heir slow death by the torture
of fire.

Blackstaffe[A] was one of the worst of all the renegades, second only to
Girty in cruelty and cunning, a scourge of the border destined to meet
his fate from an avenging bullet years later, just after the Fallen
Timbers, where Wayne crushed the allied tribes. Now he was a young man,
tall, heavily built and tanned almost as dark as an Indian by weather.
He and Braxton Wyatt had become close friends, and both stood high in
the councils of the Indians. Henry saw them clearly now, outlined
against the firelight, engaged in close talk with the middle-aged
Shawnee chief, Red Eagle.

[Footnote A: The fate of Blackstaffe is told in the author's novel, "The
Wilderness Road."]

Henry had much more respect for Red Eagle than for the renegades. The
Indian might be cruel, he might delight in the terrible sufferings he
inflicted upon a captured enemy, but it was the immemorial custom of his
race and, in fighting the white people, he was fighting those who would
some day, far distant though it might be, turn the great hunting grounds
into farms. Henry, so much a son of the wild himself, could understand
him, but for the renegades he had no sympathy whatever. In all lands
and in all the history of the world renegades have been hated and
detested.

He judged by the fact that the head chief of the Shawnees and the two
renegades had remained that they considered the taking of the little
fort in the cliff of great importance. Doubtless they imagined that all
of the five were now inside, and it would rejoice the heart of Shawnee
and Miami alike if they could slay them all, or better still, take them
alive, and put them to the torture. There were some old defeats that yet
galled and stung, and for which revenge would be sweet. Henry recalled
these things and he knew that the siege would be close and bitter.

The Indians, feeling secure from any enemy, presently sat in a circle
about the fire, drawing their blankets over their shoulders to protect
themselves from the drizzling rain. Henry surmised that several warriors
were on watch near the mouth of the cave, and that those in the main
body would take their ease before the coals. His surmise proved to be
correct, as they appeared to relax and to be talking freely. They also
took venison from deerskin pouches and ate. It reminded Henry that he
was hungry and he too took out and ate a portion of Shif'less Sol's
stolen bear steak that he had saved.