kling groups.

It was past midnight when Holdsworth moved slightly, like one half
awakening from a deep sleep. But his elbow touched the man Fowler, and
he said a few words to him in a whisper. Then he sank back into his
relaxed position, and apparently was asleep again. Fowler himself did
not move for at least ten minutes. Then he arose, slipped out of the
Council House, and returned with a great armful of wet leaves, which he
put gently upon the fire. Quickly and quietly he sank back into his old
position by the wall.

Dense smoke came from the coals and heap of leaves, but it rose in a
strong spire and passed out through the broken part of the roof, the
great hole there creating a draught. It rose high and in the night, now
clear and beautiful, it could be seen afar. Yet all the eight--five on
one side and three on the other--seemed to be sound asleep once more.

The column of smoke thickened and rose higher into the sky, and
presently the man Fowler was at work again. Rising and stepping, with
wonderful lightness for a thick-set heavy man, he spread his open
blanket over the smoke, and then quickly drew it away. He repeated the
operation at least twenty times and at least twenty great coiling rings
of smoke arose, sailing far up into the blue sky, and then drifting away
over the forest, until they were lost in the distance.

Fowler folded the blanket again, but he did not resume his place against
the wall. Holdsworth and Perley rose lightly and joined him. Then the
three gazed intently at the five figures on the other side of the smoke.
Not one of them stirred. So far as the three could see, the five were
buried in the most profound slumber.

Holdsworth made a signal and the three, their rifles in the hollows of
their arms, glided from the Council House and into the forest.

As soon as they were lost in the darkness, Henry Ware sprang to his
feet, alive in every nerve and fiber, and tingling with eagerness.

"Up; up, boys!" he cried. "Those three men are Tories or English, and
they are coming back with the savages. The rings of smoke made the
signal to their friends. But we'll beat them at their own trick."

All were on their feet in an instant--in fact, only Jim Hart and Paul
had fallen asleep--and they ran silently into the forest in a direction
opposite to that which the three had chosen. But they did not go far. At
Henry's whispered signal, they sank down among some dense bushes where
they could lie hidd