on a trail made by moccasins and two pairs of
boots, and he surmised that it was Alloway and one of his young officers
who had passed that way with the Indians. As they were going toward the
river it confirmed him in his conjecture that they intended to use it,
at least in part, for their advance into Kentucky.

There had been no effort to hide the trail. What need had they to do so?
Even with the belief that the five were in the vicinity they were in too
large numbers to fear attack, and Henry, following in their footsteps,
read all their actions plainly.

They were not walking very fast. The shortness between one footprint and
the next proved it, and their slowness was almost a sure indication that
the party included Yellow Panther and Red Eagle, or at least one of
them. They did not go faster, because they were talking, and Alloway
would have discussed measures only with the chiefs.

At one point four pairs of footsteps turned aside a little, and stopped
in front of a large fallen log. Two of the traces were made by moccasins
and two by boots. So, the two pairs of moccasins indicated that both
chiefs were present. The four had sat on the log and talked some time.
In the crevices of the bank he found traces of thin ash. The British
officer therefore had lighted his pipe and smoked there, further proof
that it had been a conference of length.

The warriors had remained in a group on the right, thirty or forty yards
away, and several of them had lain down, the crushed grass showing faint
traces of their figures. Two small bones of the deer, recently covered
with cooked flesh, indicated that several of them had used the
opportunity to eat their supper.

Unquestionably the movement intended by the white leader and the red
chiefs was important, or they would not stop to talk about it so long.
Hence it must mean the transportation of the cannon by water. He could
not think of anything else that would divert them from the main route.

About two miles farther on another trail joined the one that he was
following. It was made wholly by moccasins, but it was easy enough for
him to discern among them two pairs, the toes of which turned outward.
These moccasins, of course, were worn by Blackstaffe and Wyatt, who,
whatever the British colonel may have thought of them, were nevertheless
of the greatest importance, as intermediaries between him and the Indian
chiefs.

A few yards beyond the junction they had stopped and talke