t fifty miles south uv here, but we didn't have
time to foller it. Still, it's 'nough to show that they're in between us
an' the settlements."

"We expected it. We discovered sufficient while you were gone to be sure
they're going to make a great effort to end us. They look upon us as the
eyes of the woods, and they've concluded that their first business is
with us before they make another attack on our villages."

Shif'less Sol helped himself to a fresh piece of the wild turkey, and
made another fold of the blanket about his athletic body.

"Paul hez talked so much 'bout them old Romans wrapped in their togys
that I feel like one now," he said, "an' I kin tell you I feel pow'ful
fine, too. That wuz a cold rain an' a wet rain, an' the fire an' the
food are mighty good, but it tickles me even more to know how them
renegades an' warriors rage ag'inst us. I've a heap o' respeck fur Red
Eagle an' Yellow Panther, who are great chiefs an' who are fightin' fur
thar rights ez they see 'em, but the madder Blackstaffe an' Wyatt git
the better I like it."

"Me, too," said Silent Tom with emphasis, relapsing then into silence
and his preoccupation with the buffalo steak. The shiftless one regarded
him with a measuring gaze.

"Tom," he said, "why can't you let a feller finish his dinner without
chatterin' furever? I see the day comin' when you'll talk us all plum'
to death."

Silent Tom shook his head in dissent. He had exhausted speech.

Paul, who had remained at the door, watching, announced an increase of
rain and wind. Both were driving so hard that leaves and twigs were
falling, and darkness as of twilight spread over the skies. The cold,
although but temporary, was like that of early winter.

"We needn't expect any attack now," said Henry. "Join us, Paul, around
the fire, and we'll have a grand council, because we must decide how
we're going to meet the great man hunt they're organizing for us."

Paul left the cleft, and sat down on a doubled blanket with his back
against the wall. He felt the full gravity of the crisis, knowing that
hundreds of warriors would be put upon their trail, resolved never
to leave the search until the five were destroyed, but he had full
confidence in his comrades. In all the world there were not five others
so fit to overcome the dangers of the woods, and so able to endure their
hardships.

"I suppose, Henry," said Paul, with his mind full of ancient lore, "now
that the Roman Senate, or