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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Troop One of the Labrador, by Dillon Wallace
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Troop One of the Labrador
+
+Author: Dillon Wallace
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16048]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TROOP ONE OF THE LABRADOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Wallace McLean, Diane Monico, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TROOP ONE OF THE LABRADOR
+
+
+
+
+_The Talbot Baines Series_
+
+With fine attractive new wrappers
+
+
+THE FIFTH FORM AT ST. DOMINIC'S. By Talbot Baines Reed
+THE ADVENTURES OF A THREE-GUINEA WATCH. By Talbot Baines Reed
+THE COCK-HOUSE AT FELLSGARTH. By Talbot Baines Reed
+A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. By Talbot Baines Reed
+THE MASTER OF THE SHELL. By Talbot Baines Reed
+THE SCHOOL GHOST, AND BOYCOTTED. By Talbot Baines Reed
+THE SILVER SHOE. By Major Charles Gilson
+THE TREASURE OF TREGUDDA. By Argyll Saxby
+THE TWO CAPTAINS OF TUXFORD. By Frank Elias
+THE RIDERS FROM THE SEA. By G. Godfray Sellick
+A SON OF THE DOGGER. By Walter Wood
+A FIFTH FORM MYSTERY. By Harold Avery
+A SCOUT OF THE '45. By E. Charles Vivian
+FROM SLUM TO QUARTER-DECK. By Gordon Stables
+COMRADES UNDER CANVAS. By F.P. Gibbon
+
+(_For Complete List see Catalogue_)
+
+OF All BOOKSELLERS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: IT WAS DR. JOE BEYOND A DOUBT!]
+
+
+
+
+TROOP ONE OF THE LABRADOR
+
+BY
+
+DILLON WALLACE
+
+AUTHOR OF "GRIT-A-PLENTY," "THE RAGGED INLET GUARDS," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+THE "BOY'S OWN PAPER" OFFICE
+4 BOUVERIE STREET AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, E.C.4
+
+
+MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN
+_Printed by_
+UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED
+LONDON AND WOKING
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                   Page
+
+I. DOCTOR JOE, SCOUTMASTER            9
+
+II. PLANS                            37
+
+III. "'TIS THE GHOST OF LONG JOHN"   51
+
+IV. SHOT FROM BEHIND                 63
+
+V. LEM HORN'S SILVER FOX             71
+
+VI. THE TRACKS IN THE SAND           94
+
+VII. THE MYSTERY OF THE BOAT        109
+
+VIII. TRAILING THE HALF-BREED       120
+
+IX. ELI SURPRISES INDIAN JAKE       126
+
+X. THE END OF ELI'S HUNT            135
+
+XI. THE LETTER IN THE CAIRN         147
+
+XII. THE HIDDEN CACHE               165
+
+XIII. SURPRISED AND CAPTURED        179
+
+XIV. THE TWO DESPERADOS             192
+
+XV. MISSING!                        198
+
+XVI. BOUND AND HELPLESS             206
+
+XVII. LOST IN A BLIZZARD            220
+
+XVIII. A PLACE TO "BIDE"            232
+
+XIX. SEARCHING THE WHITE WILDERNESS 240
+
+XX. "WOLVES!" YELLED ANDY           251
+
+XXI. THE ALARM IN THE NIGHT         259
+
+XXII. THE IMMUTABLE LAW OF GOD      268
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+IT WAS DR. JOE BEYOND A DOUBT!     _Frontispiece_
+
+                                     Facing Page
+STRETCHED UPON THE FLOOR LAY LEM HORN         70
+
+ON THE RIGHT SEETHED THE DEVIL'S TEA
+  KETTLE                                     104
+
+"YOU STAND WHERE YOU IS AND DROP YOUR
+  GUN!"                                      132
+
+IT WAS A FIGHT TO THE DEATH                  260
+
+
+
+
+Troop One of the Labrador
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+DOCTOR JOE, SCOUTMASTER
+
+
+"Doctor Joe! Doctor Joe's comin'! He just turned the p'int!"
+
+Jamie Angus burst into the cabin at The Jug breathlessly shouting this
+joyful news, and then rushed out again with David and Andy at his
+heels.
+
+"Oh, Doctor Joe! It can't be Doctor Joe, now! Can it, Pop? It must be
+some one else Jamie sees! It can't be Doctor Joe, _what_ever!"
+exclaimed Margaret in a great flutter of excitement.
+
+"Jamie's keen at seein'! He'd know anybody as far as he can see un!"
+assured Thomas, no less excited at the news than was Margaret. "But
+'tis strange that he's comin' back so soon!"
+
+Of course Margaret, who was laying the table for supper, must needs
+follow the boys; and Thomas, who was leaning over the wash basin
+removing the grime of the day's toil, snatched the towel from its peg
+behind the door and, drying his hands as he ran, sacrificing dignity
+to haste, followed Margaret, who had joined the three boys at the end
+of the jetty which served as a boat landing.
+
+A skiff had just entered the narrow channel which connected The Jug,
+as the bight where the Anguses lived was called, with the wider waters
+of Eskimo Bay. There could be no doubt, even at that distance, that
+the tall man standing aft and manipulating the long sculling oar, was
+Doctor Joe. As the little group gathered on the jetty he took off his
+hat and waved it high above his head. It was Doctor Joe beyond a
+doubt! The boys waved their caps and shouted at the top of their lusty
+young lungs, Margaret, undoing her apron, waved it and added her voice
+to the chorus, and Thomas, quite carried away by the excitement, waved
+the towel and in a great bellowing voice shouted a louder welcome than
+any of them.
+
+There was no happier or better contented family on all The Labrador
+than the family of Thomas Angus, though they had their trials and ups
+and downs and worries like any other family in or out of Labrador.
+
+"Everybody must expect a bit o' trouble and worry now and again,"
+Thomas would say when things did not go as they should. "If we never
+had un, and livin' were always fine and clear, we'd forget to be
+thankful for our blessin's. We has t' have a share o' trouble in our
+lives, and here and there a hard knock whatever, t' know how fine the
+good things are and rightly enjoy un when they come. And in the end
+troubles never turn out as bad as we're expectin', by half. First and
+last there's a wonderful sight more good times than bad uns for all of
+us."
+
+Thomas had reason to be proud and thankful. Jamie could see as well as
+ever he could, and it was all because of Doctor Joe and his wonderful
+operation on Jamie's eyes when it seemed certain the lad was to become
+blind. Through the skill of Doctor Joe, Jamie's eyes were every whit
+as keen as David's and Andy's, and there were no keener eyes in the
+Bay than theirs.
+
+David was now nearly seventeen and Andy was fifteen--brawny,
+broad-shouldered lads who had already faced more hardships and had
+more adventures to their credit than fall to many a man in a whole
+lifetime. In that brave land adventures are to be found at every turn.
+They bob up unexpectedly, and the man or boy who meets them
+successfully must know the ways of the wilderness and must be
+self-reliant and resourceful, must have grit a-plenty and a stout
+heart.
+
+Margaret kept house for the little family, a responsibility that had
+been thrust upon her, and which she cheerfully accepted, when her
+mother was laid to rest and she was a wee lass of twelve. Now she was
+eighteen and as tidy and cheerful a little housekeeper as could be
+found on the coast, and pretty too, in manner as well as in feature.
+"'Tis the manner that counts," said Thomas, and he declared that there
+was no prettier lass to be found on the whole Labrador.
+
+Doctor Joe, whose real name was Joseph Carver, was their nearest
+neighbour at Break Cove, ten miles down Eskimo Bay. He had come to the
+coast nine years before, a mysterious stranger, nervous and broken in
+health. Thomas gave him shelter at The Jug, helped him build his
+cabin at Break Cove and taught him the ways of the land and how to set
+his traps. Doctor Joe became a trapper like his neighbours, and in
+time, with wholesome living in the out-of-doors, regained his health
+and came to love his adopted country and its rugged life.
+
+No one knew then that Joseph Carver was indeed a doctor, but he was so
+handy with bandages and medicines that the folk of the Bay recognized
+his skill and soon fell, by common consent, to calling him "Doctor
+Joe."
+
+It was a year before our story begins that Jamie had first complained
+of a mist in his eyes. With passing weeks the mist thickened, and one
+day Doctor Joe examined the eyes and announced that only a delicate
+and serious operation could save the lad's sight. This demanded that
+Jamie be taken to a hospital in New York where a specialist might
+operate. It was an expensive undertaking. Neither Thomas nor Doctor
+Joe had the necessary money, but Thomas hoped to realize enough from
+his winter's trapping in the interior and Doctor Joe was to add the
+proceeds of his own winter's work to the fund. Then Thomas broke his
+leg. Doctor Joe must needs remain at The Jug to care for him, and
+there seemed no hope for Jamie but a life of darkness.
+
+But David was confident that he could take his father's place on the
+trails, and with some persuasion, for the need was desperate, Thomas
+consented that David and Andy should spend the winter in the great
+interior wilderness with no other companion than Indian Jake, a
+half-breed.
+
+That was an experience needing the stoutest heart. Through long dreary
+months they faced the sub-arctic cold and fearful blizzards that swept
+the wilderness, following silent trails over wide white wastes or
+through the depths of dark forests, and falling upon many a wild
+adventure that tried their mettle a hundred times. It was a man's job,
+but they both made good, and that is something to be proud of--to make
+good at the job you tackle.
+
+Jamie had pluck too, but pluck alone could not save his eyes. The mist
+thickened more rapidly than Doctor Joe had expected it would, and
+there came a time when Jamie could scarcely see at all. Then it was
+that Doctor Joe announced one day before the return of David and Andy
+from the trails, that the operation could be no longer delayed if
+Jamie's eyesight was to be saved, and that to attempt to delay it
+until the ice cleared from the coast and the mail boat came to bear
+him away to New York would be fatal.
+
+After making this announcement, Doctor Joe revealed the fact that he
+had once been a great eye surgeon. With Thomas's consent he offered to
+perform the operation on Jamie's eyes. Thomas had unbounded faith in
+his friend. Doctor Joe operated and Jamie's sight was saved.
+
+In curing Jamie, Doctor Joe discovered that he himself was cured, and
+that he was again in possession of all his former skill. It was quite
+natural, therefore, that he should wish to resume the practice of
+surgery. He was an indifferent trapper, and the living that he made
+following the trails amounted to a bare existence. He decided,
+therefore, that it was his duty to himself to return to the work for
+which, during long years of study, he had been trained.
+
+Six weeks before Doctor Joe had sailed away on the mail boat from Fort
+Pelican, bound for New York, that far distant, mysterious, wonderful
+city of which he had told so many marvellous tales. Thomas had grave
+doubts that they would ever see him again, though he had said that he
+would some day return to visit his friends at The Jug and to see his
+own little deserted cabin at Break Cove, where he had spent so many
+lonely but profitable years, for it was here that he had rebuilt his
+broken health. He had good reason to love the place, and he was quite
+sure he had no better or truer friends in all the world than Thomas
+Angus and his family.
+
+"Thomas," said he at parting, "if I had the means to support myself I
+would stay here on The Labrador and be doctor to the people that need
+me, for there are folk enough that need a doctor's help up and down
+the coast. But I'm a poor man, and if I stopped here I'd have to make
+my living as a trapper, and you know how poor a trapper I've been all
+these years. Back in New York I can do much good, and there I can live
+as I was reared to live. But I'll not forget you, Thomas, and some day
+I'll come to see you."
+
+"I'm not doubtin' 'tis best you go and the Lord's will," said Thomas.
+"But we'll be missin' you sore, Doctor Joe. I scarce knows how we'll
+get on without you. 'Twill seem strange--almost like you were dead,
+I'm fearin'."
+
+"Thomas," and Doctor Joe's voice trembled with emotion, "there's no
+one in the wide world nearer my affections than you and the boys and
+Margaret. It hurts me to go, but it's best I should. I might scratch
+along here for a few years, but I was not born to the work and the
+time would come when I'd be a burden on some one, and it would make me
+unhappy. I know that I'll wish often enough to be back here with you
+at The Jug."
+
+"You'd never be a burden, _what_ever!" Thomas declared, quite shocked
+at the suggestion. "I feels beholden to you, Doctor Joe. There's nary
+a thing I could ever do to make up to you for savin' Jamie's eyes. You
+made un as good as new. He'd ha' been stone blind now if 'tweren't for
+you--and the mercy o' God."
+
+"The mercy of God," Doctor Joe repeated reverently.
+
+And here at the end of six weeks was Doctor Joe back again. What
+wonder that Thomas Angus and his family were quite beside themselves
+with joy, shouting themselves hoarse down there on the jetty.
+
+And presently, when the skiff drew alongside, and Doctor Joe stepped
+out upon the jetty, he was quite overwhelmed with the welcome he
+received.
+
+"Well, Thomas," he said as they walked up to the cabin with Jamie
+clinging to one of his hands and Andy to the other, "here I am back
+again, as you see. I couldn't stay away from you dear, good people. I
+may as well confess, I was homesick for you before I reached New York,
+and I'm back to stay. I found my fortune had been made while I was
+here, and now I can do as I please."
+
+"Oh, that's fine now!" exclaimed Margaret. "'Tis fine if you're to
+stay!"
+
+"We were missin' you sore," said Thomas. "'Tis like the Lord's
+blessin' to have you back at The Jug!"
+
+"And there's good old Roaring Brook!" Doctor Joe stopped for a moment
+with half closed eyes, to listen to the rush of water over the rocks,
+where Roaring Brook tumbled down into The Jug. "It's the sweetest
+music I've heard since I left here! And the smell of the spruce trees!
+And such a scene! Thomas, my friend, it's a rugged land where we live,
+but it's God's own land, just as He made it, beautiful, and undefiled
+by man!"
+
+Doctor Joe turned about and stretched his right arm toward the south.
+Before them lay the shimmering placid waters of The Jug, reaching away
+to join the wider, greater waters of Eskimo Bay. In the distance,
+beyond the Bay, the snow-capped peaks of the Mealy Mountains stood in
+silent majesty, now reflecting the last brilliant rays of the setting
+sun. As they tarried, watching them, the light faded and shafts of
+orange and red rose out of the west. The waters became a throbbing
+expanse of colour, and the woods on the Point, at the entrance to The
+Jug, sank into purple.
+
+"'Tis a bit of the light of heaven that the Lord lets out of evenin's
+for us to see," said Jamie, and perhaps Jamie was right.
+
+"You must be rare hungry, now," observed Thomas, as they entered the
+cabin. "Margaret were just puttin' supper on when Jamie sights you
+turnin' the P'int. 'Twill be ready in a jiffy."
+
+"What have you got for us, Margaret?" asked Doctor Joe. "I believe I
+am hungry for the good things you cook."
+
+"Fried trout, sir," said Margaret.
+
+"Fried trout!" Doctor Joe rolled his eyes in mock ecstasy. "It
+couldn't have been better!"
+
+"You always says that, whatever," laughed Margaret. "If 'twere just
+bread and tea I'm thinkin' you'd like un fine."
+
+"But trout!" exclaimed Doctor Joe. "Why, fresh trout are worth five
+dollars a pound where I've been--and couldn't be had for that!"
+
+"Well, now!" said Margaret in astonishment. "And we has un so
+plentiful!"
+
+David lighted a lamp and Thomas renewed the fire, which crackled
+cheerily in the big box stove, while everybody talked excitedly and
+Margaret set on the table a big dish of smoking fried trout, a heaping
+plate of bread, and poured the tea.
+
+"Set in! Set in, Doctor Joe!" Thomas invited.
+
+And when they drew up to the table, with Thomas at one end and
+Margaret at the other, and Doctor Joe and Jamie at Thomas's right, and
+David and Andy at his left, Thomas devoutly gave thanks for the return
+of their friend and asked a blessing upon the bounty provided.
+
+"Help yourself, now, and don't be afraid of un," Thomas admonished,
+passing the dish of trout to Doctor Joe.
+
+"A real banquet," Doctor Joe declared, as he helped himself
+liberally. "I've eaten in some fine places since I've been away, but
+I've had no such feast as this! And there's no one in the whole world
+can fry trout like Margaret!"
+
+"You always says that, sir," and Margaret's face glowed with pleasure
+at the compliment.
+
+"'Tis true!" declared Doctor Joe. "'Tis true!"
+
+"I'm wonderin' now about the trout," remarked David.
+
+"What are you wondering?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"How folks get along with no trout to eat off where you've been, sir."
+
+"There are men who go far out from the city and fish in the streams
+for trout, just for the sport of catching them," explained Doctor Joe.
+"They will tramp all day along brooks, and feel lucky if they catch a
+dozen little fellows so small we'd not look at them here. But it is
+only the few who do it for sport that ever get any at all, and there
+are hundreds of people there who never even saw a trout, they catch so
+very few of them."
+
+"'Twould seem like a waste o' time," remarked Thomas, "if they
+catches so few. I'd never walk all day for a dozen trout unless I was
+wonderful hard up for grub. If I were wantin' fish so bad I'd set a
+net for whitefish or salmon, or if there were cod grounds about I'd
+gig for cod, though salmon or cod or whitefish would never be takin'
+the place o' good fresh trout with me."
+
+"It's not altogether for the trout the sportsmen tramp the streams all
+day," laughed Doctor Joe. "They prize the trout they get as a great
+delicacy, to be sure, but it's the joy of getting out into the open
+that pays them for the effort. I've done it myself. They get plenty of
+sea fish, they buy them at the shops."
+
+"I never were thinkin' o' that," said Thomas. "I'm thinkin', now,
+that's where all the salmon we salts down and sells to the Post goes."
+
+The boys were vastly interested, and asked many questions, which
+Doctor Joe answered with infinite patience, concerning the various
+kinds of fish people bought in the shops, and how the fish were caught
+and shipped to the shops to be sold fresh.
+
+"And you'll stay now? You'll not be leavin' The Labrador again?"
+asked Thomas, after supper.
+
+"Aye," said Doctor Joe, "I've elected to be a Labradorman." Then,
+turning to the boys, he suggested:
+
+"Lads, there are a lot of things in that skiff of mine. I wish you'd
+bring them in. Will you do it while your father and I visit?"
+
+The boys were not only glad but eager to do it, for there were
+doubtless many surprises for themselves in the skiff, and with one
+accord the three hurried out.
+
+"Years ago, Thomas," said Doctor Joe, when the boys were gone, "in my
+days in New York, I invested a little money in a mining property.
+Shortly after I made the investment it was said the ore had run out,
+and I believed my money was lost. When I returned to New York this
+summer I found that more ore had been found later, and the mine had
+earned me a lot of money. I invested what was due to me in such a way
+that it will bring me an income each year sufficient to provide me
+with all I shall ever need."
+
+"Oh, but that's fine now!" said Thomas.
+
+"Thomas," Doctor Joe continued "I should not have been able to enjoy
+this had it not been for your kindness to me years ago, when I came
+first to The Labrador a man of broken health. If you had not offered
+me your friendship then I should have died an invalid in poverty.
+
+"I've thought of this a thousand times. I believe God sent me here. I
+only knew then that I came because I sought a secluded spot on the
+earth where I could find relief from turmoil. Now, I believe He guided
+me to The Labrador and to The Jug to you. He had something for me to
+do in the world, and this was His way of saving me.
+
+"When Jamie needed me I was here, and because you had befriended me I
+was prepared with God's help and with my skill and training to restore
+Jamie's eyesight. There are others on the coast who need a doctor's
+skill just as Jamie needed it, and they have no one to help them. I
+have decided that I shall be doctor to the people. If I can help the
+folk, as I am sure I can, I'll be happy in the knowledge that I'm
+making some little return for the great deal that you have done for
+me."
+
+"I were never doin' much for you, Doctor Joe--just what one man would
+always do for another," Thomas protested. "But 'twill be a blessin'
+to the folk of The Labrador to have you doctor un! We all need doctors
+often enough when there's none to be had, and folks die for the need
+of un."
+
+"Yes, folks die here for the need of a doctor," Doctor Joe agreed,
+"and I hope I may be the means of saving lives and giving relief."
+
+The three boys broke in upon them with their arms full of packages.
+
+"There's a lot more!" exclaimed Jamie depositing his load upon the
+floor.
+
+"Perhaps we had better help them, Thomas," suggested Doctor Joe,
+rising.
+
+"Oh, no, sir," Jamie protested. "Let us bring un up!"
+
+And so said David and Andy also. They quickly had the contents of the
+skiff transferred to the cabin, and the exciting process of opening
+the packages began.
+
+The first to be opened was for Margaret, and it contained many pretty
+and useful things, including two neat, substantial warm dresses, finer
+than any Margaret had ever before possessed or seen. Her eyes sparkled
+as she held them up for inspection, and she exclaimed over and over
+again:
+
+"Oh, how wonderful pretty they is!"
+
+For the boys there were innumerable gifts dear to boys' hearts,
+including a compass and a watch for each. For Thomas there was a fine
+pair of field-glasses, a compass and a very fine watch indeed, and he
+was as pleased and happy as the others.
+
+"The glasses'll be a wonderful help t' me in huntin'," he declared.
+"When I climbs hills for a look around I can see deer that I'd sure to
+be missin' with no glasses. I'm not doubtin' the compass'll come in
+handy now and again in thick weather."
+
+Then there was a big box of goodies. There were such candies as they
+had never dreamed of--oranges and big red-cheeked apples. Even Thomas
+had never before in his life tasted an orange or an apple, and they
+all declared that they had never imagined that anything could be so
+good. It was quite astonishing to learn that in the great world from
+which Doctor Joe had come there were people who ate oranges and apples
+every day of their lives if they wished them.
+
+"'Tis strange the way the Lord fixes things," observed Thomas. "Here
+now we never saw the like of oranges and apples before in all our
+lives, but we has plenty of trout, and there are folks out there that
+has no trout but they all has oranges and apples. We has so many trout
+we forgets how fine they is, and what a blessin' 'tis we has un. And
+I'm thinkin' 'tis the same with them folks about the oranges and
+apples."
+
+"Yes," agreed Doctor Joe, "it's only when things are taken away from
+us that we really appreciate them. Jamie, no doubt, appreciates his
+eyes much more than he would have done had the mist never clouded
+them."
+
+"Aye, 'tis so," said Thomas.
+
+"I dare say," Doctor Joe suggested, "that you've never eaten potatoes
+or onions?"
+
+"No," said Thomas, "I've heard of un, but I never eats un. I never had
+any to eat."
+
+"Well," announced Doctor Joe, "I've had several sacks of potatoes and
+a sack of onions and two barrels of apples shipped to Fort Pelican
+with a quantity of other goods. We'll have to go with the big boat for
+them."
+
+The boys and Margaret were quite beside themselves with the wonder of
+it all, and Thomas was little less excited.
+
+"We'll go for un to-morrow or the next day whatever," said Thomas.
+
+There was one box still unopened, and the three boys were eyeing it
+expectantly, when Doctor Joe exclaimed:
+
+"Here we've left till the last the most important thing of all. Get an
+axe, David, and we'll knock the cover off this box."
+
+David had the axe in a jiffy, and when Doctor Joe removed the cover
+the box was found to be filled with books.
+
+"O-h-h!" breathed the boys in unison.
+
+"'Tis fine! Oh, I've been wishin' and wishin' for books t' look at and
+read!" exclaimed Margaret.
+
+Doctor Joe had taught them all to read and write in the years he had
+been with them, an accomplishment that not every boy and girl on The
+Labrador possessed, for there were no schools there.
+
+"There are some books to study and some to read. There are story books
+and books about birds and flowers and animals. And here is something
+that I know will please the boys," said Doctor Joe, drawing from the
+box six paper-bound volumes. "There's an interesting story attached to
+these books that I must tell you before you look at them, and then
+we'll go through them together.
+
+"One day I was walking in a park in New York.
+
+"Suddenly I heard a crashing noise, and I hurried in the direction in
+which I heard the noise, and turning a corner saw a motor-car lying on
+its side. Some boys wearing khaki-coloured uniforms, very much like
+soldiers' uniforms, had already reached the wreck, and before I came
+up with them had rescued two injured men. I never saw more efficient
+or prompt service than those boys were giving the poor men, who were
+both badly hurt. They had the men stretched out upon the grass. One
+had a severed artery in his arm, where the arm had been cut upon the
+broken glass wind shield. The man's blood was pouring in great spurts
+through the wound, but the boys were already adjusting the tourniquet,
+for which they used a handkerchief, and in a minute they had the
+bleeding stopped, as well as I could have done it. I've no doubt they
+saved the man's life, for without prompt help he'd have bled to death
+in a short time.
+
+"The other man was cut and bruised, and the boys were making him as
+comfortable as possible until an ambulance came to take him to a
+hospital. There was really nothing I could do that the boys had not
+already done promptly and remarkably well.
+
+"The instant they had discovered the accident two boys had run away to
+summon an ambulance and to notify the police, and in a little while an
+ambulance with a surgeon and two policemen came and took the men away.
+
+"The boys were only about Andy's age, and I wondered at their training
+and efficiency. When the ambulance had gone with the injured men I
+walked a little way with the boys, and learned that they belonged to a
+wonderful organization called 'Boy Scouts.' I had heard of Boy Scouts,
+but I supposed it was one of the ordinary clubs where boys got
+together just for play.
+
+"I was so much interested that I looked up the head office of the Boy
+Scouts, and asked questions about them. Then I bought these copies of
+the _Boy Scout's Handbook_. They tell about the things the scouts do,
+and how a boy may become a scout. I knew you chaps would be so
+interested you would each want a book, so I bought a half-dozen
+copies. The extra books we can give to other boys up the Bay."
+
+"Could we be scouts?" asked Andy breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, to be sure!" Doctor Joe smiled.
+
+"'Twould be rare fun, now!" exclaimed David.
+
+"All of us scouts, just like the boys in New York?" Jamie asked, his
+face aglow.
+
+"Yes," answered Doctor Joe. "I knew you chaps would like to be scouts.
+We'll organize a troop, and we'll call it Troop One of The Labrador.
+There are Boy Scouts of America, and Boy Scouts of England, and Boy
+Scouts of nearly every country in the world except The Labrador. We'll
+be the Boy Scouts of The Labrador, and become a part of the great army
+of scouts. It'll be something to be proud of."
+
+"How'll we do it?" asked David.
+
+"I'll be leader, or scoutmaster as they call the leader," explained
+Doctor Joe. "These books explain all about the things we're to do.
+
+"Before you become tenderfoot scouts you'll have to learn some
+things," Doctor Joe continued, after looking through one of the
+handbooks, until he found the proper page. "You can tie all the knots
+already. You do that every day. But there are plenty of boys, and men
+too, where I came from that can't even tie the ordinary square knot.
+
+"You'll have to learn the oath and law. You live pretty close to the
+requirements of the law now, but it'll be necessary to learn it, and
+I'll explain then what each law means. You'll have to learn what the
+scout badge stands for and how it's made up, and other things."
+
+Doctor Joe carefully marked the necessary pages and references.
+
+"Now about the flag," said Doctor Joe. "You'll have to learn about the
+formation of the flag and what it stands for. This book is for the Boy
+Scouts of America, and the flag it refers to is the United States
+flag. I'm an American, but you chaps are living in British territory
+and you're British subjects, so you'll have to learn about the British
+flag or Union Jack, as it's called, for that's your flag.
+
+"The Union Jack is the national flag of the whole British Empire. The
+English flag was originally a red cross on a white field. This is
+called the flag of St. George. Three hundred years ago King James the
+First added to it the banner of Scotland, which was a blue flag with
+a white cross, called St. Andrew's Cross, lying upon the blue from
+corner to corner--that is diagonally."
+
+Doctor Joe opened his travelling bag and drew forth two small flags,
+one the Stars and Stripes and the other the British Union Jack.
+
+"I nearly forgot about these," said he, spreading the flags upon the
+table. "This is the flag of my country," and he caressed the United
+States flag affectionately. "I love it as you should love your flag.
+The Union Jack is the emblem of the great British Empire, of which you
+are a part. It is one of the greatest and best countries in the world
+to live in. To be a British subject is something to be proud of
+indeed."
+
+"Aye," broke in Thomas, "'tis that, now."
+
+"Yes," continued Doctor Joe, "I want you to be as proud of it as I am
+that I'm a citizen of the United States, and I'm so proud of it I
+wouldn't change for any other country in the world. When I reached St.
+John's and saw the American flag flying over the office of the United
+States Consulate, my eyes filled with tears. I hadn't seen that old
+flag for years, and I stood in the street for an hour doing nothing
+but look at it and think of all it represents. It makes my blood
+tingle just to touch it. You chaps must feel the same toward the
+British flag, for that's your flag.
+
+"Now let me show you how the flag is made up," and Doctor Joe
+proceeded to trace St. George's Cross and St. Andrew's Cross,
+explaining them again as he did so. "In the year 1801 another banner
+was added. This was the Banner of St. Patrick of Ireland. St.
+Patrick's Cross was a red diagonal cross on a white field, and here
+you see it."
+
+Doctor Joe traced it on the flag.
+
+"There," he went on, "you have the British flag complete. No one knows
+exactly why it is called the 'Jack,' but it may have been because in
+the old days, the English knights, when they went out to fight their
+battles, wore a jacket over their armour with the St. George's Cross
+upon it, so it would be known to what nation they belonged. This
+jacket was sometimes called a 'jack' for short.
+
+"The Union Jack did not become a complete flag as we have it to-day
+until the year 1801, when St. Patrick's Cross was added to it. The
+Stars and Stripes, the flag of my country, was first made in 1776,
+and on June 14, 1777, it was adopted by the United States Congress as
+the national emblem, so you see it is even older than the British
+flag. The flags of all nations in the world have changed since 1777
+excepting only the United States flag, and every American is proud of
+the fact that his flag is older than the flag of any other Christian
+nation in the world."
+
+The boys, and Thomas and Margaret also, were fascinated with Doctor
+Joe's brief story of the flags. They were quite excited with the
+thought that they were to be a part of the great army of Boy Scouts,
+and to do the same things that other boys in far-away lands were
+doing, and the other boys that they had never seen seemed suddenly
+very much nearer to them and more like themselves than they had ever
+seemed before.
+
+The three buried their noses in the handbook, now and again asking
+Doctor Joe questions. They were so excited and so interested, indeed,
+that they could scarcely lay the books aside when Thomas announced
+that it was time to "turn in," and Andy declared he could hardly wait
+for morning when they could be at them again.
+
+And so it came about that Troop I, Boy Scouts of The
+Labrador, was organized, and in the nature of things the troop was
+destined to meet many adventures and unusual experiences.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PLANS
+
+
+The cabin at The Jug had three rooms. There was a square living-room,
+entered through an enclosed porch on its western grade. At the end of
+the living-room opposite the entrance were two doors, one leading to
+Margaret's room, the other to the room occupied by the boys. Thomas
+himself slept in a bunk, resembling a ship's bunk, built against the
+north wall.
+
+The furnishings of the living-room consisted of a home-made table, a
+big box stove, three home-made chairs and some chests, which served
+the double purpose of storage places for clothing and seats. A
+cupboard was built against the wall at the left of the entrance, and
+between two windows on the south side of the room, which looked out
+upon The Jug, was a shelf upon which Thomas kept his Bible and
+Margaret her sewing basket--a little basket which she had woven
+herself from native grasses. Behind the stove was a bench, upon which
+stood a bucket of water and the family wash basin, and over the basin
+hung a towel for general family use.
+
+Pasted upon the walls were pictures from old newspapers and magazines.
+There were no other decorations but these and snowy muslin curtains at
+the windows, but the floor, table, chairs--all the woodwork,
+indeed--were scoured to immaculate whiteness with sand and soap, and
+everything was spotlessly clean and tidy. Despite the austere
+simplicity of the room and its furnishings, it possessed an
+indescribable atmosphere of cosy comfort.
