want their meat and their skins."

"The meat I understand, because I'd like to bite into a juicy piece of
it now, but we're not fur hunters."

"No, but we need the skins of big animals, and we need 'em right away.
This weather can't last forever. We're bound to have a storm sometime
soon. We must first make a wickiup. It's quite simple. The Sioux always
do it. A Sioux warrior never sleeps in the open if he can help it, and
as they've lived this sort of life for more hundreds of years than
anybody knows they ought to know something about it."

"But I don't see that cloud you told me several days ago to watch for."

"It will come. It's bound to come. Now here's the lake ahead of us.
Isn't it a beauty? I told you we'd find a lot of these fine little lakes
all along the slopes of the ridges, but this seems to be the gem of them
all. See how the water breaks into waves and looks like melted silver!
And the banks sloping and firm, covered with thick green turf, run right
down to the water's edge, like a gentleman's park."

"It's all that you claim for it," said Will, making a wide, sweeping
gesture, "and, bright new lake, I christen thee Lake Boyd!"

"The lake accepts the name," said the hunter with a pleased smile, and
then he added, also making a wide, sweeping gesture:

"Green and sheltered valley, I christen thee Clarke Valley."

"I, too, accept the compliment," said Will.

"The far side of the valley is much the steeper," said the hunter, "and
I think it would be a good idea for us to build the wickiup over there.
It would be sheltered thoroughly on one side at least by the lofty
cliffs."

"Going back a moment to the search you were making a little while ago,
have you noticed the footprints of any wild animals?"

"Aye, Will, my lad, so I have. I've seen tracks of elk, buffalo and
bear, and of many smaller beasts."

"Then, that burden off your mind, we might as well locate the site of
our house."

"Correct. I think I see it now in an open space under the shelter of the
cliff."

They had ridden across the valley, and both marked a slight elevation
under the shadow of the cliff, a glen forty or fifty yards across,
protected by thick forest both to east and west, and by thin forest on
the south, from which point they were approaching.

"It's the building site that's been reserved for us five hundred years,
maybe," said the hunter. "The mountain and the trees will shelter us
from most of the big winds, and i