ammunition he could reach Wareville in safety.

"You can give me a lot of food," he said, "and doubtless I shall be able
to shoot some game. Now go ahead and leave me. Many lives may depend
upon it."

They only laughed, but Shif'less Sol and Henry, who had been whispering
together, announced a plan.

"This here expedition is goin' to split," said the shiftless one. "Henry
is the fastest runner an' the best woodsman of us all. I hate to admit
that he's better than me, but he is, an' he's goin' on ahead. Now you
needn't say anything, Mr. Pennypacker, about your makin' trouble,
'cause you don't. We'd make Henry run on afore, even ef you wuzn't with
us. That boy needs trainin' down, an' we intend to see that he gits the
trainin'."

There was nothing more to be said and the rest was done very quietly and
quickly. A brief farewell, a handshake for everyone, and he was gone.

Henry had never been in finer physical condition, and the feeling of
responsibility seemed to strengthen him also in both body and mind. In
one way he was sorry to leave his comrades and in another he was glad.
Alone he would travel faster, and in the wilderness he never feared the
loneliness and the silence. A sense, dead or atrophied in the ordinary
human being, came out more strongly in him. It seemed to be a sort of
divination or prescience, as if messages reached him through the air,
like the modern wireless.

He went southward at a long walk half a run for an hour or two before he
stopped. Then he stood on the crest of a little hill and saw the deep
woods all about him. There was no sign of his comrades whom he had left
far behind, nor was there any indication of human life save himself. Yet
he had seldom seen anything that appealed to him more than this bit of
the wilderness. The trees, oak, beech and elm, were magnificent. Great
coiling grape vines now and then connected a cluster of trees, but there
was little undergrowth. Overhead, birds chattered and sang among the
leaves, and far up in the sky a pair of eagles were speeding like black
specks toward the lake. Henry inhaled deep breaths. The odors of the
woods came to him and were sweet in his nostrils. All the wilderness
filled him with delight. A black bear passed and climbed a tree in
search of honey. Two deer came in sight, but the human odor reached them
and they fled swiftly away, although they were in no danger from Henry.

Then he, too, resumed his journey, and sped swiftly toward