+
+Doctor Joe's bed was spread upon the floor. It was still candle-light
+when he was awakened by Thomas building a fire in the stove, for in
+this land of stern living there is no lolling in bed of mornings.
+
+"Good-morning, Thomas," said Doctor Joe, with a yawn and a stretch as
+he sat up.
+
+"Marnin'," said Thomas.
+
+"How's the morning, Thomas, fair for our trip to Fort Pelican?"
+
+"Aye, 'tis a fine marnin'," announced Thomas, "but I were thinkin'
+'twould be better to wait over till to-morrow for the trip. After your
+long voyage 'twould be a bit trying for you to turn back to-day to
+Fort Pelican without restin' up, and I'm not doubtin' a day
+whatever'll do no harm to the potaters and things."
+
+"I believe you're right, Thomas," and Doctor Joe spoke with evident
+relief. "I thought you'd be getting ready for the trapping and would
+like to get the Fort Pelican trip out of the way. We'll put the trip
+off till to-morrow."
+
+Doctor Joe dressed hurriedly, and went out to enjoy the cool, crisp
+morning. Everything was white with hoarfrost. The air was charged with
+the perfume of balsam and spruce and other sweet odours of the forest.
+Doctor Joe took long, deep, delicious breaths as he looked about him
+at the familiar scene.
+
+The last stars were fading in the growing light. A low mist hung over
+The Jug, and beyond the haze lay the dark, heaving waters of Eskimo
+Bay. In the distance beyond the Bay the high peaks of the Mealy
+Mountains rose out of the gloom, white with snow and looming above the
+dark forest at their base in cold and silent majesty. Behind the
+cabin stretched the vast, mysterious, unbounded wilderness which held,
+hidden in its unmeasured depths, rivers and lakes and mountains that
+no man, save the wandering Indian, had ever looked upon--great
+solitudes whose silence had remained unbroken through the ages.
+
+"If some of those Boy Scouts could only see this!" exclaimed Doctor
+Joe.
+
+"'Twere fashioned by the Almighty for comfortable livin'," said
+Thomas, who had called Margaret and the boys and come out unobserved
+by Doctor Joe. "There's no better shelter on the coast, and no better
+place for seals and salmon, with neighbours handy when we wants to see
+un, and plenty o' room to stretch. 'Tis the finest _I_ ever saw,
+whatever."
+
+"Yes, 'tis all of that," agreed Doctor Joe. "But I wasn't thinking now
+of The Jug alone. I was thinking of the majestic grandeur of the whole
+scene. I was enjoying the freedom from the noise and scramble, the
+dirt and smoke and smudge of the city, with its piles upon piles of
+ugly buildings, and never a breath of such pure air as this to be
+breathed. I was thinking of these fine young chaps, the Boy Scouts I
+saw there, who are trying to study God's big out-of-doors and must
+content themselves with stingy little parks. It's the love of Nature
+that takes them to the parks, and compared with this they have a poor
+substitute. This is the world as God made it, with all its primordial
+beauty. We're fortunate that circumstances placed us here, Thomas, and
+we should be for ever thankful."
+
+"I'm wonderin' now," observed Thomas, as he and Doctor Joe paced up
+and down the gravelly beach, "why folks ever lives in such places as
+you tells about. There's plenty o' room down here on The Labrador, and
+plenty o' other places, I'm not doubtin', where they'd be free from
+the crowds and dirt, and have plenty o' room to stretch, and live fine
+like we lives."
+
+"We're a thousand miles from a railway," said Doctor Joe. "Most of the
+people in the cities wouldn't live a thousand paces from a railway if
+they could help themselves. They take a car and ride if they've only
+half a mile to go. They ride so much they've almost forgotten how to
+walk. They like crowds. They'd be lonesome if they were away from
+them."
+
+"'Tis strange, wonderful strange, how some folks lives," remarked
+Thomas, quite astonished that any could prefer the city to his own
+big, free Labrador. "When folks has enough to keep un busy they never
+gets lonesome, and bein' idle is like wastin' a part of life. A man
+could never be lonesome where there's plenty o' water and woods about.
+I always finds jobs a-plenty to turn my hand to, and I has no time to
+feel lonesome. And I never could live where I didn't have room enough
+to stretch, _what_ever."
+
+"That's it!" Doctor Joe spoke decisively. "Room enough to stretch mind
+as well as body. Why, Thomas, I've often heard men say that they had
+to 'kill time', and didn't know what to do with themselves for hours
+together!"
+
+"'Tis wicked and against the Lord's will," and Thomas shook his head.
+"The Lord never wants folks to be idle or kill time. He fixes it so
+there's a-plenty of useful things for everybody to do all the time,
+and they wants to do un."
+
+"'Tis the measure of a man's worth," remarked Doctor Joe. "The
+worth-while man never has an hour to kill. The day hasn't hours
+enough for him. It's the other kind that kill time--the sort that are
+not, and never will be, of much account in the world."
+
+They walked a little in silence, each busy with his own thoughts, when
+Thomas remarked:
+
+"The Lord has been wonderful good to me, Doctor Joe, givin' me three
+as fine lads and as fine a lass as He ever gave a man. Then He saves
+the little lad's eyes, when they were goin' blind, by sendin' you to
+cure un. And when I were breakin' my leg and couldn't work He sends
+along Indian Jake to go to the trails to hunt with David and Andy, and
+they makes a fine hunt and keeps us out o' debt. And this summer we
+has as fine a catch of salmon as ever we has, and we're through with
+un a fortnight ahead of ever before, with all the barrels filled and
+the gear stowed, and the salt salmon traded in at the Post, and plenty
+o' flour and pork and molasses and tea t' see us through the winter,
+_what_ever."
+
+"Last year at this time things looked pretty blue for us," said Doctor
+Joe, "but everything worked out well in the end, Thomas."
+
+"Aye," agreed Thomas, "wonderful well. I'm thinkin' that if we does
+our best t' help ourselves when troubles come the Lord is like t' step
+in and give us a hand. He wants us to do the best we can t' help
+ourselves and when He sees we're doin' it He lifts the troubles."
+
+"That's true," agreed Doctor Joe, "and if a man takes advantage of
+every opportunity that comes to him, and don't waste his time, he's
+pretty sure to succeed."
+
+"Aye, that he is," said Thomas. "Now I were thinkin' that the lads
+worked so wonderful hard at the salmon th' summer, I'd let un go with
+you to Fort Pelican t' manage the boat, and I'll be staying home to
+make ready for the trail. There's a-plenty to be done yet to make
+ready without hurry, and a trip to Fort Pelican will be a rare treat
+for the lads. But I'll go if you wants. I were just askin' if 'twould
+be suitin' you if I stays home and lets they go?"
+
+"Why, of course! That's great! Simply great!" exclaimed Doctor Joe.
+"The boys will make a fine crew! Will Jamie go too?"
+
+"Aye, Jamie's been workin' like a man, and he'll be keen for the
+trip," said Thomas. "And last night I were thinkin' after I goes to
+bed how fine 'tis that you're to be doctor to the coast. Indian
+Jake's to be my trappin' pardner th' winter, and the lads'll 'bide
+home. You'll be needin' dogs and komatik (sledge) to take you about.
+There'll be little enough for the dogs to do, and you'll be welcome to
+un. The lads can do the drivin' for you and whatever you wants un to
+do. Use un all you needs. I wants to do my share to help you do the
+doctorin'."
+
+"Thank you! Thank you, Thomas!" Doctor Joe accepted gratefully. "This
+will make it possible for me to see a good many people that I
+otherwise would not be able to see, and make it easier for me also."
+
+"Aye," said Thomas, "I were thinkin' that too, and the lads will be
+glad enough to lend you a hand when you needs un."
+
+It was broad daylight. While Thomas and Doctor Joe talked on the
+beach, the boys had been busily engaged in carrying the day's supply
+of water from Roaring Brook to a water barrel in the porch. Now Jamie
+appeared to announce breakfast. While they ate the boys were able to
+talk of little else than the scout books, and the fact they were to do
+as boys did in other parts of the world. And they were delighted
+beyond measure when they learned that they were to make the voyage to
+Fort Pelican with Doctor Joe. It was an event of vast importance.
+
+"There'll be plenty o' time in the boat to study the scout book
+things," Andy suggested. "Maybe now we could learn to be scouts before
+we gets back home."
+
+"I've no doubt you can pass all the tenderfoot tests while we're
+away," said Doctor Joe. "And since you're to take me about with dogs
+and komatik this winter when I go to visit sick people, there'll be no
+end of chances to show what good scouts you are."
+
+"To take you about?" asked Andy excitedly.
+
+Then Thomas must needs explain that they must do their share in
+looking after the sick folk, and that David and Andy were to be Doctor
+Joe's dog drivers when winter came.
+
+"'Twill be fine to manage the dogs for you, sir!" exclaimed David,
+turning to Doctor Joe.
+
+"Wonderful fine!" echoed Andy.
+
+"And will you be goin' outside the Bay?" asked David.
+
+"Aye, outside the Bay and in it, wherever there's need to go," said
+Doctor Joe.
+
+"'Twill be tryin' and hard work sometimes," suggested Thomas,
+"travellin' when the weather's nasty, but I'm not doubtin' the lads'll
+be able t' manage un."
+
+"We'll manage un!" David declared with pride in the confidence placed
+in him and Andy.
+
+To drive dogs on these sub-arctic trails in fair weather and foul
+calls for courage and grit, and the lads felt justly proud of the
+responsibility that had been laid upon them. There would be many a
+shift to make on the ice, they knew. There would be blinding blizzards
+and withering arctic winds to face, and no end of hard work. But these
+lads of The Labrador loved to stand upon their feet like men and face
+and conquer the elements like hardy men of courage. This is the way of
+boys the world over--eager for the time when they may assume the
+responsibility of manhood. Such a time comes earlier to the lads of
+The Labrador than with us. In that stern land there is no idling and
+there are no holidays, and every one, the lad as well as his father,
+must always do his part, which is his best.
+
+Fort Pelican, the nearest port at which the mail boat called, was
+seventy miles eastward from The Jug. With the uncertainty of wind and
+tide the boat journey to Fort Pelican usually consumed three days, and
+with equal time required for return, the voyage could seldom be
+accomplished in less than six days. Lem Horn and his family lived at
+Horn's Bight, thirty miles from The Jug, and fifteen miles beyond, at
+Caribou Arm, was Jerry Snook's cabin. Save an Eskimo settlement of
+half a dozen huts near Fort Pelican and the families of Lem Horn and
+Jerry Snook, the country lying between The Jug and Fort Pelican was
+uninhabited. It was unlikely that evening would find the travellers in
+the vicinity of either Horn's or Snook's cabins, and therefore it was
+to be a camping trip, which was quite to the liking of the boys.
+
+The boys washed the old fishing boat and packed the equipment and
+provisions for the voyage. Margaret baked three big loaves of white
+bread, and as a special treat a loaf of plum bread. The remaining
+provisions consisted of tea, a bottle of molasses for sweetening,
+flour, baking-powder, fat salt pork, lard, margarine, salt and pepper.
+The equipment included a frying-pan, a basin for mixing dough, a tin
+kettle for tea, a larger kettle to be used in cooking, one large
+cooking spoon, four teaspoons and some tin plates. Each of the boys as
+well as Doctor Joe was provided with a sheath knife carried on the
+belt. The sheath knife serves the professional hunter as a cooking
+knife, as well as for eating and general purposes.
+
+For camping use there was a cotton wedge tent, a small sheet-iron tent
+stove, three camp axes, some candles and matches, a file for
+sharpening the axes and a sleeping-bag for each. Men in that land do
+not travel without arms, and it was decided that David should take a
+carbine and Andy and Doctor Joe each a double-barrel shotgun, for
+there might be an opportunity to shoot a fat goose or duck.
+
+Thomas's big boat had two light masts rigged with leg-o'-mutton sails.
+Just forward of the foremast David and Andy placed some flat stones,
+and covering them with two or three inches of gravel set the tent
+stove upon the gravel. Here they could cook their meals at midday, and
+the gravel would protect the bottom of the boat from heat. A
+sufficient quantity of fire-wood was taken aboard, and the provisions
+and other equipment stowed under a short deck forward where the things
+would be protected from storm and all would be in readiness for an
+early start in the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"'TIS THE GHOST OF LONG JOHN"
+
+
+The morning was clear and crisp. Breakfast was eaten by candle-light,
+and before sunrise Doctor Joe and the boys, with the tide to help
+them, worked the big boat down through The Jug and past the Point into
+Eskimo Bay. In the shelter of The Jug, which lay in the lee of the
+hills, the sails flapped idly and it was necessary to bring the long
+oars into service. But beyond the sheltered harbour a light north-west
+breeze caught and filled the sails, the oars were stowed, the rudder
+shipped, and with David at the tiller Doctor Joe lighted his pipe and
+settled himself for a quiet smoke while Andy and Jamie turned their
+attention to their scout handbooks.
+
+It was an inspiring morning. The sky was cloudless. The air was
+charged with scent of spruce and balsam fir, wafted down by the
+breeze from the forest, lying in dark and solemn silence and spreading
+away from the near-by shore until it melted into the blue haze of
+rolling hills far to the northward. The huge black back of a grampus
+rose a hundred feet from the boat and with a noise like the loud
+exhaust of steam sank again beneath the surface of the Bay. Now and
+again a seal raised its head and looked curiously at the travellers
+and then hastily dived. Gulls and terns soared and circled overhead,
+occasionally dipping to the water to capture a choice morsel of food.
+A flock of wild geese, honking in flight, turned into a bight and
+alighted where a brook coursed down through a marsh to join the sea.
+
+"There's some geese," remarked David, breaking the silence. "They're
+comin' up south now. We'll have a hunt when we gets home. They always
+feeds in that mesh when they're bidin' about the Bay."
+
+Presently Andy exclaimed:
+
+"I can tie un all! I can tie every knot in the book!"
+
+"I can tie un too!" said Jamie.
+
+"Yes! Yes! There are the scout tests!" broke in Doctor Joe. "Suppose
+we all tie the knots and pass the tests."
+
+Andy and Jamie tied them easily enough, and then Doctor Joe tied them
+himself to keep pace with the boys, and Andy relieved David at the
+tiller that he might try his hand at them; David not only tied all the
+knots illustrated in the handbook, but for good measure added a
+bowline on a bight, a double carrick bend, a marlin hitch and a
+halliard hitch.
+
+"That's wonderful easy to do," David declared as he laid the rope
+down. "'Tis strange they calls that a test, 'tis so easy done."
+
+"Easy for us," admitted Doctor Joe, "but for boys who have never had
+much to do with boats or ropes it's a hard test, and an important one.
+You chaps knew how to tie them, so in doing it you haven't learned
+anything new. Let us make up our minds as scouts to learn something
+new every day--something we never knew before, no matter how small or
+unimportant it may seem. Think what a lot we'll know next year that we
+do not know now; everything we learn, too, is sure to be of use to us
+sometime in our lives.
+
+"As we go along we'll find there is a great deal to learn in this
+handbook, and all of it is worth knowing. We don't look far ahead.
+Suppose we begin with the scout law. With your good memories you'll
+learn it before we go ashore to-night. I want you to learn the twelve
+points of the law in order as they appear in the book, so that you can
+repeat them and tell me in your own words what each point means."
+
+Doctor Joe turned to the scout law and explained each point in detail.
+When he told them that "A Scout is kind" meant that they must not only
+be kind to people, but that they must protect and not kill harmless
+birds and animals, David protested:
+
+"If we promises _that_, sir, 'twould stop us huntin' seals and deer
+and pa'tridges and plenty o' things."
+
+"Oh, no!" explained Doctor Joe. "It does not mean that. It means that
+you must kill nothing _needlessly_. Here in Labrador we must kill
+seals and deer and partridges and other game for food and for their
+skins. That is the way we make our living. In the same way they have
+to kill cows and sheep and goats and pigs for food in the country I
+came from and to get skins for boots and gloves. In the same way we
+are permitted to kill game when necessary. But we're not to kill
+anything that's harmless unless we need it for some purpose. The
+Indians and other people about here shoot at loons for sport. I've
+seen them chase the loons in canoes and keep shooting at them every
+time they came up after a dive, until the loons were too tired to dive
+quickly enough to get out of the way of the shot, and then the poor
+things were killed. The flesh isn't fit to eat and they're always
+thrown away. That is cruel."
+
+"I never thought of un that way. I've killed loons too," David
+confessed, "but I'll never shoot at a loon again. 'Tis the same with
+gulls and other things we never uses when we kills, and just shoot at
+for fun."
+
+"That's the idea," said Doctor Joe enthusiastically. "Now what do you
+think about killing hen partridges in summer?"
+
+"We can kill pa'tridges, can't we?" asked David. "We always eats un,
+and you said we could kill un."
+
+"But we've got to use our heads about it," Doctor Joe explained. "I'm
+talking now about _hen_ partridges in _summer_. They always have
+broods of little partridges then. If you kill the mother all the
+little ones die, for they're too small to take care of themselves. Do
+you think that's right?"
+
+"I never thought of un before," said David. "'Tis wicked to kill un!
+I'll never kill a hen pa'tridge in summer again! Not me!"
+
+"We'll have to be tellin' everybody in the Bay about that!" declared
+Andy. "Nobody has ever thought about the poor little uns starvin' and
+dyin'!"
+
+"That'll be doing good scout work," Doctor Joe commended. "That's one
+way you'll be useful as scouts here in Labrador. Not only will you be
+showing kindness to the mother and little partridges, but if the
+mother is permitted to live and raise her brood, all the little birds
+will be full grown by winter, and it will make that many more
+partridges that can be used for food when food is needed."
+
+When presently Jamie announced that it was "'most noon" and he was
+"fair starvin'," and the others suddenly discovered that they were
+hungry too, a fire was lighted in the stove and a cosy lunch of fried
+pork and bread, and hot tea sweetened with molasses, was eaten with an
+appetite and relish such as only those can enjoy who live in the open.
+Then, with growing interest the lads returned to their scout books,
+and camping time came almost before they were aware.
+
+The sun was drooping low in the west when David, indicating a low,
+wooded point, said:
+
+"That's Flat P'int. There's good water there and 'tis a fine camping
+place."
+
+"Then we'll camp there," Doctor Joe agreed.
+
+"Look! Look!" exclaimed Andy, as the boat approached the shore.
+"There's a porcupine!"
+
+Following the direction in which Andy pointed, a fat porcupine was
+discovered high up in a spruce tree feeding upon the tender branches
+and bark.
+
+"Shall we have un for supper?" Andy asked excitedly.
+
+"Aye," said David, "let's have un for supper. Fresh meat'll go fine."
+
+A shot from the rifle, when they had landed, brought the unfortunate
+porcupine tumbling to the ground, and Andy proceeded at once to skin
+and dress his game for supper.
+
+"I'll be cook and Andy cookee," Doctor Joe announced. "We'll get wood
+for the fire, David, and you and Jamie pitch the tent and get it
+ready."
+
+Flat Point was well wooded, and the floor of the forest thickly
+carpeted with grey caribou moss. David selected a level spot between
+two trees on a little rise near the shore. The ridge rope was quickly
+stretched between the trees and the tent securely pegged down. Then
+David and Jamie broke a quantity of low-hanging spruce boughs, which
+they snapped from the trees with a dexterous upward bend of the wrist.
+When a liberal pile of these had been accumulated at the entrance of
+the tent, David proceeded to lay the bed.
+
+The rear of the tent was to be the head. Here he laid a row of the
+boughs, three deep, with the convex side uppermost, then he began
+"shingling" the boughs in rows toward the foot. This was done by
+placing the butt end of the bough firmly against the ground with half
+the bough, the convex side uppermost, overlapping the bough above it,
+as shingles are lapped on a roof. Thus continuing until the floor of
+the tent was covered he had a soft, fragrant springy bed, quite as
+soft and comfortable as a mattress, and upon this he and Jamie spread
+the sleeping-bags.
+
+In the meantime Doctor Joe and Andy had collected an ample supply of
+dry wood for the evening, and when, presently, David and Jamie joined
+them, a cheerful fire was blazing and already an appetizing odour was
+rising from the stew kettle.
+
+When the stew and some tender dumplings were done Doctor Joe lifted
+the kettle from the fire, and while he filled each plate with a
+liberal portion, and Andy poured tea, David put fresh wood upon the
+fire, for the evening had grown cold and frosty with the setting sun.
+The blazing fire was cheerful indeed as they settled themselves upon
+the seat of boughs and proceeded to enjoy their supper.
+
+"Um-m-m!" exclaimed Andy. "You knows how to cook wonderful fine,
+Doctor!"
+
+"'Tis _wonderful_ fine stew!" seconded David.
+
+"Not half bad," admitted Doctor Joe, "but Andy had as much to do with
+it as I, and the porcupine had a good deal to do with it. It was young
+and fat, and it's tender."
+
+There is no pleasanter hour for the camper or voyageur than the
+evening hour by a blazing camp fire. There is no sweeter odour than
+that of the damp forest mingled with the smell of burning wood. Beyond
+the narrow circle of light a black wall rises, and behind the wall
+lies the wilderness with its unfathomed mysteries. Out in the darkness
+wild creatures move, silent, stealthy and unseen, behind a veil that
+human eyes cannot penetrate. But we know they are there going about
+the strange business of their life, and our imagination is awakened
+and our sensibilities quickened.
+
+The camp fire is a shrine of comradeship and friendship. Here it was
+that the primordial ancestors of every living man and woman and child
+gathered at night with their families, in those far-off dark ages
+before history was written. The fire was their home. Here they found
+rest and comfort and protection from the savage wild beasts that
+roamed the forests. It was a place of veneration. The primitive
+instinct, perchance inherited from those far-off ancestors of ours,
+slumbering in our souls, is sometimes awakened, and then we are called
+to the woods and the wild places that God made beautiful for us, and
+at night we gather around our camp fire as our ancient ancestors
+gathered around theirs, and we love it just as they loved it.
+
+And so it was with the little camp fire on Flat Point and with Doctor
+Joe and the boys. With darkness the uncanny light of the Aurora
+Borealis flashed up in the north, its long, weird fingers of changing
+colours moving restlessly across the heavens. The forest and the
+wide, dark waters of Eskimo Bay sank behind a black wall.
+
+There was absolute silence, save for the ripple of waves upon the
+shore, each busy with his own thoughts, until presently Jamie asked:
+
+"Did you ever see a ghost, Doctor?"
+
+"A ghost? No, lad, and I fancy no one else ever saw one except in
+imagination. What made you think of ghosts?"
+
+"'Tis so--still--and dark out there," said Jamie, pointing toward the
+darkness beyond the fire-glow. "And--I were thinkin' I heard
+something."
+
+"But there _is_ ghosts, sir, plenty of un," broke in Andy. "Pop's seen
+ghosts and so has Zeke Hodge and Uncle Billy and plenty of folks. They
+says the ghost of Long John, the old Injun that used to be at the Post
+and was drowned, goes paddlin' and paddlin' about in a canoe o'
+nights."
+
+"Yes," said David, "I'm thinkin' I saw Long John's ghost myself one
+evenin'. I weren't certain of un, but it must have been he."
+
+"Nonsense!" Doctor Joe had no patience with the belief popular among
+Labradormen that ghosts of men who have been drowned or killed return
+to haunt the scene of their death. "There's no such thing as a ghost."
+
+"What's that now?" Jamie held up his hand for silence, and spoke in a
+subdued voice.
+
+Out of the darkness came the rhythmic dipping of a paddle. They all
+heard it now. Doctor Joe arose, and closely followed by the boys,
+stepped down beyond the fire glow. In dim outline they could see the
+silhouette of a canoe containing the lone figure of a man paddling
+with the short, quick stroke of the Indian.
+
+"'Tis the ghost of Long John!" breathed Jamie. "'Tis sure he!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SHOT FROM BEHIND
+
+
+The canoe was coming directly toward them. In a moment it touched the
+shore, and as its occupant stepped lightly out the boys with one
+accord exclaimed:
+
+"Injun Jake! 'Tis Injun Jake!"
+
+And so it proved. The greeting he received was hearty enough to leave
+no doubt in his mind that he was a welcome visitor. Perhaps it was the
+heartier because of the relief the boys experienced in the discovery
+that the lone canoeman was not, after all, the wraith of Long John,
+but was their friend Indian Jake in flesh and blood.
+
+When his packs had been removed, Indian Jake lifted his canoe from the
+water, turned it upon its side and followed the boys to the fire,
+where Doctor Joe awaited him.
+
+"Just in time!" welcomed Doctor Joe, as he shook Indian Jake's hand.
+"We've finished eating, but there's plenty of stew in the kettle.
+Andy, pour Jake some tea."
+
+Indian Jake, grunting his thanks, silently picked up David's empty
+plate and heaped it with stew and dumpling from the kettle without the
+ceremony of waiting to be served.
+
+He was a tall, lithe, muscular half-breed, with small, restless,
+hawk-like eyes and a beaked nose that was not unlike the beak of a
+hawk. He had the copper-hued skin and straight black hair of the
+Indian, but otherwise his features might have been those of a white
+man. Indian Jake had been the trapping companion of David and Andy the
+previous winter, and, as previously stated, was this year to be Thomas
+Angus's trapping partner on the fur trails.
+
+The boys were vastly fond of Indian Jake, and Thomas and Doctor Joe
+shared their confidence, but the Bay folk generally looked upon him
+with distrust and suspicion. Several years before, he had come to the
+Bay a penniless stranger. He soon earned the reputation of being one
+of the best trappers in the region. Then, suddenly, he disappeared
+owing the Hudson's Bay Company a considerable sum for equipment and
+provisions sold him on credit. It was well known that in the winter
+preceding his disappearance Indian Jake had had a most successful
+hunting season and was in possession of ample means to pay his debts.
+His failure to apply his means to this purpose was looked upon as
+highly dishonest--akin, indeed, to theft.
+
+Two years later he reappeared, again penniless. The Company refused
+him further credit, and he had no means of purchasing the supplies
+necessary for his support during the trapping season in the interior.
+It was at this time that Thomas Angus broke his leg, and it became
+necessary for David and Andy to take his place on the trails. They
+were too young to endure the long months of isolation without an older
+and more experienced companion. There was none but Indian Jake to go
+with them, and he was engaged to hunt on shares a trail adjacent to
+theirs.
+
+With his share of the furs captured by the end of the trapping season,
+Indian Jake discharged his old debt with the Company. This was not
+sufficient, however, to re-establish confidence in him. There was a
+lurking suspicion among them, fostered by Uncle Ben Rudder of Tuggle
+Bight, the wiseacre and oracle of the Bay, that Indian Jake's payment
+of the debt was not prompted by honesty but by some ulterior motive.
+
+Indian Jake emptied his plate. He refilled it with the last of the
+stew and again emptied it, in the interim swallowing several cups of
+hot tea.
+
+"Good stew," he remarked in appreciation and praise when his meal was
+finished. "When were you gettin' back?"
+
+"I reached The Jug day before yesterday," said Doctor Joe.
+
+"Huh!" Indian Jake grunted approval, as he puffed industriously at his
+pipe. "Where you goin' now? To see Lem Horn?"
+
+"No," Doctor Joe answered, "we're going to Fort Pelican to get some
+things I brought in on the mail boat."
+
+"I been goose huntin'," Indian Jake explained. "Not much goose yet.
+Too early. Got four. Goin' to The Jug now to give Thomas a hand. Want
+to start for Seal Lake soon. Don't want to be late."
+
+"Pop's thinkin' to start in a fortnight," said David.
+
+"Good!" acknowledged Indian Jake. "Maybe we start sooner. Start when
+we're ready. I want to go quick. Have plenty time get there before
+freeze-up."
+
+Indian Jake had apparently finished talking. Doctor Joe and the boys
+made several attempts to continue the conversation, but only receiving
+responsive grunts, turned to a discussion of the flag and other scout
+problems, while Indian Jake was absorbed in his own thoughts.
+Presently he rose and proceeded to unroll his bed.
+
+"Plenty of room in the tent," Doctor Joe invited. "Better come in with
+us, Jake."
+
+"Goin' early. Sleep here," he declined, as he spread a caribou skin
+upon the ground to protect himself from the damp earth. Then he
+produced a Hudson's Bay Company blanket, once white but now of
+uncertain shade, and rolling himself in the blanket, with his feet
+toward the fire, was soon snoring peacefully.
+
+"We won't trouble to douse the fire," Doctor Joe suggested presently.
+"He wants to sleep by it, and he'll look after it. Let's turn in."
+
+And with the front of the tent open that they might enjoy the air and
+profit by the firelight, they were soon snug in their sleeping-bags
+and as sound asleep as Indian Jake.
+
+"High-o!"
+
+The three boys sat up. It was broad daylight, and Doctor Joe, on his
+hands and knees, was looking out of the tent.
+
+"Our visitor has gone, and there's little wonder, for we've been
+sleeping like bears and it's broad daylight. Hurry, lads, or the
+sun'll be well up before we get away."
+
+The boys sprang up and were soon dressed. The fire had burned low,
+indicating that Indian Jake had been gone for a considerable time. A
+fat goose was hanging from the limb of a tree. Fastened to it was a
+piece of birch bark, and scribbled upon the birch bark with a piece of
+charcoal from the fire, these words:
+
+"cerprize fur the lads bekos they likes Goos."
+
+Another surprise awaited them. When they lifted the lid of the large
+cooking kettle they found it nearly full of boiled goose.
+
+"That's the way o' Indian Jake!" Andy exclaimed. "He's always plannin'
+fine surprises for folks."
+
+"It's surely a fine surprise," said Doctor Joe. "Breakfast all ready
+but the tea, and a goose for to-night."
+
+Every one hurried, but the sun was well up when they put out the fire
+and hoisted sail. There was little wind, however, and the light
+breeze soon dropped to a dead calm. Doctor Joe unshipped the rudder
+and began sculling, while the boys laboured at the long oars. At
+length the tide began running in, and progress was so slow that it was
+decided to go ashore and await a turn of the tide or a breeze.
+
+"Lem Horn lives just back o' that island," said David, indicating a
+small wooded island. "We might stop and bide there till a breeze
+comes, and see un."
+
+In accordance with the suggestion Doctor Joe turned the boat inside
+the island, and there, on the mainland in the edge of a little
+clearing and not a hundred yards distant, stood Lem Horn's cabin. It
+was a secluded and peculiarly lonely spot, hidden by the island from
+the few boats that plied the Bay. Here lived Lem Horn and his wife and
+two sons, Eli, a young man of twenty-one years, and Mark, nineteen
+years of age.
+
+"There's no smoke," observed Jamie.
+
+"Maybe they're all down to Fort Pelican getting their winter outfit,"
+suggested David.
+
+"There seems to be no one about but the dogs," said Doctor Joe, as he
+stepped ashore with the painter and made it fast, while Lem's big
+sledge dogs, lolling in the sun, watched them curiously.
+
+Visitors do not knock in Labrador. The cabins are always open to
+travellers whether or not the host is at home. Andy was in advance,
+and opening the door he stopped on the threshold with an exclamation
+of horror.
+
+Stretched upon the floor lay Lem Horn, his face and hair smeared with
+blood, and on the floor near him was a small pool of blood. A chair
+was overturned, and Lem's legs were tangled in a fish-net.
+
+Doctor Joe leaned over the prostrate figure.
+
+"Shot," said he, "and from behind!"
+
+"Does you mean somebody shot he?" asked David, quite horrified.
+
+"Yes, and it must have happened yesterday," said Doctor Joe.
