The Keepers of the Trail

his mind and resolved to spend the night in the woods. Shif'less Sol and the others would not be alarmed about his absence. They too had acquired the gift of infinite pati

o new attempts, and all the wilderness spirit in him came to the front. The civilization of the house and the city sank quite away. He was for the time being wholly a creature of the primeval forest

reation have been found than in this vast green wilderness stretching from east to west a thousand miles, and from north to sout

nation of magnificent youth, the forest superman, one upon whom Nature had lavished every gift for the life that he was intended to live. Although his step was light and sound

that a buffalo troop was resting there. The foolish beasts had wandered into the Indian vicinity, but they would learn the proximity of the warriors the next day and wander away. Meanwhile Henry needed them and would use them. Now and then he reverted to the religious imagery which

ong sticks of dead wood he ignited them both until they burned with a steady and strong flame. Strapping his rifle upon his ba

th, uttering continuous shouts, whirling each torch until it made a perfect circle of fire. Doubtless to the heavy eyes of the

e. The whirling circles of fire with living beings inside of them filled him with terror. His ton of flesh quivered and qua

man mind, which had allied with it a body without an equal in all that million and a half square miles of forest. As he leaped to and fro, shout

like an arrow head, with the big bull as its point. They bellowed with fright and made a tremendous crashing as they raced over the mile

ierce shouting. He was so close upon the flank of the last buffaloes that they felt the torches singeing their hair, an

ee the red eyes, the short crooked horns and the huge, humped shoulders of the buffaloes bearing down upon t

ward the west. Henry, stopping at a convenient distance, tossed his torches into the river, and taking the rifle from his back sa

though no lives had been lost, everything in the camp had been trodden flat. All of their cooking utensils had been smashed, many of their rifles had be

nly fragments of it remained now. He was red with anger and he swore violently. Yellow Panther and Red Eagle had lost their blan

is? What is this?" stutte

run over by a herd of buff

of thing happen of

a case before, but even if it's a sin

el with the young renegade, who had great influence with the tribes. H

re ever so large in this forest

o," said the o

ise up at midnight and

is n

ou account for

e a few words in their own tongue to the ch

riven by a demon, an immense figure, preceded by whirling

believe su

a second look it was gone. But whether right or wrong you can see what has happened. Our camp has been destroyed and with it m

"it was a trick of Henry Ware's. He

kstaffe, "but you can't

uffly. "You can't tell me that a

r us. It couldn't be chance. I think with Wyatt that it was Ware, but the chiefs are not willing to stay here longer. They

l, let it be so, if it must, but I will not move tonight for anything. At l

f the great guns with which they hoped to smash the palisades around the settlements. Complete co?peration between white ma

had lost most of their blankets and in taking the canoes from the river and putting them upon the bank to escape one form of destruction they had merely

place of the Evil Minded. An enemy whom they could not see or hear, but whose presence they felt, was near. He had brought misfortune upon them and h

and Red Eagle were great chiefs, mighty on the war path, filled with the lore of their tribes, and they knew that Manitou expressed himself in many ways. They spoke together and when they compared their bad dreams straight from Ha-nis-ja-o-no-geh they

was a foe whom no warrior knew how to meet. Then they heard the owl again, but from anoth

long for his return, but he never came back. When the second hour after his departure had been compl

d and cursed u

een talking with Red Eagle and Yellow Panther. "C

heard an owl hoot from several different points of the compass, and they think it an omen of evil. They may be right, because a scout, a man of uncommon skill, whom they s

it had a long menacing note. It was an omen of ill and it came from the Place of Evil Dreams. Yellow Panther an

never come back," said Yellow

nced at the dark files of the trees and listened to the low moaning of the river as it flowed past. Then from a point in the south came that warning, plangent cry of the evil bird. Perspiration st

rhaps it is better that w

t on this expedition he would be safer with the warriors all about him. He had saved his own

at dead warrior, followed and continually menaced them. Its cry was heard from one side and then from the other. Colonel Alloway, a brave man, though choleric and cruel, was exasperated beyo

lowing us?" he said to Wyatt, whom h

s Ware, of wh

he Indians are in theirs. Why,

ot keep it fr

yatt's tone that he

imed. "I can see that he is striking a heavy bl

t of tha

ers while the rest of us remain here. I'm not as used as you are

ay in different directions in the forest, and the rest sat down in a group. They waited a long time and h

ven him away," said A

nk so,

himself, shuddered. The sinister cry expressed victory. His own mind, like those of the Indians, had become attuned to the s

cruel savage who had carried the scalp of a white woman at his belt. But he would hunt or scalp no more. He had been cloven from brow to chin

t happened," he

after speaking with

he others heard the beginning of a cry, that is one that was checked sudden

e who struc

f strength of the red man and the white man united, and something more, a power which I once heard a learned man say must have belonged to people when they had no weapons but clubs

iolence of speech was assumed to hide his own growing belief. The two chiefs

'll send no more warriors into the forest. The Evil Spirit is ther

and made fools of, and the best thing we can do is to get back to the

t of the colonel beat with anger, tinged with awe. It was a strange world into which he had come, and while he would not have acknowledged it to another, he knew t

al exertion, and tripping often as they grew weaker. It hurt Alloway to ask them to stop and let him rest, and he put o

d his breath came in long painful sobs. He was just a little too stout for wilderness work, that is for the marching part of it, and he was hurt cruelly

d, ambush and shoot that fiend?" he e

t the moment he hears a sound or sees a rustle in the bush. Besides, sir, we are confronted, as Wyatt has told you, by the one foe who is the most dangerous in all the world to us.

ated face. A rifle cracked suddenly, and the hat flew from his hand into the air. The Indians uttered a long wai

wonder at his hat, lying upon the ground, and perforated neatly by a bullet. Wyatt, Bla

" he said at last. "He cou

ue? He could not have been much

, sir, and I do

could expect little mercy, if he ever fell into their hands, and Wyatt himself knew that he had fully earned the Kentucky bullet. He did not feel the superstition of the warri

onel Alloway still cursed under his breath, and bemoaned the fate that had befallen him. It seemed a cruel jest that he, who had served in Flanders and Germa

ot a savage moved. But Alloway's whole frame shook with furious anger. It was preposterous that t

impudent fellow? Are thirty men to be driven all

iefs," Wyatt replied, "but I doubt

, mysterious as he was, they would send forth the warriors, and perhaps they might trap him. They gave the signal and a dozen savages

eman and an officer should be hunted through the woods in such a manner, insulted even by a bullet through his

rom his face. He uttered a deep oath, but Yellow Panther and Red Eagle signaled to their forces to take the trail once more. The one in whom the Evil Spirit dwelled and who had come to mock them

imes behind them, and the terror of the warriors grew. Upon more than one face the war paint was damp with

were glad to see the glow over the eastern forest that told of the rising sun. Even then they did not stop

und and gasped. They were not ashamed to show now

twenty pounds in that cur

with sympathy. "But, sir, you can see a big smoke rising

, "and there are some of th

no more that day. He regarded the English officers grimly. They had patronized him and

to march against Kentucky without them, and only he and his men knew how to use them. In a huge camp, with a brilliant sun driving away many of the fancies that night and the fo