forest grew dim, the earth seemed to tip up, and there was a ringing
sound in his ears. He looked at his hand and saw that it was shaking. It
required a great effort of the will to clear his vision and steady the
world about him. But he achieved it, and then he took thought of
himself.

He knew very well what was the matter. His wound had begun to assert
itself, and he knew that he could no longer refuse to listen to its
will.

The sun sank in a sea of red and yellow fire, and the veil of darkness
was drawn over the vast primeval wilderness. Henry welcomed the coming
of the dusk. Night is kindly to those who flee. He left the log and
walked slowly toward the horizon, on which he had seen the dim, blue
line of the hills. He would be more likely to find there rude shelter of
some sort.

The reflex from long and strenuous action both physical and mental--no
one fights for anything else as he does for his life--had come, and his
body relaxed. The dizziness returned at times, and he knew that he must
have rest.

He was aware, too, that he needed food, but it was no time to hunt for
it. That must be done on the morrow, and intense longing for his rifle
assailed him again. It would be more precious to him now than gold or
diamonds.

A melancholy note came lonesomely through the forest and the twilight.
It was the cry of the whippoorwill, inexpressibly mournful, and Henry
listened to it a minute or two. He thought at first that it might be a
signal cry of the Wyandots, but when it was twice repeated he knew that
it was real. He banished it from his mind and went on.

A gobble came from a tree near by. He caught the bronze gleam of the
wild turkeys sitting high on the branches. They may have seen him or
heard him, but they did not stir. Something sprang up in the bushes, ran
a little way and stopped, regarding him with great lustrous eyes. It was
a deer, but it was unafraid. The behavior of deer and turkey was so
unusual that a curious idea gripped Henry. They knew that he was
unarmed, and therefore they did not feel the need to run.

He always felt a close kinship with the wild things, and he could not
put aside this idea that they knew him as he now was, a helpless
wanderer. It humiliated him. He had been a lord of creation, and now he
was the weakest of them all. They could find their food and shelter with
ease, but only luck would bring him either. He felt discouragement
because he had suddenly sunk to the lowest pl