His eyes gleamed like stars.

"It's Wetzel, an' it means Injuns!"

Then he was gone into the darkness.




CHAPTER V

In the misty morning twilight Colonel Zane, fully armed, paced to and
fro before his cabin, on guard. All night he had maintained a watch.
He had not considered it necessary to send his family into the fort,
to which they had often been compelled to flee. On the previous night
Jonathan had come swiftly back to the cabin, and, speaking but two
words, seized his weapons and vanished into the black night. The words
were "Injuns! Wetzel!" and there were none others with more power to
affect hearers on the border. The colonel believed that Wetzel had
signaled to Jonathan.

On the west a deep gully with precipitous sides separated the
settlement from a high, wooded bluff. Wetzel often returned from his
journeying by this difficult route. He had no doubt seen Indian signs,
and had communicated the intelligence to Jonathan by their system of
night-bird calls. The nearness of the mighty hunter reassured
Colonel Zane.

When the colonel returned from his chase of the previous night, he
went directly to the stable, there to find that the Indians had made