et when he's in a hurry."

A little later he stood and sniffed, with his brows wrinkled. He made
an epic figure as he leaned forward, every sense strained, every muscle
alert, slim and shapely as a Greek--the eternal pathfinder. Very gently
he smelled the branches of a mulberry thicket.

"There's been an Indian here," he meditated. "I kinder smell the grease
on them twigs. In a hurry, too, or he wouldn't have left his stink
behind... . In war trim, I reckon." And he took a tiny wisp of scarlet
feather from a fork.

Like a hound he nosed about the ground till he found something. "Here's
his print;" he said "He was a-followin' Jim, for see! he has his foot in
Jim's track. I don't like it. I'm fear'd of what's comin'."

Slowly and painfully he traced the footing, which led through the
thicket towards a long ridge running northward. In an open grassy place
he almost cried out. "The redskin and Jim was friends. See, here's their
prints side by side, going slow. What in thunder was old Jim up to?"

The trail was plainer now, and led along the scarp of the ridge to a
little promontory which gave a great prospect over the flaming forests
and yellow glades. Boone found a crinkle of rock where he flung himself
down. "It's plain enough," he said. "They come up here to spy. They were
fear'd of something, and whatever it was it was coming from the west.
See, they kep' under the east side of this ridge so as not to be seen,
and they settled down to spy whar they couldn't be obsarved from below.
I reckon Jim and the redskin had a pretty good eye for cover."

He examined every inch of the eyrie, sniffing like a pointer dog. "I'm
plumb puzzled about this redskin," he confessed. "Shawnee, Cherokee,
Chickasaw--it ain't likely Jim would have dealings with 'em. It might be
one of them Far Indians."

It appeared as if Lovelle had spent most of the previous afternoon on
the ridge, for he found the remains of his night's fire half way down
the north side in a hollow thatched with vines. It was now about three
o'clock. Boone, stepping delicately, examined the ashes, and then sat
himself on the ground and brooded.

When at last he lifted his eyes his face was perplexed.

"I can't make it out nohow. Jim and this Indian was good friends. They
were feelin' pretty safe, for they made a mighty careless fire and
didn't stop to tidy it up. But likewise they was restless, for they
started out long before morning.... I read it this way. Jim met