two miles across at the center. But at the widest part stood
a gem of a wooded island, covered with giant trees. High hills, clothed
with magnificent forest, rose all around the lake.

The beauty of the scene penetrated the souls of all. Uneducated men like
Shif'less Sol and Jim Hart felt it as well as Paul. The five stood in
silence, gazing at the lake and the gem of a wooded island. The light from
the sinking sun gleamed in red and gold flame across the silver waters,
and on the wooded island the boughs of the trees seemed to be touched with
fire.

"That's where we are to stay," said Henry, pointing to the little island.
"No Indian will ever trouble us there."

"Why?" asked Paul, looking at him questioningly.

"Wait and you'll see," replied Henry.

Henry led the way along the shore, and from a dense thicket at the water's
edge he took a light canoe.

"I captured this once," he said; "brought it across the woods and hid it
here, thinking it might be useful some day, and now you see I am right.
Get in! Light as it is, it will hold us all."

Henry and Ross took the paddles, and they pushed out into the lake.
Shif'less Sol uttered a long and deep sigh of satisfaction.

"Now, this jest suits a tired man," he said. "Henry, you an' Tom can
paddle jest ez long ez you please. I'd like to do all my travelin' this
way."

"An' you'd get so lazy you'd want somebody to come an' feed you with a
spoon," said Jim Hart.

"An' it would jest suit me to have you do it. That's jest the kind uv a
job you're fit fur, Jim Hart."

"Shet up, you two," said Ross. "You hurt my ears, a-buzzin' an'
a-buzzin'."

Shif'less Sol sank back a little and closed his eyes. An expression of
heavenly luxury and ease came over his face, but it could not last long
because in a few minutes the boat reached the wooded island. Shif'less Sol
opened his eyes, to find that the sun was almost gone, and that the
shadows had come among the great trees.

"Cur'us kind o' place," he said. "Gives me a sort o' shiver."

Paul had felt the same sensation, but he said nothing. Before them lay the
little island, a solid, black blot, its trees blended together, and behind
them the lake shone somberly in the growing darkness.

"All out!" said Henry cheerfully. "This is home for a while, and we need
rest."

They sprang upon the narrow beach, and Henry and Ross dragged the canoe
into some thick bushes, where they hid it artfully. Paul meanwhile was
looking abou