He quickened his steady hunter's lope into a run, and left the trail for the thickets of the hill-side.

The camp was less than a mile off and he was taking no chances.
As he climbed the hill the drums grew louder, till it seemed that the whole world rocked with their noise.

He told himself feverishly that there was nothing to fear; Jim was with friends, who had been south of the river on their own business and would give him the powder he wanted.
Presently they would be returning to the camp together, and in the months to come he and Jim would make that broad road through the Gap, at the end of which would spring up smiling farmsteads and townships of their own naming.

He told himself these things, but he knew that he lied.
At last, flat on the earth, he peered through the vines on the north edge of the ridge.

Below him, half a mile off, rolled the Ohio, a little swollen by the rains There was a broad ford, and the waters had spilled out over the fringe of sand.