The hunter held in his hand a big roll of the inflammable paper-like bark of the white birch-tree, which he had brought in with him to kindle his fire, expecting that it had gone out during his absence. Seeing a glow still on the hearth, and feeling instantly that the cabin was tenanted, he had applied a match to his bark, causing the vivid flare which revealed him to the eyes of those who had longed for his presence.
“Herb Heal, man, is it you?” shouted Cyrus, his voice like a midnight joy-chime, as he sprang from the fir-boughs and gripped the woodsman’s arm. “I’m delighted to see you, though I was ready to swear you wouldn’t disappoint us! I didn’t fasten the cabin-door, for I thought you might possibly get back to camp during the night.”
“Cyrus, old fellow, how goes it?” was Herb’s greeting. “I had a’most given up looking for you. But I’m powerful glad you’ve got here at last.”
The hunter’s voice had still the quick snap and force which made it startling as a rifleshot when he entered the cabin.
“These are my friends, Neal and Adolphus Farrar,” said Cyrus, introducing the blanketed youths, who had now risen to their feet. “Boys, this is Herb Heal, our new guide, christened Herbert Healy—isn’t that so, Herb?”
“I reckon it is;” answered the young hunter, laughing. “But no woodsman could spring a sugary, city-sounding name like that on me. I’ve been Herb Heal from the day I could handle a rifle.”
He nodded pleasantly as he spoke to the strange lads, and began to chat with them in prompt familiarity, looking straight and strong as a young pine-tree in the halo of his birch torch. Garst, whose inches his juniors had hitherto coveted, was but a stripling beside Herb Heal.
“Is this your first trip into Maine woods, younkers?” he asked. “Well, I guess you’ve come to the right place for sport. I’m sorry I wasn’t on hand to welcome you when you arrived. A pretty forest guide you must have thought me. But I guess I’ll show you a sight to-morrow that’ll wipe out all scores.”
There was such triumph in the hunter’s eye that the voices of the trio blended into one as they breathlessly asked,—
“What sight is it?”