+
+[Illustration: STRETCHED UPON THE FLOOR LAY LEM HORN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LEM HORN'S SILVER FOX
+
+
+"He's alive, and this doesn't look like a bad wound," said Doctor Joe
+after a brief examination. "David, put a fire in the stove and heat
+some water! Andy, find some clean cloths! Jamie, bring up my medicine
+kit from the boat!"
+
+The boys hurried to carry out the directions, while Doctor Joe made a
+more careful examination and discovered a second wound in Lem's back,
+just below the right shoulder.
+
+"Both shots from the back," he mused. "This wound explains his
+condition. The one in the head only scraped the skull, and couldn't
+have more than stunned him for a short time. The other has caused a
+good deal of bleeding and may be serious."
+
+With David's help Doctor Joe carried Lem to his bunk and removed his
+outer clothing.
+
+The water in the kettle on the stove was now warm enough for Doctor
+Joe's purpose. He poured some of it into a dish, and after dissolving
+in it some antiseptic tablets, cleansed and temporarily dressed the
+wounds.
+
+Restoratives were now applied. Lem responded promptly. His breathing
+became perceptible, and at length he opened his eyes and stared at
+Doctor Joe. There was no recognition in the stare and in a moment the
+eyes closed. Presently they again opened, and this time Lem's lips
+moved.
+
+"Where's Jane?" he asked feebly.
+
+"Your wife seems to be away and the boys, too," said Doctor Joe. "We
+found you alone."
+
+"Gone to Fort Pelican," Lem murmured after a moment's thought. He
+stared at Doctor Joe for several minutes, now with the look of one
+trying to recall something, and at length asked:
+
+"What's--been--happenin' to me?"
+
+"You've been shot," said Doctor Joe. "We found you on the floor. Some
+one has shot you."
+
+"The silver! The silver fox skin!" Lem displayed excitement. "Be it on
+the table? I had un there!"
+
+"There was no fur on the table when we came," said Doctor Joe.
+
+Lem made a feeble attempt to rise, but Doctor Joe pressed him gently
+back upon the pillow, saying as he did so:
+
+"You must lie quiet, Lem. Don't try to move. You're not strong
+enough."
+
+Lem, like a weary child, closed his eyes in compliance. Several
+minutes elapsed before he opened them again, and then he looked
+steadfastly at Doctor Joe.
+
+"Do you know who I am?" Doctor Joe asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Lem in a feeble voice; "you're Doctor Joe. I knows
+you. I'm--glad you--came--Doctor Joe."
+
+"Lem, you've been shot, but we'll pull you through. It isn't so bad,
+but you've lost some blood, and that's left you weak for a little
+while. Don't talk now. Rest, and you'll soon be on your feet again."
+
+While Lem lay with closed eyes, Doctor Joe turned to consideration of
+the crime. If it were true that a silver fox skin had been taken,
+robbery was undoubtedly the motive for the shooting. But who could
+have known of the existence of the skin? And who could have come to
+this out-of-the-way place unobserved by the old trapper and shot him
+without warning?
+
+Instinctively Indian Jake rose before his eyes. The half-breed's
+unsavoury reputation forced itself forward. And there was the
+circumstance of Indian Jake's visit to Flat Point camp the previous
+evening, his hurried departure in the morning, and his evident desire
+to hurry into the interior wilderness where he would be swallowed up
+for several months, and from which there would be innumerable
+opportunities to escape. Suddenly Doctor Joe was startled by Lem's
+voice, quite strong and natural now:
+
+"I'm thinkin' 'twere that thief Injun Jake that shoots me."
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"He were huntin' geese just below here, and he comes in and sits for a
+bit. I had a silver fox skin I were holdin' for a better price than
+they offers at Fort Pelican. 'Twere worth five hundred dollars
+whatever, and they only offers three hundred. I were busy mendin' my
+fishin' gear before I stows un away when Injun Jake comes. We talks
+about fur and I brings the silver out t' show he. Then I lays un on
+the table and keeps on mendin' the gear after he goes, thinkin' to put
+the fur up after I gets through mendin'."
+
+"What time did Indian Jake come?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"A bit after noon. Handy to one o'clock 'twere, for I were just
+boilin' the kettle. He eats a snack with me."
+
+"How long did he stay? What time did he go?"
+
+"I'm not knowin' just the time. I were a bit late boilin' the kettle.
+I boiled un around one o'clock. We sets down to the table about ten
+after and 'twere handy to half-past when we clears the table. Then
+Injun Jake has a smoke, and I shows he the silver, and I'm thinkin'
+'twere a bit after two when he goes. He said he were goin' to stop on
+Flat P'int last night and get to Tom Angus's to-night whatever."
+
+"A little after two o'clock when he left?"
+
+"Maybe 'twere half-past. He had a down wind to paddle agin', and he
+were sayin' 'twould be slow travellin', and 'twould take three or four
+hours whatever to make Flat P'int."
+
+"And then what happened?"
+
+"I were settin' mendin' the gear thinkin' to finish un and stow un
+away, and I keeps at un till just sundown. I were just gettin' up to
+put the kettle on for supper. That's all I remembers, exceptin' I
+wakes up two or three times and tries to move, but when I tries
+there's a wonderful hurt in my shoulder, and my head feels like she's
+bustin', and everything goes black in front of my eyes. If the fur's
+gone, Injun Jake took un."
+
+"It's strange," said Doctor Joe, "very strange. There's a bullet in
+your shoulder. After you rest a while we'll probe for it and see if we
+can get it out. Don't talk any more. Just lie quietly and sleep if you
+can."
+
+The boys were out-of-doors. Doctor Joe was glad they had not heard
+Lem's accusation against Indian Jake. The half-breed had been good to
+them, and they held vast faith in his integrity. There was some hope
+that Lem's suspicions were not well founded; nevertheless Doctor Joe
+was forced to admit to himself that circumstances pointed to Indian
+Jake as the culprit. It was highly improbable that any one else should
+have been in the vicinity without Lem's knowledge. It was quite
+possible that Lem's statement of the hour when he was shot was
+incorrect, for his mind could hardly yet be clear enough to be
+certain, without doubt, of details.
+
+Lem quickly dropped into a refreshing sleep, and Doctor Joe left him
+for a little while to join the boys out-of-doors. He found them behind
+the house picking the goose Indian Jake had left in the tree at the
+Flat Point camp.
+
+"How's Lem, sir? Is he hurt bad?" David asked as Doctor Joe seated
+himself upon a stump.
+
+"He's sleeping now. After he rests a little we'll see how badly he's
+hurt," said Doctor Joe. "I fancy you chaps are thinking about dinner.
+Hungry already, I'll be bound!"
+
+"Aye," grinned David, "wonderful hungry. 'Tis most noon, sir."
+
+Doctor Joe consulted his watch.
+
+"I declare it is. It must have been nearly eleven o'clock when we
+reached here. I didn't realize it was so late."
+
+"'Twere ten minutes to eleven, sir," said Andy. "I were lookin' to see
+how long it takes us to come from Flat P'int."
+
+"What time did we leave Flat Point?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"'Twere twenty minutes before seven, sir." Andy drew his new watch
+proudly from his pocket to refer to it again, as he did upon every
+possible occasion.
+
+"No," corrected David, "'twere only twenty-five minutes before eleven
+when we leaves Flat P'int, and fifteen minutes before eleven when we
+gets here. I looks to see."
+
+"Perhaps your watches aren't set alike," suggested Doctor Joe.
+"Suppose we compare them."
+
+The comparison disclosed a difference, as Doctor Joe predicted, of
+five minutes. Then each must needs set his watch with Doctor Joe's,
+which was a little slower than Andy's and a little faster than
+David's.
+
+Doctor Joe made some mental calculations. Both David and Andy had
+observed their watches, and there could be no doubt of the length of
+time it had required them to come from Flat Point to Lem's cabin. They
+had consumed four hours, but their progress had been exceedingly slow.
+Indian Jake had doubtless travelled much faster in his light canoe,
+but, at best, with the wind against him, he could hardly have paddled
+from Lem's cabin to Flat Point in less than two hours. He had arrived
+one hour after sunset. If Lem were correct as to the time when the
+shooting took place, Indian Jake could not be guilty.
+
+But still there was, with but one hour or possibly a little more in
+excess of the time between sunset and Indian Jake's arrival at camp,
+an uncertain alibi for Indian Jake. Lem may have been shot much
+earlier in the afternoon than he supposed. When Lem grew stronger it
+would be necessary to question him closely that the hour might be
+fixed with certainty. Whoever had shot and robbed Lem must have known
+of the existence of the silver fox skin, and been familiar with the
+surroundings. The shots had doubtless been fired through a broken pane
+in a window directly behind the chair in which Lem was sitting at the
+time.
+
+"Why not cook dinner out here over an open fire?" Doctor Joe presently
+suggested. "You chaps are pretty noisy, and if you come into the house
+to cook it on the stove, I'm afraid you'll wake Lem up, and I want him
+to sleep."
+
+"We'll cook un out here, sir," David agreed.
+
+"'Tis more fun to cook here," Jamie suggested.
+
+"Very well. When it's ready you may bring it in and we'll eat on the
+table. Lem will probably be awake by that time and he'll want
+something too. Stew the goose so that there'll be broth, and we'll
+give some of it to Lem to drink. You'll have to go to Fort Pelican
+without me. I'll have to stay here and take care of Lem. If the wind
+comes up, and I think it will, you may get a start after dinner," and
+Doctor Joe returned to the cabin to watch over his patient.
+
+The goose was plucked. David split a stick of wood, and with his
+jack-knife whittled shavings for the fire. The knife had a keen edge,
+for David was a born woodsman and every woodsman keeps his tools
+always in good condition, and the shavings he cut were long and thin.
+He did not cut each shaving separately, but stopped his knife just
+short of the end of the stick, and when several shavings were cut,
+with a twist of the blade he broke them from the main stick in a
+bunch. Thus they were held together by the butt to which they were
+attached. He whittled four or five of these bunches of shavings, and
+then cut some fine splints with his axe.
+
+David was now ready to light his fire. He placed two sticks of wood
+upon the ground, end to end, in the form of a right angle, with the
+opening between the sticks in the direction from which the wind came.
+Taking the butt of one of the bunches of shavings in his left hand, he
+scratched a match with his right hand and lighted the thin end of the
+shavings. When they were blazing freely he carefully placed the thick
+end upon the two sticks where they came together, on the inside of the
+angle, with the burning end resting upon the ground. Thus the thick
+end of the shavings was elevated. Fire always climbs upward, and in an
+instant the whole bunch of shavings was ablaze. Upon this he placed
+the other shavings, the thin ends on the fire, the butts resting upon
+the two sticks at the angle. With the splints which he had previously
+prepared arranged upon this they quickly ignited, and upon them larger
+sticks were laid, and in less than five minutes an excellent cooking
+fire was ready for the pot.
+
+Before disjointing the goose, David held it over the blaze until it
+was thoroughly singed and the surface of the skin clear. Then he
+proceeded to draw and cut the goose into pieces of suitable size for
+stewing, placed them in the kettle, and covered them with water from
+Lem's spring.
+
+In the meantime Andy cut a stiff green pole about five feet in length.
+The thick end he sharpened, and near the other end cut a small notch.
+Using the thick, sharpened end like a crowbar, he drove it firmly into
+the ground with the small end directly above the fire. Placing a stone
+between the ground and sloping pole, that the pole might not sag too
+low with the weight of the kettle, he slipped the handle of the kettle
+into the notch at the small end of the pole, where it hung suspended
+over the blaze.
+
+Preparing a similar pole, and placing it in like manner, Andy filled
+the tea-kettle and put it over the fire to heat for tea.
+
+"I'm thinkin'," suggested David as he dropped four or five thick
+slices of pork into the kettle of goose, "'twould be fine to have hot
+bread with the goose."
+
+"Oh, make un! Make un!" exclaimed Jamie.
+
+"Aye," seconded Andy, "hot bread would go fine with the goose."
+
+Andy fetched the flour up from the boat and David dipped about a
+quart of it into the mixing pan. To this he added four heaping
+teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and two level teaspoonfuls of salt.
+After stirring the baking-powder and salt well into the flour, he
+added to it a heaping cooking-spoonful of lard--a quantity equal to
+two heaping tablespoonfuls. This he rubbed into the flour with the
+back of the large cooking spoon until it was thoroughly mixed. He now
+added water while he mixed it with the flour, a little at a time,
+until the dough was of the consistency of stiff biscuit dough.
+
+The bread was now ready to bake. There was no oven, and the frying-pan
+must needs serve instead. The interior of the frying-pan he sprinkled
+liberally with flour that the dough might not stick to it. Then
+cutting a piece of dough from the mass he pulled it into a cake just
+large enough to fit into the frying-pan and about half an inch in
+thickness, and laid the cake carefully in the pan.
+
+With a stick he raked from the fire some hot coals. With the coals
+directly behind the pan, and with the bread in the pan facing the
+fire, and exposed to the direct heat, he placed it at an angle of
+forty-five degrees, supporting it in that position with a sharpened
+stick, one end forced into the earth and the tip of the handle resting
+upon the other end. The bread thus derived heat at the bottom from the
+coals and at the top from the main fire.
+
+"She's risin' fine!" Jamie presently announced.
+
+"She'll rise fast enough," David declared confidently. "There's no
+fear of that."
+
+There was no fear indeed. In ten minutes the loaf had increased to
+three times its original thickness and the side nearer the ground took
+on a delicate brown, for the greater heat of a fire is always
+reflected toward the ground. David removed the pan from its support,
+and without lifting the loaf from the pan, moved it round until the
+brown side was opposite the handle. Then he returned the pan to its
+former position. Now the browned half was on the upper or handle side,
+while the unbrowned half was on the side near the ground, and in a few
+minutes the whole loaf was deliciously browned.
+
+While the bread was baking David drove a stick into the ground at one
+side and a little farther from the fire than the pan. When the loaf
+had browned on top to his satisfaction he removed it from the pan and
+leaned it against the stick with the bottom exposed to the fire, and
+proceeded to bake a second loaf.
+
+"Let me have the dough that's left," Jamie begged.
+
+"Aye, take un if you likes," David consented. "There'll be too little
+for another loaf, whatever."
+
+Jamie secured a dry stick three or four feet long and about two inches
+in diameter. This he scraped clean of bark, and pulling the dough into
+a rope as thick as his finger wound it in a spiral upon the centre of
+the stick. Then he flattened the dough until it was not above a
+quarter of an inch in thickness.
+
+On the opposite side of the fire from David, that he might not
+interfere with David's cooking, he arranged two stones near enough
+together for an end of the stick to rest on each. Here he placed it
+with the dough in the centre exposed to the heat. As the dough on the
+side of the stick near the fire browned he turned the stick a little
+to expose a new surface, until his twist was brown on all sides.
+
+"Have some of un," Jamie invited. "We'll eat un to stave off the
+hunger before dinner. I'm fair starved."
+
+David and Andy were not slow to accept, and Jamie's crisp hot twist
+was quickly devoured.
+
+The kettle of stewing goose was sending forth a most delicious
+appetizing odour. David lifted the lid to season it, and stir it with
+the cooking spoon. Jamie and Andy sniffed.
+
+"U-m-m!" from Jamie.
+
+"Oh, she smells fine!" Andy breathed.
+
+"Seems like I can't wait for un!" Jamie declared.
+
+"She's done!" David at length announced.
+
+"Make the tea, Andy."
+
+Using a stick as a lifter David removed the kettle of goose from the
+fire, while Andy put tea in the other kettle, which was boiling,
+removing it also from the fire.
+
+"You bring the bread along, Jamie, and you the tea, Andy," David
+directed, turning into the cabin with the kettle of goose.
+
+Lem had just awakened from a most refreshing sleep, and when he
+smelled the goose he declared:
+
+"I'm hungrier'n a whale."
+
+Doctor Joe laid claim also to no small appetite, an appetite, indeed,
+quite superior to that described by Lem.
+
+"A whale!" he sniffed. "Why, I'm as hungry as seven whales! Seven,
+now! Big whales, too! No small whales about _my_ appetite!"
+
+The three boys laughed heartily, and David warned:
+
+"We'll all have to be lookin' out or there won't be a bite o' goose
+left for anybody if Doctor Joe gets at un first!"
+
+Doctor Joe arranged a plate for Lem, upon which he placed a choice
+piece of breast and a section of one of David's loaves, which proved,
+when broken, to be light and short and delicious. Then he poured Lem a
+cup of rich broth from the kettle, and while Lem ate waited upon him
+before himself joining the boys at the table.
+
+"How are you feeling, Lem?" asked Doctor Joe when everyone had
+finished and the boys were washing dishes.
+
+"My head's a bit soggy and I'm a bit weak, and there's a wonderful
+pain in my right shoulder when I moves un," said Lem. "If 'tweren't
+for my head and the weakness and the pain I'd feel as well as ever I
+did, and I'd be achin' to get after that thief Indian Jake. As 'tis
+I'll bide my time till I feels nimbler."
+
+"Do you think you could let me fuss around that shoulder a little
+while?" Doctor Joe asked. "Does it hurt too badly for you to bear it?"
+
+"Oh, I can stand un," said Lem. "Fuss around un all you wants to,
+Doctor Joe. You knows how to mend un and patch un up, and I wants un
+mended."
+
+Doctor Joe called Andy to his assistance with another basin of warm
+water, in which, as previously, he dissolved antiseptic tablets,
+explaining to the boys the reason, and adding:
+
+"If a wound is kept clean Nature will heal it. Nothing you can apply
+to a wound will assist in the healing. All that is necessary is to
+keep it clean and keep it properly bandaged to protect it from
+infection."
+
+"Wouldn't a bit of wet t'baccer draw the soreness out?" Lem suggested.
+
+"No! No! No!" protested Doctor Joe, properly horrified. "Never put
+tobacco or anything else on a wound. If you do you will run the risk
+of infection which might result in blood poisoning, which might kill
+you."
+
+"I puts t'baccer on cuts sometimes and she always helps un," insisted
+Lem.
+
+"It's simply through the mercy of God, then, and your good clean
+blood, that it hasn't killed you," declared Doctor Joe.
+
+From his kit Doctor Joe brought forth bandages and gauze and some
+strange-looking instruments, and turned his attention to the shoulder.
+Lem gritted his teeth and, though Doctor Joe knew he was suffering,
+never uttered a whimper or complaint.
+
+An examination disclosed the fact that the bullet had coursed to the
+right, and Doctor Joe located it just under the skin directly forward
+of the arm pit. Though it was necessarily a painful wound, he was
+relieved to find that no vital organ had been injured, and he was able
+to assure Lem that he would soon be around again and be as well as
+ever.
+
+When the bullet was extracted Doctor Joe examined it critically,
+washed it and placed it carefully in his pocket. It proved to be a
+thirty-eight calibre, black powder rifle bullet. Doctor Joe had no
+doubt of that. He had made a study of firearms and had the eye of an
+expert.
+
+"It's half-past two, boys. A westerly breeze is springing up, and I
+think you'd better go on to Fort Pelican," Doctor Joe suggested. "I'll
+give you a note to the factor instructing him to deliver all the
+things to you. You'll be able to make a good run before camping time.
+Stop in here on your way back."
+
+The boys made ready and said good-bye, spread the sails, and were soon
+running before a good breeze. Doctor Joe watched them disappear round
+the island, and returning to Lem's bedside asked:
+
+"Lem, do you know what kind of a rifle Indian Jake carried?"
+
+"I'm not knowin' rightly," said Lem. "'Twere either a forty-four or a
+thirty-eight. 'Twere he did the shootin'. Nobody else has been comin'
+about here the whole summer. I'm not doubtin' he's got my silver fox,
+and I'm goin' to get un back _whatever_. He'd never stop at shootin'
+to rob, but he'll have to be quicker'n I be at shootin', to keep the
+fur!"
+
+"When are you expecting Mrs. Horn and the boys back?" asked Doctor
+Joe.
+
+"This evenin' or to-morrow whatever," said Lem. "They've been away
+these five days gettin' the winter outfit at Fort Pelican."
+
+If Indian Jake were guilty, it was highly probable that he would take
+prompt steps to flee the country. He could not dispose of the silver
+fox skin in the Bay, for all the local traders had already seen and
+appraised it, and they would undoubtedly recognize it if it were
+offered them. Indian Jake would probably plunge into the interior,
+spend the winter hunting, and in the spring make his way to the St.
+Lawrence, where he would be safe from detection.
+
+Doctor Joe made these calculations while he sat by the bedside, and
+his patient dozed. He was sorry now that he had not sent the boys back
+to The Jug with a letter to Thomas explaining what had occurred. All
+the evidence pointed to Indian Jake's guilt, and there could be little
+doubt of it if it should prove that the half-breed carried a
+thirty-eight fifty-five rifle. Thomas would know, and he would take
+prompt action to prevent Indian Jake's escape with the silver fox
+skin. Should it prove, however, that Indian Jake's rifle was of
+different calibre, he should be freed from suspicion.
+
+It was dusk that evening when the boat bearing Eli and Mark and Mrs.
+Horn rounded the island. Doctor Joe met them. They had seen the boys
+and had received from them a detailed account of what had happened,
+and Mrs. Horn was greatly excited. Her first thought was for Lem, and
+she was vastly relieved when she saw him, as he declared he did not
+feel "so bad," and Doctor Joe assured her he would soon be around
+again and as well as ever.
+
+Then there fell upon the family a full realization of their loss. The
+silver fox skin that had been stolen was their whole fortune. The
+proceeds of its sale was to have been their bulwark against need. It
+was to have given them a degree of independence, and above all else
+the little hoard that its sale would have brought them was to have
+lightened Lem's burden of labour during his declining years.
+
+Eli Horn was a big, broad-shouldered, swarthy young man of few words.
+For an hour after he heard his father's detailed story of Indian
+Jake's visit to the cabin, he sat in sullen silence by the stove.
+Suddenly he arose, lifted his rifle from the pegs upon which it rested
+against the wall, dropped some ammunition into his cartridge bag, and
+swinging it over his shoulder strode toward the door.
+
+"Where you goin', Eli?" asked Lem from his bunk.
+
+"To hunt Indian Jake," said Eli as he closed the door behind him and
+passed out into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE TRACKS IN THE SAND
+
+
+A smart south-west breeze had sprung up. White caps were dotting the
+Bay, and with all sails set the boat bowled along at a good speed.
+
+David held the tiller, while Andy and Jamie busied themselves with
+their handbooks. They were an hour out of Horn's Bight when David
+sighted the Horn boat beating up against the wind. Drawing within
+hailing distance he told them of the accident.
+
+Mrs. Horn, greatly excited, asked many questions. David assured her
+that her husband's injuries were not serious, nevertheless she was
+quite certain Lem lay at death's door.
+
+"'Tis the first time I leaves home in most a year," she lamented. "I
+were feelin' inside me 'twere wrong to go and leave Lem alone. And
+now he's gone and been shot and liker'n not most killed."
+
+"'Tis too bad to make Mrs. Horn worry so. I'm wonderfully sorry,"
+David sympathized, as the boats passed beyond speaking distance.
+"She'll worry now till they gets home, and the way Lem ate goose I'm
+thinkin' he ain't hurt bad enough to worry much about he."
+
+"They'll get there to-night whatever," said Andy. "'Tis the way of
+Mrs. Horn to worry, even when we tells she Lem's doin' fine."
+
+"I'm wonderin' and wonderin' who 'twere shot Lem," said David.
+"Whoever 'twere had un in his heart to do murder."
+
+"Whoever 'twere looked in through the window and saw Lem with the fine
+silver fox on the table and sets out to get the fox," reasoned Andy.
+"The shootin' were done through the window where there's a pane of
+glass broke out."
+
+"I sees where there's a pane of glass out," said David. "'Twas not
+fresh broke though."
+
+"No, 'twere an old break," Andy agreed. "I goes to look at un, and I
+sees fresh tracks under the window where the man stands when he
+shoots."
+
+"Tracks!" exclaimed David. "I never thought to look for tracks now! I
+weren't thinkin' of that! You thinks of more things than I ever does,
+Andy."
+
+"I weren't thinkin' of tracks either," said Andy, disclaiming credit
+for their discovery. "Whilst you bakes the bread I just goes to look
+where the window is broke, and when I'm there I sees the
+strange-lookin' tracks."
+
+"Strange, now! How was they strange?" asked Jamie excitedly, scenting
+a deepening mystery.
+
+"They was made with boots with _nails_ in the bottom of un," explained
+Andy. "They was nails all over the bottom of them boots, and they was
+big boots, them was. They made big tracks--wonderful big tracks."
+
+"'Tis strange, now! Did you trace un, Andy? Did you see what way the
+tracks goes?" asked David.
+
+"'Twere only under the window where the ground were soft and bare of
+moss that the tracks showed the nails. I tracks un down though to
+where they comes in a boat and the boat goes again," Andy explained.
+"The tracks were a day old, and down by the water the tide's been in
+and washed un away. Whoever 'twere makes un were beyond findin'
+whatever. They were goin' away, I'm thinkin', right after they shoots
+Lem and takes his silver."
+
+"Did you tell Doctor Joe about the tracks?" asked David.
+
+"No, I weren't thinkin' to tell he when we goes in to eat, and he
+weren't wantin' us in before that fearin' we'd wake Lem. The tracks
+weren't of much account whatever. The folk that shot Lem were leavin'
+in a boat and we couldn't track the boat to find out who 'twere."
+
+A drizzling rain began to fall before they made camp that night. It
+was too wet and dreary under the dripping trees for an open camp fire.
+The stove was therefore brought into service and set up in the tent,
+and there they cooked and ate their supper by candle-light.
+
+On a cold and stormy night there is no article in the camp equipment
+more useful than a little sheet-iron stove. With its magic touch it
+transforms a wet and dismal tent into the snuggest and cosiest and
+most comfortable retreat in the whole world. Outside the wind was now
+dashing the rain in angry gusts against the canvas, and moaning
+drearily through the tree tops. Within the fire crackled cheerily. The
+tent was dry and snug and warm. The bed of fragrant balsam and spruce
+boughs, the smell of the fire and the soft candle-light combined to
+give it an indescribable atmosphere of luxury.
+
+In the morning the weather had not improved. The wind had risen during
+the night, and was driving the rain in sheets over the Bay. David went
+outside to make a survey, and when he returned he reported:
+
+"'Twill be a nasty day abroad."
+
+"Let's bide here till the rain stops," suggested Jamie.
+
+"The wind's fair, and if she keeps up and don't turn too strong we'll
+make Fort Pelican by evenin' whatever, if we goes," David objected.
+
+"'Twon't be so bad, once we're out and gets used to un," said Andy.
+
+"No, 'twon't be so bad," urged David. "The wind may shift and fall
+calm, when the rain's over, and if we bides here we'll lose time in
+gettin' to Fort Pelican. I'm for goin' and makin' the best of un."
+
+"I won't mind un," agreed Jamie, stoutly.
+
+"I got grit to travel in the rain, and we wants to make a fast cruise
+of un."
+
+It was "nasty" indeed when after breakfast they broke camp and set
+sail. In a little while they were wet to the skin, and it was
+miserably cold; but they were used enough to the beat of wind and rain
+in their faces, and all declared that it was not "so bad" after all.
+To these hardy lads of The Labrador rain and cold was no great
+hardship. It was all in a day's work, and scudding along before a good
+breeze, and looking forward to a good dinner in the kitchen at Fort
+Pelican, and to a snug bed at night, they quite forgot the cold and
+rain.
+
+During the morning the wind shifted to the westward, and before noon
+it drew around to the north-west. With the shift of wind the rain
+ceased, and the clouds broke. Then Andy lighted a fire in the stove,
+boiled the kettle and fried a pan of salt pork. Hot tea, with bread
+dipped in the warm pork grease, warmed them and put them in high
+spirits.
+
+"'Tis fine we didn't bide in camp," remarked David as he swallowed a
+third cup of tea. "With this fine breeze we'll make Fort Pelican
+to-night, whatever."
+
+"I'm fine and warm now," declared Jamie, "but 'twas a bit hard to face
+the rain when we starts this marnin'."
+
+"'Tis always the thinkin' about un that makes things hard to do,"
+observed David.
+
+"Things we has to do seems wonderful hard before we gets at un, but
+mostly they're easy enough after we tackles un. The thinkin'
+beforehand's the hardest part of any hard job."
+
+The sun broke out between black clouds scudding across the sky. The
+wind was gradually increasing in force. By mid-afternoon half a gale
+was blowing, a heavy sea; was running, and the old boat, heeling to
+the gale, was in a smother of white water.
+
+"We're makin' fine time!" shouted David, shaking the spray from his
+hair.
+
+"We'll sure make Fort Pelican this evenin' early," Andy shouted back.
+
+"We'll not make un!" Jamie protested. "The wind's gettin' too strong!
+We'll have to go ashore and make camp!"
+
+"The boat'll stand un," laughed David. "She's a sturdy craft in a
+breeze."
+
+"I'm afeared," said Jamie.
+
+"'A scout is brave,'" quoted Andy.
+
+"'Tisn't meant for a scout to be foolish," Jamie insisted. "I'm
+afeared of bein' foolish."
+
+"You was braggin' of havin' grit," Andy taunted.
+
+"I has grit and a stout heart," Jamie proudly asserted, "but there's
+no such need of haste as to tempt a gale. 'Tis time to lie to and
+camp."
+
+David's answer was lost in the smother of a great roller that chased
+them, and breaking astern nearly swept him from the tiller. When the
+lads caught their breath there was a foot of sea in the bottom of the
+boat.
+
+"Bail her out!" bellowed David, shaking the water from his eyes.
+
+"Jamie's right! 'Tis blowin' too high for comfort!" shouted Andy, as
+he and Jamie, each with a kettle, bailed. "We'd better not risk goin'
+on! Find a lee to make a landin', Davy."
+
+"'Tis against reason not to take shelter!" piped Jamie.
+
+"Fort Pelican's only ten miles away!" David shouted back in protest.
+"We'll soon make un in this fine breeze!"
+
+The boat was riding on her beam ends. White horses breaking over her
+bow sent showers of foam her whole length. A sudden squall that nearly
+capsized her roused David suddenly to their danger.
+
+"Reef the mains'l!" he shouted.
+
+"Make for the lee of Comfort Island!" sputtered Andy through the
+spray, as he and Jamie sprang for the mainsail to reef it.
+
+"Make for un!" echoed Jamie. "'Tis against reason to keep goin'."
+
+The wind shrieked through the rigging. Another great roller all but
+swamped them. The sudden fury of the wind, the ever higher-piling
+seas, and the rollers that had so nearly overwhelmed the boat brought
+to David a full sense of their peril. He had been foolhardy and
+headstrong in his determination to continue to Fort Pelican. He
+realized this now even more fully than Andy and Jamie.
+
+David was a good seaman and fearless, with a full measure of faith in
+his skill. Now that his eyes were open to the peril in which he had
+placed them, he knew that all the skill he possessed and perhaps more
+would be required to take them safely into shelter.
+
+Comfort Island with its offer of snug harbour lay a half mile to
+leeward. David brought the boat before the wind, and headed directly
+for the island.
+
+Great breakers, pounding the high, rockbound shores of Comfort Island,
+and booming like cannon, threw their spray a hundred feet in the air,
+enveloping the island in a cloud of mist.
+
+Stretching away from the island for a mile to the westward was a rocky
+shoal known as the Devil's Arm. At high tide, in calm weather, it
+might be crossed, but now it was a great white barrier of roaring
+breakers rising in mighty geysers above the sea.
+
+To the eastward of the island was a mass of black reefs known as the
+Devil's Tea Kettle. The Devil's Tea Kettle was always an evil place.
+Now it was a great boiling cauldron whose waters rose and fell in a
+seething white mass.
