lish and Canadian traders both inside and outside the palisade.

The British had begun the erection of another fort, equally powerful, at
some distance from the present one, but they were not far advanced with
it at that time. The increase in protective measures was due to a
message that they had received from the redoubtable George Rogers Clark,
the victor of Vincennes and Kaskaskia, the man who delivered the
heaviest of all blows against the British, Indian and Tory power in the
Northwest. He had said that he was coming to attack them.

Henry asked no questions, but he watched everything with the most
intense curiosity. The warriors of Timmendiquas stopped about three
hundred yards from the palisade, and, without a word to anyone, began to
light their camp fires and erect lodges for their chiefs. Girty,
Blackstaffe, and Wyatt went away toward the fort, but Henry knew well
that Timmendiquas would not enter until messengers came to receive him.
Henry himself sat down by one of the fires and waited as calmly as if he
had been one of the band. While he was sitting there, Timmendiquas came
to him.

"Ware," he said, "we are now at the great post of the King, and you will
be held a prisoner inside. I have treated you as well as I could. Is
there anything of which you wish to complain?"

"There is nothing," replied Henry. "Timmendiquas is a chief, great alike
of heart and hand."

The Wyandot smiled slightly. It seemed that he was anxious for the good
opinion of his most formidable antagonist. Henry noticed, too, that he
was in his finest attire. A splendid blue blanket hung from his
shoulders, and his leggings and moccasins of the finest tanned deerskin
were also blue. Red Eagle and Yellow Panther, who stood not far away,
were likewise arrayed in their savage best.

"We are now about to go into the fort," said Timmendiquas, "and you are
to go with us, Ware."

Four British officers were approaching. Their leader was a stocky man of
middle age in the uniform of a colonel. It would have been apparent to
anyone that the Wyandot chief was the leader of the band, and the
officers saluted him.

"I am speaking to Timmendiquas, the great White Lightning of the
Wyandots, am I not?" he asked.

"I am Timmendiquas of the Wyandots, known in your language as White
Lightning," replied the chief gravely.

"I am Colonel William Caldwell of the King's army," said the chief, "and
I am sent by Colonel de Peyster, the commandant at Det