dance
and direction would continue. All the omens and prophecies remained
good, and, with the wind in the leaves still singing the song of victory
in his ears, he silently crept away, inch by inch, even as he had come.
Well beyond the Indian ear, he rose and returned swiftly to his
comrades.

Ross was still on guard and the others sleeping when Henry's figure
appeared through the dusk, but they awoke and sat up when he called,
low, to them.

"What are you wakin' us up fur, Henry?" asked the shiftless one, as he
rubbed a sleepy eye. "Are the warriors comin'? Ef so, I'd like to put on
my silk knee breeches, an' my bee-yu-ti-ful new silk stockin's an' my
new shoes with the big silver buckles, afore I run through the forest
fur my life."

"No, they're not coming, Sol," said Henry. "They're asleep off there and
tomorrow morning Blackstaffe, Braxton Wyatt, Red Eagle and the others
hurry on to join the main band."

"How do you know that, Henry?"

"They told me."

"You've been settin' laughin' an' talkin' with 'em, right merry, I
reckon."

"They told me, just as I said. They told me their plan in good plain
Shawnee."

"An' how come Braxton Wyatt with Red Eagle and Blackstaffe?"

"Leaving a fruitless quest, he overtook them. I was lying in the
thicket, in hearing distance, when Wyatt came up with his men, joined
Blackstaffe and Red Eagle, and had to tell them of his failure."

"You shorely do hev all the luck, Henry. I'd hev risked my life an'
risked it mighty close, to hev seed that scene."

Then Henry told them more in detail of the meeting and of the plans that
Red Eagle and the two renegades had talked over, drawing particular
attention to the net the Indians intended to spread for the five.

"'Pears to me," said Shif'less Sol, "that the right thing fur us to do
is to make a big curve--we're hefty on curves--an' go clear 'roun' in
front of the band. They'll be lookin' fur us everywhere, 'cept right
thar, an' while they're a-plottin' an' a-plannin' an' a-spreadin' out
their nets, we'll be a-plottin' an' a-plannin' an' mebbe a-doin' too
what we've undertook to do."

"The very thing," said Henry.

"A true strategic march," said Paul.

"Looks like sense," said Silent Tom.

"You do hev rays o' reason at times, Sol," said Long Jim.

"Then it's agreed," said Henry. "We'll take a little more rest, and,
soon after daylight, we'll start on one of our great flying marches."

Paul and Long Jim kept the watch, an