“You assume a good deal to say that it was a squirrel and surely mind not eye would select the particular bough on which he sat.”

“No, Dagaeoga, eye served the whole purpose.  All the other branches are almost smothered in leaves, but the curved one is nearly bare.  It is only there that the casual glance of the Great Bear, who was not at that time seeking game, would have caught sight of the squirrel.  Also, he must have been there, otherwise his body could not have fallen directly beneath it, when the bullet went through his head.”

“Now tell me how your eye knows his body fell from the bough.”

“Ah, Dagaeoga!  Your eye was given to you for use as mine was given to me, then you should use it; in the forest you are lost unless you do.  It was my eye that saw the unmistakable sign, the sign from which all the rest followed.  Look closely and you will detect a little spot of red on the grass just beneath the bare bough.  It was blood from the squirrel.”

“You cannot be sure that it was a squirrel.  It might have been a pigeon or some other bird.”

“That, O, Dagaeoga, would be the easiest of all, even for you, if you could only use your eyes, as I bid you.  Almost at your feet lies a slender bone that cannot be anything but the backbone of a squirrel.  Beyond it are two other bones, which came from the same body.  We know as certainly that it was a squirrel as we know that the Great Bear ate first a wild goose, and then a wild duck.  But it is a good camp that those two great men made, and, as the night is coming, we will occupy it.”

They relighted the abandoned fire, warmed their food and ate, and Robert was once more devoutly glad that he had kept the heavy buffalo robe.  Deep fog came over the mountain soon after dark, and, after a while, a fine cold, and penetrating rain was shed from the heart of it.  They kept the fire burning and wrapped, Tayoga in his blankets, and, Robert in the robe, crouched before it.  Then they drew the logs that the Great Bear and Black Rifle had left, in such position that they could lean their backs against them, and slept, though not the two at the same time.  They agreed that it was wise to keep watch and Robert was sentinel first.

Tayoga, supported by the log, slept soundly, the flames illuminating his bronze face and showing the very highest type of the Indian.  Robert sat opposite, his rifle across his knees, but covered by his blanket to protect it from the fine rain, which was not only cold but insidious, trying to insert itself beneath his clothing and chill his body.  But he kept himself covered so well that none reached him, and the very wildness of his surroundings increased his sense of intense physical comfort.