The Keepers of the Trail

ll. All the fanciful spirit of the younger world created by the Greeks had been alive in him that night. He had been a young Hercules at play and he

l enough in the dusk to evade trailing vines. A red thread or two on a bush showed that he had torn his uniform in falling, and the young woods rover

and instinctively they seemed to have no fear of him. Two little birds not ten feet over his head were singing in intense rivalry. Their tiny throats swelled out as they poured forth a brilliant volume of song, and Henry, lying perfectly still, looked up at them and admir

fell wantonly at his hands. The gay birds in their red or blue plumage and all the soberer garbs between, were safe from him. It seemed that they too at times re

eir bones in hundreds at the Big Bone Lick, where they had come to get the salty water scores of thousands of years ago. It seemed to him then that in those days men and the little animals and the little birds must have been allies against the monsters. Here, in the woods so far from civilization, this friendship

r his head were still singing with utmost vigor, but others had joined. From all the trees and bushes about

wishing so intensely came to pass. A bird, brown and tiny, alighted on the grass and pecked one of the crumbs. Beyond a doubt, this was a bold bird, a leader among his kind, an explorer and discoverer. He had

Nor did they pay any attention to the great figure in buckskin dyed green lying so near and so still. The instinct given to them in place of r

e them hearts without fear. One of them, perhaps the original bold explorer, seeking vainly for another crumb, hopped upon his bare

tionless. The bird, satisfied that this food was beyond his powers, stood motionless for a few moments, then flapped his wings two or three time

in the grass. Then, as if by a given signal, all of them, including the one on Henry's hand, united in a single volume of song and flew up into the crevices of the green roof. He fe

and raised his rifle. But it was too late for the eagle to stop. The heavy figure with the tearing beak and claws swooped downward, and there was silence

ighborhood. But he had acted on an impulse that he did not regret. He looked at the beak and claws of the dead eagle and he was glad that he had shot him. The fierce bird had br

eat prodigiously, and bands would be continually searching the forest for buffalo and deer. It was from these that the chief danger came. He suspected also

her small but very dense thicket. He felt that he was within a lair and his kinship

man-smell and went away, not greatly alarmed, but feeling that it was better, in case of doubt, to avoid the cause of the doubt. Two Indians, carrying th

though his sleep had all its restoring power, the lightest noise in the undergrowth near

the camp only that morning, and, the warriors arriving from the river, had told before they left how they had been pursued all through the night by one upon whom t

l things with personality, and for them an evil wind was blowing. The events of the preceding night had been colored and enlarged by those who told them. One or two had seen the form, giganti

that is, every nerve and faculty was alive at the same time. Nothing had invaded his haunt in the brushwood. His kee

orry about him. Yet he knew that it was unwise to approach the place until night came. Delay was all the more necessary, because while he saw on the northern horizon the smoke from th

nearer water or for some kindred reason, but that did not keep it from being nearer the stone fortress, nor from

his wide circuit intending to approach his destination from the west. Distance did not

or four hours after sunset he began to curve in towards his friends. The country into which he had come was similar in character to that which he had left, heavy forest, rolling hills and many creeks and brooks. He had never been in that immediate region before, and

y preferred to leave it as a barrier or neutral ground, did not wholly account for the fact to him. Farther north and farther south the Indian

rst he took it for a hill just like the others, but its shape did not seem natural, and, despite the importance of time he looked again, and once more. Then he walked a little

any white settler or hunter could have left it there. He dropped the fragment and rising, looked farther, finding two more pieces buried almost to the edge, but which his strong han

ace, save some broken pieces of pottery. Possibly the Indians themselves had destroyed these people, and they did not come here to live because they feared the

d. He had a strange sense of mystery. The new land about him might be an old, old land. He had never thought of it, except as forest a

aling with wild men in a wild country, he was again a wild man himself. Among the Indians at the great camp or about it there was not one in such close

llows at the edges of the stream, the dogwoods, and all the other kinds which made up the immeasurable forest. Th

ad leaves of the year before, and thrust forward the barrel of his rifle. He had heard a footfall, the footfall of a moccas

ing forest. Yet Henry was sure that a man was there. His ear would not deceive him. Doubtless it was a stray hunter or scout fro

all might have deceived him. Perhaps it had been merely a rabbit in the undergrowth, but while he was debating

lying on his back he uttered the lonesome howl of the wolf, but very low. He waited a moment or two, eager to know if his intuitio

so at trail, emerged from the bush and advanced to meet him. Two hands met in the stron

the call that it would

, showing his double row of shining white teeth, "'cause you

aul, Long Jim and Tom

part o' the band has moved up to a place mighty close to our own snug house. They don't know yet that the hole in the wall is thar, but ef they stay long they're boun' to run

a wide grin of admiration. The two

re shorely the wild cat

hy

. An evil sperrit has been doin' 'em a power o' harm an' I know that evil sperrit is you. Ef it wuzn't fur them cannon on which they build such big hopes the

e shiftless one chuckled again and again, as proud o

ainst Kentucky?" said Henry. "

on't turn back, but mebbe we kin hold 'em a while longer.

