Shif'less Sol slapped his knee in approval.

"You do reason fine, Henry," he said. "Paul would shorely make fur them
flowers, jest 'cause he couldn't help it."

They invaded the flower field, and, as all of them confidently expected,
they saw signs that Paul had been there. Some of the flowers were broken
down, but not many--Paul would take care not to injure them in such a
way. But Henry's shrewd eye noticed where several had been cut from the
stem. Paul had done this with his hunting knife, and probably he had
thrust one or more of the flowers into his buckskin hunting coat.

When they crossed the flower field the trail was lost again.

"Now," said Long Jim, "how are you goin' to tell what Paul wuz thinkin'
when he wuz comin' 'long here?"

Henry and Shif'less Sol wrinkled their brows in thought.

"Paul was not wounded," he replied. "After his night's sleep--and
probably he did not wake up until long after daylight had come--he was
thoroughly rested and as strong as ever. After making sure of his
direction from the hill top here, he would go toward the river, thinking
it his duty yet to reach the fort if he could."

"An' naterally," said Shif'less Sol, "he'd go whar the walkin' wuz
easiest, but whar thar wuz kiver so he couldn't be seen by warriors. So
he'd choose the easy slope under them big trees thar, an' go south
toward that valley."

"Reckon you're right," said Long Jim in a convinced tone. "That's just
about what Paul would do."

They descended the slope, an easy one, for a quarter of a mile, and came
to a valley thickset with bushes and blackberry vines containing sharp
briars.

"Paul wouldn't go crashin' into a briar patch," said Long Jim.

"He wouldn't, an' fur that reason he'd take this path," said Tom Ross,
pointing to a narrow opening in the bushes and briars.

It was evidently a trail made by animals, trodden in the course of time
in order to avoid a long circuit about the thicket, but they followed
it, believing that Paul had gone that way. When nearly through, Henry
saw something lying in the path. He stooped and held up the stem of a
rose with one or two faded petals left upon it.

"It fell out o' his coat, an' he never noticed it," said Shif'less Sol.

"Right, uv course," said Tom Ross.

Not far beyond the thicket was a brook of uncommon beauty, a clear
little stream bordered by wild flowers.

"Paul would stop here to drink an' look at all these here bee-yu-ti-ful
scenes," said Shif