He dried it and rubbed it with care, but not with love, and then he stowed it away.
Next Wade unrolled his bed under the spruce, with one end of the tarpaulin resting on the soft mat of needles.

On top of that came the two woolly sheepskins, which he used to lie upon, then his blankets, and over all the other end of the tarpaulin.
This ended his tasks for the day.

He lighted his pipe and composed himself beside the camp-fire to smoke and rest awhile before going to bed.

The silence of the wilderness enfolded lake and shore; yet presently it came to be a silence accentuated by near and distant sounds, faint, wild, lonely--the low hum of falling water, the splash of tiny waves on the shore, the song of insects, and the dismal hoot of owls.
"Bill Belllounds--an' he needs a hunter," soliloquized Bent Wade, with gloomy, penetrating eyes, seeing far through the red embers.

"That will suit me an' change my luck, likely.