all the more quickly. Then they shouldered their rifles and went ahead,
never looking back once.

The morning was quite cool. It was only the second week in April, the
spring having come out early bringing the buds and the foliage with it,
but in the variable climate of the great valley they might yet have
freezing and snow. They had left Pittsburg in the winter, but they were
long on the way, making stops at two or three settlements on the
southern shore of the Ohio, and also going on long hunts. At another
time they had been stopped two weeks by the great cold which froze the
surface of the river from bank to bank. Thus it was the edge of spring
and the forests were green, when they turned up the tributary river, and
followed in the trail of Timmendiquas.

Now they noticed this morning as they advanced that it was growing quite
cold again. They had also come so much further North that the spring was
less advanced than on the Ohio. Before noon a little snow was flying,
but they did not mind it. It merely whipped their blood and seemed to
give them new strength for their dangerous venture. But Henry was
troubled. He was sorry that they had not seen an enemy in the man Bird
whose name was to become an evil one on the border. But how were they to
know? It is true that he could now, with the aid of the dead man's story
recall something about Bird and his love affair, his disappointment
which seemed to have given him a perfect mania for bloodshed. But again
how were they to know?

They pressed on with increased speed, as they knew that Timmendiquas,
owing to their delay at the abandoned village must now be far ahead. The
broad trail was found easily, and they also kept a sharp watch for that
of Bird and his band which they felt sure would join it soon. But when
night came there was no sign of Bird and his men. Doubtless they had
taken another course, with another object in view. Henry was greatly
perplexed. He feared that Bird meant deep mischief, and he should have
liked to have followed him, but the main task was to follow
Timmendiquas, and they could not turn aside from it.

They would have traveled all that night, but the loss of sleep the night
before, and the strain of the combat compelled them to take rest about
the twilight hour. The night winds were sharp with chill, and they
missed the bark shelter that the ruined Council House had given them. As
they crouched in the bushes with their blankets about them and