they have 'em we can beat the Indians off as we di

ryin' to carry 'em part o' the way by the river. You must hev done mighty slick work thar, Henry. The warriors are plum' shore now tha

we can. I want to tell you again, Sol

at's the reason you looked so pow'ful well to me, Henry, 'cause I wuz gettin' mighty lonesome, prowlin' 'roun'

straight nor

main camp, but bein' ez you've stirred 'em up so they're keepin' a mighty good watch too.

it means a much farth

'bout parks in the Old World, but we've got here a bigger an' finer park than any in Europe or Asyer, or fur that matter than Afriker or that new continent, Austral

en on a big strain, an' I'd

ke. Never out in the woods afore by hisself an' nigh scared to death by the trees an' the dar

and unction of the shiftl

'll promise to keep close behind

ont and Henry five feet away

see it in passin' afore mornin'-but thar wuz big bones 'roun' it too. I measured myself by 'em an' geewhillikins, Henry, what critters them wuz! Ef I'd been caught out o' my cave after night an' one o' them things got after me I'd hev been so skeered that I'd hev dropped my stone club 'cause my hands trembled so, my teeth would hev rattled together in reg'lar tunes, an' I'd hev run so fast that I'd only hev touched

ot after you, or a mammoth or a mastodon twenty feet high and fifty feet long was feelin

in a hurry I'd stop h

at

ck into mountains 'bout a mile wuz the most pop'lar an' high-priced. Guess those boys an' gals didn't go out much an' dan

days we wouldn't be roaming through the forest a

m to be afeard of at times,

l, about what time do you thi

ts in the way. Here's another branch, Henry. Guess we'd better wade in it

velly bed. It was flowing in the general direction in which they wished to go, and they walked in the stream a full half mile. Then they emerg

e was second only to Henry in the skill and lore of the wilderness. He was a true son of the forest, and, though uneducated in the bookish sense, he was so full of wiles and cunning that he was the Ulysses of the five, and as such his fame had spread along the whole bo

said, "we'

he saw a score of forms, enlarged in the s

ack!" he

. Mebbe they never saw men afore an' don't know nothin' 'bout guns that kill at a distance, an' ag'in mebbe the

I don't

giant among 'em. I kin see the slaver fallin' from his mouth. He's think

e of the wolf king. Roasted and served up whole they'd save y

a wolf, but ef I didn't hev a rifle, an' you wuzn't with me, I'd be plum'

et making no noise in the grass and leaves, but their red eyes and white teeth always gleaming in the moonlight. They were showing an uncommon daring. Lone hunters had b

shiftless one suddenly. "I kin te

the reas

d a hundred thousan' years. Thar souls comin' down through other animals hev gone straight into o

but if it wasn't for raising an alarm I'd shoot that king wolf there, who is

hat Paul said lived long ago,

r-too

time. He wuz twelve feet high and twenty-five feet long an' he could carry off

al of a dinner, even for an emp

er-toothed tigers in thar time. I reckon that in thar wolf souls or tiger souls, whichever they be, they expect to ea

still night like this, and the warriors might be within he

slow or fast, the sinister pack was always there, the king wolf a foot or so in advance, like the point to the head of an arrow. Often the

uther hev a clean fight with a half-dozen warriors than be follered this way. It teches

ve assumed that we're powerless to fight. Still, the

rick. When you see me stumble, Henry, you go r

, but don't stu

at sech a time. Look ou

nry ran on, but in a half minute he turned quickly. With a horrible snarl and yelp the king wolf sprang, and the others b

. His face was pale and one or two drops of perspiration fell

. He's shorely the big tiger, the biggest o' them all that wuz. Why, when I stumbled

d it had something to do with wounds and death. Still, they're running a little c

orely begins to look ez ef we'd hev to use the bullet

chase. We must hold our fire just as long as possible.

l of warriors. Yet it was a tremendous strain upon one's nerves to be followed in such a manner. The wolves had come so close now that they could hear the light pad of their feet. Once Sh

ud. Hitherto they had pursued in total silence, which he had deemed un

ay it is now to the cave?"

ope it won't take us long to cover i

k so a little while ago, but they follow us hoping that

y tired o' bein' follered by wolves that are re'ly tigers. Afte

ed to one side, but he was confronting the deadliest marksman in the woods. The muzzle of Henry's r

he long thrilling note of the war whoop. The warriors had heard the shot, and, knowing they would come swi