CHAPTER III.
OONOMOO AND THE SHAWNEES.
Through forty foes his path he made, And safely reached the forest-glade .-- SCOTT.
After parting from Hans Vanderbum, the Huron sped noiselessly through the woods, taking a direction that would lead him to a point on the river fully three hundred yards below where he had signaled the German.
The stream making a bend there, he would thus escape the observation of the Shawnees along the bank, at the point where the fisherman had been engaged in his labors.
So silent, yet rapid, was the motion of Oonomoo, that his figure flitted through the rifts in the wood like a shadow.

His head projected slightly forward, in the attitude of acute attention, and his black, restless eyes constantly flitted from one point to the other, scarcely resting for a second upon any single object.

In his left hand he trailed his long rifle, while his right rested upon the buckhorn handle of the knife in his belt.
He had progressed a considerable distance thus, when the Huron's gait decreased very rapidly.

He was now in the vicinity of the river, where he had left his canoe drawn up on the bank.

It was necessary to reconnoiter thoroughly before venturing to approach it.