peech. Henry was the
leader, but somehow Tom looked upon himself as a watcher over the other
four, a sort of elder brother. As the moon came out a little in the wake
of the retreating clouds, he regarded them affectionately.

"One, two, three, four, five," he murmured to himself. "We're all here,
an' Henry come fur us. That is shorely the greatest boy the world hez
ever seed. Them fellers Alexander an' Hannibal that Paul talks about
couldn't hev been knee high to Henry. Besides, ef them old Greeks an'
Romans hed hed to fight Wyandots an' Shawnees an' Iroquois ez we've
done, whar'd they hev been?"

Tom Ross uttered a contemptuous little sniff, and on the edge of that
sniff Alexander and Hannibal were wafted into oblivion. Then he went
outside and walked about the islet, appreciating for the tenth time what
a wonderful little refuge it was. He was about to return to the hut when
he saw a dozen dark blots along the high bough of a tree. He knew them.
They were welcome blots. They were wild turkeys that had found what had
seemed to be a secure roosting place in the swamp.

Tom knew that the meat of the little bear was nearly exhausted, and here
was more food come to their hand. "We're five pow'ful feeders, an' we'll
need you," he murmured, looking up at the turkeys, "but you kin rest
thar till nearly mornin'."

He knew that the turkeys would not stir, and he went back to the hut to
resume his watch. Just before the first dawn he awoke Henry.

"Henry," he said, "a lot uv foolish wild turkeys hev gone to rest on the
limb of a tree not twenty yards from this grand manshun uv ourn. 'Pears
to me that wild turkeys wuz made fur hungry fellers like us to eat. Kin
we risk a shot or two at 'em, or is it too dangerous?"

"I think we can risk the shots," said Henry, rising and taking his
rifle. "We're bound to risk something, and it's not likely that Indians
are anywhere near."

They slipped from the cabin, leaving the other three still sound asleep,
and stepped noiselessly among the trees. The first pale gray bar that
heralded the dawn was just showing in the cast.

"Thar they are," said Tom Ross, pointing at the dozen dark blots on the
high bough.

"We'll take good aim, and when I say 'fire!' we'll both pull trigger,"
said Henry.

He picked out a huge bird near the end of the line, but he noticed when
he drew the bead that a second turkey just behind the first was directly
in his line of fire. The fact aroused his ambitio