somethin' to eat."

So saying, he turned round and walked off into the bushes.

I took up my gun and followed. I could not do better. To have
attempted to find my own way back to the clearings might again have
resulted in failure, since I had twice failed. I had nothing to hurry
me back. It would be quite as well if I returned to the village after
night--the more prudent course, in fact--as then my mud-bedaubed and
blood-stained habiliments would be less likely to attract attention; and
this I desired to avoid. I was contented, therefore, to follow the
runaway to his "lair," and share it with him till after sunset.

For some hundred yards he led on in silence. His eyes wandered around
the forest, as though he was seeking for something. They were not
directed upon the ground, but upward to the trees; and, therefore, I
know it was not the path he was in search of.

A slight exclamation escaped him, and, suddenly turning in his tracks,
he struck off in a direction different to that we had been following. I
walked after; and now saw that he had halted by a tall tree, and was
looking up among its branches.

The tree was the frankincense, or loblolly pine (_Pinus toeda_). That
much of botany I knew. I could tell the species by the large spinous
cones and light-green needles. Why had he stopped there?

"Mass' Edwad soon see," he said, in answer to my interrogatory.
"Please, mass'," he continued, "hold de snake a bit--don't let um touch
de groun'--dam dogs dey smell um!"

I relieved him of his burden; and, holding it as he desired, stood
watching him in silence.

The loblolly pine grows with a straight, naked shaft and pyramidal head,
often without branches, to the height of fifty feet. In this case,
however, several fronds stood out from the trunk, at less than twenty
feet from the ground. These were loaded with large green cones, full
five inches in length; and it appeared to be these that my companion
desired to obtain--though for what purpose I had not the remotest idea.

After a while he procured a long pole; and with the end of this knocked
down several of the cones, along with pieces of the branchlets to which
they adhered.

As soon as he believed he had a sufficient quantity for his purpose, he
desisted, and flung the pole away.

What next? I watched with increasing interest.

He now gathered up both the cones and the adhering spray; but to my
surprise he flung the former away. It was not th