The path led straight to the cabin, and the panther trod it on noiseless pads, his eyes glowing, and hunger attacking him all the more fiercely because, mingled with the strange, new odor now came many odors that he knew, and all pleasant—­odor of buffalo and deer and others—­and he was very, very hungry.

He went down the path to the door of the cabin, and halted a moment there.  A red gleam, a glow from the bed of coals, came through a chink beside the door, and it filled his heart with terror.  He shivered, and fear drew a low growl from him.

One of the five sleepers inside stirred and sat up.  He listened and heard a heavy breathing at the door.  Then he arose, took a brand from the fire, stepped noiselessly to the door, and, opening it, rushed out, waving the burning brand in front of him.  The panther, stricken with frightful panic, fled down the path, and then over the lake into the woods on the mainland.  Henry Ware, laughing silently, returned to the cabin and lay down to sleep again beside his comrades, who had slept on, undisturbed.

CHAPTER XVII

FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW

The singular existence of the five in the little hollow in the haunted island endured much longer.  The great cold had come early, and it held the earth fast in its grasp.  The ice grew thicker on the lake beneath the snow, and winds that would freeze one to the marrow swept over its surface.  Fortunately, there was plenty of fallen wood on the island, and they never allowed the fire in Hart’s furnace to go out.  They never built it up high, but a bed of coals was always smoldering there, sending out grateful light and heat.

Henry and Ross scouted at intervals, but only as a matter of habit rather than necessary precaution.  They knew that the danger of an attack at such a time had decreased to the vanishing point.  Now Paul became for a while the central figure of what he called their little colony.  His mental resources were in great demand, and for the sake of his comrades he drew willingly upon his stores of learning.  In the evening, when they were all sitting before the coals, and could just see one another’s faces in the faint light, Paul would tell what he had read about other times and other lands.  He knew the outlines of ancient history, and the victories of Hannibal, Alexander, and Caesar suffered nothing at his hands, though Alexander, as before, was condemned by Shif’less Sol and Ross.  Paul, moreover, had both the dramatic and poetic sense, and he made these far-away heroes, of whom Jim Hart had never heard before, actually live in the little cabin.

“It ’pears to me,” said Shif’less Sol reflectively, “that that feller Hannibal wuz jest about the finest fighter o’ them all.  Ef, ez you say, Paul, he had to hire all kinds o’ strangers an’ barbarians, too, like the red Injuns out thar in the woods, an’ lead sech a mixed lot up ag’in the Romans, who were no slouches in a fracas, an’ whip ’em over an’ over ag’in, on thar own groun’, too, then I call him about the smartest o’ all them old fellers.  But he shore had the luck ag’in’ him, an’ I admire the man who kin stan’ up an’ fight the odds.”