living human beings
like ourselves."

"Keep looking, Henry, and tell us whether you recognize 'em."

"The first is a tall man, young, with light hair. He is bent over a
little because of the heavy pack on his back, and the long distance he
has come, but he walks with a swing that I've seen before."

"I reckon," said Long Jim, "that he's close kin to that lazy critter,
Shif'less Sol."

"Closer even than a twin brother," continued Henry. "I'd know him
anywhere. The other just behind him, and bent also a little with his
heavy pack, is amazingly like a friend of ours, an old comrade who talks
little, but who does much."

"None other than Silent Tom," said Paul joyfully, as he rose and joined
Henry at the door. "Yes, there they are, two men, staunch and true, and
they bring the powder and lead. Of course they'd come on time! Nothing
could stop 'em. The whole Shawnee and Miami nations might be in between,
but they'd find a way through."

"An' the buffler steak an' the wild turkey are jest right," called Long
Jim. "Tell 'em to come straight in an' set down to the table."

Henry, putting his fingers to his lips, uttered a long and cheerful
whistle. The shiftless one and the silent one, raising their heads, made
glad reply. They were soaked and tired, but success and journey's end
lay just before them, and they advanced with brisker steps, to be
greeted with strong clasps of the hand and a warm welcome. They entered
the rocky home, put aside the big packs with sighs of relief and spread
out their fingers to the grateful heat.

"That's the last work I mean to do fur a year," said Shif'less Sol.
"'Twuz a big job, a mighty big job fur me, a lazy man, an' now I'm goin'
to rest fur months an' months, while Long Jim waits on me an' feeds me."

"Jest now I'm glad to do it, Sol," said Jim. "Take off your clothes, you
an' Tom, hang 'em on the shelf thar to dry, an' now set to. The steaks
an' the turkey are the finest I ever cooked, an' they're all fur you
two. An' I kin tell you fellers that the sight uv you is good fur weak
eyes."

Shif'less Sol and Silent Tom ate like epicures, while, denuded of their
wet deerskins but wrapped in dry blankets, they basked in the heat.

"Not a drop of rain got at the powder," said the shiftless one
presently, "an' even ef we don't capture any from the Injuns we ought to
hev enough thar to last us many months."

"Did you see anything of the warriors?" asked Henry.

"We hit one trail 'bou