icy bushes above him was
like a whisper from the cold. He wrapped himself thoroughly in the
painted coat and the two blankets, put the rifle in front of him, where
he could snatch it up instantly, and beat his hands together at times to
keep them warm, and at other times held them under the blankets.

He understood human nature, and he knew that they were rejoicing in
their own comfort, while he might be freezing. They felt that way
because it was their way, and he did not blame them. It was merely his
business to thwart their plans, so far as they concerned himself. He
recognized that it was a contest in which only superior skill could
defeat superior numbers, and he summoned to his aid every faculty he
possessed.

The Indians did not move for an hour, luxuriating by their fires, and
occasionally taunting him with cries. Then four warriors from either
shore went upon the ice at the same time, and began to advance slowly
toward his island, making use of the clumps of bushes that thrust here
and there through the frozen surface of the lagoon.

Henry slipped his hands from the blankets and watched both advancing
parties with swift glances, right and to left. They were using shelter
and advancing very slowly, but beyond a certain point both were bound to
come in range. He smiled a little. Much of his forest life recently had
been in the nature of an idyll, but now the wild man in him was
uppermost. They came to kill and they would find a killer.

He knelt among the bushes, which were thin enough to allow him a clear
view in every direction, and put his powder horn and bullet pouch on the
snow in front of him. He could reload with amazing rapidity. They did
not know that. Nor did they know that they were advancing upon the king
of riflemen. Naturally, they would suppose him to be a wandering hunter
lost in a dangerous region.

The party on the west presently began to pass from the shelter of one
tuft of bushes to another, twenty yards away, and in doing so the four
were wholly exposed. It was a long shot, much too long for any of the
Indians, but not too long for Henry. He fired at the leading warrior,
and, before he had time to see him crashing on the ice, he was reloading
his rifle with all the speed of dexterous fingers. He heard a yell of
rage from the Indians, and, glancing up, saw the three dragging away the
body of the fallen man. But the party on the other side, knowing that
his rifle had been emptied, but not