It threw a glow across the faces of the two boys, who slept, the one lying upon the bed and the other sitting in the chair, with the rifle between his knees.

It was a scene possible only in the great wilderness of _Kain-tuck-ee_.
Meanwhile word was sent by unknown code through the surrounding forest to all its inhabitants that a great and portentous event had occurred.

Not long before they had welcomed the departure of the strange intruder, who had come and cut down the forest and built the house.

Then, with the instinct that leaped into the future, they saw the forest and themselves claiming their own again; the clearing would soon be choked with weeds and bushes, the trees would grow up once more, the cabin would rot and its roof fall, and perhaps the bear or the panther would find a cozy lair among its timbers.
Now the strange intruders had come again.

The fox, creeping to the edge of the clearing, saw with his needlelike eyes a red gleam through the chinks of the cabin.