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"Who's bought the old Frye place?" asked Raven. "Or is it empty?" "No," said Charlotte, "it ain't empty. I dunno's you remember the Tenneys that used to live over the mountain, what they call Mountain Brook. Kind of a shif'less lot they were. Some of 'em drinked." "Why, yes," said Raven, "I remember 'em. The boys used to do a lot of trapping. One of 'em what was his name? Israel, yes, that's it.
Shif'less Sol set fire to them with flint and steel. In a few minutes something was bubbling inside Jim Hart's coffee pot, and sending out a glorious odor. Shif'less Sol sniffed the odor. "I'm growin' younger," he said. "I'm at least two years younger than I wuz when I woke up. I wish to return thanks right now to the old Greek feller who invented fire. What did you say his name was, Paul?"
These were placed over the eyes like spectacles, and fastened with deerskin string, tied behind the head. The range of vision was then very narrow, but all the glare from the snow was shut out. Shif'less Sol unconsciously had imitated a device employed by the Esquimaux of the far north to protect their eyesight.
"It must be the mouth of the river." "You're shorely right, Henry," said Shif'less Sol, who sat just behind him, "an' from the looks o' the break thar, it's a good, big river, too. S'pose we pull up in it a spell afore we make a landin'." "It seems a good idea to me," replied Henry. "What say you, Paul?" "I'm for it," replied Paul Cotter.
He did not know what "irrefutable" meant, but he did know that Mr. Pennypacker intended to compliment him. Paul and Henry assisted with the fire. In fact they did most of the work, each wishing to make good his assertion that he would prove of use on the journey. It was a brief task to gather the wood and then Ross and Shif'less Sol lighted the fire, which they permitted merely to smolder.
They allowed the distance between them and the retreating file to grow until it was five or six hundred yards, and they might have let it grow farther, but Henry made a signal, and the three lay down in the grass. "You see 'em, don't you!" the youth whispered to his comrade. "Yes, down thar at the foot o' that hillock," replied Shif'less Sol; "two o' em, an' Senecas, I take it."
"How long do you think it will be before they come back?" asked Shif'less Sol. "Not long. The Indian force could not have been more than a mile or so away, or they would not have relied on smoke signals in the night. It will be only a short wait, Sol, until we see something interesting. Now I wish I knew that harelipped man!"
None knew better than they the dangers to which they were about to be exposed, and none knew better than they the wilderness greatness of Timmendiquas. "A lazy man always hez the most trouble," said Shif'less Sol in a whisper to the others. "Mebbe ef he wuzn't so lazy he'd be lively 'nough to git out o' the way o' trouble.
They were quite sure that he had come up with the second force, and he was certain to prove a far more formidable leader than either Braxton Wyatt or Moses Blackstaffe. But his demand to speak with Henry Ware might mean something. "Are you going to answer him?" said Shif'less Sol. "Of course," replied Henry. "The others, especially Wyatt and Blackstaffe, might shoot."
"I hope the wind will continue to blow," said Jim Hart, gazing admiringly at Henry, "'cause ef it don't we'll then hev to git our oars an' row. An' it would spoil the purtiest picture uv a lazy feller I ever saw. Why, I never saw Shif'less Sol hisself look lazier or happier." Henry laughed. He knew that Jim Hart would have died in his defense. "I am lazy, Jim," he admitted.
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