+
+It was quite out of the question to round the Devil's Arm and beat
+back against the wind to the lee of the island. There was a narrow
+passage between the Devil's Tea Kettle and the island. If they could
+make this passage it would be a simple matter to fall in behind the
+island to shelter and safety.
+
+All of these things David saw at a glance. It was a desperate
+undertaking, but it was the only chance, and he held straight for the
+passage. If he could keep the boat to her course, he would make it. If
+a sudden squall of wind overtook them the leeway would throw them
+upon the island breakers and they would be swallowed up in an instant
+and pounded to pieces upon the rocks.
+
+Over and over again David breathed the prayer: "Lord, take us through
+safe! Lord, take us through safe!" His face was set, but his nerves
+were iron. Andy and Jamie, tense with the peril and excitement of the
+adventure, crouched in the bottom of the boat. As they drew near the
+island, Jamie shouted encouragingly:
+
+"Keep your grit, and a stout heart like a man, Davy!" but the roar of
+breakers drowned his voice, and David did not hear.
+
+"Is you afraid, Jamie?" Andy yelled in Jamie's ear.
+
+"Aye," answered Jamie, "but I has plenty of grit."
+
+He who knows danger and meets it manfully though he fears it, is
+brave, and Jamie and all of them were brave.
+
+The boat was in the passage at last. David, every nerve tense, held
+her down to it. On the right seethed the Devil's Tea Kettle, sending
+forth a continuous deafening roar. On the left was Comfort Island with
+a boom! boom! of thundering breakers smashing against its high, sullen
+bulwarks of black rocks. The boat was so near that spray from the
+breakers fell over it in a shower.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE RIGHT SEETHED THE DEVIL'S TEA KETTLE]
+
+It was over in a moment. The Devil's Tea Kettle, with all its loud
+threats, was behind them. The boat shot down along the shore, David
+swung to port, and they were safe in the quiet waters to the lee of
+the island.
+
+"Thank the Lord!" said David reverently, as he brought the little
+craft to and the sail flapped idly.
+
+"'Twere a close shave," breathed Jamie.
+
+"A wonderful close shave," echoed Andy.
+
+"You had grit," said Jamie. "You has plenty o' grit, Davy--and a stout
+heart, like a man. 'Twere wonderful how you cracked her through!
+There's nary a man on the coast could have done better'n that!"
+
+"'Twere easy enough," David boasted with a laugh as he wiped the spray
+from his face, and unshipping the rudder proceeded to scull the boat
+into a natural berth between the rocks.
+
+Hardly a breath of the gale raging outside reached them in their snug
+little harbour. The boat was made fast with the painter to a ledge,
+and the boys climed to the high rocky shore.
+
+An excellent camping place was discovered a hundred yards back in a
+grove of stunted spruce trees that had rooted themselves in the scant
+soil that covered the rocks, and held fast, despite the Arctic blasts
+that swept across the Bay to rake the island during the long winters.
+Here the tent was pitched, and everything carried up from the boat and
+stowed within to dry. Fifteen minutes later the tent stove was
+crackling cheerily and sending forth comfort to the drenched young
+mariners. "There'll be no hurry in the marnin'," said David when they
+had eaten supper and lighted a candle. "We'll stay up to-night till we
+gets the outfit all dried, and if we're late about un we'll sleep a
+bit later in the marnin', to make up. We'll make Fort Pelican in an
+hour, or two hours _what_ever, if we has a civil breeze in the
+marnin'."
+
+"We'll not be gettin' away from Fort Pelican to-morrow, will we?"
+asked Andy.
+
+"We'll take the day for visitin' the folk and hearin' the news, and
+start back the marnin' after," suggested David.
+
+It was near midnight when they crawled into their beds to drop into a
+ten-knot sleep, and they slept so soundly than none of them awoke
+until they were aroused by the sun shining upon the tent the next
+morning.
+
+Breakfast was prepared and eaten leisurely. There was no hurry. The
+wind had fallen to a moderate stiff breeze, and Fort Pelican, through
+the narrows connecting Eskimo Bay with the sea outside, was almost in
+sight.
+
+When the dishes were washed Andy and Jamie took down the tent, while
+David shouldered a pack and preceded them to the place where they had
+moored the boat the previous evening. A few minutes later he came
+running back, and in breathless excitement startled them with the
+announcement:
+
+"The boat's gone!"
+
+"Gone where?" asked Andy incredulously.
+
+"Gone! I'm not knowin' _where_!" exclaimed David.
+
+"Has she been took?" asked Jamie, excitedly.
+
+"Took!" said David. "The painter were untied and she were took!
+There's tracks about of big boots with nails in un!"
+
+Andy and Jamie ran down with David. No trace of the boat was to be
+found.
+
+In the earth above the shore were plainly to be seen the tracks of
+two men wearing hobnailed boots.
+
+"They's fresh tracks," declared David.
+
+"Made this marnin'," Andy agreed. "They's the same kind of tracks as
+the ones I see under Lem's window. Whoever 'twere made these tracks
+shot Lem and took his silver."
+
+"And now we're left here on the island with no way of gettin' off,"
+said David.
+
+"What'll we be doin'? How'll we ever get away?" asked Jamie in
+consternation.
+
+But that was a question none of them could answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE MYSTERY OF THE BOAT
+
+
+The boys looked at each other in consternation. They were marooned on
+a desolate, rocky, sparsely wooded island. Boats passed only at rare
+intervals, and a fortnight, or even a month, might elapse before an
+opportunity for rescue offered. Their provisions would scarcely last a
+week, and the island was destitute of game.
+
+"Whoever 'twere took the boat," Andy suggested presently, "were on the
+island when we comes."
+
+"Aye," David agreed, "and makin' for Fort Pelican. They been up as far
+as Lem's and they's gettin' away with Lem's silver to sell un."
+
+"'Tis strange boots they wears," said Jamie. "Strange boots them is
+with nails in un."
+
+"'Twere no man of The Labrador made them tracks," David declared.
+
+"I never sees boots with nails in un," said Andy, "except the boots
+the lumber folks wears over at the new camp at Grampus River."
+
+"Aye," agreed David, "they wears un. When we goes over with Pop last
+month when the big steamer comes I sees un. Plenty of un wears boots
+with nails in."
+
+"That's who 'twere took our boat!" said Andy. "'Twere men from the
+Grampus River lumber camp."
+
+"Let's track un and see where they were camped," suggested David.
+
+The trail was easily followed. Here and there a footprint appeared
+where soil had drifted in among the rocks above the shore. The trail
+led them three hundred yards to the eastward, and then down into a
+sheltered hollow just above the water's edge, where a small boat was
+drawn up upon the shore.
+
+"Here's a boat!" exclaimed Jamie, who had run ahead.
+
+"A boat!" shouted David. "They left un and took our boat."
+
+"And good reason!" said Jamie, who had reached the skiff. "The
+bottom's half knocked out of un."
+
+It was evident that the boat had been driven upon the rocks in making
+a landing, and a jagged hole a foot square appeared in the bottom,
+rendering it in that condition quite useless. Near by a tent had been
+pitched, and there was no doubt that the men who had abandoned the
+boat had been in camp for a day at least in the sheltered hollow.
+
+The boys turned the boat over and examined the break.
+
+"'Tis a bad place to mend," observed David.
+
+"But we can mend un," declared Andy. "We can mend un by noon whatever,
+and get to Fort Pelican this evenin'."
+
+"I'm doubtin'," David shook his head. "'Twill take a day to mend un
+whatever, and she'll be none too safe. 'Twill be hard to make un
+water-tight."
+
+"We can mend un," Andy insisted.
+
+A close examination of the tracks disclosed the fact that there had
+undoubtedly been two men in the party. They had reached the island
+before the rain of two days before. This was disclosed by the fact
+that some of the tracks were partly washed away by the rain, and the
+earth was caked where the wind and sun had dried it afterwards.
+
+Natives of the coast, as was the case with David and Jamie and Andy,
+wore home-made sealskin boots in summer and buckskin moccasins in
+winter. The sealskin boots had moccasin feet with one thickness of
+skin, and were soft and pliable. None of them ever wore soled boots
+that would admit of hobnails. It was plain to the boys, therefore,
+that the men who made the tracks were not natives of the country.
+
+Early in the summer a lumber company had begun the erection of a camp
+at Grampus River, which lay twenty miles to the southward from The
+Jug, and on the opposite side of Eskimo Bay. A steamship had brought
+in men and supplies, and all summer men had been building camps and
+preparing for lumbering operations during the coming winter.
+
+It was the first steamer to enter the Bay, and its advent had been an
+occasion of much curiosity on the part of the people. Many of them
+made excursions to Grampus River to see the strangers at work. Thomas
+had made such an excursion with David and Andy. Strange, rough,
+blasphemous men they seemed to the God-fearing folk of the country.
+These were the men wearing hobnailed boots of which David spoke, and
+there was small doubt in the mind of the boys that the men who had
+camped on the island and had stolen the boat were from the Grampus
+River lumber camp.
+
+It proved a tedious undertaking to repair and make seaworthy the
+damaged boat. The trees on the island were, for the most part, small
+gnarled spruce, twisted and stunted by the northern blasts which swept
+the Bay. After some search, however, they discovered a white spruce
+tree suitable for their purpose, with a trunk ten inches in diameter.
+David felled it and cut from its butt a two-foot length. This he
+proceeded to split into as thin slabs as possible. Then with their
+jack-knives the boys began the tedious task of whittling the surfaces
+of the slabs into smooth boards, first trimming them down to an inch
+and a half in thickness with the axes.
+
+"How'll we make un fast when we gets un done?" asked Jamie. "We has no
+nails."
+
+"I'm thinkin' of that," said David. "I'm not knowin' yet, but we'll
+find some way."
+
+"I've got a way," Andy announced. "I been thinkin' and thinkin' and I
+found a way to make un fast."
+
+"How'll you make un fast now without nails?" David asked expectantly.
+
+"We'll tie un with spruce roots, like the Injuns puts their canoes
+together," explained Andy. "We'll cut holes in each end of un in the
+right place to tie un fast to the braces of the boat. We'll have to
+make holes in the bottom of the boat each side of the braces for the
+roots to come through so we can make un fast. That'll hold un. Then
+when we've made un fast we'll caulk un up with spruce gum."
+
+"Why can't we cut strips of sealskin off our sleepin' bags for strings
+to tie un with?" suggested David. "'Twould be easier than makin'
+spruce root strings, and quicker too, and the sealskin would be strong
+and hold un tight."
+
+"Yes, and soon's the sealskin gets wet she'll stretch," Andy objected.
+"Then the boards would loosen up and let the water in."
+
+"I never thought of the sealskin stretchin', but she sure would.
+You're fine at thinkin' things out, Andy!" said David admiringly. "The
+spruce roots won't stretch though. 'Tis a fine way to fix un now, and
+she'll work. There's no doubtin' she'll work."
+
+"'Twill take all day," Andy calculated, adding with pride, "but once
+we gets un on they'll hold. I'll get the roots now and put un to
+soak."
+
+Andy dug around the white spruce tree and in a little while gathered a
+sufficient quantity of long string-like roots. He scraped them and
+then split them carefully with his knife. When they were split he
+filled the big kettle with water from a spring, placed the roots in it
+and put them over the fire to boil.
+
+They all worked as hard as they could on the boards, and when dinner
+time came David announced that the boards were smooth enough for their
+purpose.
+
+"Now all we'll have to do," said he as he sliced pork for dinner, "is
+to make the holes in un and fasten un on."
+
+"What were that now?" Jamie interrupted as a hoarse blast broke upon
+the air.
+
+"'Tis the steamer whistle!" David dropped the knife with which he was
+slicing pork, and with Jamie and Andy at his heels ran to the top of
+the highest rock on the island, where a wide view of the Bay lay
+before them.
+
+A mile away the lumber company's big steamer was feeling its way
+cautiously toward the west, bound inward to the Grampus River camps.
+The boys waved their caps and shouted at the top of their lungs, but
+no one on the steamer appeared to see them. It was not until the great
+strange vessel had become a mere speck in the distance that they
+turned back to the preparation of dinner.
+
+"They didn't see us," said David in disappointment.
+
+"We're not wantin' to go to Grampus River, whatever," Andy cheered.
+"We're goin' to Fort Pelican when we has the boat fixed up, and she's
+'most done."
+
+After dinner they settled to the task. Two of the narrow boards which
+they had prepared were required to cover the break, which occurred
+between two braces. The edges of the boards where they were to join
+were whittled straight, that the joint might be made as tight as
+possible. Then David held them in place while Andy marked the position
+for the holes through which the spruce root thongs were to pass.
+
+Four holes were to be cut in each end of both boards, and holes to
+match in the bottom of the boat, and in an hour they were neatly
+reamed out. When Andy removed his thongs from the water they were
+quite soft and pliable, and proved to be strong and tough.
+
+Andy lashed the boards into place, threading the thongs through the
+holes and drawing them round the brace several times at each place
+where provision had been made for them. Thus a dozen thicknesses of
+fibre bound the boards to the brace at each set of holes.
+
+It was now necessary to collect the spruce gum and prepare it. Gum was
+plentiful enough, and in half an hour they had collected enough to
+half fill the frying-pan. To this was added a little lard, and the gum
+and grease melted over the fire and thoroughly mixed.
+
+"What you puttin' the grease in for?" asked Jamie curiously.
+
+"So when we pours un in the cracks and she hardens she won't be
+brittle and crack," David explained.
+
+The hot mixture was now poured into the joints between the boards and
+at all points where the new boards came into contact with the boat,
+and into the holes where the lashings occurred. In a few minutes it
+hardened, and the boys surveyed their work with pride and
+satisfaction.
+
+"Now we'll try un," said David, "and see if she leaks."
+
+"She'll never leak where she's mended," asserted Andy.
+
+They slipped the boat into the water and Andy's prediction proved
+true. Not a drop of water oozed through the joints, and the boat was
+as snug and tight and seaworthy as any boat that ever floated.
+
+"'Tis too late to start to-night," said David, "but we'll be away at
+crack o' dawn in the marnin', whatever. 'Tis fine they left the sail
+and oars."
+
+And at crack of dawn in the morning the boys were away. The day was
+misty and disagreeable, but David and Andy knew the way as well as you
+and I know our city streets. They rounded the Devil's Arm, a friendly
+tide helped them through the narrows, and in mid-forenoon the low
+white buildings of Fort Pelican appeared in misty outline through the
+fog. A few minutes later they swung alongside the Fort Pelican jetty,
+and there, to their amazement, firmly tied to the jetty, lay their own
+big boat.
+
+No one about the Post could explain whence the boat had come or how it
+reached the jetty. The Post servants stated that they had not noticed
+it until after the departure of the lumber steamer. They had
+recognized it as Thomas Angus's boat, for in that country men know
+each other's boats as our country folk know their neighbours' horses.
+
+The lumber ship had arrived on the morning of the gale, and had
+anchored in the harbour awaiting the arrival of one of the company's
+officers on the mail boat. The mail boat had arrived the previous
+morning, and both the mail boat and lumber ship had steamed away
+shortly after the mail boat's arrival. Many lumbermen had been ashore.
+If any of them had come in the boat they had mingled among the others
+and had departed either on the lumber ship, which had gone up the Bay
+to Grampus River, or on the mail boat to Newfoundland.
+
+"I'm thinkin'," said David, "whoever 'twere took Lem's silver fox and
+our boat went to Newfoundland to sell the fur."
+
+"There's no doubtin' _that_," agreed Andy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TRAILING THE HALF-BREED
+
+
+Eli Horn paused in the enclosed porch to shoulder his provision pack,
+left there upon his arrival home earlier in the evening. He was
+passing from the porch when Doctor Joe opened the door.
+
+"Eli," said Doctor Joe, closing the door behind him, "may I have a
+word with you?"
+
+"Aye, sir," and Eli stopped.
+
+"I just wished to speak a word of warning," said Doctor Joe quietly.
+"Be cautious, Eli, and do nothing you'll regret. Don't be too hasty.
+We suspect Indian Jake, but none of us knows certainly that he shot
+your father or took the silver fox skin."
+
+"There's no doubtin' he took un! Pop says he took un, and he knows.
+I'm goin' to get the silver if I has to kill Injun Jake."
+
+Eli spoke in even, quiet tones, but with the dogged determination of
+the man trained to pit his powers of endurance against Nature and the
+wilderness. He gave no suggestion of boastfulness, but rather of the
+man who has an ordinary duty to perform, and is bent upon doing it to
+the best of his ability.
+
+"Don't you think you had better wait and start in the morning? It's a
+nasty night to be out," Doctor Joe suggested. "'Twill be hard to make
+your way to-night with the wind against you as well as the dark. If
+you wait until morning it will give us time to talk things over."
+
+"I'll not stop till I gets the silver," Eli stubbornly declared, "and
+I'll get un or kill Injun Jake."
+
+"See here, Eli," Doctor Joe laid his hand on Eli's arm, "your father
+says he was not shot until sundown. Indian Jake was at our camp at
+Flat Point within the hour after sundown. He never could have paddled
+that distance against a down wind in an hour. The boys and I were four
+hours coming over here from Flat Point Camp, and I know Indian Jake
+could not have covered the distance in anything like an hour."
+
+"'Twere some trick of his! He shot un and he took the silver!" Eli
+insisted. "Good-bye, sir. I've got to be goin' or he'll slip away from
+me."
+
+"Be careful, Eli," Doctor Joe pleaded. "Don't shoot unless you're
+forced to do so to protect yourself."
+
+"'Twill be Injun Jake'll have to be careful," returned Eli as he
+strode away in the darkness, and Doctor Joe knew that Eli had it in
+his heart to do murder.
+
+The night was pitchy black and a drizzling rain was falling, but Eli
+had often travelled on as dark nights, and he was determined. He chose
+a light skiff rigged with a leg-o'-mutton sail. The wind was against
+him and with the sail reefed and the mast unstepped and stowed in the
+bottom of the boat, he slipped a pair of oars into the locks and with
+strong, even strokes pulled away, hugging the shore, that he might
+take advantage of the lee of the land.
+
+Presently the drizzle became a downpour, but Eli, indifferent to wind
+and weather, rowed tirelessly on. There was a dangerous turn to be
+made around Flat Point. Here for a time he lost the friendly shelter
+of the land, and continuous and tremendous effort was called for in
+the rough seas; but, guided by the roar of the breakers on the shore,
+he compassed it and presently fell again under the protection of the
+land.
+
+With all his effort Eli had not progressed a quarter of the distance
+toward The Jug when dawn broke. With the first light he made a safe
+landing, cut a stick of standing dead timber, chopped off the butt,
+and splitting it that he might get at the dry core, whittled some
+shavings and lighted a fire. His provision bag was well filled. No
+Labradorman travels otherwise. A kettle of hot tea sweetened with
+molasses, a pan of fried fat pork and some hard bread (hardtack)
+satisfied his hunger.
+
+The wind was rising and the rain was flying in blinding sheets, but
+the shore still protected him, and the moment his simple breakfast was
+eaten Eli again set forward. Presently, however, another long point
+projected out into the Bay to force him into the open. He turned about
+in his boat and for several minutes studied the white-capped seas
+beyond the point.
+
+"I'll try un," he muttered, and settled again to his oars.
+
+But try as he would Eli could not force his light craft against the
+wind, and at length he reluctantly dropped back again under the lee
+of the land and went ashore.
+
+"There'll be no goin' on to-day," he admitted. "I'll have to make camp
+whatever."
+
+Under the shelter of the thick spruce forest where he was fended from
+the gale and drive of the rain, he cut a score of poles. One of them,
+thicker and stiffer than the others, he lashed between two trees at a
+height of perhaps four feet. At intervals of three or four inches he
+rested the remaining poles against the one lashed to the trees,
+arranging them at an angle of fifty-five degrees and aligning the
+butts of the poles evenly upon the ground. These he covered with a
+mass of boughs and marsh grass as a thatching. The roof thatched to
+his satisfaction, he broke a quantity of boughs and with some care
+prepared a bed under the lean-to.
+
+His shelter and bed completed, he cut and piled a quantity of dry logs
+at one end of the lean-to. Then he felled two green trees and cut the
+trunks into four-foot lengths. Two of these he placed directly in
+front of the shelter and two feet apart, at right angles to the
+shelter. Across the ends of the logs farthest from his bed he piled
+three of the green sticks to serve as a backlog, and in front of
+these lighted his fire. When it was blazing freely he piled upon it,
+and in front of the green backlogs, several of the logs of dry wood.
+
+Despite the rain, the fire burned freely, and presently the interior
+of Eli's lean-to was warm and comfortable. He now removed his
+rain-soaked jacket and moleskin trousers and suspended them from the
+ridge-pole, where they would receive the benefit of the heat and
+gradually dry.
+
+Stripped to his underclothing, Eli crouched before the fire beneath
+the front of the shelter. At intervals he turned his back and sides
+and chest toward the heat and in the course of an hour succeeded in
+drying his underclothing to his satisfaction. His moleskin trousers
+were still damp, but he donned them, and renewing the fire he
+stretched himself luxuriously for a long and much needed rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ELI SURPRISES INDIAN JAKE
+
+
+When Eli awoke late in the afternoon the rain had ceased, but the wind
+was blowing a living gale. There was a roar and boom and thunder of
+breakers down on the point and echoing far away along the coast. The
+wind shrieked and moaned through the forest.
+
+Under his shelter beneath the thick spruce trees, however, Eli was
+well enough protected. He renewed the fire, which had burned to
+embers, and prepared dinner. The storm that prevented him from
+travelling would also hold Indian Jake a prisoner. This thought
+yielded him a degree of satisfaction.
+
+He took no advantage of the leisure to reconsider and weigh the
+circumstantial evidence against Indian Jake. He had accepted it as
+conclusive proof of the half-breed's guilt and he had already
+convicted him of the crime. Once Eli had arrived at a conclusion his
+mind was closed to any line of reasoning that might tend to
+controvert that conclusion. He prided himself upon this characteristic
+as strength of will, while in reality it was a weakness. But Eli was
+like many another man who has enjoyed greater opportunities in the
+world than ever fell to Eli's lot.
+
+Once Eli had set himself upon a trail he never turned his back upon
+the object he sought or weakened in his determination to attain it.
+His object now was to overtake Indian Jake and have the matter out
+with the half-breed once and for all. Well directed, this trait of
+unyielding determination is an excellent one. It is the foundation of
+success in life if the object sought is a worthy one. But in this
+instance Eli's objective was not alone the recovery of the silver fox
+skin, though this was the chief incentive. Coupled with it was a
+desire for vengeance, prompted by hate, and vengeance is the child of
+the weakest and meanest of human passions.
+
+When Eli had eaten he shouldered his rifle and strolled back into the
+forest. Presently he flushed a covey of spruce grouse, which rose from
+the ground and settled in a tree. Flinging his rifle to his shoulder,
+he fired and a grouse tumbled to the ground. He fired again, and
+another fell. The living birds, with a great noise of wings, now
+abandoned the tree and Eli picked up the two victims. He had clipped
+their heads off neatly. This he observed with satisfaction. His rifle
+shot true and his aim was steady. What chance could Indian Jake have
+against such skill as that?
+
+Eli plucked the birds immediately, while they were warm, for delay
+would set the feathers, and his game being sufficient for his present
+needs, he returned to his bivouac on the point.
+
+It was mid-afternoon the following day before the wind and rain had so
+far subsided as to permit Eli to turn the point and proceed upon his
+journey. Even then, with all his effort, the progress he made against
+the north-west breeze was so slow that it was not until the following
+forenoon that he reached The Jug. Thomas saw him coming and was on the
+jetty to welcome him.
+
+"How be you, Eli?" Thomas greeted. "I'm wonderful glad to see you.
+Come right up and have a cup o' tea."
+
+"How be you, Thomas? Is Injun Jake here?"
+
+"He were here," said Thomas, "but he only stops one day to help me
+get the outfit ready and then he goes on in his canoe to hunt bear up
+the Nascaupee River whilst he waits there for me to go to the Seal
+Lake trails. You want to see he?"
+
+"Aye, and I'm goin' to see whatever!"
+
+While Eli had a snack to eat and a cup of tea with Thomas and Margaret
+he told Thomas of Indian Jake's call upon his father, of the shooting
+and of the robbery which followed.
+
+"Injun Jake turns back after leavin' and shoots Pop and takes the
+silver," he concluded, "and I'm goin' to get the silver whatever, even
+if I has to shoot Injun Jake to get un!"
+
+"Is you sure, now, 'twere Injun Jake does un?" asked Thomas, unwilling
+to believe his friend and partner capable of such treachery. By
+disposition Thomas was naturally cautious of passing judgment or of
+accusing anyone of misdeed without conclusive proof.
+
+"There's no doubtin' that!" insisted Eli. "There was nobody else to do
+un. 'Twere Injun Jake."
+
+A shift of wind to the southward assisted Eli on his way. Early that
+evening he reached the Hudson's Bay Company's post, twenty miles west
+of The Jug. Here he stopped for supper and learned from Zeke Hodge,
+the Post servant, that Indian Jake had passed up Grand Lake in his
+canoe two days before. Zeke expressed doubt as to Eli's finding the
+half-breed at the Nascaupee River. He stated it as his opinion that if
+Indian Jake were guilty of the crime, as he had no doubt, he was
+planning an escape and had in all probability immediately plunged into
+the interior, in which case he was already hopelessly beyond pursuit
+and had fled the Bay country for good and all. Like Eli, Zeke
+convicted the half-breed at once.
+
+The Eskimo Bay Post of the Hudson's Bay Company is the last inhabited
+dwelling as the traveller enters the wilderness; he might go on and on
+for a thousand miles to Hudson Bay and in the whole vast expanse of
+distance no other human habitation will he find. His camps will be
+pitched in the depths of forests or on desolate, naked barrens; and
+always, in forests or on barrens, he will hear the rush and roar of
+mighty rivers or the lapping waves of wide, far-reaching lakes. The
+timber wolf will startle him from sleep in the dead of night with its
+long, weird howl, rising and falling in dismal cadence, or the silence
+will be broken perchance by the wild, uncanny laugh of the loon
+falling upon the darkness as a token of ill omen, but in all the vast
+land he will hear no human voice and he will find no human
+companionship.
+
+Indian Jake had told Thomas that he would camp above the mouth of the
+Nascaupee River, a dozen miles beyond the point where the river enters
+Grand Lake. It was a journey of sixty miles or more from the Post.
+
+Eli set out at once. Five miles up a short wide river brought him to
+Grand Lake, which here reached away before him to meet the horizon in
+the west, and at the foot of the lake he camped to await day, for the
+lake and the country before him were unfamiliar.
+
+Early in the afternoon of the third day after leaving the Post, Eli's
+boat turned into the wide mouth of the Nascaupee River, and keeping a
+sharp look-out, he rowed silently up the river. It was an hour before
+sundown when his eye caught the white of canvas among the trees a
+little way from the river.
+
+With much caution Eli drew his boat among the willows that lined the
+bank and made it fast. Slinging his cartridge bag over his shoulder,
+and with his rifle resting in the hollow of his arm, ready for instant
+action, he crept forward toward Indian Jake's camp. Taking advantage
+of the cover of brush, he moved with extreme caution until he had the
+tent and surroundings under observation.
+
+There was no movement about the camp and the fire was dead. It was
+plain Indian Jake had not returned for the evening. Eli crouched and
+waited, as a cat crouches and waits patiently for its prey.
+
+Presently there was the sound of a breaking twig and a moment later
+Indian Jake, with his rifle on his arm, appeared out of the forest.
+
+Eli, his rifle levelled at Indian Jake, rose to his feet with the
+command:
+
+"You stand where you is; drop your gun!"
+
+"Why, how do, Eli? What's up?" Indian Jake greeted. "What's bringin'
+you to the Nascaupee?"
+
+"You!" Eli's face was hard with hate. "'Tis you brings me here, you
+thief! I wants the silver you takes when you shoots father, and 'tis
+well for you Doctor Joe comes and saves he from dyin' or I'd been
+droppin' a bullet in your heart with nary a warnin'!"
+
+"What you meanin' by that?"
+
+"Be you givin' up the silver?"
+
+"No!"
+
+[Illustration: "YOU STAND WHERE YOU IS AND DROP YOUR GUN"]
+
+"I say again, give me that silver fox you stole from father!"
+
+Indian Jake's small hawk eyes were narrowing. He made no answer, but
+slipped his right hand forward toward the trigger of his rifle, though
+the barrel of the rifle still rested in the hollow of his left arm.
+
+"Drop un!" Eli commanded, observing the movement. "Drop that gun on
+the ground!"
+
+Indian Jake stood like a statue, eyeing Eli, but he made no movement.
+
+"I said drop un!" Eli's voice was cold and hard as steel. He was in
+deadly earnest. "If you tries to raise un or don't drop un before I
+count ten I'll put a bullet in your heart!"
+
+Indian Jake might have been of chiselled stone. He did not move a
+muscle or wink an eye-lash but his small eyes were centred on every
+motion Eli made. He still held his rifle, the barrel resting in the
+hollow of his left arm, his right hand clutching the stock behind the
+hammer, his finger an inch from the trigger.
+
+For an instant there was a death-like silence. Then Eli began to
+count:
+
+"One--two--three--four--"
+
+The words fell like strokes of a hammer upon an anvil. Eli intended
+to shoot. He was a man of his word. He made no threat that he was not
+prepared to execute, and Indian Jake knew that Eli would shoot on the
+count of ten.
+
+"Five--six--seven--eight--"
+
+Still Indian Jake made no move save that the little hawk eyes had
+narrowed to slits. He did not drop his gun. From all the indications,
+he did not hear Eli's count.
+
+"Nine--ten!"
+
+True to his threat, Eli's rifle rang out with the last word of his
+count.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE END OF ELI'S HUNT
+
+
+Indian Jake, quick as a cat, had thrown himself upon the ground with
+Eli's last count. Like the loon that dives at the flash of the
+hunter's gun, he was a fraction of a second quicker than Eli. Now,
+lying prone, his rifle at his shoulder, he had Eli covered, and the
+chamber of Eli's rifle was empty.
+
+"Drop that gun!" he commanded.
+
+Eli, believing in the first instant that Indian Jake had fallen as the
+result of the shot, was taken wholly by surprise. He stood dazed and
+dumb with the smoking rifle in his hand. He did not at once realize
+that the half-breed had him covered. His brain did not work as rapidly
+as Indian Jake's. His immediate sensation as he heard Indian Jake's
+voice was one of thankfulness that, after all, there was no stain of
+murder on his soul. Even yet he had no doubt Indian Jake was wounded.
+He had taken deadly aim, and he could not understand how any escape
+could have been possible.
+
+"Drop that gun!" Indian Jake repeated. "I won't count. I'll shoot."
+
+Eli's brain at last grasped the situation. Indian Jake was grinning
+broadly, and it seemed to Eli the most malicious grin he had ever
+beheld. He did not question Indian Jake's determination to shoot. It
+was too evident that the half-breed, grinning like a demon, was in a
+desperate mood. Eli dropped his rifle as though it were red hot and
+burned his hands.
+
+"Step out here!" Indian Jake, rising to his feet, indicated an open
+space near the tent.
+
+Eli did as he was told.
+
+"Shake the ca'tridges out of your bag on the ground!"
+
+Eli turned his cartridge bag over, and the cartridges which it
+contained rattled to the ground.
+
+"Turn your pockets out!"
+
+A turning of the pockets disclosed no further ammunition.
+
+Indian Jake took Eli's rifle from the ground, emptied the magazine,
+and placed the rifle in the tent.
+
+"Where's your boat?" he asked.
+
+"Just down here."
+
+"You go ahead. Show me."
