The squirrel saw that the gigantic figure on the
ground did not move, and that the light in the eyes was friendly. He
crept a little nearer, devoured by curiosity. He had never seen a human
being before, and instinct told him that he could escape up the tree
before this great beast could rise and seize him. He edged cautiously an
inch nearer, and the blue eyes of the human being smiled into the little
red eyes of the animal.

The two gazed at each other for a half minute or so. It was a look of
the utmost friendliness, and then the squirrel went noiselessly back up
the tree. It was a good omen, thought Henry, but he still waited with
the illimitable patience which is a necessity of the wild. He saw the
fire, before which the white men and the chiefs lay sleeping, sink lower
and lower. The night remained dark. The heavy drifting clouds which
nevertheless were not ready to open for rain, moved overhead in solemn
columns. The surface of the river grew dim, but now and then there was a
light splash as a strong fish leaped up and fell back into the current.
The Indian guards knowing well what made them, paid no attention to
these sounds.

The wind increased and Henry saw all the canoes, including those lashed
together, rocking in the current. The blast ma