Before starting they stood for a minute or two looking over the forest which they were to traverse. To Harold's eyes all appeared quiet and still. Here and there were clearings where settlers had established themselves; but, with these exceptions, the forest stretched away like a green sea.  
"Tarnation!" Peter exclaimed. "We'll have all our work to get through safely; eh, chief?"
 
The Seneca nodded.
 
"What makes you say so?" Harold asked in surprise. "I see nothing."
 
Peter looked at him reproachfully.
 
"I'm downright ashamed of ye, lad. You should have been long enough in the woods by this time to know smoke when you see it. Why, there it is curling up from the trees in a dozen—ay, in a score of places. There must be hundreds of men out scouting or camping in them woods."
 
Harold looked fixedly again at the forests, but even now he could not detect the signs which were so plain to the scout.
 
"You may call me as blind as a bat, Peter," he said with a laugh, "but I can see nothing. Looking hard I imagine I can see a light mist here and there, but I believe it is nothing but fancy."
 
"It's clear enough to me, lad, and to the redskins. What do you say, chief?"
 
"Too much men," the Seneca replied sententiously.
 
For another minute or two he and Peter stood watching the forest, and then in a few words consulted together as to the best line to follow to avoid meeting the foe who, to their eyes, swarmed in the forest.
 
"It's mighty lucky," the hunter said as they turned to descend the hill, which was covered with trees to its very summit, "that they're white men and not redskins out in the woods, there. I don't say that there's not many frontiersmen who know the way of the woods as well as the redskins. I do myself, and when it comes to fighting we can lick 'em on their own ground; but in scouting we aint nowhere—not the best of us. The redskin seems to have an instinct more like that of an animal than a man. I don't say as he can smell a man a mile off as a dog can do, but he seems to know when the enemy's about; his ears can hear noises which we can't; his eyes see marks on the ground when the keenest-sighted white man sees nothing. If that wood was as full of redskins as it is of whites to-day, our sculps wouldn't be worth a charge of powder."
 
"You are not going to follow the shores of the lake, I suppose?" Harold asked.
 
"No," Peter said. "They'll be as thick as peas down there, watching for the first sight of our fleet. No, we must just keep through the woods and be as still and as silent as if the trees had ears. You'd best look to the priming of yer piece before we goes further, for it's likely enough you'll have to use it before the day's done, and a miss-fire might cost you yer life. Tell that nigger of yourn that he's not to open his mouth again till I gives him leave."
 
With a long stealthy tread the party descended the mountain and took their way through the woods. Every hundred yards or so they stopped and listened intently. When any noise, even of the slightest kind, was heard, all dropped to the ground until the chief had scouted round and discovered the way was clear. Once or twice they heard the sound of men's voices and a distant laugh, but they passed on without seeing those who uttered them.
 
Presently they again heard voices, this time raised as if in angry dispute. The Seneca would, as before, have made a long détour to avoid them, but Peter said.
 
"Let's have a squint at what's going on, chief."
 
With redoubled caution they again advanced until they stood at the edge of the clearing. It was a patch of land some hundred yards wide, and extending from the shore of the lake nearly a quarter of a mile inland. In the center stood a log hut, neatly and carefully built. A few flowers grew around the house, and the whole bore signs of greater neatness and comfort than was usual in the cabins of the backwood settlers.
 
The point where the party had reached the edge of the wood was immediately opposite the house. Near it stood a group of some twenty men, one of whom, apparently their leader, was gesticulating angrily as he addressed a man who stood facing him.
 
"I tell ye, ye're a darned royalist—ye're a traitor to the country, and I've a mind to hang ye and all belonging to ye to the nearest bough."
 
"I tell you," the man answered calmly, but in the still air every word he said could be heard by those at the edge of the forest, "I hae naething to do with the trouble ane way or the ither. I am a quiet settler, whose business only is to mak a hame for my wife and bairn; but, if you ask me to drink success to the Congress and confusion to the king's troops, I tell you I willna do it; not even if you are brutal enough, but this I canna believe possible, to carry your threats into execution. I hae served my time in a king's regiment. With the bounty I received instead o' pension on my discharge I settled here wi' my wife and bairn, and no one shall say that Duncan Cameron was a traitor to his king. We do no harm to anyone; we tak no part for or against you; we only ask to be allowed to live in peace."
 
