ant him ag'in."

Gathering up their arms, ammunition and supplies, they traveled
northward through the dense forest until they came to a small and well
sheltered valley, where they concluded to rest, it being full time, as
collapse was coming fast after their great exertions and intense strain.
Nevertheless, Silent Tom was able to keep the first watch, while the
others threw themselves on the ground and went to sleep almost
instantly.

Tom had promised to awaken Shif'less Sol in two hours, but he did not do
so. He knew how much his comrades needed rest, and being willing to
sacrifice himself, he watched until dawn, which came bright, cold at
first, and then full of grateful warmth, a great sun hanging in a vast
disc of reddish gold over the eastern forest.

Silent Tom Ross, in his most talkative moments, was a man of few words,
at other times of none, but he felt deeply. A life spent wholly in the
woods into which he fitted so supremely had given him much of the Indian
feeling. He, too, peopled earth, air and water with spirits, and to him
the wild became incarnate. The great burning sun, at which he took
occasional glances, was almost the same as the God of the white man and
the Manitou of the red man. He had keenly appreciated their danger, both
when Henry was at the hollow, and when they were in the canoe on the
river, hemmed in on three sides. And yet they had come safely from both
nets. The skill of the five had been great, but more than human skill
had helped them to escape from such watchful and powerful enemies.

Tom Ross, as he looked at the faces of his comrades, knitted to him by
so many hardships and perils shared, was deeply grateful. He took one or
two more glances at the great burning sun, and the sky that looked like
illimitable depths of velvet blue, and then he surveyed the whole circle
of the forest curving around them. It was silent there, no sign of a foe
appeared, all seemed to be as peaceful as a great park in the Old World.
Tom said no words, not even to himself, but his prayer of thanks ran:

"O Lord, I offer my gratitude to Thee for the friends whom Thou hast
given me. As they have been faithful to me in every danger, so shall I
try to be faithful to them. Perhaps my mind moves more slowly than
theirs, but I strive always to make it move in the right way. They are
younger than I am, and I feel it my duty and my pleasure, too, to watch
over them, despite their strength of body, mind and spir