search the world over, and not find
a hardier band. Truly, what had he to fear?

Henry saw that the leader was not convinced, and he was not one to waste
words. After all, what did he have to offer but a stray feather, carried
by the wind?

"Dismiss your fears, my boy," said Adam Colfax cheerfully. "Think about
something else. I want to send out a hunting party this afternoon. Will
you lead it?"

"Of course," said Henry loyally. "I'll be ready whenever the others
are."

"In a half hour or so," said Adam Colfax with satisfaction. "I knew you
wouldn't fail."

Henry went to the fire, by the side of which his four comrades sat
eating their noonday meal, and took his place with them. He said not a
word after his brief salute, and Paul presently noticed his silence and
look of preoccupation.

"What is the matter, Henry?" he asked.

"I'm going with a little party this afternoon," replied Henry, "to hunt
for buffalo and deer. Mr. Colfax wishes me to do it. He thinks we need
fresh supplies, and I've agreed to help. I want you boys to promise, if
I don't come back, that you'll go on with the fleet."

Paul sat up, rigid with astonishment. Shif'less Sol turned a lazy but
curious eye on the boy.

"Now, what under the sun do you mean, Henry?" he asked. "I've heard you
talk a good many times, but never like that before. Not comin' back? Is
this the Henry Ware that we've knowed so long?"

Henry laughed, despite himself.

"I'm just the same," he said, "and I do feel, Sol, that I'm not coming
back from this hunt. I don't mean that I'll never come back, but it will
be a long time. So I want you fellows to go on with the fleet and help
it all you can."

"Henry, you're plum' foolish," said taciturn Tom Ross. "Are you out uv
your head?"

Henry laughed again.

"It does sound foolish," he admitted, "and I don't understand why I
think I'm not coming back. I just feel it."

"I notice that them things mostly come contrariwise," said Shif'less
Sol. "When I know that I'm goin' to hev hard luck it's gen'ally good.
We'll look for you, Henry, at sundown."

But Paul, youthful and imaginative, was impressed, and he regarded Henry
with silent sympathy.

CHAPTER II

THE WYANDOT CHIEF

Henry rose quickly from the noonday refreshment and, with a nod to his
comrades, entered the forest at the head of the little band of hunters.
Shif'less Sol and Tom Ross would have gone, too, but Adam Colfax wanted
them to keep watch about