and aligning the
butts of the poles evenly upon the ground. These he covered with a
mass of boughs and marsh grass as a thatching. The roof thatched to
his satisfaction, he broke a quantity of boughs and with some care
prepared a bed under the lean-to.

His shelter and bed completed, he cut and piled a quantity of dry logs
at one end of the lean-to. Then he felled two green trees and cut the
trunks into four-foot lengths. Two of these he placed directly in
front of the shelter and two feet apart, at right angles to the
shelter. Across the ends of the logs farthest from his bed he piled
three of the green sticks to serve as a backlog, and in front of
these lighted his fire. When it was blazing freely he piled upon it,
and in front of the green backlogs, several of the logs of dry wood.

Despite the rain, the fire burned freely, and presently the interior
of Eli's lean-to was warm and comfortable. He now removed his
rain-soaked jacket and moleskin trousers and suspended them from the
ridge-pole, where they would receive the benefit of the heat and
gradually dry.

Stripped to his underclothing, Eli crouched before the fire beneath
the front of the shelter. At intervals he turned his back and sides
and chest toward the heat and in the course of an hour succeeded in
drying his underclothing to his satisfaction. His moleskin trousers
were still damp, but he donned them, and renewing the fire he
stretched himself luxuriously for a long and much needed rest.

CHAPTER IX

ELI SURPRISES INDIAN JAKE

When Eli awoke late in the afternoon the rain had ceased, but the wind
was blowing a living gale. There was a roar and boom and thunder of
breakers down on the point and echoing far away along the coast. The
wind shrieked and moaned through the forest.

Under his shelter beneath the thick spruce trees, however, Eli was
well enough protected. He renewed the fire, which had burned to
embers, and prepared dinner. The storm that prevented him from
travelling would also hold Indian Jake a prisoner. This thought
yielded him a degree of satisfaction.

He took no advantage of the leisure to reconsider and weigh the
circumstantial evidence against Indian Jake. He had accepted it as
conclusive proof of the half-breed's guilt and he had already
convicted him of the crime. Once Eli had arrived at a conclusion his
mind was closed to any line of reasoning that might tend to
controvert that conclusion. He prided himself upon this