+
+Eli guided Indian Jake to the boat, and while he remained on the bank
+under threat of the rifle, the half-breed went through his belongings
+in the boat in a further search for ammunition. Satisfied that there
+was none, he replaced the things as he had found them, and was
+grinning amiably when he rejoined Eli upon the bank.
+
+"Come 'long up to camp," he invited, quite as though Eli were a most
+welcome guest.
+
+"Give me that silver fox!" Eli's anger had mastered his surprise.
+
+"I won't give un to you, but don't be mad, Eli," Indian Jake grinned
+in vast enjoyment.
+
+"You stole un!" Eli burst out. "And you were thinkin' to do murder!"
+
+"Did I now?"
+
+"You did!"
+
+Indian Jake did not deign to deny or confess. Eli, at his command,
+returned to camp. Indian Jake handed him the tea-kettle.
+
+"Fill un at the river," he directed.
+
+While Eli obeyed silently and sullenly, Indian Jake lighted a fire,
+and when Eli returned put the kettle on. Then he brought forth his
+frying-pan, filled it with sliced venison, and as he placed it over
+the fire, remarked:
+
+"Knocked a buck down this mornin'."
+
+Eli said nothing. The odour of frying venison was pleasant. Eli was
+hungry, and when the venison was fried and tea made, he swallowed his
+pride and silently accepted Indian Jake's invitation to eat.
+
+When they had finished, Indian Jake cut a large joint of venison, and
+presented it to Eli with his empty rifle, remarking as he did so:
+
+"The deer's meat's a surprise. I like to surprise folks. Taste good
+goin' home. I'll keep the ca'tridges. You might hurt somebody if you
+had un. You'll get quite a piece down before you camp to-night."
+
+"Were you takin' that silver?" asked Eli, changing his accusation to a
+question.
+
+"Maybe I were and maybe I weren't," Indian Jake grinned. "'Twouldn't
+do me any good to tell you if I had un, and if I told you I didn't
+have un you wouldn't believe me. Maybe I've got un. You better be
+goin'. I'd ask you to stay, Eli, and I'd like to have you, but you
+don't like me and you'd better go on."
+
+"I don't want the deer's meat," said Eli in sullen resentment.
+
+"You ain't got any ca'tridges, and you can't shoot any fresh meat,"
+insisted Indian Jake, adding with a grin: "She'll go good. Take un
+along, I got plenty. It's just a little surprise present for you bein'
+so kind as not to shoot me."
+
+Eli, doubtless deciding that he had better take what he could get,
+though a bit of venison was small compensation for a silver fox,
+accepted the meat. Indian Jake accompanied him to the boat, and as he
+dropped down the river he could see Indian Jake still on the bank
+watching him until he turned a bend.
+
+Without cartridges for his rifle, Eli felt himself as helpless as a
+wolf without teeth or a cat without claws. He was subdued and humbled.
+He had had Indian Jake completely in his power, and through delay in
+taking prompt advantage of his position, had permitted the half-breed
+to capture and disarm him.
+
+The thought increased his anger toward Indian Jake. He had no doubt
+the man had the silver fox in his possession. If there had been any
+doubt in the first instance that Indian Jake was guilty, and Eli had
+never admitted that there was doubt, he was now entirely satisfied of
+the half-breed's guilt. Indian Jake, indeed, had quite boldly stated
+that he "might" have it, and Eli accepted this as an admission that he
+_did_ have it.
+
+"There'll be no use getting more ca'tridges and goin' back," Eli
+mused. "He's had a warnin' and he'll not bide in that camp another
+day. He'll flee the country."
+
+Then Eli's thoughts turned to his old father and mother.
+
+"The silver's gone, and it leaves Pop and Mother in a bad way," he
+mused. "They've been fondlin' that skin half the winter. Pop's had un
+out a hundred times to see how fine and black 'twere, and shook un out
+to see how thick and deep the fur is. And they been countin' and
+countin' on the things they'd be gettin' and needs, and can't get now
+she's gone. And they been countin' on the money they'd have to lay by
+for their feeble days when they needs un. They'll never get over
+mournin' the loss of un. 'Twere worth a fortune, and Pop'll never
+cotch another. He were hopin' and hopin' every year as long as I
+remembers to cotch a silver, and none ever comes to his traps till
+this un comes. And now she's gone!"
+
+Perhaps had the silver fox skin been Eli's own, and perhaps had his
+father and mother not built so many hopes and laid so many plans upon
+the little fortune it was to have brought them, Eli would never have
+ventured to the verge of murder to recover it. Even now, with all his
+regrets, he thanked God from the bottom of his heart that he had not
+killed Indian Jake and stained his hands with blood.
+
+"'Twere the mercy of God sent the bullet abroad," said he reverently.
+"Indian Jake's a thief and he deserves to be killed, but if I'd killed
+he I'd never rested an easy hour again while I lives. But I might o'
+clipped his trigger hand, whatever," he thought with regret. "I can
+clip off the head of a pa'tridge every time, and I might have clipped
+his hand, and got the skin and took he back for Doctor Joe to fix up."
+
+Three days later Eli pulled his boat wearily into The Jug. The boys
+had returned, and with Thomas they met him on the jetty.
+
+"Did you find Injun Jake?" Thomas asked anxiously.
+
+"Aye," said Eli, "he were there."
+
+Eli volunteered no further details for a moment. Then he added:
+
+"I didn't kill he, thank the Lord, but he's got the silver. He said he
+had un, and he took my ca'tridges away from me."
+
+"Said he had un? Now, that's strange--wonderful strange. Come in, Eli,
+supper's ready," Thomas invited, manifestly relieved that Eli had not
+succeeded in accomplishing his rash purpose. "You'll bide the night
+with us, and while you eats tell us about un, and the lads'll tell
+what were happenin' to they."
+
+Margaret was setting the table. She greeted Eli cordially, and
+arranged a plate for him while he washed at the basin behind the
+stove.
+
+"Come," invited Thomas, "set in. We've got a wonderful treat."
+
+"What be that, now?" asked Eli as Margaret placed a dish of steaming,
+mealy boiled potatoes upon the table.
+
+"Potaters," Thomas announced grandly. "Doctor Joe brings un on the
+mail boat from where he's been, and onions too. Margaret, peel some
+onions and set un on for Eli. They's fine just as they is without
+cookin'."
+
+The onions came, and when thanks had been offered Eli tasted his
+first potato.
+
+"They is fine, now! Wonderful fine eatin'," he declared.
+
+"Try an onion, now. They's fine, too," Thomas urged.
+
+Eli took an onion.
+
+"She has a strange smell," he observed before biting into it.
+
+Eli took a liberal mouthful of the onion. He began to chew it. A
+strained look spread over his face. Tears filled his eyes. But Eli was
+brave, and he never flinched.
+
+"'Tis fine, I like un wonderful fine," Eli volunteered presently,
+adding, "if she didn't burn so bad."
+
+"Take just a bit at a time," advised Thomas, laughing heartily, "and
+eat un with bread or potaters and you won't notice the burn of un."
+
+Presently Eli told of his experiences with Indian Jake, and Andy told
+of the tracks he had seen under the window, and all of the boys told
+of what had happened on the island, the theft of the boat, the tracks
+of the nailed boots and the discovery of the boat at Fort Pelican.
+
+Then Eli made an announcement that again laid the burden of suspicion
+more strongly than ever upon Indian Jake.
+
+"I were workin' at the lumber camps a week this summer helpin' they
+out," said Eli. "Whilst I were there Indian Jake comes and trades a
+pair of skin boots with one of the lumber men for a pair of their
+boots, the kind with nails in un. He the same as says he has the fur,
+and 'twere he took un."
+
+"Injun Jake wears skin boots when he come to our camp on Flat P'int,"
+said David.
+
+"Aye, 'tis likely," admitted Eli. "He'd be wearin' skin boots in the
+canoe, whatever. The nailed boots would be hard on the canoe. He uses
+the nailed boots trampin' about, but he'd change un when he travels in
+his canoe."
+
+The whole question was canvassed pro and con, and due consideration
+given to the length of time that Indian Jake must have consumed in
+passing from Horn's Bight to Flat Point. This was alone sufficient in
+the mind of Thomas and the boys to lift all suspicion from Indian
+Jake, but Eli still held stubbornly to the opposite view.
+
+Two days later, and on the eve of Thomas's departure for the trails,
+Doctor Joe returned. Lem had so far recovered that a further stay at
+Horn's Bight was unnecessary.
+
+Thomas and Doctor Joe quietly discussed the shooting incident. Lem, it
+appeared, had later decided that he may have been shot much earlier in
+the afternoon than sundown. What had occurred had fallen into the hazy
+uncertainty of a dream.
+
+"What kind of a rifle does Indian Jake use?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"A thirty-eight fifty-five," said Thomas.
+
+Doctor Joe drew from his pocket the bullet extracted from Lem's wound.
+Thomas examined it critically.
+
+"There's no doubtin' 'tis a thirty-eight fifty-five," he admitted.
+"'Tis true Injun Jake gets a pair of nailed boots like the lumber folk
+wears. But Injun Jake'll tell me whether 'twere he shot Lem. Injun
+Jake'll be fair about un with me whatever. 'Tis hard for me to believe
+he did un. If he did, he'll be gone from the Nascaupee when I gets
+there. If he didn't, I'll find he waitin'!"
+
+"Let us hope he'll be there, and let us hope he's innocent," said
+Doctor Joe.
+
+Some day and in some way every sin is punished and every criminal is
+discovered. It is an immutable law of God that he who does wrong must
+atone for the wrong. We do not always know how the punishment is
+brought about, but the guilty one knows. And so with the shooting and
+robbery of Lem Horn. Many months were to pass before the mystery was
+to be solved, and then the revelation was to come in a startling
+manner in the course of an adventure amid the deep snows of winter.
+
+Thomas sailed away the following morning. They watched his boat pass
+down through The Jug and out into the Bay, and then the silence of the
+wilderness closed upon him, and no word came as to whether or no
+Indian Jake met him at the Nascaupee River camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE LETTER IN THE CAIRN
+
+
+In Labrador September is the pleasantest month of the year. It is a
+period of calm when fogs and mists and cold dreary rains, so frequent
+during July and the early half of August, are past, and Nature holds
+her breath before launching upon the world the bitter blasts and
+blizzards and awful cold of a sub-arctic winter. There are days and
+days together when the azure of the sky remains unmarred by clouds,
+and the sun shines uninterruptedly. The air, brilliantly transparent,
+carries a twang of frost. Evening is bathed in an effulgence of
+colour. The sky flames in startling reds and yellows blending into
+opals and turquoise, with the shadowy hills lying in a purple haze in
+the west.
+
+Then comes night and the aurora. Wavering fingers of light steal up
+from the northern horizon. Higher and higher they climb until they
+have reached and crossed the zenith. From the north they spread to the
+east and to the west until the whole sky is aflame with shimmering
+fire of marvellous changing colours varying from darkest purple to
+dazzling white.
+
+The dark green of the spruce and balsam forests is splotched with
+golden yellow where the magic touch of the frost king has laid his
+fingers and worked a miracle upon groves of tamaracks. The leaves of
+the aspen and white birch have fallen, and the flowers have faded.
+
+Spruce grouse chickens, full grown now, rise in coveys with much noise
+of wing, and perch in trees looking down unafraid upon any who intrude
+upon their forest home. Ptarmigans, still in their coat of mottled
+brown and white, gather in flocks upon the naked hills to feed, where
+upland cranberries cover the ground in red masses; or on the edge of
+marshes where bake apple berries have changed from brilliant red to
+delicate salmon pink and offer a sweet and wholesome feast.
+
+The honk and quack of wild geese and ducks, southward bound in great
+flocks, disturbs the silence of every inlet and cove and bight, where
+the wild fowl pause for a time to rest and feed upon the grasses.
+
+After Thomas's departure Doctor Joe and the boys tidied and snugged
+things up for the winter, and many a fine hunt they had, mornings and
+evenings, in the edge of a near-by marsh through which a brook coursed
+to join the sea. Hunting geese and ducks was indeed a duty, for they
+must needs depend upon the hunt for no small share of their living. It
+was a duty they enjoyed, however. Skill and a steady hand and a quick
+eye are necessary to success, and they never failed to return with a
+full bag.
+
+The weather was now cold enough to keep the birds sweet and fresh, and
+before September closed a full two score of fine fat geese were
+hanging in the enclosed lean-to shed with a promise of many good
+dinners in the future.
+
+Between the hunting and the work about home there was no time to be
+dawdled vainly away. When there was nothing more pressing the
+wood-pile always stood suggestively near the door inviting attention,
+and it was necessary to saw and split a vast deal of wood to keep the
+big box stove supplied, for it had a great maw and would develop a
+marvellous appetite when the weather grew cold.
+
+No extended travelling was possible for Doctor Joe on his errands of
+mercy until the sea should freeze and dogs and sledge could be called
+into service. But during the fine September weather he and the boys
+made two short trips up the Bay, where there was ailing in some of the
+families.
+
+In the course of these excursions they took occasion to visit
+Let-in-Cove, which lay just outside Grampus River, where the new
+lumber camps were situated, and also Snug Cove and Tuggle Bight, a
+little farther on. At Let-in-Cove Peter and Lige Sparks, at Snug Cove
+Obadiah Button and Micah Dunk, and at Tuggle Bight Seth Muggs were
+enlisted in the scout troop, and a handbook left at each place. These,
+indeed, with the three Anguses, were the only boys of scout age within
+a radius of fifty miles of The Jug.
+
+There was great excitement among the lads, and Doctor Joe proudly
+declared that there would be no finer or more efficient troop of
+scouts in all the world than his little troop of eight when they had
+become familiar with their duties.
+
+A new field and a broader vision of life was to open to these Labrador
+lads, whose life was of necessity circumscribed. They had never been
+given the opportunity to play as boys play in more favoured lands.
+They had never known the joys of football or cricket or the hundred
+other fine, health-giving games that are a part of the life of every
+English or Canadian boy. They had never seen a circus or a moving
+picture and they had never been in a schoolroom in their lives.
+
+This opportunity to play and study as other boys play and study in
+other lands was the thing, perhaps, they longed for above all else.
+Doctor Joe had inspired them with ambition. They hungered to learn and
+here was the Handbook with many things in it to study, and through
+Doctor Joe and the book they were to learn the joy of play.
+
+The new recruits to the troop, however, as well as the Angus boys, had
+been close students of their native wilderness. Their eyes were sharp
+and their ears were quick. They knew every tree and flower and plant
+that grew about them. They knew the birds and their calls and songs.
+They knew every animal, its cry and its habits of life. They knew the
+fish of the sea and lake and stream. All this was a part of their
+training for their future profession of hunters and fishermen.
+
+As hunters they had not learned to look upon the wild things of the
+woods as friends and associates. To them the animals were only beasts
+whose valuable pelts could be traded at the Post for necessaries of
+life or whose flesh was good to eat. Success in life depended upon
+man's ability to outwit and slay birds or animals, and the lads held
+for them none of the human sympathy that would have added so much to
+their own enjoyment.
+
+Now they were to have a new view of life. Doctor Joe was to open to
+them a wider, happier vista. It was not in the least to breed in them
+discontent with their circumscribed life, but rather to open to their
+consciousness the opportunities that lay within their reach, and to
+make their life richer and broader and vastly more worth while.
+
+Doctor Joe explained to the five recruits the Tenderfoot Scout
+requirements, much as he had explained them to David and Andy and
+Jamie. Wilderness dwellers who must take in and fix in the mind at a
+glance every unusual tree or stump or stone if they would find their
+trail, have a peculiar and remarkable gift of memory born of long
+practice and the fact that they must perforce depend upon their
+ability to retain the things they see and hear. The lads, therefore,
+required no repetition, and learned their lessons with ease.
+
+Though they had never attended school they could all read, stumbling,
+to be sure, over the big words, but nevertheless grasping the meaning.
+Doctor Joe, during his years in the Bay, had taught not only the Angus
+boys but many of the other young people to read. Doctor Joe now marked
+the pages that they were to study, and before he and the Angus boys
+turned back across the Bay to The Jug it was agreed that the new troop
+should hold a week's camp to study and practise together. Hollow Cove,
+some five miles from The Jug, was to be the camping ground, and the
+first week in October was decided upon as the time.
+
+"We'll start to camp on Monday marnin' of that week," suggested David.
+"Come over to The Jug on Sunday. 'Twill be fine to have us all go to
+camp together."
+
+"Aye," agreed Micah, "'twill be now, and we'll come, and have a fine
+time."
+
+"And we'll all study about the scout things whilst we're in camp,"
+piped up Jamie enthusiastically.
+
+"That we will now," David assured.
+
+"Lige, you and Peter bring a tent and stove, and all you need for
+setting up camp," Doctor Joe directed. "Can you bring one, too, Seth?"
+
+"Aye," said Seth, "I'll bring un, but we have no tent stove. Pop took
+un to the huntin'."
+
+"Obadiah or Micah may bring a stove. You have one, haven't you?"
+Doctor Joe asked.
+
+"Aye," said Obadiah, "I has one. I'll bring un along."
+
+"You three fix up an outfit amongst you. There'll be three in a tent,"
+Doctor Joe explained. "Andy can go in with Peter and Lige, and I'll
+tent with Davy and Jamie."
+
+There was little else than the proposed camping expedition talked
+about on the return to The Jug, and in the days that followed David,
+Andy and Jamie devoted every spare moment to the study of first aid
+and signalling. Doctor Joe, with no end of patience, drilled them so
+thoroughly in first aid that they were soon really expert in applying
+bandages. He even instructed them in improvising splints and reducing
+fractures. In this secluded land, where for three hundred miles up and
+down the coast there was no other surgeon than Doctor Joe, it was not
+unlikely that some day they would be called upon to set a leg or an
+arm.
+
+Doctor Joe was as ignorant, however, of the art of signalling as were
+the lads, and he must needs take it up from the very beginning and
+study with them. It was decided that they should learn both the
+semaphore and Morse codes, and Doctor Joe insisted that neither he nor
+the lads should consider the Second Class test satisfactorily passed
+until they had not only learned the codes but could send and receive
+messages at the rate of speed designated in the handbook as required
+for the First Class test.
+
+"It wouldn't be fair to the scouts in the big cities," he declared.
+"They have to learn a great many things that we already know how to
+do, like building fires, using the axe and knife, and tracking. Those
+are things we've been doing all our lives and won't have to practise.
+We must make it just as hard for ourselves to become Second Class
+Scouts as it is for the city lads. So we'll make the signalling test
+that much more difficult."
+
+"I'm thinkin' that's fine now," enthused David, "and when we learn un
+we'll know that much more."
+
+"That's the idea!" said Doctor Joe. "And we'll not only learn the
+sixteen principal points of the compass, but we'll learn to box the
+compass to the quarter point as navigators do."
+
+"I can box un now," grinned David.
+
+"So can I box un!" Andy exclaimed. "Dad told me how, same as he told
+Davy."
+
+"And I can learn to box un easy," promised Jamie.
+
+Margaret joined them one fine day in the forest behind the cabin when
+they took their Second Class cooking test, and a jolly day they made
+of it. It was easy enough to roast a spruce grouse on the end of a
+stick. Even Jamie had done that many times. But Doctor Joe was called
+upon to solve the problem of cooking potatoes without cooking
+utensils, and he did it so satisfactorily that the lads practised it
+every day afterward for a week.
+
+He resorted to a simple and ordinary method. He dug a narrow trench
+about six inches deep. Upon this he built a fire, which he permitted
+to burn until there was a good accumulation of ashes. Then he pushed
+the fire back and raked the ashes out of the trench. The potatoes
+were now placed in a row at the bottom of the trench and covered with
+a good layer of hot ashes. The fire was now drawn back over the ashes
+that covered the potatoes and permitted to burn briskly.
+
+At the end of an hour he brushed the fire back at one end sufficiently
+to allow a long slender splinter to be pushed down through the ashes
+and through a potato. The splinter did not penetrate the potato easily
+and the fire was drawn in again to burn for another quarter of an
+hour. Then it was raked out and the potatoes removed, to find that,
+while the skins were not in the least burned or even scorched, the
+potatoes were done to a turn.
+
+"You couldn't have baked them better in your oven, Margaret," laughed
+Doctor Joe.
+
+"I never could have baked un half as well," admitted Margaret, adding,
+"'tis a wonderful way of cookin'."
+
+"Doctor Joe's fine cookin' everything," declared Andy. "I always likes
+his cookin' wonderful well."
+
+"Thank you, Andy. That's high praise," acknowledged Doctor Joe, "but I
+could learn a great deal about cooking from Margaret."
+
+"I just does plain cookin'," Margaret deprecated, but flushed with
+pleasure at the compliment.
+
+On the last day of September, which was a Friday, David and Doctor Joe
+crossed over to the Hudson's Bay Post and took Margaret with them for
+a visit to Kate Huddy, the Post servant's daughter, where she was to
+remain while the Scouts were enjoying their camp at Hollow Cove.
+
+David and Doctor Joe returned to The Jug on Saturday, and when the
+other members of the troop arrived in a boat on Sunday, had their own
+tent equipment and food packed and ready for the little expedition on
+Monday morning.
+
+It was a jolly meeting. The evening was cold, and when supper was
+eaten they gathered around the big box stove which crackled
+cheerfully, and Doctor Joe announced that as this was the first
+meeting of the troop they must organize and elect leaders, just as
+troops were organized everywhere else in the world.
+
+When he had thoroughly explained the necessary steps he read to them a
+brief constitution and by-laws which he had previously prepared. These
+he had them adopt in due form, and then asked some one to nominate a
+patrol leader.
+
+Every one, with one accord, nominated David, and he was duly,
+solemnly, and unanimously elected.
+
+"Now," suggested Doctor Joe, "we must have an assistant patrol leader.
+Who shall it be?"
+
+"Andy," said Seth Muggs. "Andy's been to the trails and he knows more
+about un than anybody exceptin' Davy."
+
+"'Twouldn't be fair," objected Andy. "Davy's patrol leader. 'Tis but
+right we put in one of you that comes from across the Bay. I'm saying
+Peter Sparks, now."
+
+Doctor Joe agreed with Andy, and Peter Sparks was declared elected.
+Then Seth nominated Andy for scribe.
+
+"Because," Seth explained, "Andy'll be right handy to Doctor Joe all
+the time and Doctor Joe can help he to do the writin', and he needs
+help."
+
+When the election was completed Doctor Joe explained the duties of the
+officers and the necessity of obedience to them in the performance of
+scout duties.
+
+"Our troop is a team," said Doctor Joe.
+
+"We must pull together. We are like a team of dogs hauling a komatik.
+If the dogs all follow the leader and pull together the best that ever
+they can they get somewhere. If they don't follow the leader, and one
+pulls in one direction and another pulls in a different direction and
+some don't pull at all, they never get anywhere and aren't of much
+use. Our troop is going to be the best we can make it, by all pulling
+together and doing the very best we know how.
+
+"We must always be ready to help other people at all times, as we
+promise to do in our oath. If we live up to that we'll do a great deal
+of good, first and last, up and down the Bay. If some one's life is in
+danger and we can help them even at the risk of our own we must help
+them. Everybody wants to be happy. There's nothing that will make us
+so happy as to do some fine thing every day that will make someone
+else happy.
+
+"We must train our brains and our hands so that we shall always be
+prepared to do the right thing and do it quickly. We must learn to
+keep our temper and not get angry. Let us take the hard knocks that
+come to us with a smile."
+
+The remainder of the evening was spent in playing some rollicking
+games that the lads had never heard of before, and which Doctor Joe
+taught them. There was the one-legged chicken fight, and one or two
+others, as well as hand wrestling, though that they had seen the
+Indians play and had practised themselves. They all declared that they
+had never in their lives had so much fun.
+
+An early start the following morning brought them to Hollow Cove at
+ten o'clock. Hollow Cove was a fine natural harbour. A brook poured
+down through a gulch to empty into the Bay, and near its mouth was an
+excellent landing-place. Not far from the brook, and a hundred feet
+back from the shore, they pitched their tents in the shelter of the
+spruce forest where the camp would be well protected from winds and
+storms.
+
+While the others set up the sheet-iron stoves in the three tents and
+broke spruce boughs and laid the bough beds, David, Micah, and Lige
+volunteered to cut wood.
+
+"There's some fine dry wood just to the east'ard and close to shore,"
+suggested David, as they picked up their axes. "It's right handy."
+
+A dozen yards from the camp David suddenly stopped and exclaimed:
+
+"What's that now?"
+
+On a great sloping rock close to the shore, but hidden by a jutting
+point from the place where they had landed, was a recently made cairn
+of boulders capped by a large flat stone.
+
+"Somebody's been here!" said David as they hurried forward to examine
+the cairn.
+
+"'Tis wonderful strange to pile stones that way," said Micah. "'Tis
+new made, too."
+
+"Maybe it's a cache," suggested Lige, "but it's a rare small un. Look
+and see. 'Tis a strange place for a cache!"
+
+David lifted the flat stone from the top and discovered beneath it a
+small tin can. In the can was a folded paper. He removed the paper and
+unfolding it discovered a message written in a cramped, scrawling
+hand.
+
+"Read un, Davy! Read un out loud! You reads writin' good!" said Lige,
+and David read:
+
+     "i cum and stayed 2 hour, and wood not stay no longer for i
+     hed to go and did not see you comin any were. Then i gos to
+     the rock were We Was the day We was hunting Wen We come here
+     ferst time. Then i done this way. i Pases 20 Pases up To a
+     Hackmatack Tree. it was north. then i Pases 40 Pases west
+     To a round rock, Then i Pases 60 Pases south To a wite berch
+     i use cumpus. Then i climes a spruce Tree and hangs it and
+     it is out of site in the Branches. if You plays me Crookid
+     look out, i wont Stand for no Crooked work and You know what
+     i will do to anybody plays me Crooked. You no Were to put my
+     haf of the Swag. So i can get it Wen i go to get it."
+
+There was no signature.
+
+"That's a strange un--wonderful strange," said David.
+
+"Stranger'n anything I ever sees," declared Lige.
+
+"Whatever is un all about?" asked Micah.
+
+"That's the strangeness of un," said Lige.
+
+"Let's show un to Doctor Joe," suggested David.
+
+But Doctor Joe, when they broke in upon him a moment later, was as
+mystified as they.
+
+"It looks," said he, "as though something had been cached and here are
+the directions for finding the cache. There's a threat in the letter,
+too, and that looks bad. It's a mystery, lads, we'll try to search
+out. It doesn't look right. Perhaps it's the clue to some crime."
+
+"How can we search un out?" asked David excitedly. "We're not knowin'
+the rock, and there's plenty of rocks hereabouts."
+
+"That's true," admitted Doctor Joe. "Go and put the paper back as you
+found it, and we'll see what we can make out of it later."
+
+The whole camp was excited and every one followed David back to the
+cairn when he returned to restore the letter to its place in the can.
+
+"'Tis something somebody's tryin' to hide," suggested Peter.
+
+"There's no doubtin' that," said David. "I'm thinkin' 'tis not right
+whatever 'tis."
+
+"We'll get camp in shape and have our dinner and then try to solve the
+mystery," said Doctor Joe. "It is a real mystery, for no one would
+make an ordinary cache in this way, and if it was an honest matter
+there would be no threat."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE HIDDEN CACHE
+
+
+When camp was made snug and dinner disposed of, Doctor Joe followed
+the boys down to the cairn. A careful examination was made of the soil
+surrounding the rock upon which the cairn was built, and in loose
+gravel close to the shore were found the imprints of feet. It was
+evident, however, that rain had fallen since the tracks were made, for
+they were so nearly washed away that there could be no certainty
+whether they were made by moccasins or nailed boots.
+
+"'Twere a week ago they were here whatever," observed David, rising
+upon his feet after a close scrutiny upon hands and knees. "I'm
+thinkin' we'll see no sign of un now to help us trail un to the rock
+the writin' tells about."
+
+"The ground was hard froze a week ago just as 'tis now," said Lige.
+"They'd be leavin' no tracks on froze ground."
+
+"They makes the tracks that shows here whether the ground were froze
+or not," observed Seth.
+
+"The gravel were loose and dry so 'tweren't froze," explained Lige,
+"but away from the dry gravel 'twere all froze, and they'd make no
+tracks to show. Leastways that's how I thinks about un."
+
+"That's good logic," said Doctor Joe. "I'm afraid we'll have to find
+the rock without the assistance of any tracks to guide us. There will
+surely be other signs, however, and we'll look for them while we look
+for the rock."
+
+"Suppose now we scatters and looks up along the brook and along the
+ridge for the rock the pacin' were done from," suggested Andy. "'Tis
+like to be a different lookin' rock from most of un around here or
+they wouldn't have picked un."
+
+"And 'tis like to be a big un too," volunteered Micah. "They'd be
+pickin' no little rock for that, whatever. I'm thinkin' 'twill be easy
+to know un if we sees un."
+
+"Yes," agreed Doctor Joe, "the rock is probably larger or in some
+other way noticeably different from the others. It may be along the
+brook, or it may not. They were hunting. It may be a rock where they
+camped, or where they agreed to meet after their hunt, and probably
+where they boiled their kettle."
+
+"They weren't Bay folk, whatever," asserted David. "The writin' ain't
+like any of the Bay folkses writin'. None of un here could write so
+fine."
+
+"None of the Bay folk would be hidin' things that way either," said
+Andy. "If 'twere anything small enough to hide in a tree they'd been
+takin' un with un and not leavin' un behind. If 'twere too big to
+carry, they'd just left un in a cache and come back for un when they
+gets ready and not do any writin' about un."
+
+"I think you are right, Andy," agreed Doctor Joe. "For the reasons you
+give and for still other reasons I feel very certain strangers to the
+Bay left the cache."
+
+"What were they meanin' by 'swag,' Doctor Joe?" asked Andy. "I never
+hears that word before. 'Tis a wonderful strange word."
+
+"It usually means," explained Doctor Joe, "something that has been
+stolen. The use of that word is one of the reasons that leads me to
+conclude that it was not written by any of our people of the Bay. I am
+quite sure none of them knows what the word means, and like you I
+doubt if any of them ever heard it. There seems no doubt, indeed, that
+strangers to these parts wrote it, and as there are no other strangers
+in the Bay than the lumbermen, we are safe in concluding that the
+cairn was built and the note written by someone from the lumber camp
+at Grampus River."
+
+"'Swag' is a wonderful strange soundin' word, now," said David. "I
+never hears un before."
+
+"I'm thinkin' I knows what 'tis they hid now!" exclaimed Andy
+suddenly. "'Tis _Lem Horn's silver_! 'Tis the men hid un that shot Lem
+and stole the silver! 'Tweren't Indian Jake shot Lem at all! 'Twere
+men from the lumber camp! What they calls 'swag' is Lem's silver!"
+
+"That's what 'tis, now! 'Tis sure Lem Horn's silver!" David exploded
+excitedly. "I never would have thought of un bein' that! Andy's
+wonderful spry thinkin' things out, and he's mostly always right,
+too!"
+
+"And Indian Jake never stole un! He never stole un!" Jamie burst out
+joyfully. "I were knowin' all the time he wouldn't steal un! Indian
+Jake wouldn't go shootin' folk and stealin' from un!"
+
+"It may be," said Doctor Joe. "At any rate it seems extremely probable
+the 'swag' as they call it is stolen property that has been hidden.
+That word and the threat together with the other circumstances make it
+quite certain, indeed, that whatever it is they refer to was stolen.
