"It's time we pushed ahead once more," he said in a whisper as I seized my rifle, believing the savages were about to make a determined attack, and he added with a low laugh, "There's no more danger threatenin' than when you was last awake, lad; but the night is well on us, an' we should be movin'." He awakened Paul, and the little lad rose to his feet ready for any emergency; but speaking not a word. We had yet some portion of our meat, and from this a hurried meal was made, after which Simon Kenton showed himself ready to set out once more on what I believed was a fruitless journey, for it did not seem possible we would live to finish it. It was like a nightmare, that race through the thicket with the murderous fiends close on our trail, shooting now and then when in the gloom the waving branches told of our course. Kenton kept his word, so far as setting a rapid pace was concerned. Never before nor since have I strained every muscle and nerve for so many hours on a stretch. There were times when we pressed on as if running a foot-race, and more than once did one or the other of us come full against a tree with such force that we were hurled backward at full length on the ground. There was no time to attend to bruises, however severe, for close in our rear came the relentless brutes, hoping, most likely, for just such a mishap when they could lessen our number by one. I believe they fired at us fifty times before we halted for a day's rest which must be spent in defending ourselves, and by the mercy of God no bullet came nigh us. I watched eagerly for the first signs of dawn; my breath was coming thick and fast, and I feared lest I might fall and not find myself able to rise again. Paul had kept close at Kenton's heels without betraying fatigue or distress; but just at the moment when it seemed as if I must halt, whatever might be the consequences, he cried sharply: "I can go no further. You two must keep on without me! It is better that I be left behind than for all to perish!" "We'll all come out of it with whole skins, or fall together," Simon Kenton said sharply. "Try to hold the pace, lad, till we find a place in which we can defend ourselves." Even as he spoke we had arrived at a spot where half a dozen large trees had been overthrown by the wind, forming exactly the kind of a fortification needed by those sorely beset as were we. Kenton helped Paul over the logs into the very center, and I followed with many a stumble, falling on my face, utterly blown, when we were in the middle of the timber network. CHAPTER XII. A NOVEL BATTLE. It was yet so dark in the forest that one must needs strain his eyes to distinguish objects ten paces in advance, therefore it can be readily understood how near to us were the howling wolves, when I say that they set up a shout of mingled triumph and menace as we thus brought the race to a close.