Chapter XV. "The Alcove" - Page 2

With that he put his two blankets upon the floor, lay down upon them, and was sound asleep in five minutes. But Shif'less Sol beat him to slumberland by at least a minute, and the others were not more than two minutes behind Sol.

Henry was the first up the next morning. A strong voice shouted in his ear: "Henry Ware, by all that's glorious," and a hand pressed his fingers together in an iron grasp. Henry beheld the tall, thin figure and smiling brown face of Adam Colfax, with whom he had made that adventurous journey up the Mississippi and Ohio.

"And the others?" was the first question of Adam Colfax.

"They're all here asleep inside. We've been through a lot of things, but we're as sound as ever."

"That's always a safe prediction to make," said Adam Colfax, smiling. "I never saw five other human beings with such a capacity for getting out of danger."

"We were all at Wyoming, and we all still live."

The face of the New Englander darkened.

"Wyoming!" he exclaimed. "I cannot hear of it without every vein growing hot within me."

"We saw things done there," said Henry gravely, the telling of which few men can bear to hear."

"I know! I know!" exclaimed Adam Colfax. "The news of it has spread everywhere!"

"What we want," said Henry, "is revenge. It is a case in which we must strike back, and strike hard. If this thing goes on, not a white life will be safe on the whole border from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi."

"It is true," said Adam Colfax, "and we would send an army now against the Iroquois and their allies, but, Henry, my lad, our fortunes are at their lowest there in the East, where the big armies are fighting. That is the reason why nobody has been sent to protect our rear guard, which has suffered so terribly. You may be sure, too, that the Iroquois will strike in this region again as often and as hard as they can. I make more than half a guess that you and your comrades are here because you know this."

He looked shrewdly at the boy.

"Yes," said Henry, "that is so. Somehow we were drawn into it, but being here we are glad to stay. Timmendiquas, the great chief who fought us so fiercely on the Ohio, is with the Iroquois, with a detachment of his Wyandots, and while he, as I know, frowns on the Wyoming massacre, he means to help Thayendanegea to the end."

Adam Colfax looked graver than ever.

"That is bad," he said. "Timmendiquas is a mighty warrior and leader, but there is also another way of looking at it. His presence here will relieve somewhat the pressure on Kentucky. I ought to tell you, Henry, that we got through safely with our supplies to the Continental army, and they could not