Paul looked back again at the ferocious band gathered on the shore, and, while he could not see their faces at the distance, he could imagine the evil passions pictured there.  As he gazed the band broke up, and many of them came running along the shore.  Then Paul noticed that the prow of their canoe was not turned toward the island, but was bearing steadily toward the north end of the lake, leaving the island well to the left.  He glanced at Jim Hart, and the long man laughed low, but with deep satisfaction.

“Don’t you see, Paul,” he said, “that we kain’t go to the islan’ an’ show to them that we’ve been livin’ thar?  That might wipe out all the spell uv the place.  We got to let ’em think we’re ‘fraid uv it, too, an’ that we dassent land thar.  We’ll paddle up to the head uv the lake, come down on the other side, an’ then, when it’s atween us an’ them, we’ll come across to our islan’.”

They were still abreast of the island, and yet midway between it and the mainland.  Paul saw the Indians running along the shore, and now and then taking a shot at the canoe.  But the bullets always fell short.

“Foolish!  Plumb foolish,” said Jim Hart, “a-wastin’ good powder an’ good lead in sech a fashion!”

“That one struck nearer,” said Paul, as a little jet of water spurted up in the lake.  “Keep her off, Jim.  A bullet that is not wasted might come along directly.”

Hart sheered the boat off a little toward the island, and then took a long look at a warrior who had reached a projecting point of land.

“That thar feller looks like a chief,” he said, “an’ I kain’t say that his looks please me a-tall, a-tall.  I don’t like the set uv his figger one little bit.”

“What difference does it make?” said Paul.  “You can’t change it.”

“Wa’al, now, I was a-thinkin’ that maybe I could,” drawled Jim Hart.  “Hold the boat steady, Paul.”

He laid down his paddle and took up his rifle, which he had reloaded.

“Them Injuns have guns, but they are not generally ez good ez ours,” he said.  “They don’t carry ez fur.  Now jest watch me change the set uv that savage’s figger.  I wouldn’t do it, but he’s just a-pinin’ fur our blood an’ the hair on top uv our heads.”

Up went the long Kentucky rifle, and the moonlight fell clearly along its polished barrel.  Then came the flash, the spurt of smoke, the report echoing among the hills about the lake, and the chief fell forward with his face in the water.  A yell of rage arose from the others, and again bullets pattered on the surface of the lake, but all fell short.  Jim Hart calmly reloaded his rifle.

“That’ll teach ’em to be a little more keerful who they’re a-follerin’,” he said.  “Now, Paul, let’s paddle.”

They sent the boat swiftly toward the north end of the lake, and Paul now and then caught glimpses of the Miamis trying to keep parallel with it, although out of range; but presently, as they passed the island, and could swing out into the middle of the lake, the last of them sank permanently from sight.  But the two kept on in the canoe.  The moonlight faded a little, and soon the hills on the shore could be seen only as a black blur.