The Keepers of the Trail: A Story of the Great WoodsAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Keepers of the Trail: A Story of the Great Woods
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Wilderness areas -- Fiction
It was the most brilliant part of the afternoon now. Nevertheless they
looked with a tinge of superstitious terror at the forests. The highly
imaginative mind of the Indian, clothes nearly all things with
personality, and for them an evil wind was blowing. The events of the
preceding night had been colored and enlarged by those who told them.
One or two had seen the form, gigantic and flaming-eyed, that had hung
upon their trail, and these warriors, fearing that they too might see
it, and in the open day, hung close as they bore their load of turkeys
back to the camp.
Henry did not awake until the west was growing dim, and then after the
fashion of the borderers he awoke all at once, that is, every nerve and
faculty was alive at the same time. Nothing had invaded his haunt in the
brushwood. His keen eyes showed him at once that no bush had been
displaced, and, with his rifle ready, he walked out into the opening.
He must get back into the little fortress that night. He had been gone
so long that Shif'less Sol and the others, although having the utmost
confidence in his powers, would begin to worry about him. Yet he knew
that it was unwise to approach the place until night came. Delay was all
the more necessary, because while he saw on the northern horizon the
smoke from the great camp, he saw also a smaller smoke rising from
another camp nearer their fortress. It was so near, in truth, that the
four must find it necessary to hide close within the walls.
The second smoke aroused Henry's apprehension. Perhaps a portion of the
camp had been moved forward merely to be nearer water or for some
kindred reason, but that did not keep it from being nearer the stone
fortress, nor from impeding his entrance into it. Yet he believed that
he could slip past. His skill had triumphed over greater tests.
After dark he began his journey, buoyant and strong from his long sleep,
and continued his wide circuit intending to approach his destination
from the west. Distance did not amount to much to the borderer, and his
long, easy gait carried him on, mile after mile.
It was another night, brilliant with moon and stars, and Henry was able
to see the larger trail of smoke still traced on the northern horizon.
His sense of direction was perfect, but he looked up now and then at the
smoky bar, always keeping it on his right, and three or four hours after
sunset he began to curve in towards his friends. The country into which
he had come was similar in character to that which he had left, heavy
forest, rolling hills and many creeks and brooks. He had never been in
that immediate region before, and he judged by the amount of game
springing up before him that it had not been visited by anybody in a
long time. It was always a cause of wonder to him that a region as large
as Kentucky, four fifths the size of all England, should be totally
without Indian inhabitants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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