his comrades, to keep the
sport going, might sting them on the flank. After the yells, the night
resumed its usual silence, and Henry, lying in his covert, watched on
all sides, while he laid his plans to vex and torment Braxton Wyatt and
his band. He knew it was an easy matter for his comrades and himself to
escape this particular expedition sent against them, but it was likely
that they would encounter other and larger forces farther south, and he
wished the battlefield, if it shifted at all, to shift northward. Hence
he intended to hold Wyatt there as long as possible.

After a while, he was sure that he saw the tops of some bushes moving in
a direction not with the wind, and he was equally sure that Shawnees
were coming forward. Nearly half an hour passed and then a bead of fire
appeared as a rifle was discharged, and the shot had an uncommonly loud
sound in the clear, noiseless night. He heard, too, the click of the
bullet as it struck against the stone near the mouth of the hollow, and
once more he laughed. It was an amusing night for him. The warriors, now
that they had crept within range, would be sure to sprinkle the stone
around the cleft with bullets, and lead was too precious in the
wilderness to be wasted.

He flattened himself upon the earth, merely keeping his rifle thrust
forward for an emergency, and he blended so perfectly with grass and
foliage that not even the keen eyes of Shawnees ten feet away could have
detected him. A second shot was fired, and he heard the bullet clipping
leaves not far away; a third followed and then a volley, all of the
bullets striking at some point near the entrance. The volley was
followed by a long and fierce war whoop and far down the valley Henry
caught sight of a dusky form. Quick as lightning he raised his rifle,
pulled the trigger and the figure disappeared. Then another war whoop,
now expressing grief and rage, came, and he knew that the band would
think the bullet had been sent from the mouth of the rock fortress. He
crept a little farther away, lest a stalker should stumble upon him, and
reloaded his rifle.

He lay quite still a long time, and the first sound he heard was of slow
and cautious footsteps. He listened to them attentively and he wondered.
A warrior surely would not come walking in a manner that soon became
shambling. Putting his ear to the earth he heard a soft and uncertain
crush, crush, and then, raising his head a little, he traced a dark,
ambig