"That ye shall not," the man said. "The king's troops have got Injuns with 'em, and they're going to burn and kill all those who won't take part with 'em. It's time we should show 'em as we can play at that game, too. Now ye've either got to swear to be faithful to the States of America or up you go."
 
"I canna swear," the settler said firmly. "You may kill me if you will, but, if you are men, you will nae harm my wife and girl."
 
"We'll just do to you as the redskins'll do to our people," the man said. "We'll make a sweep of the hull lot of you. Here, you fellows, fetch the woman and girl out of the house and then set a light to it."
 
Four or five men entered the house. A minute later screams were heard and a woman and child were dragged out. The settler sprang toward them, but three or four men seized him.
 
"Now," the man said, stepping toward the house, "we'll show 'em a bonfire."
 
As he neared the door a crack of a rifle was heard and the ruffian fell dead in his tracks. A yell of astonishment and rage broke from his followers.
 
"Jerusalem, youngster! you've got us into a nice fix. Howsomever, since you've begun it, here goes."
 
And the rifle of the hunter brought down another of the Americans. These, following the first impulse of a frontiersman when attacked, fled for shelter to the house, leaving the settler, with his wife and daughter, standing alone.
 
"Ye'd best get out of the way," Peter shouted, "or ye may get a bit of lead that wasn't intended for ye."
 
Catching up his child, Cameron ran toward the forest, making for the side on which his unknown friends were placed, but keeping down toward the lake, so as to be out of their line of fire.
 
"Make down to 'em, Harold," Peter said. "Tell 'em they'd best go to some neighbor's and stop there for a day or two. The army'll be here to-morrow or next day. Be quick about it, and come back as fast as ye can. I tell ye we're in a hornets' nest, and it'll be as much as we can do to get out of it."
 
A scattering fire was now being exchanged between the redskins behind the shelter of the trees and the Americans firing from the windows of the log house. Harold was but two or three minutes absent.
 
"All right, Peter!" he exclaimed, as he rejoined them.
 
"Come along, then," the hunter said. "Now, chief, let's make up round the top of this clearing and then foot it."
 
The chief at once put himself at the head of the party, and the nine men strode away again through the forest. It was no longer silent. Behind them the occupants of the hut were still keeping up a brisk fire toward the trees, while from several quarters shouts could be heard, and more than once the Indian war-whoop rose in the forest.
 
"That's just what I was afeared of," Peter muttered. "There's some of those darned varmint with 'em. We might have found our way through the whites, but the redskins'll pick up our trail as sartin as if we were driving a wagon through the woods."
 
Going along at a swinging, noiseless trot the party made their way through the forest. Presently a prolonged Indian whoop was heard in the direction from which they had come. Then there were loud shouts and the firing ceased.
 
"One of the red reptiles has found our trail," Peter said. "He's with a party of whites, and they've shouted the news to the gang in the clearing. Waal, we may, calculate we've got thirty on our trail, and, as we can hear them all round, it'll be a sarcumstance if we git out with our sculps."
 
As they ran they heard shouts from those behind, answered by others on both flanks. Shots, too, were fired as signals to call the attention of other parties. Several times the Seneca chief stopped and listened attentively, and then changed his course as he heard suspicious noises ahead. Those behind them were coming up, although still at some distance in the rear. They could hear the sound of breaking trees and bushes as their pursuers followed them in a body.
 
"Ef it was only the fellows behind," Peter said, "we could leave them easy enough, but the wood seems alive with the varmint."
 
It was evident the alarm had spread through the forest, and that the bands scattered here and there were aware that an enemy was in their midst. The dropping fire, which the pursuers kept up, afforded an indication as to the direction in which they were making, and the ringing war-whoop of the hostile Indians conveyed the intelligence still more surely.
 
