After the feast was over and the guests had gone, he had found himself with her in a recessed window, looking down upon a carriage rolling away in the moonlight. He had taken her hands, and had compelled her gaze. She looked so fragile, so helpless, as he thought of his brother's carelessness and love of self, and he swore a solemn oath to stand ready to help her and to care for her, if ever need should be. Max, a little uncertain in speech and gait, had called her then, and Friedrich had ordered a horse, and had ridden recklessly into the forest--on and on and on. For a whole month he had endured the torture of greeting her calmly every morning, and of lifting her tiny white hand to his lips every night, and then he had decided that there was no reason for such crucifixion, and he had come to America. And in America he had met the princess--the splendid princess! The moon sank behind the mountains, and with its disappearance Friedrich slept. XVIII Business Plans Through the early morning's shifting mist--the haze that foretells a fine day--two men felt their way up the side of Buzzard Mountain. They followed no path,--indeed, there are few trails to follow,--but they climbed steadily on, as if they knew well their way, and as if speed were of importance. With all their perseverance they could not cover much ground, for the ascent is sharp enough to clutch the lungs, and the mist covered for them a world of stumbling-blocks. "H'm," grunted the leader, Pink Pressley. "They oughter be a black oak about here with a varmint hole in hit." He stopped and peered about him through the gloom, while Bud, his companion, took the opportunity to lay his burden upon the ground while he wiped his forehead with a blue handkerchief. He made no response to his friend's remarks, but wore the air of one who does what he is bid, and follows where he is led. Pink swung himself into motion again. "Ah reckon we ain' high enough, yet," he growled, and swore softly as he struck his foot against an unseen stone. "Hang ye, don' do that," he cried, angrily, as he heard the breaking of a branch behind him. "Why don' ye blaze yo' way right along, or mark yo' path with a rope? Do you wan' the whole settle-_ment_ follerin' us up here?" With praiseworthy discretion Bud still refrained from speech. A particularly steep bit of climbing silenced his companion as well. Yarebrough was the first to discover the landmark. "Is that the black oak?" he asked. "Where?" He pointed above them and a little to the right, to a veteran whose side had been cut by hunters for the discomfiture of a 'coon or 'possum that had taken refuge within. "Yep." They climbed to it, and both men set their heavy loads upon the ground. "Much further?" asked Bud. "No, come on. Sun'll be up soon 'n we'll be late gettin' down."