ed from the shore, and that any Indians there might be in the wood
would be closely watching near the water's edge.

Accordingly, as noiselessly as possible they approached the shore, and,
gliding in between the overhanging trees, laid the canoe alongside a
clump of bushes. Then, without a word being spoken, they laid in their
paddles and stretched themselves full length in the canoe.

James was glad of the rest, for, trained and hard as were his muscles,
he was exhausted by the long strain of the row for life. He guessed
that Nat would calculate that the Indian canoes would scatter, when
they lost sight of them, and that they would seek for them more closely
on the eastern shore. At the same time he was surprised that, after
once getting out of sight of their pursuers, Nat had not immediately
landed on the opposite shore, and started on foot through the woods.

After recovering his breath, James sat up and listened attentively.
Once or twice he thought he heard the sound of a dip of a paddle, out
on the lake, but he could not be sure of it; while from time to time he
heard the croak of a frog, sometimes near, sometimes at a distance
along the shore. He would have thought little of this, had not a slight
pressure of Jonathan's hand, against his foot, told him that these were
Indian signals.

Some hours passed before Nat made a move, then he touched Jonathan, and
sat up in the canoe. The signal was passed on to James, the paddles
were noiselessly taken up, and, without a sound that could be detected
by the most closely-listening ear, the canoe stole out again on to the
lake. Until some distance from shore they paddled very quietly, then
gradually the strokes grew more vigorous, until the canoe was flying
along at full speed up the lake, her course being laid so as to cross
very gradually towards the eastern side.

It was not until, as James judged, they must have been several miles
from the point at which they had started, that they approached the
eastern shore. They did so with the same precautions which had been
adopted on the other side, and sat, listening intently, before they
gave the last few strokes which took them to the shore. Quietly they
stepped out, and the two scouts, lifting the canoe on their shoulders,
carried it some fifty yards into the forest, and laid it down among
some bushes. Then they proceeded on their way, Nat walking first, James
following him so close that he was able to touch him, for, in