"They may not want us."

"Always want scouts," replied the Indian.

"It seems to me I ought to start training now."

"You have been training."

"How is that?"

"A scout is everything that an army is, but it's all in one man.
An' he don't have to keep step."

"I see, I see," replied Rolf, and he realized that a scout is
merely a trained hunter who is compelled by war to hunt his
country's foes instead of the beasts of the woods.

"See that?" said the Indian, and he pointed to a buck that was
nosing for cranberries in the open expanse across the river where
it left the lake. "Now, I show you scouting." He glanced at the
smoke from the fire, found it right for his plan, and said: "See!
I take my bow. No cover, yet I will come close and kill that
deer."

Then began a performance that was new to Rolf, and showed that
the Indian had indeed reached the highest pitch of woodcraft. He
took his bow and three good arrows, tied a band around his head,
and into this stuck a lot of twigs and vines, so that his head
looked like a tussock of herbage. Then he left the shanty door,