felt as well as heard. The song-birds were keeping close to the thickets
and fluttering about nervously. By the time I was well committed to the
first rugged ascent, a yellowish gray wall filled the western sky. Across
this the lightning played.

As the curtain of rain drove in toward the Greenbriar I knew that any
savages lurking west of Howard's Creek would be bothered to keep their
priming dry. No rain fell on my path, however, and at no time did I lose
the early morning sun. On gaining a higher elevation I could see the storm
was following the valley down to the head waters of the Clinch.

I had not neglected Uncle Dick's advice in regard to provisions, and the
front of my loose hunting-shirt held a bag of corn cakes and some cooked
venison. On reaching the first slope I had watched carefully for the
tracks Hughes had seen south of the trace, but found none.

There could be no question of Hughes' ability to read Indian-signs; and
his warning recalled the Grisdols to my mind. These people--two brothers
and two children--had their cabin in a hollow close by a tumbling brook
and to one side of the trace. I planned to make a slight detour and pass a
word with them and to warn them to be watchful.

The fact that Hughes had found signs near the mountains would indicate the
Indians had planned a raid against some isolated home, and as there was no
footing in the trace I followed, it might easily be that the enemy had
entered lower down.

Along toward the noon hour I topped a ridge and decided I would halt and
eat at the first spring or brook I came to. My horse, an old campaigner in
wilderness work, pricked his ears as we began dipping down the gentle
slope. I studied the path ahead and the timbered slopes on both sides to
discover the cause of this attention.

The animal was intelligent. I knew it could be no wild creature as there
was no suggestion of fear in the attentive ears. Dissatisfied at remaining
in ignorance, I reined in to investigate more carefully. Almost at once
the horse swung his head to the right and gazed curiously. On this side
the space was bordered by a beech grove. Owing to the rank bush-growth
lining the path, little could be seen of the grove from any point below
where I had halted until a brook, which cut the path, was reached.

I leaned forward and looked between the horse's ears and discovered a bear
down in the hollow, nosing about for nuts and grubs on the bank of the
brook. A bear was