he was compelled to approach very close before he saw that
the fire was not made by Indians, but by a group of white men, Simon
Girty, Blackstaffe, Quarles, Braxton Wyatt and others, about a dozen in
all. They had cooked their noonday meal at a small fire and were eating
it apparently in perfect confidence of security. The renegades sat in
the dense forest. Underbrush grew thickly to the very logs on which they
were sitting, and, as Henry heard the continuous murmur of their voices,
he resolved to learn what they were saying. He might discover then the
nature of the menace that had broken up or deferred the great invasion.
He knew well the great danger of such an attempt but he was fully
resolved to make it.

Lying down in the bushes and grass he drew himself slowly forward. His
approach was like that of a wild animal stalking its prey. He lay very
close to the earth and made no sound that was audible a yard away,
pulling himself on, foot by foot. Yet his patience conquered, and
presently he lay in the thickest of the undergrowth not far from the
renegades, and he could hear everything they said. Girty was speaking,
and his words soon showed that he was in no pleasant mood.

"Caldwell and the other English were too stiff," he said. "I don't like
Timmendiquas because he doesn't like me, but the English oughtn't to
forget that an alliance is for the sake of the two parties to it. They
should have come with Timmendiquas and his friends to their villages to
help them."

"And all our pretty plans are broken up," said Braxton Wyatt viciously.
"If we had only gone on and struck before they could recover from Bird's
blows we might have swept Kentucky clean of every station."

"Timmendiquas was right," said Girty. "We have to beware of that fellow
at the Falls. He's dangerous. His is a great name. The Kentucky riflemen
will come to the call of the man who took Kaskaskia and Vincennes."

The prone figure in the bushes started. He was reading further into this
most interesting of all volumes. What could the "Falls" mean but the
Falls of the Ohio at the brand new settlement of Louisville, and the
victor of Vincennes and Kaskaskia was none other than the great George
Rogers Clark, the sword of the border. He understood. Clark's name was
the menace that had turned back Timmendiquas. Undoubtedly the hero was
gathering a new force and would give back Bird's blows. Timmendiquas
wished to protect his own, but the English had returne