For nearly a quarter of an hour neither spoke again, and Henry could hear the faint lapping of the water on the rocks below. It was the shiftless one who at last broke the silence. "You reached Fort Prescott, o' course?" he asked. "Yes," replied Henry. "I got in, and I warned them in time. We beat off a land attack, and then they advanced on us by the river." "What could canoes do against a fort on a hill?" "They had cannon brought from Canada." "Cannon! Then I s'pose they battered the fort down with 'em, an' you're all that's left." "No, they didn't. They might have done it, but they lost their cannon." "Lost 'em! How could that happen?" "The boat carrying them was blown up, and the cannon with it." The shiftless one looked at Henry, and the boy grew uncomfortable, blushing through his tan. Shif'less Sol laughed. "Ef them cannon wuz blowed up--an' they shorely wuz ef you say so," he said, "it's mighty likely that you, Henry Ware, had a lot to do with it. Now, don't be bashful. Jest up an' tell me the hull tale, or I'll drag it out o' you." Henry, reluctantly and minimizing his part as much as he could, told the story of the blowing up of the flatboat and the cannon. Shif'less Sol was hugely delighted. "Them shore wuz lively doin's," he said. "Wish I'd been thar. I'll always be sorry I missed it. An' at the last you wuz saved by Dan'l Boone an' Simon Kenton. Them are shorely great men, Henry. I ain't ever heard o' any that could beat 'em, not even in Paul's tales. I reckin Dan'l Boone and Simon Kenton kin do things that them Carthaginians, Alexander an' Hannibal an' Caesar an' Charley-mane, couldn't even get started on." "They certainly know some things that those men didn't." "More'n some. They know a pow'ful lot more. I reckon, Henry, that Dan'l Boone is the greatest man the world has yet seed." Henry said nothing. The shiftless one's simple admiration and faith appealed to him. They rested a while longer, and then Henry asked: "Sol, do you think that we can find Tom Ross?" "Ef he's alive, we kin. We jest got to." "I knew that would be your answer. Do you think you will be strong enough to start in the morning?" "I've been weak, Henry, but I'm gainin' now mighty fast. I didn't suffer much 'cept loss o' blood, an' me bein' so healthy, I'm making gallons o' new first-class blood every day. Yes, Henry, I think I kin start after Tom to-morrow mornin'." "Then we'll find him if he's alive, but we'll spend the time until then in quiet here." "'Ceptin' that I'm boun' to cook my turkey to-night." Henry presently climbed to the top of the bank, a distance of eight or ten feet above the hollow, but precipitous. It was probably this steepness that had prevented any large wild animal from using the place as a lair. It would also make attack by Indians, should any come, extremely difficult, but Henry did not anticipate any danger from them now, as their attention was centered on the fort and the fleet.