Presently there was a shout a short distance ahead, followed by the sound of a rifle ball as it whizzed close to Harold's head and buried itself in a tree that he was passing. In a moment each of the party had sheltered behind a tree.
 
"It's of no use, chief," Peter said. "We'll have the hull pack from behind upon us in five minutes. We must run for it and take our chances of being hit."
 
Swerving somewhat from their former line, they again ran on; bullets whisked round them, but they did not pause to fire a shot in return.
 
"Tarnation!" Peter exclaimed, as the trees in front of them opened and they found themselves on the edge of another clearing. It was considerably larger than that which they had lately left, being three hundred yards across, and extending back from the lake fully half a mile. As in the previous case, a log hut stood in the center, some two hundred yards back from the lake.
 
"There's nothing for it, chief," Peter said. "We must take to the house and fight it out there. There's a hull gang of fellows in the forest ahead, and they'll shoot us down if we cross the clearing."
 
Without a moment's hesitation the party rushed across the clearing to the hut. Several shots were fired as they dashed across the open, but they gained the place of refuge in safety. The hut was deserted. It had probably belonged to royalists, for its rough furniture lay broken on the ground; boxes and cupboards had been forced open, and the floor was strewn with broken crockery and portions of wearing apparel.
 
Harold looked round. Several of the party were bleeding from slight wounds.
 
"Now to the windows," Peter said as he barred the door. "Pile up bedding and anything else that ye can find against the shutters, and keep yerselves well under cover. Don't throw away a shot; we'll want all our powder, I can tell ye. Quickly, now—there aint no time to be lost."
 
While some began carrying out his instructions below, others bounded upstairs and scattered themselves through the upper rooms. There were two windows on each side of the house—one at each end. Disregarding the latter, Peter and Harold took post at the windows looking toward the forest from which they had just come. The chief and another Indian posted themselves to watch the other side. At first no one was to be seen. The party who had fired at them as they ran across the open had waited for the coming up of the strong band who were following, before venturing to show themselves. The arrival of the pursuers was heralded by the opening of a heavy fire toward the house. As the assailants kept themselves behind trees, no reply was made, and the defenders occupied themselves by piling the bedding against the shutters, which they had hastily closed. Loop-holes had been left in the walls when the hut was first built; the moss with which they were filled up was torn out, and each man took his post at one of these. As no answering shot came from the house the assailants became bolder, and one or two ventured to show themselves from, behind shelter. In a moment Harold and Peter, whose rifles would carry more truly and much further than those of the Indians, fired.
 
"Two wiped out!" Peter said, as the men fell, and shouts of anger arose from the woods. "That'll make them careful."
 
This proof of the accuracy of the aim of the besieged checked their assailants, and for some time they were very careful not to expose themselves. From both sides of the forest a steady fire was maintained. Occasionally an answering shot flashed out from the house when one of the enemy incautiously showed an arm or a part of his body from behind the trees, and it was seldom the rifles were fired in vain. Four or five of the Americans were shot through the head as they leaned forward to fire, and after an hour's exchange of bullets the attack ceased.
 
"What are they going to do now?" Harold asked.
 
"I expect they're going to wait till nightfall," Peter said. "There's no moon, and they'll be able to work up all round the house. Then they'll make a rush at the door and lower windows. We'll shoot down a good many on 'em, and then they'll burst their way in or set fire to the hut, and there'll be an end of it. That's what'll happen."
 
"And you think there is no way of making our way out?" Harold asked.
 
"It's a mighty poor chance, if there's one at all," the hunter replied. "I should say by the fire there must be nigh a hundred of 'em now, and it's likely that, by nightfall, there'll be three times as many. As soon as it gets dusk they'll creep out from the woods and form a circle round the house and gradually work up to it. Now let's cook some vittles; we've had nothing to eat this morning yet, and it must be nigh eleven o'clock. I don't see why we should be starved, even if we have got to be killed to-night."
 
One of the party was ............