reeds, and he believed
he could reach it without awakening any of the warriors. Once the older
sentinel opened his eyes and looked around sleepily, and Henry instantly
stopped dead, but it was merely a momentary return from slumberland, to
which the man went back in a second or two, and then the stalker resumed
his slow creeping.

At the point he sought, he slipped noiselessly into the open, seized the
haunch and slid back in the same way, stopping in the shelter of the
reeds to see if he had been noticed. But all the warriors still slept,
and, thankful once more to the greater powers who had favored him, he
made his way back to his shelter, provisioned now for several days. Then
he ate a hearty supper, gathering more of the berries as a sauce, and
drinking from the little stream.

He was well aware that the Indians, when they missed the haunch, would
know that he lay somewhere in the bowl; but, with starvation as the
alternative, he was compelled to take the risk. Before dawn, it rained
again, removing all apprehensions that he may have felt about his trail,
and he took a nap of two or three hours, relying upon his heightened
senses to give him an alarm, if they drew near, even while he slept.

The next dawn came, cold and raw, with the rain ceasing after a while,
but followed by a heavy fog that filled the whole bowl. Henry, sharp as
his eyes were, could not see twenty feet in front of him, and, just like
the bear that had once occupied it, he lay very close in his lair. The
confinement was growing irksome to one of his youth and strength, as he
felt his muscles stiffening, but it was necessary, because he heard the
signals of the Indians to one another through the fog, sometimes not
more than two or three hundred yards away. Their proximity, he knew, was
due to chance, as there was nothing to disclose to them where he lay.
They were merely following the plan of threshing out all the hay in the
haystack in order to find the needle, and he knew that they would
complete it even to the last wisp.

Another day and night passed in the lair, and the inactivity,
confinement and suspense became frightful. He began to feel that he must
move, even if he plunged directly into the Indian ranks, and the
warriors permitted no doubt that they were near, since the calls of
birds and animals were frequent. Two or three times he heard shots, and
he knew it was the warriors killing game. He resented it, as all the
animals in this li