Guided by his compass he pursued his lonely way through the forest until sundown, and then looked about for some snug spot in which to pass the night.
It was cold enough to render a fire almost a necessity, but, although he had a well-equipped tinder-box, he did not attempt to make a blaze, lest it should betray him to some skulking Indians.
A small portion of ox tongue, cold and tasteless, served him for supper, and he lay down on some moss at the roots of a big tree to pass the long hours of the night as best he could.
The cold chilled him to the marrow, and hunger gnawed at his vitals. The forest that was so silent during the day now gave forth sinister sounds as the birds and beasts of prey hunted eagerly for victims. First far off and then nearer, one answering to another, the blood-curdling howl of wolves echoed through the darkness, and Seth, shivering with cold, hugged his trusty gun tightly, and hoped that the fierce brutes would not scent him.
He wondered where the others were, and what distance separated him from them. If only Reuben were with him, his situation would not be quite so miserable; but Reuben had taken a southerly direction, and was no doubt miles away at the moment.
The horrid howling of the wolves drew nearer, and the unpleasant conviction began to force itself upon him that they had found him out and were of a mind to hold a nocturnal banquet on his body.
"They'll have to pay dearly for their supper," he soliloquized grimly, "for I'll kill as many of them as I can first, but if the pack is a big one, they're bound to get me in the end, unless"—and at the idea his heart leaped and the blood coursed warmly through his veins—"I keep them off with a big fire. I'll do it and risk the Indians being round."
With trembling fingers he went to work and, of course, the first attempts to light the dry moss with a spark from his tinder-box failed, but he tried again and again, and at last succeeded in starting a tiny flame, which he sedulously fanned into a blaze.
There was no lack of fuel at hand, and, piling this on, he presently had a glowing fire, that lit up the far-reaching forest aisles, and revealed the proximity of the wolves by being reflected in their gleaming eyeballs.
"Just in time!" he ejaculated fervently. "They'll keep their distance so long as the fire lasts, but if it goes out, they'll be on me quick."