ntrusion. He could see over the red blaze and he saw the boys stretched
upon the ground, their faces, very white to the eye of the forest,
upturned to the sky. To human gaze they would have seemed as two dead,
but the keen eyes of the wild cat saw their chests rising and falling
with deep regular breaths.

The darkness deepened and then after a while began to lighten. A
beautiful clear moon came out and sheathed all the burned forest in
gleaming silver. But the boys were still far away in a happy
slumberland. The wild cat fled in alarm at the light, and the timid
things drew back farther among the trees.

Time passed, and the red ring of fire about Paul and Henry sank. Hasty
and tired, they had not drawn up enough wood to last out the night, and
now the flames died, one by one. Then the coals smoldered and after a
while they too began to go out, one by one. The red ring of fire that
inclosed the two boys was slowly going away. It broke into links, and
then the links went out.

Light clouds came up from the west, and were drawn, like a veil, across
the sky. The moon began to fade, the silver armor melted away from the
trees, and the wild cat that had come back could scarcely see the two
strange beings, keen though his eyes were, so dense was the shadow where
they lay. The wild things, still devoured with curiosity, pressed
nearer. The terrible red light that filled their souls with dread, was
gone, and the forest had lost half its terror. There was a ring of eyes
about Henry and Paul, but they yet abode in glorious slumberland,
peaceful and happy.

Suddenly a new note came into the sounds of the wilderness, one that
made the timid creatures tremble again with dread. It was faint and very
far, more like a quaver brought down upon the wind, but the ring of eyes
drew back into the forest, and then, when the quaver came a second time,
the rabbits and the deer fled, not to return. The lips of the wild cat
contracted into a snarl, but his courage was only of the moment, he
scampered away and he did not stop until he had gone a full mile. Then
he swiftly climbed the tallest tree that he could find, and hid in its
top.

The ring of eyes was gone, as the ring of fire had died, but Henry and
Paul slept on, although there was full need for them to be awake. The
long, distant quaver, like a whine, but with something singularly
ferocious in its note came again on the wind, and, far away, a score of
forms, phantom and dusky, in