He had found the place that nature intended for him. He was here the
wilderness rover, hunter and scout, the border champion and defender,
the primitive founder of a state, without whom, and his like, our Union
could never have been built up. Henry gloried in the wilderness and
loved its life which was so easy to him. Paul, the boy of thought, was
always looking into the future, and already he foresaw what would come
to pass in a later generation.
Neither spoke, and presently, by the same impulse, they started on
again, descending the low hill, and plunging once more into the forest.
When they had gone about half a mile, Henry stopped suddenly. His
wonderful physical organism, as sensitive as the machinery of a watch,
had sounded an alarm. A faint sound, not much more than the fall of a
dying leaf, came to his ears and he knew at once that it was not a
natural noise of the forest. He held up his hand and stopped, and Paul,
who trusted him implicitly, stopped also. Henry listened intently with
ears that heard everything, and the sound came to him again. It was a
footfall. A human being, besides themselves, was near in the forest!
"Come, Paul," he said, and he began to creep toward the sound, the two
darting from tree to tree, and making no noise among the fallen leaves,
as they brushed past, with their soft moccasins.
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