de a whistling sound among
the bushes and boughs and he concluded that the time for him to act had
come. He took off all his clothing, made it, his weapons and ammunition
in a bundle which he fastened on his head, and then swam across the
river. He went some distance down the bank, deposited everything except
his heavy hunting knife securely in the bush, and then, with the knife
in his teeth, dropped silently into the river.

The lashing of the wind and the perceptible rise of the stream from
flooded tributaries farther up, made a considerable current, and Henry
floated with it. But the bank on the camp side of the river was
considerably higher than the other and first he swam across to its
shelter.

It was so dark now that not even the keen eye of an Indian could have
seen his dark head on the dark surface of the stream, and he was so
powerful in the water that he swam like a fish without noise. Once or
twice he caught the gleam of the fire on the bank, but he knew that he
was not seen.

In a few minutes he dropped in behind the lashed canoes, and with the
heavy hunting knife cut holes in their bark bottoms. He was skillful and
strong, but it took him a half-hour to finish the task, and he stopped
at intervals to see if the sentinels had noticed anything unusual.
Evidently they dreamed as little of this venture as of that of the fire
boat.

He cut a small hole in every one at first, and then enlarged them in
turn, and when he saw the water rising in the boats he swam rapidly
away, still keeping in the shelter of the near shore. Then he dived,
rose just behind a curve and walked out on the opposite bank, his figure
gleaming white for a moment before he crept into the woods where his
clothes and weapons lay. He dressed with rapidity and still lying hidden
he heard the first Indian cry.

The sentinels, hearing the gurgling of the water, had looked over and
seen the sinking canoes. Even as they looked, and as the alarm brought
others, the canoes filled with water and sank fifteen feet to the bottom
of the stream.

A few rays of moonlight forced their way through the clouds just at that
moment, and Henry saw the amazement on the faces of the warriors, and
the anger on the faces of the white men, because Alloway and the others,
awakened by the alarm, had hurried to the banks of the river.

He laughed low to himself but with deep and intense satisfaction. He was
enough a son of the wild to understand the emotions of