outside, in
such a position that they were sure the wind would take the smoke and
most of the heat down the valley. Then Long Jim, feeling that the rest
of the task was his, and having a certain pride, lighted the heap with
his flint and steel. It blazed up rapidly, and, as they had hoped, the
wind carried nearly all the smoke out of the mouth of the cave.

The dry wood burned rapidly and a great mass of coals soon gathered. It
was very hot in the cave, but liberal applications of the cold water
enabled them to stand it. Meanwhile all except the one on guard were
busy broiling big steaks on the ends of sticks and laying them away on
the leaves. The whole place was filled with the pleasant aroma.

"Warriors!" said Tom Ross, who happened to be on guard at that
particular moment. "They've seen our smoke, an' mebbe our fire, an'
they don't understan' it."

"You see that they keep on failing to understand it," said Henry, "and
if curiosity makes any of them too curious just give him a hint."

The three went on with their cooking, "storing up like Noah against the
flood," Paul said, knowing that Silent Tom would keep a watch beyond
which no warrior could pass.

"Our beautiful stone house will need a good airing after all this is
over," said Paul. "Smoke will gather and ashes too are flying about. But
it's a grand cooking."

"So it is," said Long Jim, who was in his element. "That wuz shorely a
fine fat deer. You kin pile more on that shelf in the rock, thar, Paul.
Wrap the dry leaves 'roun' 'em, too. They're clean an' good. I guess
that old-timer uv yourn that you've told us about often--'Lysses, wuzn't
it?"

"Yes, Ulysses."

"That's right. Well, old 'Lysses in them roamings uv his, lastin' a
thousand years or some sech time, would hev been glad to come upon a
place like this to rest his wanderin' an' sleepy head. I've a notion uv
my own too, Paul."

"What is it?"

"That Greece ain't the land it's cracked up to be. I've never heard you
tell uv any rivers thar like the Ohio or Missip. I ain't heard you say
anythin' about the grand forests like ourn, an' all the hundreds an'
thousands uv branches an' creeks an' springs."

"No, Jim, it's a dry country, mostly bare."

"Then the wilderness here fur me. I like a big woods, a thousand miles
every way, an' the leaves so thick you kin hardly see the sky above in
spring. I don't see what the herds of buff'ler found thar to live on."

"They didn't have our kind of buff