"Mind you don't fire unless it's at a bear.

I'll do the same." In a few minutes Hughie found himself alone in the thick underbrush of the swamp.

The shadows were lying heavy, and the sunlight that still caught the tops of the tall trees was quite lost in the gloom of the low underbrush.

Deep moss under foot, with fallen trees and thick-growing balsam and cedars, made the walking difficult, and every step Hughie wished himself out in the clearing.

He began to feel, too, the oppression of the falling darkness.