“Henry an’ Sol an’ Tom are free,” said Long Jim.  “They’ll git us out, shore.”

They remained a long time undisturbed, and the air in the room was so close and hot that both became languorous and sleepy.  Nor was there any sound except the droning of some flies overhead and this added to the heaviness.  Paul finally rose and gazed through the little windows, but he saw only an empty field and the edge of the forest.  Save for this glimpse of green they were completely cut off from the world.  He sat down again on the floor and composed his figure as comfortably as he could.

“How long do you think we hev been in here, Paul?” asked Long Jim.

“About four hours.”

“Four hours! why, I thought it wuz four months.  Paul, I don’t believe I could stand this more’n a week, no matter ef they fed me upon the finest things in the land.  At the end uv a week I’d turn right over an’ die, an’ when they examined me to see the cause uv my death, they’d find that my heart wuz broke in two, right squar’ down the middle.”

“They say that some wild animals die in captivity, and you might call it of a broken heart.”

“I’m one uv them kind.  I like lots uv room.  I want it to be clean woods an’ prairie runnin’ a thousan’ miles from me in every direction.  An’ I don’t want too many people trampin’ ‘roun’ in them woods either, save Injuns to keep you lookin’ lively, an’ mebbe twenty or thirty white men purty well scattered.  I reckon I’d call that my estate, Paul, an’ I’d want it swarmin’ with b’ars an’ buffaler an’ deer, an’ all kinds uv big an’ little game.  Then I’d want a couple uv good rifles, one to take the place uv tother when it went bad, an’ a couple uv huts p’raps three or four hundred miles apart to sleep in, when the weather wuz too tarnation bad, lots uv ammunition an’, Paul, I’d be happy on that thar estate uv mine.”

“Aren’t you a little bit grasping, Jim?” asked Paul.

“Me, graspin’,” replied Long Jim in a surprise.  “What makes you ask sech a foolish question, Paul?  Why, all I ask is to range ez fur an’ ez long ez I like an’ not to be bothered by no interlopers.  I don’t want to crowd nobody, an’ I don’t want nobody to crowd me.  But, Paul, ef a feller could do that fur about a thousand years wouldn’t it be a life wuth livin’?  Just think uv all the deer hunts an’ buffaler hunts an’ b’ar hunts you could hev!  An’ the long beaver trappin’ trips, you could go on?  An’ the new rivers an’ new mountings you could find!  The Injuns has the right idea about Heaven, Paul.  They make it the happy huntin’ grounds.  Them huntin’ grounds o’ theirs run ten million miles in every direction.  You couldn’t ever come to any end.  No matter how fur you went you’d see oceans uv green trees ahead uv you, an’ on one side uv you prairies covered with buffaler herds so big that they’d be a week passin’ you, an’ then they’d still be passin’.”

Long Jim heaved a deep sigh and was silent for a while.  Paul, too, was silent.  At last Long Jim said: