“We are going northward,” said Henry.

“Northward?”

“Yes, it’s necessary.  There’s some great movement on foot among the tribes.  It’s not the Shawnees alone, but the Miamis and Wyandots and others as well, though the Shawnees are leaders.  War belts are passing between all the tribes, and we think they are joining together to destroy all the white settlements in Kentucky.”

“An’ some renegades are helpin’ ’em,” said Tom Ross.  “They may hev better luck than they did when they attacked Wareville.”

“Yes, an’ there’s Braxton Wyatt,” said Shif’less Sol sorrowfully, “He’s cunnin’ an’ revengeful, an’ he’ll do us a power o’ harm.  Paul, you ought to a-let me put a knife in atween his ribs when I had the chance.  I might a-saved some good lives an’ a power o’ sufferin’.”

Paul did not reply, but he was not sorry that he had interfered.  He could not see a bound youth killed.

“I think we’d better be goin’ now,” said Tom Ross.  “We’ve got to keep to the north, to throw the Shawnees off the track, an’ then we’ll come back an’ spy on ’em.”

“An’ me with only ten hours o’ rest got to git up an’ start to runnin’ ag’in,” said Shif’less Sol plaintively.

“Wa’al, no, you needn’t run,” said Tom Ross, grinning.  “You can jest walk for about forty hours without stoppin’!”

Shif’less Sol heaved a deep sigh, but made ready.  Jim Hart undoubled himself, cracked his joints, and said deliberately: 

“Ef I wuz ez lazy ez Shif’less Sol Hyde, I’d a-stayed back thar in the East, whar a feller might jest sleep hisself to death, an’ no Injuns to torment 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.