enough causes," he replied, "but I've learned this,
Braxton: it doesn't pay to have special hatreds, to be trying always to
get revenge upon some particular person. It interferes too much with
business. I don't like Timmendiquas, because he doesn't like me, doesn't
approve of me, and gives me little stabs now and then. But I don't waste
any time trying to injure him. I'm going to make use of him."

"I can't make use of Henry Ware and the others," said Braxton Wyatt
impatiently.

Girty blew another ring of smoke and laughed.

"No, you can't, and that's the truth," he said, "but what I wanted to
tell you was not to be in too great a hurry. You've got talents,
Braxton. I've been watching you, and I see that you're worth having with
us. Just you stick to me, and I'll make a great man of you. I'm going to
consolidate all these tribes and sweep the west clean of every white.
I'm going to be a king, I tell you, a woods king, and I'll make you a
prince, if you stick to me."

A glow appeared in the eyes of Braxton Wyatt.

"I'll stick to you fast enough," he said.

"Do it," said Girty in a tone of confidence, "and you can have all the
revenge you want upon the boy, Ware, his comrades, and all the rest of
them. Maybe you won't have to wait long, either."

"That is, if we take the fort," said Wyatt.

"Yes, if we take the fort, and I'm specially anxious to take it now,
because Dan'l Boone is in it. I don't hate Boone more than I do others,
but he's a mighty good man to have out of our way."

McKee, Eliot, Quarles, and Blackstaffe joined them, and long after the
twilight had gone and the night had come they talked of their wicked
plans.

CHAPTER XXIII

ON THE OFFENSIVE

Boone, Kenton, Henry, Sol, and Ross were returning in the night through
the forest. They had stolen near enough to the Indian camp to see
something of what had occurred, and now and then a word of the speech of
Timmendiquas had reached them. But they did not need to see everything
or to hear everything. They were too familiar with all the signs to make
any mistake, and they knew that the savage horde was preparing for
another great attack.

"I was hopin'," said Daniel Boone, "that they'd go away, but I didn't
have any faith in my hope. They think they've got to hit hard to keep us
back, an' they're right. I s'pose these are the finest huntin' grounds
in the world, an' I wouldn't want to give them up, either."

"The attack led by Timmendiquas