"Keep shet!" cautioned Cousin. "There it is again! A Mingo talkin', a Seneca, I'd say--Hear that jabber! Delaware--Wyandot--Taway (Ottawa). With a blanket o' Shawnee pow-wow. By heavens, Morris! This is Cornstalk's whole force. They've learned that Dunmore is at the Hockhockin' an' will be j'inin' up with Lewis any day, an' old Cornstalk thinks to lick Lewis afore Dunmore's men can git along!" It was now after midnight, and I knew we should be back at camp and warning Colonel Lewis of his peril. I knew from my last talk with him that he did not expect to meet the Indians in any numbers until we had crossed the Ohio. Our failure to find any Indians at the Point and our prospects for an immediate crossing conduced to this belief. The day before all the scouts had been instructed as to our maneuvers once we crossed the river and were searching for ambushes. It was terrible to think of our army asleep only three miles away. I urged an immediate return, but Cousin coolly refused to go until he had reconnoitered further. "You stay here till I've sneaked down to the mouth o' the creek," he whispered. "'Twon't do for both of us to git killed an' leave no one to take the word to Lewis." "But why run any risk?" I anxiously demanded; for I feared he had some mad prank in mind which would betray our presence and perhaps stop our warning to the army. "We must l'arn somethin' as to how many o' the red skunks there be," he replied. "To venture near their camp will mean discovery. They're very wide-awake." "I ain't goin' near their camp," he growled in irritation. "I want to look over them rafts. I can tell from them how many warriors come over, or pretty close to it." He slipped away and left me to do the hardest of the work--the work of waiting. It seemed a very long time before I heard the bushes rustle. I drew my ax, but a voice whispering "Richmond," the parole for the night, composed me. Feeling his way to my side he gravely informed me: "There's seventy-eight or nine rafts an' a few canoes. It's goin' to be a fine piece o' fightin'. At least there's a thousand warriors on this side an' a lot o' squaws an' boys." I estimated our army at eleven hundred and I thanked God they were all frontiersmen. Cousin now was as eager to go as I; and leaving our hiding-place, we worked north until we felt safe to make a detour to the east. Our progress was slow as there was no knowing how far the Indian scouts were ranging. Once we were forced to remain flat on our stomachs while a group of warriors passed within a dozen feet of us, driving to their camp some strayed beeves from the high rolling bottom-lands to the east. When the last of them had passed I observed with great alarm a thinning out of the darkness along the eastern skyline. "Good God! We'll be too late!" I groaned. "Let's fire our guns and give the alarm!"