l appeal the warriors were making. A red haze floated before his
eyes. The tide of battle surged through his blood, and, then, with a
fierce warning to himself, he stilled his quivering body and crouched
low again.

A long time they watched. When a dancer fell exhausted another leaped
gladly into his place. The unconscious man was dragged to one side, and
left until he might recover.

"I think we've seen enough, don't you?" whispered Henry. "I'd feel
better if I were further away."

"Stirs me like that too," said Shif'less Sol. "It ain't healthy fur us
to stay here any longer. 'Sides, we know all we want to know. This is a
big war party, mostly Miamis and Shawnees, with some Wyandots an' a few
Iroquois and Delawares."

"And the English and the cannon."

"Yes, Henry, an' I don't like the looks o' them cannon, the first, I
reckon, that ever come across the Ohio. Our palisades can turn the
bullets easy 'nuff, but they'd fly like splinters before twelve pound
round shot."

"Then," said Henry with sudden emphasis, "it's the business of us five
to see that those two big guns never appear before Wareville or Marlowe,
where I imagine they intend to take them!"

"Henry, you hit the nail squar' on the head the fust time. Ef we kin
stop them two cannon it'll be ez much ez winnin' a campaign. I think
we'd better go back now, an' j'in the others, don't you?"

"Yes, I don't see that we can do anything at present. But Sol, we must
stop those cannon some way or other. We beat off a great attack at
Wareville once, but we couldn't stand half a day before the big guns.
How are we to do it? Tell me, Sol, how are we to do it?"

"I don't know, Henry, but we kin hang on. You know we've always hung on,
an' by hangin' on we gen'rally win. It's a long way to Wareville, an'
while red warriors kin travel fast cannon can't get through a country
covered ez thick with woods an' bushes ez this is. They'll hev to cut a
road fur 'em nigh all the way."

"That's so," said Henry more hopefully. "They'll have to go mighty slow
with those big guns through the forests and thickets and canebrake, and
across so many rivers and creeks. We'll hang on, as you say, and it may
give us a chance to act. I feel better already."

"They ain't likely to move fur a day or two, Henry. After the dances an'
the big eatin' they'll lay 'roun' 'till they've slep' it all off, an'
nobody kin move 'em 'till they git ready, even if them British officers
talk 'till thei