He stopped, however, now and then and listened intently.
"I wonder whether I am mistaken, or whether I did hear something moving over the leaves out there ?" The fact that the almost inaudible rustling was noticed only when he himself was in motion inclined him to suspect it was a delusion, accounted for by his tense nerves.

But after a time he became certain of a fact hardly less startling in its nature.
When walking back and forth with his face away from the spot where his friends lay something gleamed a short distance off among the trees.

Its location showed it was on the ground, and, as nearly as he could judge, less than a hundred feet off.
His first supposition was that it was a fungus growth known in the country as "foxfire," which gives out a phosphorescent glow in the darkness; but after watching and studying it for a long time, he was convinced it was something else.
"I'm going to find out," he decided; "it won't take me long, and I ought to know all about it, for it may concern us." Stealing forward, he was not a little astonished to find it a real fire, sunken to a glowing ember, left by someone.
"It must be as Zitner said--the woods are full of Indians, and some of them have camped there." Not wishing to stumble over any of their bodies, he manoeuvred until assured that whoever kindled the fire had left, when he kicked aside the ashes.
The act caused a twist of flame to spring up and throw out a tiny glare, which illumined several feet of surrounding space.
And then the astonished youth made the discovery that this was the very spot where they had cooked their turkey hours before, and from which they had fled in hot haste before the approach of the three Iroquois.
He and his friends had travelled in a circle, and come back to their starting point..