did not like the white men who had gone with strangers to fight
against their own, but they respected their knowledge and tenacity. The
chase had been long and arduous, it had drawn off much strength from the
tribes, but they were in unanimous agreement that it should be
continued, no matter how long, until their object was achieved. The
great snow itself, deep and premature though it was, should not turn
them back.

Henry could not see this council through the miles of hills and driving
snow, but had his thoughts been turned in that direction he would have
made to himself a picture just like it, nor would he ever have doubted
for an instant that the chiefs and the renegades would pursue him as
long as pursuit was possible.

It was well into the night, when his eyes closed and the sleep that took
hold of him was far deeper than usual, carrying him into an oblivion
that lasted until far after the sun had risen over a world, still white
and misty with the falling snow.

He was surprised to see that the storm had not yet stopped, but he was
not alarmed. The two fires were still smouldering, and the dead wood
that he had heaped up was sufficient to last many days. It was true that
he had only the wild turkey for food, but he was sure, in time, to
discover other resources. He had seen the proof over and over again,
that, for the time at least, he was a favorite of the greater powers. He
was too modest to think it due to any particular merit of his own, but
it seemed to him that he had been chosen as an instrument, and, for that
reason, he was being preserved through every hardship and danger.

Secure in his belief, which was more than a belief, a conviction rather,
he began to make a home for himself in his tiny valley, which was not
more than fifty feet across, and above which the hills, steep like the
side of a house, rose three or four hundred feet. His first precaution
was to build the fires anew, not with a high flame, but with a slow
steady burning that would make great beds of coals, glowing with heat.
Then he examined the pass by which he had come, to find it choked with
seven or eight feet of snow, and he looked next at the one by which the
deer had gone, to discover that it was much like the first, leading a
distance that was yet indefinite to him, as he did not care to follow it
through the deep snow to its end.

Shaking the snow from the painted robe he came back to the covert and
waited with as much patienc