g beside him
chained to a log, busily licking the inside of an empty honey jar, and
the regular strokes of the woodman's axe as Abe Harum worked at the
felling of a pine tree some distance away. The shadow came from behind
him and stopped on the sunlit expanse of paper.

Rube turned sharply round and looked up at the intruder.

[Illustration: Rube turned sharply round and looked up at the intruder.]

"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "Where did you blow in from, I'd like ter know?
An' what 're you doin' here, anyway? You aware as you're trespassin'?"

He stood confronting a tall, handsome young Indian, who was dressed in
fringed buckskins with a red shirt, and a close-fitting cap of beaver
fur. There was a finely-plaited leather belt about his waist, from
which was suspended a holster containing a heavy revolver. His
moccasins, of white deerskin, were gaily decorated with an intricate
design in beads and coloured silks and little bits of looking-glass.
They were so dainty, it seemed almost that their wearer wanted to draw
special attention to his feet. Rube, however, stared inquisitively
into the stranger's ruddy brown face, noticing how closely together his
piercing black eyes were set and how sharp and thin was his nose. He
was an unusually handsome person.

"Injuns ain't supposed ter come out from their reservations," the boy
continued. "Anyhow, you've got no business trespassin' on this yer
property. You'd best quit. You're not lost, I suppose? You knows
your way home?"

"Ugh!" the Indian grunted, taking a step nearer and glancing curiously
at the plan.

"Dessay you've got no savee fer what I'm tellin' you," Rube went on,
signing a dismissal, "but I can't help that. You gotter quit, see? Go
away. Make yerself scarce. Vamoose."

"Oh, I quite understand," said the Indian, speaking, to Rube's
surprise, in very good English. "Your words are clear as the sunlight.
It is only their meaning that I do not seize. You speak of trespass.
I am not a trespasser. For long, long years--many generations--my
people have had their hunting grounds, have put up their lodges, and
lived and died in these same forest glades. They have trapped the
beaver in this same creek, taken fish from this same lake, and followed
the buffalo on yonder prairie. Who shall stop me if I lay my line of
traps where my people so long ago laid theirs?"

Rube shrugged his shoulders.

"I ain't figurin' ter discuss ancient hist'ry with you,