warm clothing restored them
physically, and here they were with the fleet once more, meanwhile
having done many things well.

"Ain't it fine fur a lazy man like me to be back on a boat," said
Shif'less Sol in a low voice to Paul. "Nuthin' to do but set still an'
talk, nuthin' to do but eat an' drink what's brought to you, nuthin' to
do but sleep when you're sleepy, no Injuns shootin' at you, no havin' to
run on your legs 'till you drop. Everything done fur you. It's a life
fur me, but I don't git much av it."

Paul laughed at Shif'less Sol's tone of deep satisfaction.

"Yes, it's good, Sol," he rejoined, "but it won't last. We won't have
more than a day of it."

The face of the shiftless one took on a look of deep disgust. "Nuthin'
good never lasts more'n a day," he said, "an' ef it does last more'n a
day you gen'ally git tired o' it."

Adam Colfax resumed his watch of the shores. Like Major Braithwaite, he
had a pair of powerful glasses, and he sought with their aid to detach
something from the black wall of the southern shore.

"I can make out nothing," he said in disappointing tones, after a long
look, "except a bright spot which must be a fire a little distance back
in the woods. You have keen eyes, Henry, my boy, see what you can see."

Henry also saw the "bright spot," and he was quite sure that it was a
fire. Then he took a look at the heavens, now a solid expanse of cloud
behind which the stars twinkled unseen. A slight wind was blowing up the
river, and its touch was damp on his face. When the lightning flared, as
it still did now and then, he saw that it was not mere heat lightning
but the token of something graver.

"I have a suggestion to make to you, sir," he said to Adam Colfax.
"Unless I am mistaken, a storm is coming. Is it not so, Tom, and you,
Sol?"

"It is," they replied together. "All the signs are sayin' so out loud."

"In an hour it will be here," resumed Henry. "The wind is blowing up
river, and I don't think it will change. That favors us. In the darkness
and tumult of the storm we ought to force the pass. It is our best
chance, sir."

He spoke very earnestly, and the rest of the five nodded their assent.
Adam Colfax was impressed, but he wished to have the endorsement of his
lieutenants.

"What do you say, gentlemen?" he asked, turning to them.

"We make zee passage, and we make eet queek to-night, as zee boy says,"
replied the brave and impulsive Drouillard.

Adam Colfax turne