+That's a safe conclusion to begin with. We have decided that we may be
+quite sure, also, that the men that hid the cache so carefully were
+none of our own Bay people, but men from the lumber camp. We have
+heard of nothing else than Lem Horn's silver fox having been stolen in
+the Bay. We have some ground, therefore, to suppose that the 'swag' is
+Lem Horn's silver fox. It will be a fine piece of work to search out
+the cache, and if it proves to contain Lem's silver fox, recover it
+for him. We will be doing a good turn to Lem and at the same time will
+lift suspicion from Indian Jake. If we find the cache and there is
+nothing in it that should not be there, we will not interfere with it.
+Now how shall we go about it to trace it? Let's hear what you chaps
+think is the best plan."
+
+"We'll separate and look for the rock they tells about," suggested
+David. "There's like to be some signs so we'll know un when we sees
+un. If we finds the rock 'twill not be hard to pace off the way they
+says in the paper."
+
+"And we'll be lookin' out for other signs," added Peter. "'Tis likely
+they've been cuttin' wood or breakin' twigs or makin' a fire."
+
+"The brook ain't froze, and I'm thinkin' now they been walkin' there
+and leavin' tracks, if they were going' for water, and 'tis likely
+they were gettin' water to boil the kettle," reasoned Seth.
+
+"Suppose," suggested Doctor Joe, "two of you follow up the brook, one
+on each side, and the rest of us will spread out on each side of the
+two following the brook, and look for the rock and other signs that
+will guide us."
+
+"We better make a writin' for each of us just like the writin' in the
+can with what it says about how to find the cache if we finds the
+rock," suggested Andy. "I for one'll never be rememberin' all of un
+without a writin' to look at whatever."
+
+"That's true, Andy," agreed Doctor Joe, "and none of us would."
+
+"Andy always thinks of things like that!" exclaimed David admiringly.
+
+"Get the paper from the can and bring it up to camp," directed Doctor
+Joe. "We'll make several copies of the directions. I have paper and
+pencil there in the tent."
+
+David lifted the flat stone from the top of the cairn, and removing
+the paper he and the others followed Doctor Joe to his tent, where
+Doctor Joe made nine copies of the explicit directions, one for
+himself and one for each of the lads.
+
+"You had better return this now to the can," said Doctor Joe, handing
+the paper back to David, "for if it should prove after all that we
+have been mistaken, and that the cache does not contain Lem's silver
+fox or other stolen property, it would be wrong, and we would not
+wish, to interfere with the man for whom this paper was left here
+finding the cache."
+
+"'Twould be fair wicked to do that," agreed David. "I'll put un back."
+
+When the paper had again been returned to its hiding-place Doctor Joe
+detailed the boys to their different positions. David and Peter were
+to follow the brook, David on the left side and Peter on the right
+side as they ascended. Seth Muggs, Obadiah Button, Andy and Jamie were
+to spread out at intervals on the left from David, and Lige Sparks,
+Micah Dunk and Doctor Joe on the right side of the brook from Peter.
+All were to ascend through the woods at the same time, keeping a sharp
+look-out to right and to left for any unusual rock or other possible
+signs that might lead to a clue.
+
+"Now we had better keep close enough together to keep in sight the man
+nearest us on the side toward the brook," directed Doctor Joe. "If we
+spread farther apart than that we shall be too far apart to see any
+rock that may be between us."
+
+"Aye, and we'll keep lookin' both ways," said Andy. "That way we can't
+miss un."
+
+"It's now," Doctor Joe consulted his watch, "one-thirty o'clock. It's
+cloudy and it will be dark by half-past four. I'll call to Micah at
+half-past three and he will pass the word along to the next man and he
+to the next and so on until all have been notified. Then we will
+immediately come together and return to camp, that is, of course, if
+we have not already found the cache. If before that time anyone finds
+what he thinks may be the rock he will pass the word to his neighbour,
+and we'll close in and make our search together. If it begins to snow,
+and the snow is too thick for us to see our next neighbour, we'll
+close in, for in that case we would miss the rock anyway. Do you all
+understand?"
+
+Every one understood, as the chorus of "Yes, sir," testified.
+
+"Jamie," said Doctor Joe, "you're the youngest one, and you haven't
+had much experience tramping through the woods. If you get tired, or
+find it hard, just come over to the brook and follow it down to camp.
+If you get there ahead of us you might start a fire in our tent stove
+and put the kettle over."
+
+"I've got plenty o' grit, sir," Jamie boasted. "I can stand un."
+
+"I think you can," agreed Doctor Joe, "but your legs are short. If you
+get tired don't keep going. Perhaps you had better take the outside
+place, and if you do get tired and fall out it won't break the line."
+
+Full of eagerness and excitement, the boys took their positions. On
+the left bank of the brook was David, next him to the left Obadiah
+Button, then Andy, beyond him Seth Muggs, and finally Jamie. This
+placed Jamie on the extreme left flank, in accordance with Doctor
+Joe's suggestion, and the farthest from David and the brook.
+
+On the right bank of the brook were Peter Sparks, Doctor Joe, Lige
+Sparks and Micah Dunk in the order named, with Micah on the extreme
+right flank.
+
+It was a great and thrilling adventure for all the boys, but
+particularly for Jamie. There was a mystery to be solved, and in the
+attempt to solve it there was not merely curiosity but a worthy object
+in view. If the cache proved to contain Lem Horn's silver fox skin Lem
+and his whole family would be made happy.
+
+Jamie, in his unwavering loyalty, was anxious to lift from Indian Jake
+all suspicion of the crime. At present every one in the Bay, save only
+the Angus boys, believed Indian Jake guilty of it. Even Doctor Joe was
+not satisfied of his innocence, and, indeed, everything pointed to
+Indian Jake's guilt. Doctor Joe believed that the Angus boys were
+prejudiced in their loyalty to Indian Jake because of the fact that he
+had done them kindnesses.
+
+Jamie was sure that if they found this cache there would be proof that
+he and David and Andy were right and everybody else wrong. Not only
+did this feature of the adventure appeal to him, but also the fact
+that he was for the first time in his life trailing in the wilderness
+and taking part in an undertaking that seemed to him one of vast
+importance.
+
+Jamie had never slept in a tent. His only acquaintance with the great
+wilderness had been confined to the woods surrounding The Jug, and
+always when in company with David or Andy or his father or Doctor Joe.
+Now he was determined to do as well as any of them, and, no matter how
+tired he became, to stick to the trail until Doctor Joe gave the
+signal to return to camp.
+
+As they ascended the slope Jamie kept a sharp look-out to right and
+left. Now and again Seth Muggs on his right was hidden by a clump of
+thick spruce trees or would disappear behind a wooded rise, presently
+to appear again through the trees.
+
+Jamie was happy. He was keeping pace with the others without the least
+difficulty. Doctor Joe had hinted that his short legs might not permit
+him to do this. He would prove that he was as able as Seth Muggs or
+any of them!
+
+Nothing happened for nearly an hour, and Jamie was beginning to think
+that the search was to end in disappointment, when suddenly his heart
+gave a leap of joy. Far to the left and just visible through the trees
+rose the outlines of a great grey rock.
+
+"That's the rock!" exclaimed Jamie. "That's sure he! I'll look at un
+for signs, and then if there's any signs to be seen about un I'll call
+Seth!"
+
+Jamie ran through the trees and brush to the rock, which proved,
+indeed, to be a landmark. It stood alone, and was twice as high as
+Jamie's head.
+
+Here he was treated to another thrill. On the west side of the rock
+was the charred wood of a recent camp fire. A tent had been pitched
+near at hand, as was evidenced by the still unwithered boughs that had
+formed a bed, and discarded tent pegs, and there were many axe
+cuttings.
+
+"'Twere white men and not Injuns that camped here," reasoned Jamie.
+"All the Injun fires I ever heard tell about were made smaller than
+this un. And these folk were pilin' up stones on the side. No Injuns
+or Bay folk does that, whatever!"
+
+Jamie continued to investigate.
+
+"'Twere not Bay folk did the axe cuttin' either," he decided. "All the
+Bay folk and Injuns uses small axes when they travels, and this
+cuttin' were done with big uns!"
+
+Looking about the rock he found other evidences that the campers had
+been strangers to the country. There was a piece of a Halifax
+newspaper, an empty bottle, and a small tin can containing matches.
+The box of matches he put into his pocket. They had been lost or
+overlooked, and no hunter of the Bay or Indian would ever have been
+guilty of such carelessness. Of this Jamie had no question.
+
+"'Tis sure the rock the writin' tells about," he commented.
+
+Jamie looked a little farther, and then suddenly realizing that he
+should not wait too long before calling, shouted lustily:
+
+"Seth, I finds un! Seth! Seth! I finds the rock!"
+
+He waited a moment for Seth's answering call, but there was no
+response. A much longer time had elapsed during Jamie's examination of
+the rock and the surroundings than he realized, and in the meantime
+Seth and the others had passed on, and Seth was now in a deeply
+wooded gully where Jamie's shouts failed to reach him.
+
+"Seth! Seth! I finds un! I finds the place!" he shouted again, but
+still there was no response from Seth.
+
+"I'm thinkin' now Seth has gone too far to hear," said Jamie to
+himself. "'Twould be fine to find Lem's silver all alone and take un
+back to camp. I'll just do what the writin' says. I'll pace up the
+places. I can do un all by myself, and 'twill be a fine surprise to un
+all to take the silver back to camp."
+
+Jamie had no doubt that the mysterious cache contained the stolen fox
+pelt. No thought of disappointment in this or of danger to himself
+entered his head. His whole mind was centred upon one point. He would
+be the hero of the Bay if, quite alone, he succeeded in recovering
+Lem's property and at the same time in clearing Indian Jake of
+suspicion.
+
+Without further delay he drew from his pocket the carefully folded
+copy of directions that Doctor Joe had given him and sat down to study
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SURPRISED AND CAPTURED
+
+
+"Twenty paces to a hackmatack tree, north," read Jamie. He drew from
+his pocket the little compass Doctor Joe had given him, and took the
+direction.
+
+"That's the way she goes, the way the needle points," he said to
+himself. "I'll pace un off. North is the way she goes first."
+
+But an obstacle presented itself. The northern face of the rock was
+irregular, and from end to end fully thirty feet in length. From what
+point of the rock was the northerly line to begin? Where should he
+begin to pace? Finally he selected a middle point as the most
+probable.
+
+"'Twill be from here," he decided. "They'd never be startin' the line
+from anywheres but the middle."
+
+Holding the compass in his hand that he might make no mistake, and
+trembling with the excitement of one about to make a great discovery,
+he paced to the northward, stretching his short legs to the longest
+possible stride, until he counted twenty paces. It brought him not to
+a hackmatack tree, but to the middle of several spruce trees. He
+returned to the rock and tried again. This time he was led to a tangle
+of brush to the left of the spruce trees into which his former effort
+had taken him. He was vastly puzzled.
+
+"'Tis something I does wrong," he mused. "Doctor Joe were sayin' the
+compass points right, and she is right. 'Tis wonderful strange
+though."
+
+He experimented again and discovered that if he did not hold the
+compass perfectly level the needle did not swing properly. In his
+excitement he had doubtless tipped the compass, and with the needle
+thus bound he had been led astray.
+
+He climbed to the top of the rock, and placing his compass in a level
+position, permitted the needle to swing to a stationary position. He
+extracted a match from the tin box in his pocket and laid it upon the
+compass dial exactly parallel with the needle. Lying on his face, he
+squinted his eye along the match to a distant tree. Rising, he
+observed the tree that he might make no mistake, and returning to the
+face of the rock strode twenty of his best paces in the direction of
+the tree. Again he was disappointed. There was no hackmatack tree at
+the end of his line.
+
+"Maybe he was a big man that does the pacin' and takes longer paces,"
+he said to himself. "I'll go a bit farther."
+
+He looked directly ahead, but saw no hackmatack within a reasonable
+extension of his twenty paces to account for the longer strides the
+original pacer may have taken. Much discouraged, he was about to
+return again to the rock when suddenly his eye fell upon a small and
+scarcely noticeable hackmatack six paces to the right of his north
+line and a little beyond him.
+
+"That must be he, now!" he exclaimed. "'Tis the only hackmatack I sees
+hereabouts. 'Tis _sure_ he! I'll pace un back to the rock! If the
+tree's nuth'ard from the rock, the rock'll be south'ard from the tree.
+I'll try pacin' that way."
+
+With his compass Jamie sighted from the tree to the rock, and to his
+satisfaction the rock, lying due south, fell within his line of
+sight, but at the extreme easterly end of its northerly face instead
+of at the centre, the point from which he had run his original line.
+He now paced the distance, which proved to be a little farther than
+twenty of Jamie's longest strides, which he accounted for again by
+reasoning that a man could take longer steps than he could stretch
+with his short legs.
+
+Then for the first time Jamie observed two stones, one on top of the
+other, at the foot of the rock and at the very place to which his
+compass had directed him. He lifted the stones and an examination
+proved that they had not long since been placed in the position in
+which he found them. Both had marks of earth upon them on the lower
+side, but the stone which was below rested upon the carpet of caribou
+moss which covered the ground and prevented it from coming in contact
+with the earth. It could not, therefore, have been stained with soil
+in the place where Jamie now found it.
+
+"They was put there as a pilot mark! They shows the true mark of the
+place to pace from," he soliloquized, replacing them in the position
+in which he had found them. "I'll take un as a pilot, whatever, and
+see how she comes out on the next track."
+
+He returned to the little hackmatack tree and again consulted the
+paper.
+
+"Forty paces west to a round rock," he read, observing, "that won't be
+so hard now as findin' the hackmatack tree. 'Twill be easier to see,
+whatever."
+
+Methodically he gathered some stones and erected a small pedestal upon
+which to rest his compass while he ran his westerly line. Loose stones
+of proper size were hard to find. The smaller ones were frozen fast to
+the ground, and the larger ones were too heavy for him to move. But
+presently he collected a sufficient number of small stones to form a
+pedestal a foot and a half high.
+
+Upon the top of this he levelled his compass, and turned it until the
+needle, swinging freely, rested upon the north point on the dial.
+Then, as before, he placed a match upon the face of the compass to
+form a line from the "E" to the "W" on the dial. Crouching down upon
+the ground Jamie sighted, as before, to a distant tree, but as he did
+so be became suddenly aware that the light was fading. He had been
+much longer than he had realized, consuming a great deal of time in
+examining the signs around the big rock and in taking his distances
+from the rock.
+
+"This line is sure right the first time," he said. "'Twill not take me
+much longer, and I finds the round rock now. If I finds un I'll be
+sure I'm goin' the right way, and I'll be right handy to the cache."
+
+Thirty-nine of Jamie's paces brought him to the tree upon which he had
+taken sight, and looking a little way beyond he saw, to his great joy,
+a round rock.
+
+Jamie was trembling with excitement as he ran eagerly to the rock.
+This was the second direction laid down upon the paper! There could be
+no doubt that he was right! Everything answered the description! He
+would surely find the cache now! What a surprise it would be to Doctor
+Joe and the boys if he came walking into camp triumphantly bearing Lem
+Horn's silver fox skin.
+
+"Sixty paces south," he next read from his directions.
+
+He placed his compass upon the top of the round rock, which rose
+perhaps three feet above the ground, and repeated his former method,
+again sighting to a convenient tree. Twilight was perceptibly
+thickening. At this season darkness falls early in Labrador, and now,
+because of a heavily clouded sky, it was following twilight quickly.
+
+"I'll keep at un till I finds the cache. I'll find un before I goes
+back to camp whatever," he determined. "'Twill be easy enough gettin'
+to camp even if 'tis dark before I gets there. The brook's handy by,
+and I'll just go to un and follow un down to camp. I hope they'll not
+be worryin' about me, but if they does 'twill not be for long. I'll
+soon be there now."
+
+The distance from the round rock to the tree upon which he had sighted
+proved to be but thirty of his short paces. Here he was compelled to
+pile stones again upon which to build a resting-place for his compass
+before taking another sight. Small stones such as he could lift were
+not easily found, and when at length he was prepared to take the sight
+the gloom had grown so thick that he had difficulty in locating a tree
+that he judged was sufficiently far away to cover the remaining
+distance. Thirty more paces, however, brought him to the tree, and to
+his unbounded joy a lone white birch stood just beyond.
+
+Within three paces of the birch the mysterious cache was hidden.
+Here, however, the directions failed to be sufficiently explicit.
+Either through oversight or purposely the bearings from the birch were
+omitted.
+
+Jamie paced first to one tree and then to another; any of several
+trees might be the correct one. They were all thickly branched spruce
+trees capable of concealing the coveted cache. Jamie was puzzled, and
+every moment it was growing darker. He looked up into the branches of
+one and then another, hoping to see a bag suspended from a limb, but
+if a bag were there it blended so completely with the foliage that
+even its outlines were not revealed.
+
+"I'll have to climb un all," said Jamie finally, "and I'll have to be
+spry about un too or 'twill be fair dark before I gets to climb the
+last of un."
+
+For his first effort he chose a tree three paces beyond the birch and
+in a line with the rock. He had no difficulty in shinning up the trunk
+until he reached a lower limb, and then he quite easily drew himself
+up.
+
+Climbing through the thick screen of branches he looked eagerly for
+the coveted hidden mystery, not stopping until he was well into the
+tree top and had made quite certain that no cache was hidden there.
+Then, as he looked up toward the sky, he felt a snowflake on his face.
+
+"Snowin'!" he exclaimed. "I'll have to be hurryin' now. If it snows
+hard Doctor Joe sure will be gettin' worried about me."
+
+At that moment Jamie heard the breaking of a twig. He paused and
+listened. Presently he heard footsteps, and a moment later a man's
+voice. Through the gathering darkness appeared the figures of two men,
+and even at that distance Jamie knew they were not Bay folk. They
+travelled less silently, and the tread of heavy boots is quite unlike
+that of moccasined feet.
+
+Jamie crouched close to the tree trunk. He scarcely breathed. The
+approaching figures came directly toward the white birch.
+
+"It's lucky we saw them fellers first," said a gruff voice. "They'd
+sure suspicioned somethin' if they'd got a glim on us. They never seen
+us comin' over, and they'll never find our boat where we hid her."
+
+"If they found that there writin' you went and left in the tin can you
+were tellin' about, they've like as not follered the directions you
+give and found the swag," growled the other. "That won't be very
+lucky for us."
+
+"They'd never find her," assured the first speaker. "They'd have to
+find the rock first, and she's a good two mile from shore. They'd
+never find her in a dog's age. Here we be. Here's the white birch."
+
+"Well, where's the tree you went and hid the stuff in?"
+
+"Here she is." The man indicated a tree next to that in which Jamie
+was perched. "Here, take my leg and gimme a boost. I'll go up and get
+it."
+
+Jamie scarcely dared breathe. He could see one of the men make a
+stirrup of his hands, and the other man step into it and swing into
+the tree. Up he climbed to a point directly opposite Jamie, and so
+near Jamie could hear him breathe.
+
+"Got her, Bill?" asked the man below.
+
+"You bet I got her! She's here all right, just like I said she'd be,"
+answered the man in the tree.
+
+Jamie's heart sank. After all his hopes and efforts he became suddenly
+aware that he could not return to camp triumphantly bearing Lem Horn's
+silver fox pelt as he had pictured himself doing. Lem would never get
+the pelt again. Every one in the Bay would go on believing that Indian
+Jake had shot Lem and stolen the pelt. And he had been so near setting
+all this right!
+
+It never entered his head that the cache could contain anything else
+than the pelt. Because he wished Indian Jake to be innocent of the
+crime, he had come to believe that he _was_ innocent, even though
+Indian Jake himself had not denied having the stolen property in his
+possession, and everybody, save only himself and David and Andy,
+believed Indian Jake had it.
+
+"Here she be safe and sound and as good as ever," said the man as he
+dropped from the lower limb of the tree to the ground. "Let's open her
+up and have a drink, Hank."
+
+"I'll go you, Bill. My throat feels as long as a camel's and as dry as
+a snake's back."
+
+Jamie could see the man called Bill stooping over the small bag to
+untie it, and presently draw forth a bottle.
+
+"Here she be, and the other three bottles too," said Bill. "You open
+her up, Hank, while I see if the roll is there and the other stuff."
+
+Bill ran his arm in the bag.
+
+"Yes, it's all right," he assured. "I guess the Captain didn't miss
+the money before the ship sailed, and there ain't any way of his
+gettin' word in to the boss about it now before next spring. We're
+safe enough to take it back and make our divvy. There won't be any
+search made for it now."
+
+"Naw, we're safe enough now." Hank tipped the bottle to his lips, and
+handed it to Bill. "The boss ain't missed his liquor neither, and
+there won't be any to miss pretty soon the way you're pulin' at it."
+
+"I don't know's I took any more'n you did," said Bill petulantly,
+corking the bottle and returning it to the bag. "It was a good move to
+play safe anyhow and hide the swag until we made sure the boss
+wouldn't go searching through our stuff for it. I don't know's he'd
+suspicion us any more'n the rest of the crew, but he'd search
+everybody's stuff if the Captain had give him a tip."
+
+"You bet he would!" agreed Hank. "We just played in luck right
+through. They won't blame us for that other job, will they? They ain't
+likely to go makin' a search for that, be they?"
+
+"Naw!" said Bill. "That other feller, whatever his name is, has got
+'em on his trail for that. We ain't in it. They'll never suspicion us
+for that. We made a slick job of that."
+
+"Well, let's beat it back," said Hank. "It's snowin' and it's goin' to
+snow hard. The sooner we gets back to camp the better we'll be off."
+
+Bill swung the bag over his shoulder, when suddenly he stopped and
+exclaimed:
+
+"What's that?"
+
+Jimmy had sneezed, and again he sneezed.
+
+"Some sneak in that there tree!" and Bill with an oath dropped his bag
+and seized his rifle, which he had leaned against the tree in which
+Jimmy was perched. "I'll put a bullet up there! That'll settle that
+feller, whoever he is!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TWO DESPERADOS
+
+
+"Don't shoot, sir! It's just me!" Jamie piped in terror from the tree.
+
+"It's only a kid!" Bill swore an oath of disgust and lowered his
+rifle. "You git down out'n that tree! Git down quicker'n lightnin',
+too!"
+
+"I'm comin', sir!" came Jamie's frightened voice from the tree-top.
+
+Jamie lost no time in descending from his perch and in a moment stood
+trembling before his captors. It was quite dark now and snowing hard,
+and to the frightened little lad the two big lumbermen loomed up like
+giants.
+
+"What you doin' here?" demanded Bill with an oath as he seized Jamie's
+arm with a grip that made the lad wince.
+
+"I were--I were huntin' for the cache," confessed Jamie.
+
+"Goin' to steal our cache, was ye? Well, we'll teach you to leave
+other folkses things be!" The man gave Jamie a savage shake. "Tryin'
+to steal our cache, eh? Who set you on to it? That's what I want to
+know! Who set you on to stealin' it, now?"
+
+"I weren't goin' to steal un, sir," chattered Jamie, horrified at the
+implication that he was a thief.
+
+"What were you huntin' the cache for, then? Don't lie, you little rat,
+or I'll twist your neck off!"
+
+The fellow seemed quite capable of executing the threat literally, as
+he again shook Jamie savagely.
+
+"I--aint'--lyin'--about--un, sir!" pleaded Jamie between the shakes.
+"I were--just--goin'--to--look--at un, and--if--'tweren't--Lem Horn's
+silver fox--I weren't--goin' to touch un!"
+
+"Well, 'tain't Lem Horn's silver fox. It's things of our'n! Do you
+hear that? _'Tain't_ Lem Horn's silver, it's our'n what's in that
+there bag! You leave our things be! Do you hear what I'm sayin'? You
+and your gang keep away from our cache, and don't go foolin' with
+anything you don't know anything about! Do you hear?" The man gave
+Jamie another shake.
+
+"I--I didn't know! We--we just suspicioned 'twere Lem's silver, and I
+were wantin' to take un back to he," explained Jamie.
+
+"You heard what I said? 'Tain't Lem Horn's silver! You hear that,
+don't you?"
+
+"Aye, sir, I saw what you was takin' out of the bag, and 'tweren't Lem
+Horn's silver. 'Twere something to drink out of a bottle. I sees you
+drinkin' it."
+
+"Let the kid go, Bill," laughed Hank, who until now had kept silent.
+
+"We were all thinkin' 'twere Lem's silver. I'll tell un 'twere not the
+silver but somethin' else that you takes from the Captain that you
+were hidin' in the cache," said Jamie hopefully.
+
+"You goin' to tell that! You heard what we said, and you goin' to blab
+it?" the man roared in a rage.
+
+"Aye, sir, I'll just tell the others so's they'll not be thinkin' 'tis
+Lem's silver," said Jamie innocently.
+
+"The others? Who's 'the others'?" demanded Bill.
+
+"Doctor Joe and the other scouts," Jamie explained.
+
+"'Doctor Joe and the other scouts,'" quoted the big lumberman. "Who's
+this here Doctor Joe? And who's the other scouts?"
+
+"He's Doctor Joe! Everybody knows Doctor Joe!" explained Jamie, quite
+astonished that any one should ask who Doctor Joe might be. "The
+scouts be the other lads of the Bay, sir."
+
+"Well, this here Doctor Joe, whoever he is, and these here other
+scouts, whoever they be, better keep out'n our business and mind their
+own," roared the man. "I suppose they're this here bunch what's
+campin' down by the brook and been runnin' all over the country
+to-day?"
+
+"Aye, sir, we're all campin' down handy to the brook, and we've all
+been lookin' for the cache, but I'm the only one that finds the rock,"
+admitted Jamie.
+
+"You ain't camped down there now!" The man swore a mighty and strange
+oath that made Jamie tremble. "You was camped there, but _now_ you
+ain't! You're goin' with us, _you_ be! Hear that?"
+
+"Aw, let the kid go!" broke in Hank, impatiently. "We better be
+gettin' a jog on us too. Leave the kid be, and come on. He's just a
+kid and he can't kick up any trouble. Leave him be, and let's get out
+of here."
+
+"Not me!" The man gave Jamie's arm a painful twist. "I ain't goin' to
+leave this here kid to go back and blab to that there Doctor Joe and
+the hull country. He heard our talk, and if it gets to the boss you
+know what that means. I ain't takin' any chances on him, and I'm half
+of this."
+
+"We'll be gettin' in bigger trouble if we takes him along. We'll have
+the hull country huntin' us," Hank protested.
+
+"You heard me! I ain't goin' to take chances on his blabbin'! He goes
+along, and I'll fix him so's he won't blab and nobody'll get our trail
+if they do hunt us. The snow'll hide it," insisted Bill.
+
+"Well, let's get a move on then," said Hank. "The wind's risin' and
+it's goin' to kick up a sea. I don't want to be caught out on the Bay
+again in a sea like we had that other time. The snow's goin' to be
+thick too, and we'll lose our bearings."
+
+"Go on, then. I'll foller with the kid," said Bill, still holding
+Jamie's aching arm.
+
+"Better let the kid go," said Hank, swinging a rifle over his left
+shoulder and with an axe in his right hand striding away through the
+darkness and thickly falling snow.
+
+"Come along you!" and Jamie's captor, gripping Jamie's arm in one hand
+and with a rifle in the other, followed in the trail of the man Hank,
+dragging Jamie almost too fast for his legs to carry him.
+
+On and on they went through the darkness. Now and again Jamie fell
+over stumps or other obstructions, and each time the man, with a
+curse, jerked him to his feet.
+
+Snow was falling heavily and the wind was rising. Once they crossed a
+frozen marsh where the snow swirled around them in clouds. Then they
+were again among the forest trees, forging ahead in silence save for
+an occasional curse by the man who held Jamie in his merciless and
+relentless grip.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MISSING!
+
+
+Seth Muggs, intent upon keeping pace with Andy on his right, and not
+permitting him to get out of sight, quite neglected to be equally
+cautious as to Jamie on his left. In this Seth was in no wise
+neglectful. The responsibility in each case, in order to keep the line
+from breaking, was to keep the neighbour nearer the brook in view. In
+this Jamie alone had failed.
+
+Jamie had, indeed, been out of line for a considerable time before
+Seth became aware of the fact. Even then he felt no concern. Doctor
+Joe had instructed Jamie to return to camp if he became weary, and
+when he was missed had no doubt he had taken advantage of the
+suggestion.
+
+Nevertheless, when Doctor Joe passed the word along the line to
+reassemble, Seth gave several lusty shouts for Jamie. When, after a
+reasonable time, he received no reply, he was satisfied Jamie was snug
+in camp with the kettle boiling for tea, and he turned down to join
+the others at the brook.
+
+"It's a little later than I thought," said Doctor Joe as they came
+together, "but we'll have plenty of time to reach camp before dark.
+Now let's count noses."
+
+"Where's Jamie?" asked David. "We're all here but Jamie."
+
+"I'm thinkin' he gets tired and goes back to camp like Doctor Joe were
+sayin' for he to do," suggested Seth. "I missed he a while back."
+
+"How long has it been since you saw him last, Seth?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"I'm not rightly knowin', but a half-hour whatever," said Seth, "and
+I'm thinkin' 'twere a bit longer."
+
+"He has probably gone back to camp, then," agreed Doctor Joe. "It was
+a pretty hard tramp for such a little fellow. It is quite natural that
+he did not like to admit to you that he could not keep up with us, and
+he just slipped quietly away and returned to camp and said nothing
+about it. He couldn't well get lost with the brook so near to guide
+him."
+
+"Jamie'd never be gettin' lost whatever," asserted Andy. "He's
+wonderful good at findin' his way about."
+
+"'Tis goin' to snow, and 'twill be dark early," suggested David, as
+the little party turned down the brook to retrace their steps to camp.
+"There's a bend in the brook here; let's cut across un and save time.
+If she sets in to snow to-night 'tis like to keep un up all day
+to-morrow, and we'd better get back as quick as we can to cut plenty
+of wood and have un on hand."
+
+"Very well," agreed Doctor Joe. "You go ahead and guide us, David."
+
+"'Twill be fine and cosy just bidin' in camp and studyin' up the
+things in the book," said Obadiah as they followed David in a short
+cut toward camp. "We'll be havin' a fine time even if it does snow too
+hard to go about."
+
+"Yes," agreed Doctor Joe, "we can do that and learn a great many
+things about scouting."
+
+Suddenly David held up his hand for silence, and stooping peered
+through the trees ahead. The others followed his gaze, and there, not
+above fifty yards away and looking curiously at them, stood a caribou.
+
+Only David and Doctor Joe had brought rifles. Almost instantly
+David's rifle rang out, and the caribou turned and disappeared.
+
+"I'm sure I hit he!" exclaimed David running in the direction the
+caribou had taken. "I couldn't miss he so close, and a fair shot!"
+
+"You hit he!" exclaimed Andy who had dashed ahead. "You hit he, Davy!
+Here's the mark of blood!"
+
+A trail of blood left no doubt that the caribou had been hard hit, but
+it was followed for nearly a mile before they came upon the prostrate
+animal.
+
+"Now we'll have plenty of fresh deer's meat!" burst out Obadiah
+enthusiastically. "We'll have meat for supper, and I'm wonderful
+hungry for un!"
+
+"Yes," agreed Doctor Joe, "we had better dress it at once. There are
+enough of us to carry all the meat back with us to camp, and that will
+save making a return trip."
+
+"'Twill be a fine surprise for Jamie when we comes back with deer's
+meat," said Andy enthusiastically.
+
+"'Twill make us a bit late and he'll be thinkin' we finds the cache,"
+suggested David. "I hopes he won't be comin' up the brook again to
+look for us."
+
+"I hardly think he'll do that," said Doctor Joe, "but to be sure he
+does not some of you had better go to the brook and leave a sign to
+tell him which way we've gone. David and I will skin and dress the
+caribou."
+
+"Come along, Seth," Andy volunteered. "We'll be goin' over to make the
+sign."
