se he was
continually in the wilderness that he loved so well, and he felt that he
was doing a much greater work than when he was felling trees, and
helping to clear a place for crops. As for himself he would never have
cut down a single tree, although there were millions and millions of
them. Nature held nothing that he admired more. He knew no greater
delight than to stand on a high hill and look on the forest, deep green,
waving in the wind, and stretching to the complete circle of the horizon
and beyond.

He was now in one of the loneliest stretches of the wilderness, far
north of Wareville, and no great distance from the Ohio. A day's march
would take him to a favorite crossing of the savages, and that was why
he and his comrades were in this region. He increased his speed,
settling into the long swinging gait which the scouts of the border
always used, when they would hasten, but, in a half-hour, he stopped
suddenly and his figure seemed to vanish utterly in a dense mass of
green bushes.

Henry, now hidden himself, had seen. It was only a trace that scarcely
any eye save his would have noticed, but in a place where the earth was
soft he had observed the faint imprint of a moccasin, the toes turning
inward and hence made by an Indian. Other imprints must be near, but,
for a little while, he would not look, remaining crouched in the
thicket. He wished to be sure before he moved that no wearer of a
moccasin was in the bush. It might be that Yellow Panther, redoubtable
chief of the Miamis, and Red Eagle, equally redoubtable chief of the
Shawnees, were at hand with great war bands, burning to avenge their
defeats.

He did not move for fully ten minutes. He had acquired all the qualities
of those who live in constant danger in vast forests, and, like the
animal that hides, his figure and dress blended completely with the
green thicket. The air brought no menace to either eye or ear, and then
he stepped forth.

He found the imprints of five or six pairs of moccasins farther on, and
then they became so faint that the best trailer in the West could not
follow them, although he believed that they had been made by a hunting
party. It was customary for the Indians on their great raids to detach a
number of men who would roam the forests for food, but he decided that
he would not try to follow them any longer. He would not be deflected
from his purpose to join his comrades.

Leaving the broken trail he sped north by wes