-coats for numbers. And the Six Nations will
be with the red-coats; Crow Wing's people will be with them. If there is
war we will take many scalps; we will come here," with a gesture,
sweeping in the Bennington country, "and then Crow Wing and Harding not
be friends. So Crow Wing come now to say to Harding, 'Good-bye.'"

"But why do not the Indians help us instead of the red-coats?" demanded
Enoch, striving to speak calmly.

"The great King give us blankets; he give us powder for scalp; he give
us gun. The red-coats let Injin fight his own way. And Crow Wing be
great war chief!" he exclaimed, with some emphasis. It was plain that he
expected to make his position with his tribe secure by his valor in
battle, should the settlers and the British come to a rupture. He
refrained from speaking longer, however, rising soon and covering the
fire which he had kindled. Then, seizing a bundle of torches and his
rifle, he motioned Enoch to follow and they set off through the forest
toward the deer-lick.

Although he felt the utmost confidence in the fact that Crow Wing had
not come clear from Lake George simply to give him this warning and to
bid him good-bye, Enoch still remained silent upon that subject which
the Indian's appearance had brought so forcibly to his mind. Through the
darkened forest, in which the owls now hooted mournfully, the white
youth followed the red without a word; every step was taking them nearer
to that place where his father had been found dead so long ago. Crow
Wing had spoken with some confidence the year before of being able to
find, even at this late day, some sign which should disprove the
generally accepted belief in the manner of Jonas Harding's death.

The brave soon reached the deeply worn runway which Enoch, on the
morning he was introduced to the reader, followed to the creek, and soon
the two came upon the little glade where the saline deposits in the
earth had attracted the deer and other animals since such creatures
inhabited the forest. Dark as it was Enoch could even distinguish the
very tree out of which the catamount had sprung at him, and the murmur
of the hurrying waters down the rocky bed reached his ear. Here 'Siah
Bolderwood and the other neighbors had found the dead body of the elder
Harding, apparently trampled and gored to death by the huge buck whose
hoofprints marked the ground all about. Enoch had seldom passed the spot
without a shudder--especially since he had so nearly l