The lion was driven from my mind when I saw a troop of deer cross a glade below me. I had to fight myself to keep from shooting. The wind blew rather strong in my face, which probably accounted for the deer not winding me.
Then the whip-like crack of a rifle riveted me where I stood. One of the deer fell, and the others bounded away. I saw a tall man stride down the slope and into the glade. He was not like any of the loggers or lumbermen. They were mostly brawny and round-shouldered. This man was lithe, erect; he walked like athletes I had seen. Surely I should find a friend in him, and I lost no time in running down into the glade. He saw me as soon as I was clear of the trees, and stood leaning on his rifle.
“Wal, dog-gone my buttons!” he ejaculated. “Who're you?”
I blurted out all about myself, at the same time taking stock of him. He was not young, but I had never seen a young man so splendid. Hair, beard, and skin were all of a dark gray. His eyes, too, were gray—the keenest and clearest I had ever looked into. They shone with a kindly light, otherwise I might have thought his face hard and stern. His shoulders were very wide, his arms long, his hands enormous. His buckskin shirt attracted my attention to his other clothes, which looked like leather overalls or heavy canvas. A belt carried a huge knife and a number of shells of large caliber; the Winchester he had was exceedingly long and heavy, and of an old pattern. The look of him brought back my old fancy of Wetzel or Kit Carson.
“So I'm lost,” I concluded, “and don't know what to do. I daren't try to find the sawmill. I won't go back to Holston just yet.”
“An' why not, youngster? 'Pears to me you'd better make tracks from Penetier.”
I told him why, at which he laughed.
“Wal, I reckon you can stay with me fer a spell. My camp's in the head of this canyon.”
“Oh, thank you, that'll be fine!” I exclaimed. My great good luck filled me with joy. “Do you stay on the mountain?”
“Be'n here goin' on eighteen years, youngster. Mebbe you've heerd my name. Hiram Bent.”