lad enough to get away without being pierced by a
bullet, and he promised them excellent fare the next morning. It was
nine o'clock at night when he left them, taking with him his gun, that
Washington returned to him. Gist followed him for quite a distance, to
be sure that he was not deceiving them, and then hurried back.

"Now, since you would not let me shoot the villain," he said to
Washington, "we must shoulder our packs and hurry away, and walk all
night, or we shall never see Williamsburg."

"You are right, Gist, and we will be off at once; and the fellow may
keep his meat till we come this way again," replied Washington, with as
much composure as if their lives had not been in jeopardy. By the light
of the camp fire their compass showed them which way to go.

The excitement of this perilous episode seemed to rest Washington's
weary limbs, so that they traveled rapidly through the whole night,
finding themselves at the head of Piney Creek in the morning.
Washington's journal has the following entry for that day:

"The next day we continued traveling until quite dark, and got to the
river, two miles above Shannopin's. We expected to have found the river
frozen, but it was not, only about fifty yards from each shore. The ice,
I suppose, had broken up above, for it was driving in vast quantities."

"What next?" said Gist, with an air which indicated that he recalled his
warning words to Washington about the perils of such a journey. "If the
Indian's bullet had taken effect we should have been saved some trouble
here."

"A formidable difficulty, to be sure," answered Washington; "but a good
share of wit and perseverance may overcome it. No way of getting over
this stream, I think, except on a raft."

"A raft!" exclaimed Gist. "A raft would be swamped in a giffy by that
ice. Besides, what have we to build a raft with? A hatchet alone will
not do it."

"A hatchet is much better than nothing," responded Washington. "We will
try what a hatchet can do towards it. If we fail, we will fail in
trying."

"Try it is, then," said Gist, rather admiring Washington's hopefulness
and pluck than otherwise. "I am at your service, and if anybody can
cross the river, I think a man of your grit can."

So they set to work to construct a raft, with no implement but a
solitary hatchet, consuming a whole day in the work. When the awkward
affair was fairly launched, they went on board of it, and pushed off for
the opposite shore.