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The river broadened, the blue of its waters deepened, and from the high ground on which they marched they could see the low banks on the farther shore, crowned by clustering thickets. Three men emerged from the undergrowth. They were Tom Ross, Shif'less Sol, and Long Jim Hart. The shiftless one looked lazy and careless, and Jim Hart, stretching himself, looked longer and thinner than ever.
Clear and smooth was gash after gash, cut in the bark, one above another, by Sol with his stout knife. "Every one o' them is a day," said Shif'less Sol, "an' to-day is the 24th of December. Now, what is to-morrow, Paul Cotter?" "The 25th of December Christmas Day." "An' oughtn't we to hev Christmas, too, even ef we are up here in the wild woods, all by ourselves? Don't this look like Christmas?"
Paul had done this with his hunting knife, and probably he had thrust one or more of the flowers into his buckskin hunting coat. When they crossed the flower field the trail was lost again. "Now," said Long Jim, "how are you goin' to tell what Paul wuz thinkin' when he wuz comin' 'long here?" Henry and Shif'less Sol wrinkled their brows in thought. "Paul was not wounded," he replied.
"The more I think about it, the more I think you're right. Anyhow it'll give us a better chance to get at Jim and Paul." "But we've got to play the Injuns' own game," said Shif'less Sol. "We must follow them a long time without lettin' them know we're on their track. Then they'll begin to go easy and won't keep much guard."
All danger and hardship were gone. He was surrounded by a ring of dauntless friends, and the fire glowed splendidly. Shif'less Sol sat down near him, and regarded him with the deepest sympathy, mingled with a certain amount of envy. "Paul," he said, "I wish I wuz in your place for an hour or two. They've jest got to wait on you.
"Hev a fish, Henry. You've traveled fur, an' I made up my mind from the fust that I'd offer refreshment an' the fat o' the water to anybody comin' to my house. We kin cook the turkey to-night, an' then eat him, too." He handed to Henry a fine specimen of lake trout, admirably broiled, and the boy ate hungrily. Shif'less Sol took another of the same kind and ate, also.
This house is intended for us only, and we don't want any wandering warriors, no matter what their nation, knocking at our doors." "Hurry," said Shif'less Sol. "I'm gittin' pow'ful sleepy." Henry led the way, and, as he did so, taking a comprehensive look at the heavens, he was glad for other reasons as well as safety that they had found their stone house in the hill.
"Paul," said Long Jim, "thar is one thing that you kin learn from Sol Hyde, an' that is how to be lazy. Uv course, Sol is lazy all the time, but it's a good thing to be lazy once in a while, ef you pick the right day." "You don't often tell the truth, Saplin'," said Shif'less Sol, "but you're tellin' it now. Paul, thar bein' nuthin' to do, I'm goin' to lay down ag'in an' go to sleep."
Both Henry and Shif'less Sol saw turkey signs, and their caution increased, when they noticed a dozen dusky figures of large birds on boughs near by, sure proof that the warriors would soon be somewhere in the neighborhood, if they were not so already.
The two ate the turkey between them, and Shif'less Sol, thumping his chest, said: "Now, let us set forth. It is Solomon Hyde hisself ag'in, an' he feels fit fur any task." They started about ten o'clock, curved around the lake, and traveled in a general northwesterly course.
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