cure as possible, lest the warriors, moving about, might see him.
But, fortunately the night had now turned quite dark, and where eyes
might fail his acute sense of hearing would reveal the approach of any
enemy. But as he lay close he again laughed inwardly more than once. The
three were certainly holding the grotto in most gallant fashion, and
Long Jim was fast becoming one of the greatest orators of the woods. He
did not believe that the Indians could carry the fortress, but to get
them out and away was another and much harder problem.

Absolute silence save for the whispering of a light wind through the
leaves came over the forest. The night, to Henry's great joy, grew much
darker. No sound came from the room in the cliff, nor did any come from
the Indians in the thickets. Apparently the whole place was a
wilderness, as lone and desolate as it was when it first emerged from
the sea. Nowhere was the sign of a human being visible, but Henry knew
that vigilant eyes watched at the mouth of the stone cleft and that eyes
equally as keen peered continually from the thickets.

But he meant to join his comrades before dawn. He did not know yet just
how he would do it, but such was his confidence that he felt quite sure
he would be with his comrades before the rising of the sun.

Luckily the forest and thickets in the valley were extremely dense,
enabling him to lie within a couple of hundred yards of the besieging
force, and not fear detection. His figure in its green clothing blended
perfectly with the green bushes.

The night turned colder, and after a while a chilly drizzle began to
fall. Henry, hardened to all kinds of weather, and intent upon his task,
took no note of it, except to be glad that it had come, because it would
further his aims. Night and storm might enable him to slip past the
besiegers and join his friends.

But the Indians, who do not despise comfort when there is no danger in
it, gathered in a cup in the side of the hill, beyond rifle shot from
the hollow, and built a fire. Henry, from his lair in the bushes, saw
them distinctly, about thirty warriors, mostly of the Shawnee tribe,
with their head chief, Red Eagle himself, present as a leader, and the
two renegades Braxton Wyatt and Blackstaffe. Henry noted Blackstaffe and
Wyatt closely and his heart thrilled with anger that they should turn
against their own people and use the tomahawk and scalping knife, and
even stand beside the stake to witness t