Not a white man disturbed the epitaph. But as soon as the last of the fallen were buried, and the soldiers had eaten and refreshed themselves, the torch was set to Piqua, even as it had been set to Chillicothe. In an hour the town was a huge mass of flames, three miles long, and lighting up the neighboring forest for many miles. The Indian refugees, thousands of them, from both towns saw it, and they knew to the full how terrible was the blow that had been inflicted upon them. Timmendiquas sought to rally the warriors for a daring attack upon an enemy who, flushed with victory, might not be very cautious, but they would not make the attempt. Timmendiquas then saw that it would take time to restore their shaken courage and he desisted. Henry, Shif'less Sol and Tom Ross watched the fire for a long time, while the soldiers destroyed all the orchards, gardens and crops. They saw the flames reach their highest until the country around them was as bright as day, and then they saw them sink until nothing was left but darkness made luminous by the coals. The great village was gone. "I think we'd better get Paul and Jim and go to sleep," said Henry. "So do I," said Shif'less Sol, and they looked around for the two. But they were not found easily. "Ought to have stayed with us," said Tom Ross. "An' they'd have saved a lazy man a lot of trouble, lookin' through this big place fur 'em," said Shif'less Sol. Tom and Jim became still harder to find. The three hunted everywhere. They hunted an hour. They hunted two hours, and there was not a sign of their two comrades. They asked many about them and nobody could tell a word. It was nearly midnight when they stopped and looked at one another in dismay. "They are not in the camp--that is sure," said Henry. "And they've got too much sense to go out in the woods," said Sol. "Which means that they've been took," said Tom Ross. Tom's words carried conviction, sudden and appalling, to all three. Paul and Jim Hart, going about the burning town, had been seized by some lurking party and carried off, or--they would not admit to themselves the dreadful alternative--but they hoped they had been merely taken away, which they deemed likely, as hostages would be of great value to the Indians now. The three sat down on a log at the northern edge of the town. They saw little now but the river, and the clouds of smoke rising from it. "We'll never desert Paul and Jim," said Shif'less Sol. "Now what is the fust thing fur us to do?" "We've got to find this trail, and the trail of those who took them," replied Henry. "The army, of course, cannot follow all through the northern woods in order to rescue two persons, and it's not fitted for such a task anyhow. We three will do it, won't we?" "Ez shore ez the sun rises an' sets," said Shif'less Sol. "I reckon we will," said Tom Ross. "And we must start upon the road this minute," said Henry. "Come, we'll see Colonel Clark and tell him that we have to go."