rush cut
cleanly away in order that it might afford no ambush. Henry judged that
a spring, rising somewhere inside the palisade, flowed down to the Ohio.
He had no fault to find with the place except that it was advanced too
far into the Indian country, but that single fault was most serious and
might prove fatal.

The fort seemed strong and well built and it was likely that one or two
sentinels were on the watch, although he could not see from the outside.
One of his hardest problems was now before him, how to enter the fort
and give the warning without first being fired upon as an enemy. He had
no time to waste, and he decided upon the boldest course of all.

He drew all the air that he could into his lungs, and then, uttering a
piercing shout, magnified both in loudness and effect by the quiet
night, he rushed directly for the lowest point in the palisade. "Up!
up!" he cried. "You are about to be attacked by the tribes! Up! Up! if
you would save yourselves!"

Before he was half way to the palisade two heads looked over it, and the
muzzles of two long rifles were thrust toward him.

"Don't shoot!" he cried. "I'm a friend and I bring warning! Don't you
see I'm white?"

It was hard in the darkness of night to see that one so brown as he was
white, but the bearers of the rifles were impressed by his forcible
words and withdrew their weapons. Henry ran on, and, despite the burden
of his two rifles, seized the top of the parapet with his hands and in a
moment was over. As he disappeared on the inside, a rifle shot was fired
from some point behind, and a bullet whistled where he had been. Henry
alighted upon his feet and found facing him two men in buckskin, rifle
in hand and ready for instant action. His single glance showed that they
were men of resolution, not awed either by his dramatic appearance or
the rifle shot fired with such evident hostile intent.

"Who are you?" asked one.

"My name is Henry Ware," replied Henry rapidly, "and I bring you word
that you are about to be attacked by a great force of the allied tribes
led by the famous chiefs, Timmendiquas, Yellow Panther, and Red Eagle
and the renegades, Girty, Blackstaffe, Eliot, McKee, Quarles, and
Wyatt."

It was a terrible message that he delivered, but his tone was full of
truth, and both men paled under their tan. While Henry was speaking,
lights were appearing in the log houses within the palisades, and other
men, drawn by the shot, were approaching