or he saw the proof that the Wolf had
turned to the right, and had preceded them over the route which they
were to follow. He would have been better satisfied had he crossed the
trail or turned the other way. The fact that he had gone southward meant
that the main party which he was seeking to join were in that direction,
though the keen eyes of the Shawanoe could detect no signs that they had
trodden the same ground. That signified nothing, however, as they might
have pursued a slightly different route, falling back upon the main path
further on.

Deerfoot, in telling his young friends what he had learned, added that
he had no doubt that they would hear from the Winnebagos again, and
possibly at an hour when least expected. Fred Linden was disturbed more
by the knowledge that the party were approaching the camp where his
father and his companions were unsuspicious of the danger. They could
easily steal close enough to the cabin to shoot down all three without
warning.

When he mentioned his fear to Deerfoot, that sagacious young warrior
told him that he saw no cause for anxiety, though he could not deny that
something of the kind might take place. His theory was that the
Winnebagos were not disposed to attack any party of whites in mere
wantonness, the act of the Wolf being the whim of a single
gnarly-brained warrior.

Be that as it may, our young friends were anxious to make the best
progress they could, and, for fully a dozen miles, they kept up their
brisk gait. At the end of that time, the sun was overhead, and they
were obliged to stop on the bank of a broad, swiftly-flowing stream. The
prints made by the hoofs of the horses that had passed that way some
days before were plainly seen, though there had been a fall of rain
since. A glance at the water showed that it was so deep that the hunters
must have swam their animals across.

It would have been an easy matter for the boys to swim also, but they
preferred to use a raft. Accordingly, they set to work, and it did not
take them long to gather enough logs and driftwood to float all three.
These were deftly fastened together by Deerfoot, who used hickory withes
for that purpose, and, then, with a long pole which he cut and trimmed
with his tomahawk, he pushed from shore.

The propelling pole was fully fifteen feet long, and in the middle of
the stream, the boys were surprised to see that when one end was pressed
against the bottom, no more than two feet were a