All the little clouds swung together and made a big one that
covered nearly the whole sky. The air darkened rapidly. Thunder began to
growl and mutter and now and then emitted a sharp crash. Lightning cut the
heavens from zenith to horizon, and the forest would leap into the light,
standing there a moment, vivid, like tracery.
A blaze more brilliant than all the rest cleft wide the sky and, as they
looked toward the North, they saw directly in the middle of the flame a
black dot that had not been there before.
"He's coming," said Henry in the quiet tone that indicated nothing more
than a certainty fulfilled.
"Just in time to take a seat in our house," said the shiftless one.
Sol ran out and gave utterance to a long echoing cry that sounded like a
call. It was answered at once by the new black dot under the Northern
horizon, which was now growing fast in size, as it came on rapidly. It
took a human shape, and, thirty yards away, a fine, delicately-chiselled
face, the face of a scholar and dreamer, remarkable in the wilderness, was
revealed. The face belonged to a youth, tall and strong, but not so tall
and large as Henry.
"Here we are, Paul," said Shif'less Sol. "We've fixed fur you."
"And mighty glad I am to overtake you fellows," said Paul Cotter,
"particularly at this time.
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