uld go through with
it, but you have, and this bear is mighty fine."

"He wuz ourn, an' I wuz bound to hev a part o' him."

"We'll put the rest in our knapsacks and there ought to be enough for
two days more. It relieves us of a great anxiety, because we couldn't go
without food, and we really needed it badly."

"I'm feelin' like two men already. I wonder what the boys are doin' up
thar in the holler? A-layin' 'roun' on the stone floor, I s'pose,
eatin', drinkin' cold water, an' hevin' a good time."

"But remember their anxiety about us."

"I do. They shorely must hev worried a lot, seein' that we've been gone
so long a time. Them are three fine fellers, Henry, Paul with all his
learnin' an' his quiet ways, an' Long Jim, with whom I like so pow'ful
well to argy an' who likes so pow'ful well to argy with me, ez good a
feller ez ever breathed, an' Tom Ross, who don't talk none, givin' all
his time to me, but who knows such a tremenjeous lot. We've got to git
back to 'em soon, Henry."

Henry agreed with him, and then, having eaten heartily they took turn
and turn in sleeping. Their clothing had dried on them, but their
blankets had escaped a wetting entirely, and they were able to make
themselves comfortable.

In the morning Henry saw that the larger column of smoke was gone, but
that the smaller remained, and the fact aroused his curiosity.

"What do you make of it?" he asked Shif'less Sol.

"I draws from it the opinion that the main band with the cannon hez
started off into the south, but that part o' the warriors hev stayed
behind fur some purpose or other."

"My opinion, too. But why has the big force gone and the small one
remained?"

"I can't say. It's too much fur me."

Henry had an idea, but hoping that he was mistaken he did not utter it
just then.

"If the big band has started south again," he said, "and the absence of
the column of smoke indicates it, then all the Indians in this part of
the forest have been drawn off. They've long since lost us, and they
wouldn't linger here in the hope of running across us by chance, when
the great expedition was already on its way."

"That's sound argument, an' so we'll leave our islan' an' make fur the
boys."

They picked a path across the mud flats, recrossed the creek and entered
the deep forest, where the two felt as if they had come back to their
true home. The wonderful breeze, fresh with a thousand odors of spring
in the wilderness, was blowing. It