v plenty o' it to last, they
eat in a way no white man can match."

"I suppose that was the way of the primitive man," said Paul, who was
wont to think about origins and causes. "He was never sure of his food,
and when he had it he ate all he could."

Henry uttered a slight warning hiss, a sibilant breath, scarcely more,
and the five shifting a little, grasped their rifles in such a manner
that they could be pushed forward at once, and listened with all their
ears. Henry had heard a light footfall, and then the faint sound of
voices. He drew himself to the edge of the covert and he did it with so
much skill that not a leaf or a blade of grass rustled.

Lying flat on the ground, and, looking underneath the boughs of the
trees and bushes, where only the trunks and stems were in the way, he
saw the legs of four men, the upper parts of their bodies being
completely hidden by the foliage. Henry knew, nevertheless, that they
were three Indians and one white man. The white man was disclosed by his
thicker legs and his toes which turned out. All were clothed much alike
in deerskin leggings, but Henry could make no mistake.

It was equally evident to him that the white man was not a prisoner,
because he walked quite freely. Once he passed ahead of the three
Indians, and then he dropped behind. If a captive, he would have walked
just behind one warrior and the other two, in Indian file, would have
walked close behind him.

Henry saw also that they were carrying heavy weights, because they
stepped slowly and with a certain stiffness. There was a rigidity and
tension that strong men walking easily would not have shown.
Unquestionably they were successful hunters, carrying game to a great
gluttonous band feasting with energy two miles away.

"Three Shawnees and Braxton Wyatt," whispered Shif'less Sol, who had
crept to his side. "Don't you remember that he had jest the faintest bit
o' bow in his legs? An' thar's that bow. Why, I'd know them legs anywhar
in the world."

"That's so," said Henry. "Now I wonder what his wicked mind is devising.
There's no hater like a renegade."

"You may be shore he's thinkin' o' harm to our people down below," said
the shiftless one. "I'm glad we're here to see 'em."

Henry nodded in agreement, and they whispered to the others that Wyatt
and three Shawnees were passing. Henry and Sol knew that they were
Shawnees, because they had red beads in a row on their leggings, where
the Miamis wore bl