The camp was hardly yet astir, although Burly Bill was looming between the lads and the light as they stood with honest Brawn in the big tent doorway. Over his head rose a huge cloud of fragrant smoke, while ever and anon a gleam from the bowl of his meerschaum lit up his good-humoured face.
It had not taken the lads long to dress, and now they sauntered out.
The first faint light of the dawning day was already beginning to pale the stars. Soon the sun himself, red and rosy, would sail up from his bed behind the far green forest.
"Bill!"
"Hillo! Good-morning to you both! I've been up for hours."
"And we could not sleep for--thinking. But I say, Bill, I think Benee has good news. I'm burning to hear it, and so is Dick here, but it would be downright mean to wake the poor fellow till he is well rested. So, for fear we should seem too inquisitive, or too squaw-like, we're off with bold Brawn here for a walk. Yes, we are both armed."
When the lads came back in about two hours' time, they found Benee up and dressed and seated on the grass at breakfast.
When I say he was dressed I allude to the fact that he very much needed dressing, for his garments were in rags, his blanket in tatters. But he had taken the clothes Bill provided for him, and gone straight to the river for a wash and a swim.
He looked quite the old Benee on his return.
"Ah!" said Bill, "you're smiling, Benee. I know you have good news."