Thus he mused till he grew weary as he sat hour after hour by the side
of that rigid thing, which had been his playmate, his brother, and his
friend. From time to time he rose and walked about the cave. As the
afternoon waned the air grew hotter and stiller, while a great cloud
gathered on the horizon.

"There will be thunder at sundown," said Leonard aloud; "I wish that
Otter would come back, so that we might get the funeral over; otherwise
we shall have to wait till to-morrow."

At length, about half an hour before nightfall, the dwarf appeared at
the mouth of the cave, looking more like a gnome than a man against the
lurid background of the angry sky. A buck was tied across his enormous
shoulders, and in his hand he held a large bunch of the fragrant
mountain lilies.

Then the two of them buried Thomas Outram, there in his lonely grave
which he himself had dug by the gully, and the roll of the thunder was
his requiem. It seemed a fitting termination to his stormy and laborious
life.



CHAPTER V

OTTER GIVES COUNSEL

When the burial was finished and Thomas Outram slept his last sleep
beneath six feet of earth and stones, his brother took out the
prayer-book that Jane Beach had given him, which in truth formed all his