re. The stream was as lonely and
desolate as if man had never come. He shook himself a little, but the
spiritual exaltation, born of the song and the misty region that he had
visited, remained.

"A sign, a prophecy!" he murmured. His heart swelled. The new task would
be achieved as the others had been. It did not matter whether he had
heard or had dreamed. His confidence in the result was absolute. He sat
a long time looking out upon the water, but never moving. Anyone
observing him would have concluded after a while that he was no human
being, merely an image. It would not have seemed possible that any
living organism could have remained as still as a stone so many hours.

When the sun showed that it was well past noon, Paul awoke. He glanced
at Henry, who nodded. The nod meant that all was well. By and by Mr.
Pennypacker, also, awoke and then Henry in his turn went to sleep so
easily and readily that it seemed a mere matter of will. The
schoolmaster glanced at him and whispered to Paul:

"A great youth, Paul! Truly a great youth! It is far from old Greece to
this forest of Kaintuckee, but he makes me think of the mighty heroes
who are enshrined in the ancient legends and stories."

"That thought has come to me, too," Paul whispered back. "I like to
picture him as Hector, but Hector with a better fate. I don't think
Henry was born for any untimely end."

"No, that could not be," said the schoolmaster with conviction.

Then they relapsed into silence and just about the time the first shadow
betokened the coming twilight Paul heard a faint gurgling sound which he
was sure was made by oars. He touched the schoolmaster and whispered to
him to listen. Then he pulled Henry's shoulder slightly, and instantly
the great youth sat up, wide awake.

"Someone is near," whispered Paul. "Listen!"

Henry bent his head close to the water and distinctly heard the swishing
of paddles, coming in the direction that they had followed in the night.
It was a deliberate sound and Henry inferred at once that those who
approached were in no hurry and feared no enemy. Then he drew the second
inference that it was Indians. White men would know that danger was
always about them in these woods.

"We have nothing to do but lie here and see them as they pass," he
whispered to his companions. "We are really as safe among these dense
canes as if we were a hundred miles away, provided we make no noise."

There was no danger that any of them wo