e 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. All the little clouds swung together and made a big one that
covered nearly the whole sky. The air darkened rapidly. Thunder began to
growl and mutter and now and then emitted a sharp crash. Lightning cut the
heavens from zenith to horizon, and the forest would leap into the light,
standing there a moment, vivid, like tracery.

A blaze more brilliant than all the rest cleft wide the sky and, as they
looked toward the North, they saw directly in the middle of the flame a
black dot that had not been there before.

"He's coming," said Henry in the quiet tone that indicated nothing more
than a certainty fulfilled.

"Just in time to take a seat in our house," said the shiftless one.

Sol ran out and gave utterance to a long echoing cry that sounded like a
call. It was answered at once by the new black dot under the Northern
horizon, which was now growing fast in size, as it came on rapidly. It
took a human shape, and, thirty yards away, a fine, delicately-chiselled
face, the face of a scholar and dreamer, remarkable in the wilderness, was
revealed. The face belonged to a youth, tall and strong, but not so tall
and large as Henry.

"Here we are, Paul," said Shif'less Sol. "We've fixed fur you."

"And mighty glad I am to overtake you fellows," said Paul Cotter,
"particularly at this time."

He ran for the shelter just as the forest began to moan, and great drops
of rain rushed down upon them. He was inside in a moment, and each gave
his hand a firm grasp.

"We're all here now," said Henry.

"All here and ready for the great work," said Shif'less Sol, his tranquil
face illumined again with that look of supreme exaltation.

Then the storm burst. The skies opened and dropped down floods of water.
They heard it beating on the leaves and thatch overhead, and some came
through, falling upon them but they paid no heed. They sat placidly until
the rush and roar passed, and then Henry said to the others:

"We're to stick to the task that we've set ourselves through thick and
through thin, through everything?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"If one falls, the four that are left keep