these pages
has become familiar to need any lengthened reference in this place. It
was green, billowy forest in every direction. Here and there a stream
wound like a silver ribbon through the emerald wilderness, sometimes
gleaming in the sunlight, and then disappearing among the vegetation, to
reappear miles away, and finally to vanish from sight altogether as it
wound its way toward the Gulf. At remote points the trained eye could
detect the thin, wavy column of vapor motionless against the sky, a mute
witness that beings other than those on the hill were stealing through
the vast solitude in their quest for game or prey.

Inasmuch as Jack Carleton readily detected these "signs," as the hunter
terms them, it followed they must have been noted by the Indians
themselves; but they gave no evidence of any excitement on that account.
It was natural that such evidences of the presence of other persons in
the immense territory should present themselves.

But the youth failed to find that for which he specially looked.
Observing the chieftain gazing earnestly toward the west, he did the
same, expecting to catch sight of the Indian village where Ogallah and
his warriors made their home. He descried a wooded ridge stretching
across his field of vision, but not the first resemblance to village or
wigwam could be discovered.

"He is not looking for _that_," thought Jack, "but is expecting some
signal which will appear on the ridge."

One of the other Indians was peering with equal intentness at the same
point, but the minutes passed and nothing presented itself. Jack joined
in the scrutiny, but he could not succeed where they failed.

All at once the sachem seemed to lose patience. He said some vigorous
things, accompanied by equally vigorous gestures, and then the whole
party began hastily gathering wood. In a short while this was kindled
and burning strongly. When the flames were fairly going, one of the
warriors who had collected several handfuls of damp leaves by digging
under the dry ones, dropped them carefully on the blaze. It looked at
first as if the fire would be put out, but it struggled upward, and
by-and-by a column of dense black smoke stained the sky like the smutty
finger of some giant tracing a wavy line across it.

[Illustration: THE SIGNAL]

Then Ogallah and one of his men held his blanket spread out so as almost
to force the thick smoke to the ground, but such was not their purpose.
The blanket was abru