CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGE I. HENRY IN HIS KINGDOM 1 II. THE BIG GUNS 23 III. THE INDIAN CAMP 41 IV. THE DEED IN THE WATER 61 V. THE FOREST JOKER 83 VI. THE KING WOLF 101 VII. THE FOREST POETS 123 VIII. THE PATH OF DANGER 140 IX. THE KEEPERS OF THE CLEFT 164 X. BESIEGED 187 XI. THE SHIFTLESS ONE 207 XII. ON THE GREAT TRAIL 230 XIII. FIVE AGAINST A THOUSAND 251 XIV. HOLDING THE FORD 270 XV. THE GREAT CULMINATION 293THE KEEPERS OF THE TRAILCHAPTER IHENRY IN HIS KINGDOMA light wind blew over the great, primeval wilderness of Kentucky, thedense, green foliage rippling under it like the waves of the sea. Inevery direction forest and canebrake stretched in countless miles, thetrees, infinite in variety, and great in size, showing that Nature hadworked here with the hand of a master. Little streams flashing in silveror gold in the sunlight, flowed down to the greater rivers, and on abush a scarlet tanager fluttered like a flash of flame.A youth, uncommon in size and bearing, stepped into a little opening,and looked about with the easy, natural caution belonging to the nativeof the forest who knows that danger is always near. His eyes pierced thefoliage, and would have noticed anything unusual there, his ear was sokeen that he would have heard at once any sound not a part of the woods.Eye and ear and the indefinable powers of primitive man told him noenemy was at hand, and he stood on the green hill, breathing the fresh,crisp air, with a delight that only such as he could feel. Mighty wasthe wilderness, majestic in its sweep, and depth of color, and the lonehuman figure fitted into it perfectly, adding to it the last andfinishing touch.He blended, too, with the forest. His dress, wholly of fine, tanneddeerskin, was dyed green, the hunting shirt fringed, hunting shirt,leggings and moccasins alike adorned with rows of little beads. Fittingthus so completely into his environment, the ordinary eye would not haveobserved him, and his footsteps were so light that the rabbits in thebush did not stir, and the flaming bird on the bough was not frightened.Henry Ware let the stock of his rifle rest upon the ground and held itby the barrel, while he gazed over the green billows of the forest,rolling away and away to every horizon. He was a fortunate human beingwho had come into his own kingdom, one in which he was fitted supremelyto reign, and he would not have exchanged his place for that of anytitular sovereign on his throne.