Jumpin' Jehoshaphat but ain't that a movin' an' stirrin' life fur ye!" Sol drew a deep breath and Paul looked at him with shining eyes.
"You've said a good deal of what I was thinking, Sol," he said, "but for which I couldn't find words." "We're likely to travel with the river for a while," said Tom Ross, "an' we must purvide a way." "We'll do it soon," said Henry.
They camped that night in a dense grove near the bank but they built no fire.

After midnight Henry and Shif'less Sol slipped away and went northward.
"'Bout four miles on we'll strike them Spaniards," said the shiftless one.
It was a close calculation, as at the end of the four miles they saw the light of a fire flaring through the trees and bushes and knew that they had come upon Alvarez and his men.

Their camp lay on rather low ground beside a little bay of the Mississippi, and the keen eyes of the two woodsmen saw at once that the force of Alvarez had been increased.
"He's got about seventy men whar he had about fifty afore," said Shif'less Sol as they crept nearer.
"They came on boats as I thought," replied Henry, "and he left a detachment here with the boats, while he went across country.

Maybe he was on an exploring expedition or something of that kind, when Braxton Wyatt overtook him with his proposition." Sol looked at Henry and Henry looked at Sol.

A ray of moonlight fell upon their tanned and stern faces.