leven
o'clock they embarked in the canoe, paddling straight for the western
shore. Paul looked back with some regret at the island, which at times had
been a snug little home. The ancient, mummified bodies in the trees had
protected them, as if with a circle of steel, and he was grateful to those
dead of long ago.

They saw no sign of the Indian canoes, and both Henry and Ross were
certain that they were in camp somewhere on the eastern shore. The little
party reached the dense woods on the west without incident whatever, and
there they partly sank the canoe in shallow water among dense bushes. Then
they plunged into the forest, and traveled fast. Shif'less Sol spoke after
a while, and apparently his groaning voice was drawn up from the very
bottom of his chest.

"Oh, that blessed canoe!" he said. "I wuz so happy when I wuz a-ridin' in
it, an' somebody else wuz a-paddlin'. Now I hev to do all my own work."

"You wouldn't be truly happy, Sol Hyde," said Jim Hart, "'less you wuz
ridin' in a gilt coach drawed by four white horses, right smack through
the woods here."

"That's heaven," said the shiftless one, with a deep sigh. "I don't ever
dream o' sech a thing ez that, and please don't call it up to my mind, Jim
Hart; the contras' between that an' footin' it ez I am now is too cruel
an' too great."

Paul smiled. The little by-play between those two good friends amused and
brightened him, but nothing else was said for a long time. Then it was
Henry who spoke, and he called a halt.

"The big Miami village is not more than a dozen miles away," he said, "and
the warriors there are expecting messengers from the Shawnees, with war
belts. The messengers will pass near here, and we'll wait for them. The
rest of you will go to sleep, and Tom and I will watch."

Paul, Jim Hart, and Shif'less Sol rolled themselves in their blankets and
lay down under a tree, the shiftless one murmuring, "Now, this is what I
like," and the others saying nothing. Paul was devoutly grateful for the
blanket, because the air was now quite cold, but in five minutes all
emotions were lost in deep and dreamless sleep.

When Paul awoke from his slumber he started up in horror. Three powerful,
painted Shawnees stood over him. He was so much overwhelmed by the
catastrophe that he could only utter a kind of gasp. But the blood flowed
back from his heart into his veins when he heard the dry laugh of Long
Jim Hart.

"Paul," said Jim, "I'd like to intro