s if the words
themselves were uttered. A great wilderness army had passed that way and
for a while he was in doubt. Was it the force of Bird coming back to the
North? But it was undoubtedly a trail several weeks old. Everything
indicated it. The bones had been bleached by the sun, the feather was
beaten partly into the earth by rain, and the tattered old blanket had
been pawed and torn still further by wolves. But none of these things
told what army it might be. He hunted, instead, for some low place that
might have been soft and marshy when the warriors passed, and which,
when it dried, would preserve the outline of a footstep. He advanced a
full mile, following the broad trail which was like an open road to him
until he came to such a place. Then he kneeled and examined it
critically. In a half dozen places he saw held in the hard earth the
outline of footsteps. They would have been traces of footsteps to most
people and nothing more, but he knew that every one of them pointed to
the south. A mile further on and in another low place he had full
verification of that, which, in fact, he already knew. Here the prints
were numerous. Chance had brought him upon the trail of Timmendiquas,
and he resolved, for the present, to follow it.

Henry came to this determination because it was extremely important to
know the location and plans of the invading army. More news of an attack
would not be nearly so valuable as the time and place at which the
attack was to be delivered. The course seemed plain to him and he
followed the broad trail with speed and ardor, noting all along the
indications that the army took no care to conceal itself or hide its
trail. Why should it? There was nothing in these woods powerful enough
to meet the Anglo-Indian combination.

For four days and for a part of every night he followed without a break.
He saw the trail grow fresher, and he judged that he was moving at least
twice as fast as the army. He could see where English or Tory boots had
crushed down the grass and he saw also the lighter imprints of
moccasins. He passed numerous camps marked by ashes, bones of deer,
buffalo, bear and smaller animals, and fragments of old worn-out
garments, such as an army casts away as it goes along. He read in these
things unlimited confidence on the part of both Indians and white men.

An unusually large camp had been made at one place and some bark
shelters had been thrown up. Henry inferred that the army ha