THE KINDLY BRIDGE The thicket in which the three lay was of low but dense bushes, with high grass growing wherever the sun could reach it.

In the grass tiny wild flowers, purple, blue and white were in bloom, and Robert inhaled their faint odor as he crouched, watching for the enemy who sought his life.

It was a forest scene, the beauty of which would have pleased him at any other time, nor was he wholly unconscious of it now.

The river itself, as Tayoga had stated, was narrow.

At some points it did not seem to be more than ten or fifteen yards across, but it flowed in a slow, heavy current, showing depths below.