Having begun to plan he saw all the possibilities of the case and tried to provide for all.

He knew that if the wind should drive the flames into the drift the whole pile would be destroyed in a very brief time, but in that case, he reasoned, the black smoke of the resinous pine would make it impossible for the Indians to see very far in that direction, and so he resolved, if the worst came, to lead his companions out of the upper end of the hammock, into the bushes and so escape to the creek, where he hoped to find a hiding-place of some sort.

He had got this far in his planning when he heard Judie cough, and stepping quickly into the room found it full of smoke.

Seeing that to stay there was to suffocate, he beckoned his companions to follow, and stepping lightly they passed down the alley-way and sat down in one of the aisles, behind a great sycamore log which ran across the pile.

Peeping over this log Tom saw the three Indians shoulder their guns and walk away.