About the time the Miamis reached the mainland, and darted among the trees in the race for their own village, Paul Cotter and Long Jim Hart leaped lightly from the low bough of the oak, took off the enfolding robes of white tanned deerskin, with holes for the eyes.

“Jehoshaphat!” said Long Jim, as he threw the robes on the ground, “I’m glad that’s over.  Bein’ a ghost jest about a minute is enough fur me.  I wuz scared to death lest I didn’t groan good an’ horrible.”

“But you never did a better job in your life, Jim,” said Henry, as he came from behind a tree.  “You and Paul were the finest ghosts I ever saw, and no Indian will dare to set foot on this island in the next hundred years.”

“It shorely was a sight to see them braves run,” said Shif’less Sol.  “Thar’s many a tired man in that lot now.  I think some o’ ’em didn’t hit the ice an’ snow more’n twice between here an’ the lan’.”

“Paul’s made the islan’ ez safe fur us ez a stone fort ez long ez we want to stay,” said Tom Ross.

“It was a great plan, well done,” said Henry.

Paul’s face shone with the most intense delight.  His imagination, leaping forward to meet a crisis, had served them all greatly, and he was happy.  He had fought not with rifle and knife, but with the weapon of the intellect.

“Now that this job is over, an’ we’re the big winners,” said Shif’less Sol, “I’m goin’ to do what a tired man ought to do:  go to sleep, wrapped up in buffalo robes, an’ sleep about forty hours.”

“We’ll all sleep,” said Henry.  “As Tom says, we’re as safe as if we were in a stone fort, and we don’t need any guard.”

An hour later all of the valiant five were slumbering peacefully within their warm walls, and when they ate a good hot breakfast the next morning, cooked in Jim Hart’s best fashion, they laughed heartily and often over the night’s great event.

“I guess Mr. Braxton Wyatt will hev to work hard ag’in to prove to them savages that he’s real smart,” said Shif’less Sol.  “This is another time that he’s led ’em right out o’ the little end o’ the horn.”

They luxuriated that day, resting most of the time In the hut, but on the following day Henry and Ross went on a longer scouting expedition than usual, this time in the direction of the Shawnee villages.  The three who were left behind broke fresh holes in the thick ice, and by the use of much patience succeeded in catching several fine fish, which made a pleasant addition to their daily diet.

Henry and Ross were gone nearly a week, but their comrades did not become alarmed over their long absence.  When they returned they brought with them a budget of news from the Shawnee villages.  Braxton Wyatt had returned to the Shawnees, much disgusted with his stay among the Miamis, but still resolved to form the great Indian alliance, and send it in the spring against the white settlements in Kentucky.

“It’s too late for them to do anything this winter,” said Henry, and a little exultation showed in his tone, “we’ve put that spoke in their wheel; but they mean to hit us a terrible blow on the flank when warm weather comes.”