An'
did you ever hear him do better? Thar ain't a word in the hull Shawnee
an' Miami languages that he hasn't used on 'em an' a sprinkling o'
Wyandot an' Delaware too. They're so mad I kin see 'em bitin' their lips
an' t'arin' at thar scalp locks. Good old Jim, give it to 'em!"

The voice went on a quarter of an hour with amazing force and speed.
Then it ceased abruptly and silence and darkness together came over the
woods. Henry and his comrade debated as they lay in the little gully.
Should they try to get in to their comrades? Or should they try to get
their comrades out? Either would be a most difficult task, but as the
night deepened, and they talked they came to a decision.

"It has to be me," said Henry.

"I s'pose so," said Sol, regretfully. "You're the likeliest hand at it,
but you always take the most dangerous part. It's nothin' fur me to lay
'roun' here in the night till you fellers come."

Henry's smile was invisible in the dusk.

"Of course, Sol," he said, "you run no risk. I read once in a book, that
our teacher had at Wareville, about an outdoor amusement they called a
lawn festival. That's what you're going to have, a lawn festival. While
I'm gone you'll walk about here and pick flowers for bouquets. If any
savage warrior wanting your scalp should come along he'd change his mind
at once, and help you make your bouquet."

"Stop your foolishness, Henry. You know it ain't no hard job fur me to
hang 'bout in the woods an' keep out o' danger."

"Yes, but you may have a lot to do when you hear the signals. Keep as
close as you reasonably can, Sol, and if we come out and give the howl
of the wolf you answer, according to our custom, and we'll know which
way to run."

"All right, Henry. I won't be sleepin'. Thar they are shootin' ag'in,
but not doin' any yellin'. So they haven't hit anythin'. Good-bye, an'
rec'lect that I'll be waitin' here."

Strong hands clasped in the darkness and Henry slipped away on his
perilous mission, reaching without event the valley that the cliff
overlooked. Then he used all the caution and skill that the superman of
the forest possessed, creeping closer and closer and ever closer, until
he could see, despite the darkness, the painted forms of Miami and
Shawnee warriors in the thickets, all looking up at the point where the
crevice in the cliff was practically hidden by the foliage. It was an
average night, quiet and dark up there, but Henry knew that three pairs
of good