emy--although neither he nor Henry expected any danger at
present--and took his place beside his watchful comrade.

The two did not talk, but in the long hours of rain and darkness they
guarded the entrance. Their eyes became so used to the dusk that they
could see far, but they saw nothing alive save, late in the night, a
lumbering black bear, driven abroad and in the storm by some restless
spirit. Long Jim watched the ungainly form, as it shambled out of sight
into a thicket.

"A bad conscience, I reckon," he said. "That b'ar would be layin' snug
in his den ef he didn't hev somethin' on his mind. He's ramblin' 'roun'
in the rain an' cold, cause's he's done a wrong deed, an' can't sleep
fur thinkin' uv it. Stole his pardner's berries an' roots, mebbe."

"Perhaps you're right, Jim," Henry said, "and animals may have
consciences. We human beings are so conceited that we think we alone
feel the difference between right and wrong."

"I know one thing, Henry, I know that b'ars an' panthers wouldn't leave
thar own kind an' fight ag'inst thar own race, as Braxton Wyatt an'
Blackstaffe do. That black b'ar we jest saw may feel sore an' bad, but
he ain't goin' to lead no expedition uv strange animals ag'inst the
other black b'ars."

"You're right, Jim."

"An' fur that reason, Henry, I respeck a decent honest black b'ar, even
ef he is mad at hisself fur some leetle mistake, an' even ef he can't
read an' write an' don't know a knife from a fork more than I do a
renegade man who's huntin' the scalps uv them he ought to help."

"Well spoken, Jim. Your sense of right and wrong is correct nearly
always. Like you, I've a lot of respect for the black bear, and also for
the deer and the buffalo and the panther and the other people of the
woods. Do you think the rain is dying somewhat?"

"'Pears so to me. It may stop by day an' give us a chance to leave
without a soakin'."

They relapsed again into a long silence, but they saw that their hope
was coming true. The wind was sinking, its shriek shrinking to a whisper
and then to a sigh. The rain ceased to beat so hard, coming by and by
only in fitful showers, while rays of moonlight, faint at first, began
to appear in the western sky. In another half hour the last shower came
and passed, but the forest was still heavy with dripping waters. Henry,
nevertheless, knew that it was time to go, and he awakened the sleepers.

"We must make up our packs," he said.

The five worked with