truction of the three whom
he hated and feared so horribly.

Braxton Wyatt raised one hand and wiped the perspiration from his face.
Then, when a deadly fear struck him, he composed his features. Henry Ware
had said he must tell a tale that seemed true. There must be no suspicion.
The fatal muzzles were trained on him, he well knew, and the sharpest of
eyes and ears were watching. He longed to cast one look at the bushes,
only one, but he dared not for his life. It was forbidden!

Yellow Panther was at hand now, plainly showing annoyance. The lost trail
could not be found, and wrath possessed him. He looked at the renegade,
and uttered his discontent.

Braxton Wyatt longed more than ever to tell; they were there so near, it
seemed he must tell; but the deadly rifles held him back. No one of their
bullets would miss!

"Yellow Panther," he said, and his voice faltered, "let us abandon the
trail and go back."

Yellow Panther looked at him, astonished by words and manner alike.

"Go back!" he said. "Did you not tell me that they were false, that there
were no such warriors in the Shawnee village?"

Braxton Wyatt trembled, and the cold sweat came again on his forehead. If
only those rifles were not there in the thicket! A mighty power seemed to
draw him about for one look, only one! But he did not dare--it was
death!--and with a supreme effort he wrenched himself away.

"I was wrong," he said. "I was eager for war, eager to see the Shawnees
and Miamis go together against the white settlements in the south--so
eager that I forgot the men. But I remember them now."

"Have you a crooked tongue?" asked Yellow Panther.

"No, no!" cried Braxton Wyatt, in mortal terror of the three rifles. "I
had, but I have not now! I am telling you the truth! As I live I am,
Yellow Panther! I was anxious for the war, anxious as you are, and it
brought a cloud before my eyes. I could not remember then, but I remember
now! The men were true Shawnees, and the Shawnee nation does not wish to
go on the great war trail this year."

Yellow Panther looked at him with indignation and contempt, and hesitated.
Braxton Wyatt trembled once more. Would the chief believe? He must
believe! He must make him believe, or he would die!

"I wished to tell you before we started, Yellow Panther," he said, "but I
feared then your just anger. Now we have lost the trail, and I must save
you from further trouble. Why should I tell you this now if it is not
tr