rd the
forest, because the village behind them was up and alive. Lights flared,
dogs barked, men shouted, and before the friendly trees were reached
rifles began to crack.

"Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!" cried Shif'less Sol, as a bullet whistled past his
ear. "Ef that don't put life into a tired man, I don't know what will."

He ran with amazing swiftness, and Paul, light-footed, kept beside him.
But the alert Shawnee warriors, ever quick to answer an alarm, were
already in fleet pursuit, and only the darkness kept their bullets from
striking true. Paul looked back once--even in the moment of haste and
danger he could not help it--and he saw three warriors in advance of the
others, coming so fast that they must overtake them. He and Sol might beat
them off, but one cannot fight well and at the same time escape from a
multitude. His heart sank. He would be recaptured, and with him the
gallant Shif'less Sol.

Flashes of fire suddenly appeared in the forest toward which they ran, and
death cries came from the two warriors who pursued. Shif'less Sol uttered
an exultant gasp.

"The boys!" he said. "They're thar in the woods, a-helpin'."

Daunted by the sudden covering fire, the pursuing mob fell back for a few
moments, and the two fugitives plunged into the deep and friendly shadows
of the woods. Three figures, all carrying smoking rifles, rose up to meet
them. The figures were those of Henry Ware, Tom Ross, and Jim Hart. Henry
reached out his hand and gave Paul's a strong and joyous grasp.

"Well, Sol has brought you!" he said.

"But Sol's not goin' to stop runnin' yet for a long time, tired ez he is,"
gasped the shiftless one.

"Good advice," said Henry, laughing low, and without another word the five
ran swiftly and steadily northward through the deep woods. Henry had on
his shoulder an extra rifle, which he had brought for Paul, so confident
was he that Sol would save him; but he said nothing about it for the
present, preferring to carry the added weight himself. They heard behind
them two or three times the long-drawn, terrible cry with which Paul was
so familiar, but it did not now send any quiver through him. He was with
the ever-gallant comrades who had come for him, and he was ready to defy
any danger.

Henry Ware, after a while, stopped very suddenly, and the others stopped
with him.

"I think we'd better turn here," he said, unconsciously assuming his
natural position of leader. "It's not worth while to run ou