"Paul hez talked so much 'bout them old Romans wrapped in their togys that I feel like one now," he said, "an' I kin tell you I feel pow'ful fine, too. That wuz a cold rain an' a wet rain, an' the fire an' the food are mighty good, but it tickles me even more to know how them renegades an' warriors rage ag'inst us. I've a heap o' respeck fur Red Eagle an' Yellow Panther, who are great chiefs an' who are fightin' fur thar rights ez they see 'em, but the madder Blackstaffe an' Wyatt git the better I like it." "Me, too," said Silent Tom with emphasis, relapsing then into silence and his preoccupation with the buffalo steak. The shiftless one regarded him with a measuring gaze. "Tom," he said, "why can't you let a feller finish his dinner without chatterin' furever? I see the day comin' when you'll talk us all plum' to death." Silent Tom shook his head in dissent. He had exhausted speech. Paul, who had remained at the door, watching, announced an increase of rain and wind. Both were driving so hard that leaves and twigs were falling, and darkness as of twilight spread over the skies. The cold, although but temporary, was like that of early winter. "We needn't expect any attack now," said Henry. "Join us, Paul, around the fire, and we'll have a grand council, because we must decide how we're going to meet the great man hunt they're organizing for us." Paul left the cleft, and sat down on a doubled blanket with his back against the wall. He felt the full gravity of the crisis, knowing that hundreds of warriors would be put upon their trail, resolved never to leave the search until the five were destroyed, but he had full confidence in his comrades. In all the world there were not five others so fit to overcome the dangers of the woods, and so able to endure their hardships. "I suppose, Henry," said Paul, with his mind full of ancient lore, "now that the Roman Senate, or its successor, is in session you are its presiding officer." "If that's the wish of the rest of you," said Henry. "It is!" they said all together. Henry, like Paul, was sitting on his doubled blanket with his back against the stony wall. Jim Hart, his long legs crossed, occupied a similar position, and, by the flickering light of the fire, Shif'less Sol and Silent Tom, wrapped in their blankets, looked in truth like Roman senators. "Will you tell us, Henry, what you found out while we wuz away?" asked the shiftless one. Henry had made a scouting expedition while the two were gone for the powder and lead. "I made one journey across the Ohio," replied their chief, "and at night I went near a Shawnee village. Red Eagle was there, and so were Blackstaffe and Wyatt. Lying in the bushes near the fire by which they sat, I could catch enough of their talk to learn that the Shawnee and Miami nations are going to bend all their energies and powers to our destruction. That is settled."