an the descent, clinging to rocks and
bushes and sedulously keeping under cover. Luckily the bushes remained
thick, and three-fourths of the way to the bottom they stopped, Henry
resting in the hollow of a rock and Seth lying easily in a clump of
bushes. They were now much nearer the flatboat, and while hidden
themselves they could see easily.

Henry had uncommonly keen sight, and the eyes of the sharpshooter Seth
Cole were but little inferior to his. He now saw clearly the muzzles of
the two cannon, elevated that they might pitch their balls into the
fort, and he marked those who served them, renegades and men from
Canada, gunners, spongers, and rammers. He could even discern the
expression upon their faces, a mingling of eagerness and savage elation.
Behind the flatboat, at a distance of fifty or sixty yards, still
hovered the swarm of canoes filled with Wyandots, Shawnees, Miamis,
Illinois, Ottawas, and Delawares, raising a fierce yell of joy every
time a shot struck within the palisade.

"Do you think you can reach them with a bullet, Seth Cole?" asked Henry
Ware.

"I'm thinkin' I kin."

"I'm sure _I_ can. See them reloading the cannon. You take the fellow
with the sponge and I'll attend to the gunner himself."

"I'm thinkin' I'll do it," said Seth Cole. "Jest you give the word when
to pull the trigger."

The two remained silent, each settling himself a little firmer in his
position in the thick shrubbery. The sponger ran his sponge into the
muzzle of the cannon, cleaned out the barrel, and an Indian next to him,
evidently trained for the purpose, handed him a fresh charge. The gunner
took aim, but he did not fire. A bullet struck him in the heart, and he
fell beside the gun. The sponger, hit in the head, fell beside him. Both
died quietly. The Indian, staring for a few moments, snatched up the
sponge, but Henry had reloaded swiftly, and a third shot struck him
down.

There was consternation on the flatboat. The light wisps of white smoke
made by the rifles of the sharpshooters were lost in the dusky cloud
raised by the cannon fire, and they did not know whence these deadly
bullets came.

The second cannon was ready a couple of minutes later, but, like the
first, its load was not discharged at the fort. The gunner was struck
down at his gun and the rammer, hit in the shoulder, fell into the
stream. Two Indians standing near were wounded, and panic seized the
warriors at the sweep. The Ohio had seldom witn