guidance as they had, and it was
merely circumstances that placed him and his kind in opposition to them
and their kind.

The light but strong craft touched the bank gently, and the six canoemen
stepped out, a figure that appeared among the bushes confronting them.
Henry, with a thrill, recognized Blackstaffe, and the canoe must have
arrived on an errand of importance or the renegade would not have been
there to meet the six warriors.

"You will come into the camp and hear the reports of the scouts," said
Blackstaffe, speaking in Miami, which both Henry and the shiftless one
understood perfectly. "It will take some time to do this, because not
all of them have returned yet. Then two of you had better go back with
the canoe, while the others stay here to help us. I think we have these
five rovers trapped at last, and we'll make an end of 'em. They've
certainly caused us enough trouble, and I'm bound to say they're masters
of forest war."

One of the warriors tied the canoe to a bush with a willow withe, and
then all six following Blackstaffe disappeared among the trees, going
toward the campfire.

"At least Blackstaffe compliments us before sending us to the next
world," whispered Henry.

"Ez fur me," Shif'less Sol whispered back, "I ain't goin' to no next
world, jest to oblige a villyun renegade. Besides, I like this
wilderness o' ours too much to leave it fur anybody. They think they're
mighty smart an' that they're plannin' somethin' big right now, but all
the same they're givin' us our chance."

"What do you mean, Sol?"

"Didn't you hear the villyun say that two o' the warriors wuz to go back
with the boat?"

"Well, what of it?"

"Then two warriors is goin' to be me an' you, Henry."

"Of course. I ought to have thought of it, too."

"Thar must be sent'nels on the bank, but waitin' 'bout ten minutes we'll
git into the canoe an' paddle off. The sent'nels will know that two
warriors are to go back in it, an' they'll think we're them. This
darkness which has come up, heavy an' black, on purpose to help us, will
keep 'em from seein' that we ain't warriors. When we git into the middle
o' the river, whar thar eyes can't even make out the canoe, we'll go
down stream like a flash o' lightnin', pick up the boys and then be off
ag'in like another flash o' lightnin'."

"A good plan, Sol, and we'll try it. As you say, luck is always on the
side of the bold, and I don't see why we can't succeed."

But to wait th