+
+"Come back here as soon as you've done it," directed Doctor Joe.
+"We'll need your help in carrying the meat to camp."
+
+"Aye, sir, we'll be comin' right back," agreed Andy as he and Seth
+hurried away.
+
+Close to the brook, in a place where it could not fail to be seen, the
+lads set a pole at an angle of forty-five degrees, pointing in the
+direction in which the caribou had been killed. Against the pole and
+about a third of the distance from its lower end an upright stick was
+placed. This was an Indian sign familiar to all the hunters and
+wilderness folk, indicating that the party had gone in the direction
+in which the pole sloped, the upright stick a little way from the butt
+further indicating that the distance was not far.
+
+"Jamie'll know what that means, and if he wearies of bidin' alone in
+camp and comes to find us he'll not be missin' us now whatever," said
+Andy with satisfaction, as he and Seth turned back.
+
+"I'm goin' to blaze the trail over, and he won't be like to miss un,
+then," suggested Seth, taking the axe.
+
+When Andy and Seth rejoined the others Doctor Joe and David had nearly
+finished skinning the caribou, and in due time they had it ready to
+cut up. The head was severed with as little of the neck meat as
+possible that there might be no unnecessary waste, for they could not
+carry the head with them. Then the tongue was removed, for this was
+considered a titbit.
+
+The question of how to carry the meat to camp was finally settled by
+making two litters with poles. The carcass was now cut into two nearly
+equal parts, one of which was placed on each litter. Doctor Joe took
+the forward end of one of the litters, and David the forward end of
+the other. With two boys carrying the rear end of each litter, and the
+other lads the skin, heart, liver and tongue, and the two rifles and
+the axe, they at length set out for camp.
+
+Night was falling and the first flakes of the coming snow-storm were
+felt upon their faces when finally the little white tents came in
+view.
+
+"There's no light," remarked David, who was in advance. "Jamie's
+savin' candles. I'm hopin' now he has the kettle boilin'."
+
+"He'll have un boilin'," assured Andy, who was one of the two boys at
+the rear of David's litter. "He'll be proud to have un boilin' and
+supper started."
+
+"There's no smoke!" exclaimed David apprehensively as they came
+closer. "Jamie, b'y!" he shouted. "Where is you? Come out and see what
+we're gettin'!"
+
+But no Jamie came, and there was no answering call. The stretchers
+were hastily placed on the ground, and every tent searched for Jamie.
+
+"Jamie's never been comin' back since we leaves!" David declared.
+"Whatever has been happenin' to he?"
+
+"I can't understand it," said Doctor Joe. "He could not possibly have
+been lost. Andy, you and Micah run down and look at the boats and see
+if he has been there."
+
+Andy and Micah ran excitedly to the boats to report a few moments
+later that there were no indications of Jamie's return.
+
+"David, you and I shall have to go and look for him," said Doctor Joe
+quietly. "Andy, you and the other lads build a fire outside as a
+guide. Get your supper, and don't worry until we return."
+
+"What do you think's been happenin' to Jamie?" asked Andy anxiously.
+
+"We took a short cut and did not follow the brook where it makes a
+wide bend," suggested Doctor Joe. "He may be waiting for us along the
+brook at that point."
+
+"Oh, I hopes you'll find he there!" said Andy fervently.
+
+"Get your rifle and plenty of cartridges, David," directed Doctor Joe.
+"I'll carry mine also. When we get up the trail we'll shoot to let
+Jamie know we're looking for him."
+
+Each with a rifle on his shoulder, Doctor Joe in the lead and David
+following close behind, the two turned away into the now thickly
+falling snow and darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+BOUND AND HELPLESS
+
+
+"See here," said the man in front, stopping and turning about after
+what had seemed hours to the exhausted and bruised Jamie, "I for one
+ain't goin' to try to cross the Bay to-night in this here snow. It's
+thicker'n mud, and there's a sea runnin' I won't take chances with,
+not while I'm sober. We may's well bunk."
+
+"Guess you're right, pardner, we better bunk. But pull farther away to
+the west'ard before we put on a fire," agreed Jamie's captor with
+evident relief. "That bunch'll be out huntin' this here kid, and they
+may run on to us if we camp too close to 'em."
+
+"We're a good two mile from 'em now. They'll never run on to us,"
+argued the other.
+
+"Go on a piece farther," insisted the man called Bill, who was
+gripping Jamie's arm so hard that it ached.
+
+"Let the kid go! What's the use of draggin' him along? He'll just be
+in our way, and we've got troubles enough of our own," suggested the
+other.
+
+"He ain't goin' back and have a chance to give us away to that bunch,
+not if I knows it. I've about made up my mind to croak him. He knows
+too much. Go on and find a place to bunk. I'm follerin'."
+
+"You won't croak anybody while I'm hangin' around! I'm tellin' you
+I've got troubles enough on my hands already without chasin' a noose.
+I'm goin' to save my neck anyhow, and I ain't goin' to be mixed up in
+any croakin'," muttered the one called Hank, as he turned and plunged
+forward again through the darkness.
+
+What "croaking" meant Jamie did not in the least know, but he
+suspected that it referred to something not in the least pleasant for
+himself. He was too tired, however, to think or care a great deal as
+he was dragged on, stumbling in the darkness over fallen logs, and
+bumping into trees.
+
+It seemed an interminable time to Jamie before the man ahead again
+stopped, and said decisively:
+
+"We'll camp here. We've gone far enough, and I ain't goin' another
+rod. We're a good five mile from them fellers you're afraid of."
+
+"All right, I'm satisfied. You've got the axe, go ahead and make a
+cover," said Bill. "Kid, you come with me and help break branches for
+the bed. Don't you loaf neither. Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Jamie timidly.
+
+It was a relief to stop walking and to feel the man relax the
+relentless grip upon his arm, and Jamie, meekly enough, began breaking
+boughs with the man always within striking distance, as though afraid
+that he might run away and make his escape, though Jamie was quite too
+tired for that.
+
+The man with the axe cut a stiff pole and trimmed it. Then he lopped
+off the lower branches of two spruce trees that stood a convenient
+distance apart, and laid the pole on a supporting limb of each tree,
+about four feet from the ground. This was to form the ridge of a
+lean-to shelter. Poles were now cut and formed into a sloping roof by
+resting one end upon the ridge pole, the other upon the ground, and
+the poles covered with a thick thatch of branches to exclude the snow.
+
+When this was completed a quantity of dry wood was cut, and in front
+of the lean-to a fire was lighted.
+
+While the man with the axe was engaged in thatching the roof and
+lighting the fire and gathering wood, the other turned his attention
+to the preparation of the bed.
+
+"Don't you try to break away, now!" he growled at Jamie. "I'll shoot
+you like I would a rat if you do. Just stand there and hand me them
+branches, and shake the snow off'n 'em first, too."
+
+Running was the last thing that Jamie contemplated doing, even though
+there had been no danger of the man executing his threat. He was so
+tired he could scarcely stand upon his feet, and he had eaten nothing
+since the hurried meal at midday.
+
+At length the bed was laid, and the men sat down within the shelter of
+the lean-to, and Bill ordered:
+
+"Git down here, you kid, and set still too. Don't you try to leave
+here. You know what's comin' to you if you do."
+
+As Jamie meekly and thankfully complied, Bill ran his arm into the bag
+that had been cached in the tree, and which had been the cause of all
+of Jamie's trouble, and drawing forth a bottle removed the cork and
+took a long pull from its contents. Making a face as though it did not
+taste good, he handed it over to Hank, remarking:
+
+"Have a nip, Hank. It'll warm you up and make you feel good. I don't
+like this cruisin' in the dark."
+
+Hank accepted the bottle and after drinking from it returned it to the
+bag. Then each drew a pipe and a plug of black tobacco from his
+pocket, and cutting some of the tobacco with the knife rolled it
+between the palms of his hands, stuffed it into his pipe and lighted
+it with a brand from the fire. For several minutes they sat and smoked
+in silence.
+
+In the meantime Jamie sat timidly upon the boughs next the man Bill.
+As the fire blazed, the chill of the storm and night was driven out,
+and a cozy, comfortable warmth filled the lean-to. Jamie's eyes became
+heavy, and in spite of his unhappy position he dozed.
+
+"See here," said the man, "you may's well sleep, but I ain't goin' to
+take any chances on you. I'm goin' to tie you so's you won't be givin'
+us the slip."
+
+"Oh, leave the kid be, Bill! He's all right!" the other man objected.
+
+"I ain't takin' chances," growled Bill. "I'm goin' to have some say
+about it, too."
+
+He fumbled in his pocket, and drawing forth some stout twine proceeded
+to tie Jamie's hands securely behind his back. Then he tied Jamie's
+feet, and gave him a push to the rear.
+
+"Now I guess you'll stay with us all right," he grinned.
+
+"Aw, leave the kid be! What you want to tie him for?" Hank protested.
+"He can't get away. Better let him go anyhow."
+
+"You leave me be to do what I wants to do and I'll leave you be to do
+what you wants to," growled Bill. "I'm goin' to keep this kid fast.
+This is my business."
+
+"I don't know as it's all your business," snapped Hank. "I'm mixed up
+in it too, seems to me."
+
+"Well, I caught the kid, and I'm goin' to have my say about what I do
+with him," Bill retorted. "I ain't goin' to let him make trouble for
+us, not if I knows what I'm about."
+
+Hank made no reply, but puffed silently at his pipe.
+
+Jamie was wide awake again. This man Bill meant some evil, and the
+little lad wondered vaguely what it could be that was to be done to
+himself, and what his fate was to be. He was vastly uncomfortable,
+too, with his hands tied behind his back, though he was glad enough to
+be permitted to lie down. He could scarcely keep the tears back, as he
+thought of the happy time in camp that had been planned, of the snug
+tent where he was to have slept with Doctor Joe, and of his own warm
+bed at home, and he wondered whether he would ever see The Jug again.
+
+"The boss'll be sore at us, Hank, if we ain't back to camp to-morrow,"
+remarked Bill presently, breaking the silence. "He can be sore though
+if he wants to. He can't fire us fellers for bein' away even if he
+does get sore and cuss us out. He needs us bad, and he can't get any
+more men now. I don't mind his cussin'. Cussin' don't hurt a feller."
+
+"If the wind don't get worse and the snow lets up some so we can make
+out our way we better go back though as soon as it's light enough in
+the mornin'," answered Hank. "I wish I was out'n this business
+anyhow."
+
+"We can get across the Bay even if it does snow some in the mornin',
+long's there ain't too much sea," said Bill. "I'm for gettin' away
+from here too. We've got the swag all right and nobody'll know about
+it, if we don't let this kid loose to blab. It was lucky we caught
+this feller before he found it, but he heard too much."
+
+"What you goin' to do with him, Bill?"
+
+"Croak him. I ain't goin' to take chances with him. It ain't my way to
+take chances I don't have to take."
+
+"You better not do any croakin', Bill. I won't stand for _that_. I'm
+tough, and I've done plenty of tough things in my day, but I never
+croaked a little kid like him, and I won't stand for it."
+
+"Don't you go and get soft now. 'Tain't any worse to croak a kid than
+a man. You'd croak a man if you had to, and this is a time when we've
+got to do it to save ourselves."
+
+"Well, I won't stand for it while I'm sober, and I'm sober now even if
+I have had a drink or two." Hank reached for a firebrand with which to
+relight his pipe.
+
+"Well, you've got to stand for this. I'm mixed up in it just as much
+as you be, and I'm goin' to have some say. I ain't goin' to take
+chances on him goin' back to his gang and givin' us away."
+
+"How you goin' to do it?"
+
+"Take him along in the boat and drop him overboard. That's the easiest
+way. There ain't much chance of anybody findin' him, and if they do
+they'll just think he got drowned some way hisself. Dead folks don't
+talk."
+
+"That's somethin' I won't stand for! You can't go droppin' anybody
+overboard while I'm in the boat! Not if I know it!"
+
+"What you goin' to do, play the sucker?" Bill turned angrily toward
+his companion. "Maybe you'll go and peach!"
+
+"Don't you call me a sucker! Don't you say I'm a peacher!" Hank rose
+to his feet and faced Bill menacingly.
+
+For a moment Jamie thought the men were going to fight, but Bill
+remained seated and his manner suddenly changed. Jamie thought he
+acted as though he were afraid.
+
+"See here, Hank," Bill's voice was modified and conciliatory. "I ain't
+callin' you a sucker, and I ain't sayin' you'll peach. What's the use
+of us fellers fightin' about it? We're in this together and we're
+pardners. We've got to hang together. What's the use of us fallin'
+out?"
+
+"I'm willin' to hang together but I won't be called a sucker or
+peacher by anybody, and I ain't goin' to stand for any croakin'
+neither while I've got a gun! Hear me?"
+
+"What we goin' to do about this here kid then? We can't let him go.
+He'll up and run back and blab. He's heard too much about our
+business. We don't want to go huntin' trouble, do we? Well, we'll be
+huntin' trouble if we let him go. He knows too much and he knows all
+about who we be too."
+
+"What does he know, now? He don't know anything except what you've
+gone and blabbed yourself. We just caught him tryin' to swipe our
+cache. The stuff is our'n. 'Tain't his'n. Our stuff is our'n, ain't
+it? What can he blab about? That's what I want to know!"
+
+"He'll go and tell folks we've got this here swag from the ship, and
+it'll go to the boss. That's what he knows, and that's what he'll
+blab."
+
+"Well, what we've got is our'n. He can't prove we've got that there
+swag, and we'll hide it where the boss can't find it. He hain't seen
+any swag around, has he? He can't say he has neither, and he won't. He
+just thought maybe we had that there fox skin. What's that got to do
+with us? We don't care what he thinks, and what he thinks won't hurt
+us as I knows of. What we've got and what we ain't got don't make any
+difference to these fellers. What they don't know won't hurt 'em. It
+ain't theirs, and nobody better go meddlin' in what I has and does.
+Let that there kid go now, Bill, and get him off'n our hands."
+
+"You just leave him to me, Hank. I ain't goin' to let him go and blab,
+I say, and get both of us in a hole. I've got _some_ say, hain't I,
+Hank?"
+
+"Well, don't do any croakin' when I'm around to see, that's all I've
+got to say. He's your'n to do the way you want to with. I won't have
+any finger in it. It's your job, it ain't mine."
+
+"Well, I'll do the croakin' some other way. You needn't have anything
+to do about it if you're afraid. I'll do it all by myself."
+
+"Afraid or no afraid I ain't goin' to be mixed up in any croakin', and
+that ends it as far as I go."
+
+Hank knocked the ashes from his pipe, refilled it from the black
+plug, and lifting a red hot coal from the fire placed it upon the
+bowl, and puffed for a moment. When the tobacco was glowing to his
+satisfaction, he flicked the coal back into the fire, and sat silently
+smoking.
+
+Jamie, lying quiet, had listened to the conversation of the two men.
+He was wide awake now. He did not understand the significance of
+"croaking," but the word had an ominous sound. It referred to
+something the man called Bill wished to do to him and something to
+which the man called Hank objected. He understood, however, the threat
+to throw him into the Bay. The fellow Bill wished to do this while
+Hank was determined to prevent it.
+
+Instinctively Jamie felt that Hank was only defending him in order to
+protect himself. He had no personal interest in him, but did not
+propose to be involved in any trouble that might arise through some
+action that Bill wished to take. He was glad when, finally, it
+appeared settled that he was not to be thrown into the sea.
+
+Bill arose and replenished the fire, and following Hank's example
+refilled and lighted his pipe, then reseated himself.
+
+Neither of the men spoke. Beyond their great hulking figures the fire
+gleamed and sent a circle of radiance. Beyond the circle the forest
+lay as black as a tomb. The snow fell steadily, and the wind sighed
+and moaned ominously through the tree tops.
+
+What were Doctor Joe and the lads doing? Were they searching for him
+through the blackness of the night and the storm? If he had only
+followed Doctor Joe's instructions and returned to camp in season!
+Would these men kill him? Would he ever see the dear old home at The
+Jug again?
+
+With these thoughts flashing through his mind Jamie prayed a silent
+little prayer:
+
+"Dear Lord, don't let un kill me! Take me back to The Jug again!"
+
+Many times he repeated this to himself. Then there came to him
+something Thomas had once said when the mist was clouding his eyes:
+
+"Have plenty o' grit, lad, and a stout heart like a man."
+
+This comforted and strengthened him, and, like the prayer, he repeated
+it over and over again to himself as he lay watching the silent men.
+For a long time he watched them and the fire beyond, and the falling
+snow and the black wall of the forest. Finally tired nature came to
+his relief. His eyes closed and he fell into a troubled sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+LOST IN A BLIZZARD
+
+
+After a time Jamie awoke. The two men were still sitting by the fire
+and were again drinking from the bottle. He was uncomfortable in his
+cramped position, but dared not move, and he lay very still and
+watched the men and the fire and the black wall of the mysterious,
+trackless forest beyond. Shadows rose and fell and flitted in and out
+of the circle of firelight. Weird and uncanny they seemed, taking
+strange forms like dancing spirits. In the darkness outside the
+firelight and moving shadows Jamie fancied that terrible ghoulish
+forms were stalking stealthily and grinning maliciously at him.
+
+For a long while Jamie lay awake and watched. Again and again the men
+drank from the bottle, and when they spoke at intervals their voices
+sounded unnatural and thick. Once one of them arose to replenish the
+fire, and he moved unsteadily upon his feet, at which the little lad
+marvelled, for he was a large, strong man. Presently Jamie's eyes
+drooped again, and once more he slept.
+
+When he again awoke dawn was breaking. Snow was falling heavily. The
+two men were in a deep sleep. The fire had died down to a bed of
+coals, and Jamie was shivering with the cold.
+
+His arms were numb, and his body and limbs ached from the cramped
+position in which he lay because of his bound arms and feet. With some
+effort he turned over, and this brought him some relief, but not for
+long, and presently he rolled back to his original position that he
+might see the red coals of the fire.
+
+Jamie tried to move his hands, but his wrists were too firmly tied,
+and the effort brought only pain. Then he lay still and studied the
+smouldering fire. Behind it lay the remnants of a back log that had
+been burned through in the centre. The inner ends of the log, where it
+was separated, were, like the coals before it, red and glowing, and he
+thought that if he could push them together they would blaze and give
+out warmth.
+
+Then, suddenly, an idea flashed into Jamie's brain. Those red ends of
+the log would burn the string that bound him, and he could free
+himself if he could only reach them and press the string against them.
+
+His movements in turning over had not disturbed his captors. They were
+still sleeping profoundly. From the condition of the fire it was
+evident they had been sitting by it the greater part of the night and
+had replenished it at a late hour, else all the coals would have been
+dead.
+
+Hank lay at the opposite end of the lean-to from Jamie, and Bill in
+the centre, with their feet toward the fire. Jamie was lying at the
+back, his head near Bill's head and his feet toward the end of the
+lean-to farthest from Hank.
+
+For several minutes Jamie studied the position of each and the
+possibilities of working his way out of the lean-to without awakening
+the men. Finally he determined to make an attempt to gain his freedom.
+
+Cautiously and as noiselessly as possible he began to wriggle away,
+inch by inch, from Bill, and toward the fire. Several times he fancied
+the men moved restlessly in their sleep, but when he looked toward
+them they appeared to be still sleeping heavily. On each occasion,
+however, he lay still until he became wholly satisfied that he had
+been mistaken and that they had not been disturbed.
+
+Little by little he edged away until at length he was well outside the
+lean-to. His efforts were painful and slow, but in the course of half
+an hour he was near enough to the end of the log to touch it with his
+bound feet. His exertions had set his blood in motion and inspired him
+with hope of success.
+
+With much care and patience he pushed the stick until he was able to
+rest the string, where it crossed between his ankles, upon the glowing
+end. Drawing his feet as far apart as possible, with all the strength
+he possessed, he was quickly rewarded by feeling a relaxation, and in
+a moment his heart leaped with joy. The string was severed.
+
+Squirming around upon his chest, Jamie arose to a kneeling position,
+and then stood erect. So far as his legs were concerned he was free.
+
+Jamie's first impulse was to run wildly away, but he restrained
+himself. Standing over the men he looked down upon them. Neither had
+moved, and to all appearances they were sleeping as soundly as ever.
+
+"I'm thinkin' now I'll try to burn off the string on my hands too," he
+decided. "'Twill be easier gettin' on with un free, and I'll travel a
+rare lot faster with my arms loose."
+
+Burning the strings from his wrists, however, proved a much more
+difficult problem than burning them from his ankles. He sat down with
+his back to the hot end of the stick, but discovered that it was no
+easy matter to find just the right position between the wrists.
+Several efforts resulted only in painful burns on his hands, but he
+was not discouraged, and finally was rewarded. The string where it
+crossed between his wrists was brought into contact with the sharp
+point of the glowing hot stick, and though the reflected heat burned
+him cruelly he held the string pressed against the fire until at last
+it crumbled away and his hands flew apart.
+
+"She took grit," said he, "but I made out to do un."
+
+With the joy of freedom and the anxiety to escape his tormentors,
+Jamie was oblivious to the pain of his burned and blistered wrists. He
+could use both hands and feet, and was confident that he would soon
+find the camp and his friends.
+
+Jamie ran as fast as his short legs would carry him. The snow was
+nearly knee deep, but it was soft and feathery and he scarcely gave it
+thought at first. He had no doubt that he knew exactly in which
+direction camp lay, and it never entered his head that he might go
+wrong or lose his way as he dashed through the woods at the best speed
+of which he was capable.
+
+Presently the impediment of the snow compelled him to reduce his gait
+to a walk, and for nearly an hour he pushed on in what he supposed was
+a straight line, when he came suddenly upon fresh axe cuttings and a
+moment later saw through the thickly falling snow a familiar lean-to.
+He stopped in consternation and fright, scarcely knowing which way to
+turn. He was within fifty feet of the two desperate men from whom he
+had so recently fled. In the storm he had made a complete circuit.
+
+The men were still soundly sleeping, and instinctively Jamie backed
+away. He had lost a full hour of valuable time. The men might awake at
+any moment, discover his absence and trail him and overtake him in the
+snow.
+
+These thoughts flashed through Jamie's mind, and in wild panic he
+turned and ran until at length exhaustion brought him to a halt.
+
+"They'll sure be cotchin' me," he panted, "and I'm not knowin' the way
+in the snow! I'll be goin' right around and comin' back again to the
+same place if I don't look out! I can't bide here," he continued in
+desperation. "I'll have to go somewheres else or they'll sure cotch
+me!"
+
+Bewildered and frightened Jamie looked wildly about him. Then he
+bethought himself of the compass in his pocket. Eagerly drawing it
+forth he held it in his hand and studied its face.
+
+"The Bay's to the suth'ard, whatever," he calculated. "If the Bay's to
+the suth'ard the brook's to the east'ard. I'll be lettin' the compass
+pilot me to the east'ard. 'Twill take me the right direction
+whatever."
+
+Levelling the compass carefully in his hand so that the needle swung
+freely he found the east, and as rapidly as his little legs would
+carry him set out again in his effort to escape the two sleeping men
+and to find camp and his friends.
+
+At intervals he stopped to consult his compass. Then he would hurry
+forward again as fast as ever he could go through the snow, looking
+behind him fearfully, half expecting each time to see the men in close
+pursuit, and always with the dread that a gruff voice in the rear
+would command him to halt, or that a rifle bullet would be sent after
+him without warning.
+
+As time passed and there was no indication that he was followed, Jamie
+began to feel some degree of security. Because of the storm it was
+unlikely that the men would venture upon the Bay. They had kept late
+hours drinking at the bottle, and unless they were awakened by the
+cold they would in all probability sleep late and therefore not
+discover his absence until the thickly falling snow had so far covered
+his trail as to preclude the possibility of them following it with
+certainty.
+
+With his mind more or less relieved on this point, Jamie suddenly
+realized that he was hungry. It was nearing midday. He had eaten
+nothing for twenty-four hours, and he had the normal appetite of a
+healthy boy. The snow had perceptibly increased in depth since his
+escape from the lean-to, and walking was correspondingly hard. He was
+so hungry and so weary that at length he could scarcely force one
+foot ahead of the other.
+
+The wind was rising, and in crossing an open frozen marsh the snow
+drifted before the gale in clouds so dense as to be suffocating. The
+storm was attaining the proportions of a blizzard, and when Jamie
+again reached the shelter of the forest beyond the marsh he found it
+necessary to stop to rest and regain his breath.
+
+"'Twill never do to try to cross another mesh," he decided. "I'm like
+to be overcome with un and perish before I finds my way out of un to
+the timber. I'll stick to the woods, and if I can't stick to un I'll
+have to bide where I is till the snow stops. I wonders now if Doctor
+Joe and David is out lookin' for me. I'm not thinkin' they'd bide in
+the tent with me lost out here and they not knowin' where I is."
+
+When he was rested a little he arose, took his direction with the
+compass, and floundered on through the snow.
+
+"They's sure out somewhere lookin' for me," he thought, "but 'tis
+snowin' so hard they never will find me! I'll have to keep goin' till
+I finds camp. 'Tis strange now I'm not comin' to the brook, 'tis
+wonderful strange. I'm thinkin' though I were crossin' two meshes with
+the men in the night, and I've only been crossin' one goin' back
+to-day. I'm fearin' I'll never be able to cross un though, when I
+comes to the next un."
+
+Presently, as Jamie had thought would be the case, he came to another
+marsh. It satisfied him that he was going in the right direction, but
+at the same time it lay out before him as a well-nigh impassable
+barrier. The wind was driving the snow across it in swirling dense
+clouds, and he stood for a little in the shelter of the trees and
+viewed it with heavy heart.
+
+"'Tis a bigger mesh than the other," he commented to himself, "but
+I'll have to try to cross un. I can't bide here. I'll freeze to death
+with no shelter and I has no axe for makin' a shelter. I'm not knowin'
+what to do."
+
+For a little while he hesitated, then he plunged out upon the edge of
+the marsh. He was nearly swept from his feet, and to recover his
+breath he was forced to retreat again to the woods. Three times he
+tried to face the storm-swept marsh, but each time was sent staggering
+back to shelter. It was a task beyond the strength and endurance of so
+young a lad, and utterly exhausted and bitterly disappointed, he sat
+down upon the trunk of a fallen tree to rest.
+
+"I never can make un whilst the nasty weather lasts," he acknowledged.
+"I'm fair scrammed and I'll have to wait for the wind to ease before I
+tries un again."
+
+He could scarce restrain the tears. It was a bitter disappointment. He
+was so hungry, and so weary, and wished so hard to reach the safety of
+camp and freedom from the still present danger of being recaptured.
+
+"I'll have plenty o' grit and a stout heart like a man," he presently
+declared. "I don't mind bein' a bit hungry, and I'll never be givin'
+up! I'll never give up whatever! Pop says plenty o' grit'll pull a man
+out o' most any fix. I'm in a bad fix now, and I'll have grit and
+won't be gettin' scared. 'Twill never do to be gettin' scared
+whatever."
+
+Jamie sat quietly upon the log, and presently found himself dozing. He
+sprang to his feet, for sleeping under these conditions was dangerous.
+He tried to walk about, but was so tired that he again returned to the
+log to rest. It was growing colder, and he shivered. The storm was
+increasing in fury.
+
+"I'm not knowin' what to do!" he said despairingly. "If I goes on
+I'll perish and if I keeps still I'll freeze to death and I'm too
+wearied to move about to keep warm. 'Tis likely the storm'll last the
+night through whatever, and I'll never be able to stick un out that
+long."
+
+Jamie again found himself dozing, and again he got upon his feet.
+
+"I'll have to be doin' somethin'," said he. "I'll keep my grit and try
+to think of somethin' to do or I'll perish."
+
+Jamie was right. He was in peril, and grave peril. Even though the
+storm-swept marsh had not stood in his way he was quite too weary to
+walk farther. He was thrown entirely upon his own resources. His life
+depended upon his own initiative, for he was quite beyond help from
+others. It was a great unpeopled wilderness in which Jamie was lost,
+and he was but a wee lad, and even though Doctor Joe and David were
+looking for him there was scarce a chance that they could find him in
+the raging storm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A PLACE TO "BIDE"
+
+
+Dazed and almost hopeless Jamie stood and gazed about him at the thick
+falling snow. His body and brain were tired, but some immediate action
+was imperative or he would be overcome by his weariness and the cold.
+
+"If I were only bringin' an axe, I could fix a place to bide in and
+cut wood for a fire," he said. "If I were only bringin' an axe!"
+
+He thrust his hands deep into his pocket and felt the big, stout
+jack-knife that Doctor Joe had given him, and he drew it out.
+
+"Maybe now I can fix un with just this," he said hopefully. "I've got
+to have grit and I've got to try my best whatever."
+
+He looked up and there, within two feet of the log upon which he had
+been sitting, were two spruce trees about six feet apart.
+
+"Maybe I can fix un right here," he commented, "and maybe I can lay a
+fire against the log and if I can get un afire she'll burn a long
+while and keep un warm."
+
+With much effort he cut and trimmed a stiff, strong pole. The lower
+limbs of the trees were not above four feet from the ground, and upon
+these he rested his pole, extending it from tree to tree. This was to
+form the ridge pole to support the roof of his lean-to, for he was to
+form a shelter similar to that improvised by the two men the evening
+before.
+
+Then he cut other poles to form the roof, and resting them upon the
+ridge pole and the ground at a convenient angle to make a commodious
+space beneath, he covered them with a thick thatch of boughs, which
+were easily broken from the overhanging limbs of surrounding trees.
+This done he enclosed the ends of his shelter in like manner, and laid
+beneath it a floor of boughs.
+
+Jamie surveyed his work with satisfaction and hope. No snow could
+reach the cave-like interior; it was as well protected and as
+comfortable as ever a lean-to could be made, and a very little fire
+would warm it. Though much smaller, it was quite as good a shelter as
+that made by the two men, and possessed the added advantage of closed
+ends, which would render it much easier to heat. He had occupied more
+than two hours in its construction, and it had called for ingenuity
+and much hard work.
+
+The opening of the lean-to faced the fallen tree trunk, which lay
+before it in such a position that it would serve excellently as a
+backlog.
+
+Though he had no axe with which to cut firewood, he soon discovered
+upon scouting about that scattered through the forest were many dried
+and broken limbs that could be had for the gathering, and in a little
+while he had accumulated a sufficient supply to serve for several
+hours.
+
+This done he pushed away the snow from before the fallen tree trunk as
+best he could. Using as tinder a handful of the long hairy moss that
+hung from the inner limbs of the spruce trees, he lighted it with a
+match from the tin box salvaged the previous day at the big rock.
+Placing the burning moss upon the cleared spot next the log he applied
+small sticks and, as they caught fire, larger ones, until presently a
+fire was blazing and crackling cheerily in front of his lean-to with
+the fallen tree as a backlog to reflect the heat.
+
+Utterly weary Jamie stretched himself upon his bed of boughs, and it
+seemed to him that he had never been in a cosier place in all his
+life.
+
+"Pop were sayin' right when he says grit will help a man over any
+tight place," breathed Jamie contentedly. "If I were givin' up I'd
+sure perished before to-morrow mornin', for 'tis growin' wonderful
+cold; but I has grit and a stout heart like a man, and I gets a place
+to bide and a fine warm fire to heat un."
+
+With the first moments of relaxation, Jamie became aware that his
+wrists were exceedingly painful, and upon examination he discovered
+that they had been burned much worse than he had realized in his
+attempts to sever the string that bound them. Large blisters had been
+raised, and one of the blisters had been broken, doubtless while he
+was engaged in building his lean-to shelter. The loose skin had been
+rubbed off, and the angry red wound left unprotected.
