As he ran
toward the old spruce, he picked up a club that lay in the path.
This path was a faintly-worn trail where it entered the forest
beyond the spruce, very narrow, and with brush hanging close to
the sides of it, so that David knew it was not in general use and
that but few feet had ever used it. He followed swiftly, and in
five minutes came suddenly out into a great open thick with smoke,
and here he saw why Chateau Boulain would not burn. The break in
the forest was a clearing a rifle-shot in width, free of brush and
grass, and partly tilled; and it ran in a semi-circle as far as he
could see through the smoke in both directions. Thus had Black
Roger safeguarded his wilderness castle, while providing tillable
fields for his people; and as David followed the faintly beaten
path, he saw green stuffs growing on both sides of him, and
through the center of the clearing a long strip of wheat, green
and very thick. Up and down through the fog of smoke he could hear
voices, and he knew it was this great, circular fire-clearing the
people of Chateau Boulain were watching and guarding.
But he saw no one as he trailed across the open.
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