nd at some of the chiefs near him.

"I know that Girty thinks much and is wise," he said. "He is faithful to
us, too, because he dare not go back to his own white people, who would
tear him to pieces."

Timmendiquas paused a moment for his taunt to take effect, and looked
directly at the renegade. Girty winced, but he had great self-control,
and he replied calmly:

"What you say is true, Timmendiquas, and no one knows it better than I.
The whites would surely tear me in pieces if they could catch me,
because my deeds in behalf of the Indians, whom I have chosen to be my
brethren, are known to all men."

Girty had replied well, and the older and more cautious chiefs gave him
another murmur of approval. Timmendiquas flashed him a second glance of
contempt and hate, but the renegade endured it firmly.

"What, then, do you say for us to do, Girty?" asked the Wyandot chief.

"As the enemy comes near Chillicothe fall back to Piqua. It is only
twelve miles away, yet not all the warriors of Piqua are here ready to
help us. But they will wait for us if we come to them, and then we shall
be in stronger force to fight Clark. And Piqua is better suited to
defense than Chillicothe. The enemy cannot come upon the town without
receiving from us a hidden fire."

Girty spoke on, and to the listening youth he seemed to speak plausibly.
Certainly many of the chiefs thought so, as more than once they nodded
and murmured their approval. Timmendiquas replied, and several of the
younger chiefs supported him, but Henry believed that the burden of
opinion was shifting the other way. The tribes were probably shaken by
the defeat at the mouth of the Licking, and the name of Clark was
dreaded most of all.

Indians love to talk, and the debate went on for a long time, but at
last it was decided, much against the will of Timmendiquas, that if they
could not catch Clark in an ambush they would abandon Chillicothe and
retreat toward Piqua. The decisive argument was the fact that they could
gather at Piqua a much larger force than at Chillicothe. The advance of
Clark had been more rapid than was expected. They would not only have
all the Piqua men with them, but many more warriors from distant
villages who had not yet arrived.

The fire was now permitted to die down, the crowd broke up and the
chiefs walked away to their lodgings. Henry left the little place from
which he had been peeping, drew himself from the corn and prepared to
open the