orment him."

"Ef I wuz es mean an' onchristian ez Jim Hart, I'd go an' join Braxton
Wyatt an' become a renegade myself," rejoined Shif'less Sol.

Paul smiled. He enjoyed the little spats of Sol and Jim, but he knew that
the two were as true as steel, and the best of friends to each other.
Moreover, he was about to take up again the mission which Fate seemed so
constantly to interrupt. The scene of action had been shifted to the great
northern woods, and it now seemed to Paul that perhaps Fortune had been
kind in bringing him there. If a league of the tribes were being attempted
for a new attack upon the settlements, the powder for Marlowe might well
rest, for the present, in its hiding-place in the woods, while his
comrades and he undertook more important action elsewhere.

Before they started, Henry and Ross took stock of their ammunition, of
which they had a plentiful supply, replenished more than once from their
enemies, and also gave an abundance to Paul. The extra rifle given to him,
one of those taken from the two warriors that Henry had slain, was a fine
weapon, carrying far and true, and he was perfectly satisfied with it.

Then they started, and they traveled all day northward, through a fine
rolling country, with little prairies and great quantities of game. It was
fully equal to Kentucky, but Paul knew they were in the heart of the
chosen home of the northern Indians, and it behooved them to be cautious.
But there were no signs of pursuit, and they went on all day undisturbed.

Late in the afternoon they entered a dense forest, and walked through it
about two hours, when Paul saw an opening among the trees. It was a great
flash of silver that all at once greeted his eyes. But as he looked it
turned to gold under the late sun.

"Another of those little prairies," he said.

Henry laughed.

"No, Paul," he said, "that's not a prairie. The sun and the sky together
have fooled you. It's a lake, and we're going to live in it for a little
while."

"A lake," echoed Paul, "and we're going to live in it? Come on, I want to
see it!"

Kentucky was not a country of lakes, and Paul did not know much about
them. Hence, as he hastened forward, he was thinking more of the lake
itself than of Henry's somewhat enigmatic words, "We're going to live in
it."

They soon reached its margin, and Paul uttered a little cry of delight. It
was a splendid sheet of water, shaped like a half moon, seven miles long,
perhaps, and