"I am afraid they must have been those scoundrels," said Mr. Armstrong; "but what could have induced them to take the chances they did in entering my cabin? I can only account for it in one way. They wanted that wampum belt which it is known my sons possess, and which entitles its possessor to the good-will of nearly every tribe of Indians between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. That is why they have been hovering around here so long, waiting for a chance to search our home. And it came in a way they had perhaps never dreamed of." "But surely the precious belt is safe with all your things in the blockhouse?" remarked Mr. Wayne. "That is the worst of it," replied the other settler; "in our excitement we came away and forgot the little treasure box, which the good wife kept on a shelf above one of the windows. Besides a few valuables, which she would grieve to lose, it also holds that wampum belt of the great chief, Pontiac." "In which case, the chances are that those rogues have discovered it, and carried it off with them," suggested Mr. Wayne. "I am afraid so," answered Bob's father, disconsolately. The two boys were chilled by the thought. After all, was the cabin to stand through the flood, and then a bitter disappointment await them when they entered the familiar room, in the hope that they would find safe the object of their solicitude? They hurried back again to the bank, and looked out to where their half-submerged home still stood. Until they were able to reach the door, and pass within, neither of them could know peace again. "Oh! will the old river ever go down again, so that we can reach the door and know the worst?" Sandy groaned as the afternoon wore slowly away, and the glowing sun sank toward the west that constantly lured his thoughts away from the region of the Ohio. "But it is falling, and very fast now!" declared his brother, who had been examining the marks closely and eagerly. "But what are a few inches, when we will have to wait until it goes down six or more feet?" grumbled Sandy; but nothing was to be gained by complaining, and finally the boys concluded to camp right there on the bank, where they could keep watch through the night, so that no one might pass out to the cabin without being seen in the light of the fire they would keep burning. And this was what they did. One slept while the other stood sentry, always keeping an eye on the cabin. The river went down very fast during the hours of darkness; and there came no fresh alarm to stir the tired souls from slumber. So another morning found them; and the first thing Sandy noticed was that the cabin stood free from the flood at last, though in the midst of a wrecked garden. "We can enter now!" he exclaimed to his brother. They took off their moccasins, and waded through the pools of mud that lay in place of the garden spot of a few days before.