e necessary fifteen minutes was one of the hardest tasks
they ever undertook. It would not do to take the canoe at once, as
suspicion would certainly be aroused. They must conform to Blackstaffe's
own plan. It seemed to them that they must actually hold themselves with
their own hands to keep from creeping forward to the canoe, yet they did
it, though the minutes doubled and redoubled in length, and then
tripled; but, after a time that both judged sufficient, they slid
forward, and Henry's knife cut the willow withe. Then they lifted
themselves gently into the canoe, took up two of the paddles and were
away.

Henry's back was to the southern bank, and despite all his experience
and courage shivers ran through his body at the thought that a bullet
from the forest might strike him any moment. Yet he did not wish to seem
in a hurry, and restrained his eagerness to paddle with all his might.

"Softly, Sol, softly," he said. "We must not be in too much haste."

"Don't I know it, Henry? Don't I know that we must 'pear to be the two
warriors whose business it is to take back the canoe? Ain't I jest
strainin' an' achin' to make the biggest sweep with my paddle I ever
swep', an' ain't my mind pullin' ag'inst my hands all the time, tryin'
to keep 'em at the proper gait? Are you shore you ain't felt no bullet
in your back yet, Henry?"

"No, Sol. What makes you ask such a question?"

"'Cause I reckon I wuz so much afeared o' one that I imagined the place
whar it's track would be in me, ef it had been really fired. My fancy
is pow'ful lively at sech a time."

"There has been no alarm, at least not yet, and we're near the middle of
the river. The canoe must be invisible, although I can see the fires on
either shore. Now, Sol, we'll turn down stream and paddle with all our
might, showing what canoemen we really are!"

It was with actual physical as well as mental joy that they turned the
prow of the canoe toward the southeast, that is, with the current, and
began to do their best with the paddles. They no longer had that
horrible fear of a bullet in the back, and muscles seemed to leap
together with the spirit into greater strength and elasticity.

"Come on you, Henry," said Shif'less Sol exultantly. "Keep up your side!
Prove that you're jest ez good a man with the paddle ez me! We ain't
makin' more'n a mile a minute, an' fur sech ez we are that's nothin' but
standin' still!"

The two bent their powerful backs a little and t