My plans regarding the hunting of the little sable were surely thwarted, but it seemed to me that it would be a wise thing to lurk about for a time, if I could do so with safety, and so learn more fully what manner of people these were and how their advent on their southward march might possibly affect my clan. We surpassed them in numbers somewhat, but they were fierce of appearance and the men were all well armed. Their bows seemed better than ours, they were longer and heavier, and their spears were many of them made smooth, as I could see when the sun shone on them. These wanderers might be peaceful, but it was well that my clan should be prepared. Our oyster and mussel beds and excellent fishing grounds were prizes worth the taking, and peace between clans was a string of bark at best. Soon after a great number of the men of the camp--more than half of them--gathered in a body equipped for the hunt, and entered the forest toward the southwest. Evidently they were going to hunt on a large scale, as we sometimes did, extending a line in a great semicircle and bringing in the ends, thus enclosing whatever game might be near us in our front. That they would not hunt save at a long distance from the camp I knew, because the commotion there had driven the game away, and so I felt certain that they would not return until nearly nightfall. Many others of the men were fishing and there remained in the camp only a few of the less active, and the women and children. What a chance, I thought, for a surprise by an enemy! There was no longer such extreme need for caution in my movements, and so I wandered about through the forest, thinking that I might surprise a grouse or some other bird, to give variety to my supper. I was unsuccessful, and, wearied of the search, at last threw myself upon the ground in a little glade closely surrounded by trees and a thicket and entered only by a narrow pathway made by the creatures of the forest. I was soon asleep, for, necessarily, I had rested but little during the night. How long I slept I do not know, but I awoke with the feeling that something alive was near me, a faculty common to us people of the shore and woods, who must always be, even unknowingly, exerting our senses for safety’s sake. I rose slowly to my feet and stood facing the woman with the yellow hair whom I had seen talking with Horsen the night before! I think we were equally startled, but it was the maiden who spoke first. “Who are you?” she said. Her language was like my own, for only one speech was known along the coast, and I understood her readily, and understood, as well, that she was not afraid. I scarcely knew how to answer her. “I am a hunter,” I replied, “from a village two days to the south.” “Sit down,” she said, “and tell me about it.”