, they followed. The sun was now gone,
and only a band of red light lingered on the horizon in the West. It,
too, faded quickly as they marched through the woods, and the night came
down, enveloping the forest in darkness. The five were glad that the
landing had occurred at such a time, as it made their own pursuit much
safer and easier.

The Indians, feeling perfectly safe, carried torches and talked and
laughed with great freedom. The five in the covert had both the light
and the noise to guide them, and they followed silently.

They passed over a gently rolling country, heavily wooded, and in a half
hour they saw lights ahead, but yet at some distance. The lights, though
scattered, were numerous, and seemed to extend along an arc of half a
mile. The five knew that the Indian village now lay before them.

CHAPTER II

THE SILVER BULLET

The village, the largest belonging to the Wyandots, the smallest, but
most warlike of the valley tribes, lay in a warm hollow, and it did not
consist of more than a hundred and fifty skin tepees and log cabins. But
it was intended to be of a permanent nature, else a part of its houses
would not have been of wood. There was also about it a considerable area
of cleared land where the squaws raised corn and pumpkins. A fine creek
flowed at the eastern edge of the clearing. Henry and his comrades
paused, where the line of forest met the open, and watched the progress
of the army across the cleared ground. Everybody in the village, it
seemed, was coming forward to meet the chief, the warriors first and
then the old men, squaws and children, all alive with interest.

Timmendiquas strode ahead, his tall figure seeming taller in the light
of the torches. But it was no triumphant return for him. Suddenly he
uttered a long quavering cry which was taken up by those who followed
him. Then the people in the village joined in the wail, and it came over
and over again from the multitude. It was inexpressibly mournful and the
dark forest gave it back in weird echoes. The procession poured on in a
great horde toward the village, but the cry, full of grief and lament
still came back.

"They are mournin' for the warriors lost in the East," said Tom Ross. "I
reckon that after Wyomin' an' Chemung, Timmendiquas wasn't able to
bring back more than half his men."

"If the Wyandots lost so many in trying to help the Iroquois, won't that
fact be likely to break up the big Indian league?" asked P