more, but each understood. Their own trail would be left in
the snow, and the sight of it would confirm all the suspicions of Wyatt
and the savages. Some such chance as this they had always expected, and
now they prepared to deal with it. They turned back into the forest,
carrying with them the body of the deer, as they were resolved not to
abandon it. Both had noticed that the slight abatement of the cold was
not lasting. In an hour or two it would be as chill as ever, and once more
the surface of the snow would be icy.

They stayed several hours in a dense clump of trees and bushes, and then,
half walking, half sliding, they resumed their journey, but now they left
no trail. Each also had every sense alert, and nothing could come within
sound or sight and not be perceived first by these two wonderful trailers,
masters of their craft. They reached the edge of the lake in the twilight,
and then they sped swiftly over the ice to their island home.

"I'm thinking," said Henry Ware, at a council a little later, "that
Braxton Wyatt suspects we're here. He, of course, does not believe in the
Indian superstitions, and maybe he'll persuade them to search the island."

"An' since they kin come over the ice, we can't beat 'em off ez easy ez we
could ef they came in canoes in the water," said Shif'less Sol. "I see
trouble ahead fur a tired man."

Paul had been saying nothing, only sitting in a corner of the hut and
listening intently to the others. Now his face flushed and his eyes
sparkled with light, as they would always do whenever a great idea
suddenly came to him.

"If Braxton Wyatt undertakes to persuade them there are no ghosts," he
said, "it is for us to persuade them that there are."

"What do you mean, Paul?" asked Henry.

"We must show the ghosts to them."

Silence for a half minute followed. Then Shif'less Sol spoke up.

"Meanin' ourselves?" he said.

"Yes," said Paul.

The others looked at his glowing face, and they were impressed.

"Just how?" said Henry.

"If the Miamis come at all, they will come in the night, and that is when
ghosts should appear. I'll be a ghost and Jim Hart will be another. The
rest of you can lay hidden, ready to use the rifles if they are needed."

"Well planned!" said Henry Ware. "We'll do it."

CHAPTER XVIII

WHAT THE WARRIORS SAW

A few nights later a strong band of warriors left the Miami village, led
by the bold chief, Yellow Panther, and the renegade, Braxton