The Free Rangers | Page 5

merrily.
"Here he is," said Henry.
The figure that emerged from the bushes was thick-set and powerful,
the strong face seamed and tanned by the wind, rain and sun of years.
The man stepped into the circle of the firelight, and held out his hand.
Each shook it with a firm and hearty clasp, and Tom Ross took his seat
with them beside the fire. They handed him food first, and then he said:
"I was away up in the Miami country, huntin' buffalo, when the word
came to me, Sol, but I quit on the minute an' started."
"I was shore you would," said the shiftless one quietly. "Buffaloes are
big game, but we're huntin' bigger now."
"I was never in this part of the country before," said Tom Ross, looking
around curiously at the ghostly tree trunks.
"I've been through here," said Henry, "and it runs on in the same way
for hundreds of miles in every direction."
"Bigger an' finer than any o' them old empires that Paul used to tell us
about," said Shif'less Sol.
"Yes," said Henry.
The three looked at one another significantly.

They wrapped themselves in their blankets by and by, and went to
sleep on the soft turf. Henry was the first to awake, just when the dawn
was turning from pink to red, and a single glance revealed to him an
object on the horizon that had not been there the night before. A man
stood on the crest of a low hill, and even at the distance, Henry
recognized him. His comrades were awaking and he turned to them.
"See!" he said, pointing with a long forefinger.
Their eyes followed, and they too recognized the man.
"He'll be here in a minute," said Shif'less Sol. "He jest eats up space."
He spoke the truth, as it seemed scarcely a minute before Long Jim
Hart entered the camp, showing no sign of fatigue. The three welcomed
him and gave him a place at their breakfast fire.
"I wuz at Marlowe," he said, "when the word reached me, but I started
just an hour later. I struck your trail, Sol, two days back, an' I traveled
nearly all last night. I saw Henry join you an' then Tom."
Shif'less Sol laughed. He had a soft, mellow laugh that crinkled up the
corners of his mouth, and made his eyes shine. There was no doubt that
a man who laughed such a laugh was enjoying himself.
"I reckon you didn't have much trouble follerin' that trail o' ourn," he
said.
Jim Hart answered the laugh with a grin.
"Not much," he replied. "It was like a wagon road through the
wilderness. The ashes uv your last camp fire weren't sca'cely cold when
I passed by."
"We're all here 'cept the fifth feller," said Tom Ross.
"The fifth will come," said Henry emphatically.
"Uv course," said Tom Ross with equal emphasis.

"And when he comes," said Shif'less Sol, "we take right hold o' the big
job."
They lingered awhile over their breakfast, but saw no one approaching.
Then they took up the march again, going steadily southward in single
file, talking little, but leaving a distinct trail. They were only four, but
they were a formidable party, all strong of arm, keen of eye and ear,
skilled in the lore of the forest, and every one bore the best weapons
that the time could furnish.
Toward noon the day grew very warm and clouds gathered in the sky.
The wind became damp.
"Rain," said Henry. "I'm sorry of that. I wish it wouldn't break before
he overtook us."
"S'pose we stop an' make ready," said Shif'less Sol. "You know we ain't
bound to be in a big hurry, an' it won't help any o' us to get a soakin'."
"You're shorely right, Sol," said Jim Hart. "We're bound to take the best
uv care uv ourselves."
They looked around with expert eyes, and quickly chose a stony
outcrop or hollow in the side of a hill, just above which grew two
gigantic beeches very close together. Then it was wonderful to see
them work, so swift and skillful were they. They cut small saplings
with their hatchets, and, with the little poles and fallen bark of last year,
made a rude thatch which helped out the thick branches of the beeches
overhead. They also built up the sides of the hollow with the same
materials, and the whole was done in less than ten minutes. Then they
raked in heaps of dead leaves and sat down upon them comfortably.
Many drops of water would come through the leaves and thatch, but
such as they, hardened to the wilderness, would not notice them.
Meanwhile the storm was gathering with the rapidity so frequent in the
great valley.