THE WHITE STALLION Shif'less Sol led the way through the forest and four ghostly figures followed in single file.

They made no noise as they passed among the cypresses and magnolias, and oaks of the drooping foliage.

No one spoke, but the leader laughed more than once in his throat, a laugh which never passed the lips, but which was full of satisfaction nevertheless.

He felt that he, Solomon Hyde, nicknamed the shiftless one, had not lived in vain.
He had achieved the greatest triumph of a life already crowded with dangers and deeds.

To use the phrase of a later day, it was his crowded hour, and his four comrades gave him all the honor and glory of it.
They came presently to a still, dark channel of water, the bayou, and stopped on its bank.