+
+"I'll have to fix un," he declared. "The sore places'll be gettin'
+rubbed against things, and be a wonderful lot worse and I leaves un
+bide as they is."
+
+In the course of the first aid instruction, Doctor Joe had taught
+Jamie, as well as David and Andy, the art of applying bandages, but
+now Jamie had no bandages to apply. For a little while he helplessly
+contemplated his wrists. But for the fact that they were becoming
+exceedingly painful he would have decided to ignore them, for in his
+wearied condition it was an effort to do anything.
+
+"I knows how I'll fix un," he said at length. "I'll cut pieces from
+the bottom o' my shirt to bind un up with. They'll keep un from
+gettin' rubbed whatever, and when I gets back to camp Doctor Joe'll
+fix un up right."
+
+This he proceeded to do at once with the aid of his jack-knife, and
+presently had two serviceable bandages ready to apply.
+
+"Doctor Joe were sayin' how to keep the air away from burns by usin'
+oil or molasses or flour or somethin'," he hesitated. "And he were
+sayin' to keep sores from gettin' dirt into un whatever. He says the
+sores'll be gettin' inflicted or infested or somethin'--I'm not
+rememberin' just what 'twere, but somethin' bad whatever--if they gets
+dirt into un. I've been wearin' the shirt three days, and I'm thinkin'
+'tis not as clean as Doctor Joe wants the bindin' for sores to be, and
+I'll cover the sore place where the blisters were rubbin' off with
+fir sap. That'll keep un clean. Pop says 'tis fine for sores."
+
+Crawling out of his nest Jamie found a young balsam fir tree, and with
+his sharp jack-knife cut from the bark several of the little sacs in
+which sap is secreted. He had often seen Thomas cut them and daub the
+contents upon cuts and bruises, and sometimes even have him and the
+other boys take the sap as medicine. Returning to the lean-to he
+pierced the ends of the sacs with the point of his knife, and
+carefully smeared the contents over his burned wrist where the skin
+was broken, taking care that all of the exposed flesh was well covered
+with the sap. Jamie had, indeed, fallen upon the best antiseptic
+dressing that the surrounding woods supplied.
+
+This done to his satisfaction, he bound his wrists with the improvised
+bandages, applying them carefully, after the manner in which Doctor
+Joe had taught him in his lessons in first aid.
+
+"'Tain't so bad," commented Jamie holding the wrists up and surveying
+them with satisfaction. "They feels a wonderful lot easier, whatever.
+But I'd never been knowin' how if 'tweren't for Doctor Joe showin'
+me."
+
+Jamie stretched himself upon the bed of boughs, and for a time lay
+watching the fire and thickly falling snow and listening to the wind
+shrieking and howling through the tree tops. Several times he fancied
+he heard the report of distant rifle shots, and at these times he
+would start up and listen intently and look cautiously out, half
+expecting and fearful that he would see the two lumbermen coming to
+recapture him.
+
+But no one came to disturb him, and he assured himself at length that
+he had heard only the cracking of dead branches in the storm, and that
+there had been no rifle shots. Then, at last, his eyes drooped and he
+slept.
+
+Hours afterward Jamie awoke. He was shivering with the cold. The fire
+had burned out, save the backlog which still glowed. It was night. The
+storm had passed and the wind dropped to fitful blasts. The stars were
+shining brightly, and the sky was clear save for feathery, fast moving
+cloud patches.
+
+Jamie rebuilt the fire, and lay down to await morning. He was so
+hungry that he could scarce lie still, but again his eyes drooped and
+again he slept.
+
+It was near daybreak when Jamie was startled by some unusual noise,
+and sat up with a jerk. He listened intently, and satisfied that
+someone was approaching sprang up and looked cautiously out, seized
+with panic and ready for flight. In the dim starlight he could plainly
+see two men coming toward him over the marsh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SEARCHING THE WHITE WILDERNESS
+
+
+Nearly three hours passed before Doctor Joe and David returned to
+camp, disheartened and thoroughly alarmed, to report that they had
+found no trace of Jamie. In the thick-falling snow and darkness they
+had been forced to relinquish the search until daylight should come to
+their assistance.
+
+Andy and the boys were dazed. It could hardly be comprehended or
+credited that Jamie was, indeed, lost. They ate their belated supper
+in silence, half expecting that he would, after all, come walking in
+upon them. Doctor Joe was grave and preoccupied. Several times, now
+he, now David, went out into the night to stand and listen in the
+storm, but all they heard was the wail of wind in the tree tops.
+
+At last, with heavy hearts, they went to bed, upon Doctor Joe's
+advice. Andy asked that he might pass the night in the tent with
+Doctor Joe and David, and so it was arranged. Neither Andy nor David,
+more worried than they had ever been in all their lives before, felt
+in the least like sleep. Doctor Joe did not lie down with them. For a
+long while the two lads lay awake and watched him crouching before the
+stove smoking his pipe, his face grave and thoughtful. He had spoken
+no word of encouragement, and the lads knew that he was troubled
+beyond expression.
+
+The wind was rising. In sudden gusts of anger it dashed the snow
+against the tent in swirling blasts, and moaned dismally through the
+tree tops. The crackling fire in the stove, usually so cheerful, only
+served now to increase their sorrow. It offered warmth and comfort and
+protection from the night and cold and drifting snow, which Jamie, if
+he had not perished, was denied. They could only think of him as
+wandering and suffering in the cold and darkness, hungry and
+miserable, and they condemned themselves.
+
+When sleep finally carried the lads into unconsciousness, Doctor Joe's
+tall figure was still crouching before the stove, and when they awoke
+he was already up and had kindled a fresh fire in the stove, though it
+was not yet day, and the tent was lighted by the flickering flame of
+a candle.
+
+"'Twill be daylight by the time we've finished breakfast," said Doctor
+Joe as the lads sat up. "It's snowing harder than ever, but I think we
+had better go out as soon as we can see and have a look up the brook.
+Jamie may not be so far away. We may find him bivouacked quite close
+to camp. The snow is getting deep and we shall not find travelling
+easy."
+
+"We'll be lookin' the best we can, whatever," agreed David. "I
+couldn't bide in the tent with Jamie gone. I'm wakin' with a wonderful
+heavy heart. I'm findin' it hard to believe he's not about camp, and I
+were just dreamin' about he bein' lost."
+
+"That's the way I feels too," said Andy. "I wakes feelin' most like
+I'd have to cry. Can't I be goin' with you and Davy? I never can bide
+here whilst you're away, Doctor Joe."
+
+"Yes, we three will go and we'll take some of the other lads with us,
+though we'll have to leave somebody in camp to keep the fire going,"
+agreed Doctor Joe. "We'll need warm tents when we come back, if we
+bring Jamie with us, and I hope we'll find him none the worse for his
+night out."
+
+"'Tisn't like 'twere winter," suggested David hopefully. "'Tisn't so
+cold, if he were havin' matches to put on a fire, but I'm doubtin' he
+has matches."
+
+"Let us hope he had. Andy, suppose you call the others," suggested
+Doctor Joe. "Breakfast is nearly ready."
+
+Andy was already dressed, and hurrying out he presently returned with
+the other lads. Breakfast of venison and bread with hot tea was
+hurriedly eaten, while they put forth all sorts of theories as to the
+cause of Jamie's disappearance and the possibilities of finding him.
+
+"I'm thinkin' now," said David with a more hopeful view as daylight
+began to filter through the tent, "that Jamie'll be knowin' how to fix
+a shelter, and that we'll be findin' he safe and that he'll be just
+losin' his way a bit in the storm. If he has matches he'll sure be
+puttin' a fire on."
+
+"I'm doubtin' he has the matches," suggested Andy discouragingly. "He
+weren't thinkin' to be away from camp and he weren't takin' any. He
+were never on the trails, and he'd sure be forgettin' to take un."
+
+"Let us hope he has them," Doctor Joe encouraged. "If he has matches
+I'm sure he'll be safe enough."
+
+"'Twere my fault he were gettin' lost," said Seth. "He'd never been
+gettin' lost if I'd only kept he in sight the way you said to do."
+
+"No," objected Doctor Joe, "we'll not say it was anybody's fault."
+
+Presently they were ready. Seth and Micah were detailed to remain in
+camp, and the others set forth, David and Doctor Joe carrying their
+rifles.
+
+In much the same manner as that adopted in the search for the rock the
+previous day, Doctor Joe and the boys spread out on the left, or
+westward, side of the brook. Now, however, they were much closer
+together, because they could see so short a distance through the snow.
+Walking was much harder, and their progress correspondingly slower.
+
+Thus they continued to the farthest point reached before turning back
+the previous day, David or Doctor Joe now and again firing shots from
+their rifles. Then they turned back, making the return just to the
+westward of the trail made by Doctor Joe, who was on the left flank as
+they passed up the brook.
+
+"There's a rock! There's a big rock!" shouted David, as the rock
+where Jamie had begun his search for the cache loomed high through the
+snow.
+
+Every one ran to the rock, and as they gathered by its side, Andy
+exclaimed:
+
+"I knows now what Jamie does! He were near enough to see the rock! He
+were the last one beyond Seth, and he finds un and he goes huntin' the
+cache by himself, and it gets dark and he gets lost when the snow
+comes!"
+
+"That sounds reasonable," admitted Doctor Joe. "I shouldn't be the
+least surprised if you were right! It's more than probable that's just
+what happened! The thing now is to find the direction Jamie probably
+took from here, and the snow has covered all trace of him."
+
+"With his trail all covered, there'll be no trackin' he. What'll we do
+about un?" asked David. "'Tis hard to think out what way Jamie'd be
+like to go from here."
+
+"Let's try goin' the way the paper said the cache was," suggested
+Andy. "Maybe Jamie finds un in the tree and climbs the tree and falls
+and hurts himself."
+
+"Andy is right," agreed Doctor Joe. "It is quite likely he used his
+copy of the directions to find the cache, and that he went in the
+direction specified. We'll do the same."
+
+It did not take them long to find the hackmatack tree, and in doing so
+they stumbled upon the pile of rocks Jamie had built up for a compass
+rest. It was covered with snow, but was high enough to be discernible,
+and a careful clearing of the snow discovered the fact that the stones
+had been recently piled.
+
+"They may have been piled by the man who made the cache," suggested
+Doctor Joe.
+
+"He'd never been doin' that!" objected David. "'Twould make the tree
+too easy to find. I'm thinkin' 'twere Jamie piles un."
+
+"What would Jamie be pilin' the stones for now?" asked Lige
+sceptically. "He'd not be takin' time to go pilin' up stones that
+way."
+
+"He piles un to pilot us when we comes huntin' he," suggested David.
+
+They took the next direction, and in due time discovered the round
+rock, the top of which they likewise cleared of snow that they might
+make quite certain it was the rock for which they were searching.
+Then, in due time, Jamie's second pile of rocks and finally the birch
+tree were located.
+
+At the birch tree all clues were lost. Vainly they circled the
+surrounding country, firing rifles occasionally until they came to the
+edge of the marsh.
+
+"We'd never be findin' he on the mesh, if he gets out there,"
+suggested David.
+
+"No," agreed Doctor Joe, "and there's no reason to suppose that he
+crossed it to the other side."
+
+"That's what I thinks," said David. "He's somewheres this side of the
+mesh. He'd never cross un. He'd be knowin' there's no mesh between
+here and camp."
+
+"He'd know 'twere not the way to camp," declared Andy. "Jamie'd never
+be forgettin' that he crosses no mesh comin' from camp however turned
+about he is. He'd never be so turned about as that."
+
+"We'll search all the country, then, between this marsh and the
+brook," suggested Doctor Joe.
+
+They could not know that Jamie, on the opposite side of the marsh, was
+at that moment in a snug shelter, and had been listening to their
+rifle shots, and supposing them to be the breaking of dead branches in
+the wind. Jamie was too small and too inexperienced to face and
+weather the storm on the marsh, unassisted, but Doctor Joe or David or
+even Andy might have crossed it. How often it happens that an obstacle
+that might be surmounted turns us back at the very door of success!
+
+Wearily they trailed back through the woods, and up and down until
+darkness finally forced them to return to camp unsuccessful and heavy
+hearted. The younger lads were almost too weary to drag their feet
+behind them. They had eaten nothing since their early breakfast, but
+Seth and Micah, anxiously watching and hoping, had a hot supper of
+fried venison and bread and tea ready, and as soon as they had
+finished their meal, Doctor Joe directed that they go to bed and rest.
+
+Long before daybreak Doctor Joe was stirring. He lighted the fire, and
+when the kettle boiled roused David. Breakfast was ready when Andy
+awoke.
+
+"Is you startin' so early?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "'Tis
+wonderful early. We can't see to travel till light with snow fallin'."
+
+"Clear and fine outside!" said Doctor Joe, "I'm not satisfied that
+Jamie didn't cross the marsh. It's likely to be a long hard tramp and
+David and I are going alone this morning because we can travel faster.
+If we don't find Jamie by noon we'll come back after you and the other
+lads. You'll be fresh and rested then for the afternoon's search. We
+can't give it up till we find Jamie."
+
+"I'd be keepin' up with you," protested Andy.
+
+"If you go we'll have to take some of the others," objected Doctor
+Joe. "The snow is deep and they'll not be able to travel as fast as we
+shall. Let us go alone and if we need you we'll come for you."
+
+And so it was arranged.
+
+Presently David and Doctor Joe set forth in the frosty starlit
+morning. They turned their steps toward the marsh, and were near its
+eastern border when David stopped and sniffed the air.
+
+"I smell smoke!" he exclaimed eagerly.
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Doctor Joe, also sniffing. "I don't smell it."
+
+"There's a smell o' smoke!" insisted David. "The wind's from the
+west'ard, and the smoke comes from over the mesh. There's a fire
+somewheres over there."
+
+"Your nose is keener than mine," said Doctor Joe hopefully. "Go
+ahead, Davy. We'll see if you really smell smoke."
+
+David led the way out upon the marsh, and they had gone but a short
+distance when Doctor Joe was quite sure that he, also, smelled smoke.
+David hurried on with Doctor Joe at his heels.
+
+"There's somebody movin'!" exclaimed David presently. "See un? See un?
+'Tis sure Jamie!"
+
+Then he ran and Doctor Joe ran, and thus they came upon the frightened
+Jamie, standing uncertainly before his lean-to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"WOLVES!" YELLED ANDY
+
+
+"Jamie! Jamie! We've been lookin' and lookin' for you!" shouted David,
+quite overcome with excitement and relief.
+
+"I'm so glad 'tis you!" exclaimed Jamie, tears springing to his eyes
+as he recognized Doctor Joe and David. "I was scared!"
+
+"Safe and sound as ever you could be, and all of us thinking you were
+lost under a snow-drift!" Doctor Joe in vast good humour slapped Jamie
+on the shoulder. "You gritty little rascal! I'll never worry about you
+again! Here you are as able to take care of yourself as any man on The
+Labrador! Come on now back to camp and we'll hear all about your
+adventures when you've eaten. Are you hungry?"
+
+"Wonderful hungry!" admitted Jamie.
+
+"Aye, we'll be makin' haste, for Andy and the lads are sore worried,"
+said David.
+
+In single file, Doctor Joe and David tramping the trail for Jamie,
+they set out for camp. An hour later they crossed the brook, and with
+the first glimpse of the tents heard a shout of joy, as Andy and the
+other lads discovered them and came running to meet them.
+
+While Jamie satisfied an accumulated appetite he answered no end of
+questions. Every one was vastly excited as he related the story of his
+experience.
+
+"'Tweren't Lem Horn's silver they has after all," Jamie declared.
+"There were nothin' in the cache but the bottles they drinks from, and
+they were thinkin' a wonderful lot o' them bottles."
+
+David, in high indignation, was for setting out at once in search of
+the two lumbermen, but it was decided that they had doubtless already
+returned to the lumber camp.
+
+"They'd probably say that they were only having sport with you, Jamie,
+and meant you no harm," said Doctor Joe. "The people over at their
+camp would believe them rather than a little Labrador lad. We may as
+well waste no time with them. We'll leave them alone, and be thankful
+that Jamie is safe and well except for the burned wrists, and they'll
+soon be cured."
+
+"And we'll be havin' a fine time campin' here," agreed Jamie. "I wants
+to keep clear o' them men whatever."
+
+It was a week later when they broke camp to return to The Jug, and
+when the visiting lads said good-bye and set sail to their homes
+across the Bay every one declared he had never had so good a time in
+all his life.
+
+With the coming of November the boats were hauled out of the water.
+The shores were already crusted with ice and the temperature never
+rose to the thawing point even in the midday sun. The mighty Frost
+King had ascended his throne and was asserting his relentless power.
+Presently all the world would be kneeling at his feet.
+
+Buckskin moccasins with heavy blanket duffle socks of wool took the
+place of sealskin boots. The dry snow would not again soften to wet
+them until spring. The adiky, with its fur-trimmed hood, took the
+place of the jacket, soon to be augmented by sealskin netseks or
+caribou skin kulutuks.
+
+"The Bay's smokin'," David announced one evening as he came in after
+feeding the dogs. "She'll soon freeze now."
+
+In the days that followed the smoke haze hung over the water until,
+one morning, the Bay was fast, and the lapping of the waves was not to
+be heard again for many months.
+
+The nine sledge dogs were in fine fettle. Handsome, big fellows they
+were, but fearsome and treacherous enough. They looked like sleek, fat
+wolves, and they were, indeed, but domesticated wolves. Friendly they
+seemed, but they were ever ready to take advantage of the helpless and
+unwary, and their great white fangs were not above tearing their own
+master into shreds should he ever be so careless as to stumble and
+fall among them.
+
+The sledge was taken out and overhauled by David. It was fourteen feet
+long and two and a half feet wide. Twenty cross-bars formed the top.
+Not a nail was used in its construction, for nails would not hold an
+hour on rough ice. Everything was bound with sealskin thongs. The
+sledge shoes were of iron. These David polished bright with sand, and
+then applied a coating of seal oil. Finally the harness and long
+sealskin traces were examined, and all was ready.
+
+It was the end of November when the Bay froze, but there was no
+certainty that travelling would be safe upon the sea ice beyond Fort
+Pelican before the beginning of January. Therefore Doctor Joe confined
+his visits to the Bay folk during December, and on his first tour Andy
+served as driver with Jamie as passenger.
+
+The dogs were harnessed after the Eskimo fashion. That is to say, "fan
+shape," and not, as is customary in Alaska and among white men of the
+far northwest, in tandem.
+
+Leading from the komatik (sledge) in front was a single thong of
+sealskin with a loop on its end. This was called the "bridle." Each
+dog had an individual trace, its end passed through the loop in the
+bridle and securely tied. Tinker, the leading dog, was fully
+thirty-five feet from the komatik when his trace was stretched to its
+full length. He had the longest trace of all. He was trained to
+respond to shouted directions, turning to the right when "ouk" was
+called, or left for "rudder," the word being repeated several times by
+the driver in rapid succession. When it was desired that the dogs
+should stop, "ah" was the order, and when they were to go forward
+"ooisht," or "oksuit." The other dogs followed Tinker as a pack of
+wolves follows the leader. The two dogs directly behind Tinker had
+traces of equal length, but somewhat shorter, the pair behind them
+still shorter, and so on to the last pair.
+
+A long whip was used to keep them in subjection. This was of braided
+walrus hide an inch thick at its butt and tapering to a thin lash. To
+the butt was attached a short wooden handle a foot in length, to which
+was fastened a loop which was hooked over the protruding end of the
+forward cross-bar and the whip permitted to trail upon the ice when
+not in use, and at the same time it was always within the driver's
+reach.
+
+The boys had practised the manipulation of the whip all their lives.
+They could flick a square inch of ice at thirty feet with its tip. It
+was capable of a gentle tap, or the force of a pistol shot, at its
+wielder's discretion. The whip was the terror of the team, for even at
+his distance Tinker, the leader, could be brought to account if he
+failed to do his duty or obey commands.
+
+There was little sickness in the Bay, and after patching up a
+lumberman at Grampus River, and providing some medicine for old Molly
+Budd's rheumatics, Andy and Jamie turned homeward with Doctor Joe.
+
+Near the mouth of Grampus River there was a section of "bad ice" or
+ice that was not always safe to be crossed, the result doubtless of
+cross currents in the tide. To avoid this bad ice Andy followed the
+shore for a considerable distance before turning northward for the
+twelve-mile run directly across the Bay to The Jug.
+
+It was a dull, cold, dreary day. The snow ground and squeaked under
+the sledge runners. Now and again a confusion of shore ridges rendered
+the hauling bad and the dogs lagged.
+
+They were midway between Grampus River and the place where they were
+to make the turn northward when Jamie warned:
+
+"Look out, Andy! There's some loose dogs comin' out of the woods!
+They'll be fightin' the team!"
+
+Six big beasts, larger even than Thomas Angus's big dogs, were
+trotting out of the woods and upon the ice a hundred yards in advance.
+The team saw them, and with a howl rushed forward to the attack.
+
+"Wolves!" yelled Andy. "They's wolves!"
+
+The wolves were free. The dogs were bound by harness, and thus
+fettered were no match for the big, wild creatures. Andy's rifle was
+lashed upon the komatik. It was out of the question to free it in the
+moment before the wolves were upon them, and it was to be a
+hand-to-hand fight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE ALARM IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+The clash came instantly. The wolf pack was upon the dogs, and dogs
+and wolves were at once a howling, snarling, fighting mass. Great
+bared fangs gleamed and snapped. It was a fight to the death, a
+primordial fight for the survival of the fittest.
+
+The attack was launched with such indescribable suddenness that Doctor
+Joe and Jamie had scarcely time to drop from the komatik before it was
+begun. Andy had instinctively seized his whip and began to ply it with
+every opening that offered. The first stroke caught a big wolf across
+the eyes, and with howls of pain it immediately endeavoured to
+extricate itself from the fight. The lash had blinded it.
+
+With feverish haste Doctor Joe and Jamie undid the axe and rifle from
+the komatik, and Doctor Joe with the axe and Jamie with the rifle
+charged the fighting beasts. A lucky blow from the axe split a wolf's
+head. Jamie quickly found that to shoot at a distance he must take the
+risk of killing one of the dogs, but watching for an opening, with the
+muzzle of the rifle within an inch of a big wolf's body, he fired and
+another wolf was disposed of.
+
+In the meantime Andy had been plying the whip with such precision that
+the foot of one of the wolves had been torn off and another wolf so
+badly lacerated that as it broke temporarily away Jamie dropped it
+with the rifle, and then shot the blind wolf which was now roaming
+aimlessly about. A stroke from Doctor Joe's axe dispatched the fifth
+animal, and the remaining wolf, now at the mercy of the dogs, was
+literally torn into shreds.
+
+Hardly five minutes had elapsed from the moment Jamie discovered the
+pack trotting out of the woods until the fight was ended. The attack
+had been made with such suddenness and such savage fierceness that
+Doctor Joe and the boys had scarcely uttered a word.
+
+Now there was the tangle of dogs to be straightened out, and Andy was
+compelled to use his whip to drive them from the dead wolves and quiet
+them. Hardly one of them had escaped injury from the wolf fangs, and
+Dick, a faithful old fellow, was so badly mangled that Andy cut him
+loose from the harness to follow the komatik home at his leisure.
+
+[Illustration: IT WAS A FIGHT TO THE DEATH]
+
+"Dick's too much hurt to do any hauling for a month whatever," said
+Andy regretfully.
+
+"He won't die, will he?" asked Jamie sympathetically.
+
+"He'll get over un," Andy assured.
+
+"The dogs had grit, now!" Jamie boasted. "There's nary a team in the
+Bay could have fought like that!"
+
+"And I noticed you had some grit too," said Doctor Joe. "A wolf's
+fangs snapped within an inch of your leg, you young rascal, when you
+held the rifle against that fellow you shot."
+
+"I weren't thinkin' of that," said Jamie.
+
+One of the pelts was so badly torn by the dogs as to be valueless. The
+remaining carcasses were skinned, and the skins lashed upon the
+sledge, and as they turned homeward Andy remarked:
+
+"There's five good skins and they'll bring four dollars apiece
+whatever. 'Tweren't a bad hunt when we weren't huntin'."
+
+"You and Jamie can take the money you get for them and start a bank
+account," suggested Doctor Joe. "I'll send it to St. John's and put it
+in a bank for you, and then you'll have that test completed for both
+the second and first class. There's no doubt you've earned it."
+
+"Will you, sir? That's fine now!" exclaimed Andy. "Davy wasn't with
+us, and he'll have to set traps to earn his. But he'll get a marten or
+two, whatever."
+
+"There's no doubt about David's catching the martens," said Doctor
+Joe. "If there's a marten around he'll catch it."
+
+It was dark when they reached The Jug. Margaret and David were quite
+excited when they heard the story of the adventure, and mighty pleased
+with its ending.
+
+"'Twere a stray pack," said David, "and they were hungry. Pop had a
+pack come at he that way once, but they just took one of the dogs and
+ran off."
+
+A wonderful Christmas they had at The Jug that year. Doctor Joe had no
+end of surprises stowed away in mysterious boxes that he had brought
+from New York and deposited in his old cabin at Break Cove. He and
+David brought them over with the dogs on Christmas eve, and on
+Christmas morning they were opened.
+
+The one disappointment of the day was the failure of Thomas to be with
+them. He had suggested at the time he departed for the Seal Lake
+trails in the autumn that he might come out of the wilderness for
+additional provisions at Christmas time, but it was a long and tedious
+journey, and they knew it was one he would hardly undertake unless
+pressed by need.
+
+Christmas holiday week was always one of celebration at the Hudson's
+Bay Company's Post. At this time trappers and Indians emerged from the
+silent wilderness to barter their early catch of furs and to purchase
+fresh supplies; and on New Year's eve it was the custom of the men and
+women of the Bay to gather at the Post for the final festivities. All
+day long sledge load after sledge load of jolly folk appeared to take
+part in the great New Year's eve dance, and to enter into the shooting
+contests and snowshoe and other races on New Year's day.
+
+Eli and Mark Horn drove their team in at The Jug just at dinner time
+on New Year's eve, and Eli invited Margaret to go on with them and
+visit Kate Hodge, the daughter of the Post servant.
+
+"We'll be short of lasses at the dance, and we needs un all," said
+Eli.
+
+"I'd like wonderful well to go," said Margaret wistfully.
+
+"Go on," urged Doctor Joe. "You'll have a good time and the boys and I
+will make out famously here. You get away seldom enough and see too
+few people. 'Twill do you good, lass."
+
+"Aye, come on now!" Eli urged. "We'll take you over snug and warm in
+our komatik box. Kate'll be wonderful glad to see you, and we'll bring
+you back the day after New Year."
+
+"I'll go," Margaret consented, her eyes dancing with pleasure.
+
+"And there'll be no prettier lass there," said Doctor Joe gallantly,
+which brought a blush to Margaret's cheek and caused Eli to chuckle.
+
+Margaret hastened her toilet and was ready in a jiffy. She was all
+a-flutter with excitement when Eli tucked her in a box rigged on the
+rear of the komatik, and wrapped her snugly with caribou skins.
+
+"You must have had it in mind to capture Margaret when you left home,
+Eli," Doctor Joe suggested with a twinkle in his eye. "Men don't take
+travelling boxes when they go alone."
+
+Eli grinned sheepishly as he broke the komatik loose, and the dogs
+dashed away.
+
+It was a dull cold day with a leaden sky, and snow was shifting
+restlessly over the ice. The wind was in the south-east, and as they
+entered the cabin David remarked:
+
+"There'll be snow before to-morrow mornin'."
+
+When they had eaten supper that evening and cleared the table David
+stepped out for a look at the weather, and returning reported:
+
+"'Twill be a nasty night. The snow's started and the wind's risin'.
+'Tis wonderful frosty, too, for a wind."
+
+"Let's see how cold it is," said Doctor Joe, stepping out to consult
+his spirit thermometer. "Thirty-eight below zero. Frosty enough with a
+gale, and a gale's rising," he reported. "I'm glad we're all snug
+inside."
+
+"Tell us a story," Jamie suggested, as they settled themselves
+comfortably by the fire.
+
+"There's dogs comin'!" Andy broke in.
+
+David ran to the door, and a moment later ushered Eli Horn into the
+cabin.
+
+"What's the matter, Eli? Has anything happened?" asked Doctor Joe,
+immediately concerned for Margaret's safety.
+
+"Margaret's safe," said Eli with suppressed excitement. "There's
+murder at the Post!"
+
+Questions brought forth the fact that Eli and Margaret had reached the
+Post at about half-past three and found the people in confusion. Three
+lumbermen from Grampus River had come there. There had been a dispute
+among them and one of them was stabbed. The other two had immediately
+departed, presumably to return to the lumber camps. Eli did not know
+how seriously the man was injured. He had not seen him. It had
+occurred shortly before his arrival, and at Margaret's suggestion he
+had turned directly about and returned to The Jug to fetch Doctor Joe
+to attend the injured man.
+
+"My dogs is fagged," said Eli, "and 'twere slow comin' back."
+
+"David will take me over with his dogs. They're fresh, and will travel
+faster," said Doctor Joe.
+
+In ten minutes David was ready with the dogs harnessed, and the two
+teams drove away into the darkness and storm.
+
+Andy and Jamie were greatly excited. Tragedies enough happened up and
+down the coast when men were drowned or lost in the ice or met with
+fatal injuries. But never before in the Bay had one man been cut down
+by the hand of another. It was a ghastly thought, and the awfulness of
+it was perhaps accentuated by the snow dashing against the window
+panes and the wind shrieking around the gables of the cabin.
+
+It was near ten o'clock, long past their usual bedtime, and they were
+still talking, for there was matter enough in their brains to banish
+sleep, when the door suddenly opened and accompanied by the howl of
+the wind a snow-covered figure lurched in upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE IMMUTABLE LAW OF GOD
+
+
+"Peter! 'Tis Peter Sparks!" exclaimed Andy with vast relief to find it
+was not a murderous lumberman.
+
+"I'm comin' after Doctor Joe!" gasped Peter, as half frozen he drew
+off his snow-caked netsek.
+
+"Me rub your nose, Peter. She's froze, and your cheeks too," broke in
+Andy, vigorously rubbing Peter's whitened nose and cheeks.
+
+Peter was silent perforce while Andy manipulated the frosted parts
+until circulation and colour were restored.
+
+"Come to the fire now and warm up," directed Andy. "What you wantin'
+of Doctor Joe?"
+
+"There's been murder done, or clost to un!" Peter, at last free to
+articulate, continued. "Murder at the lumber camp!"
+
+"Murder!" repeated Jamie, awesomely.
+
+"Aye, nigh to murder whatever!" Peter reiterated.
+
+"Doctor Joe's gone to the Post," said Andy. "Eli Horn came for he. Two
+of the lumber folk most killed another of un over there. Davy took
+Doctor Joe over."
+
+"And two of un most killed the boss at the camp," explained Peter.
+"They comes there from the Post about six o'clock and were packin' a
+flatsled with things. The boss asks un where they's goin'. They
+answers some way that makes he mad, and he hits one of un. Then they
+jumps at he and pounds and kicks he till he's like dead, and he don't
+come to again. The two men has rifles and they keeps all the lumbermen
+back, and off they goes with the flatsled, and they gets away."
+
+"Will the boss die then?" asked Jamie in horror.
+
+"With Doctor Joe gone he'll sure be dyin'," declared Peter
+desperately. "His arm is broke and he's broke somewhere inside, and
+his face is awful to look at, all pounded and kicked and bleedin'. Me
+and Lige goes up to sit a bit and hear un tell their stories, and we
+gets there just after the two men gets away. With Doctor Joe's
+teachin' we fixes the boss up the best we can, and whilst Lige stays
+to help look after he, I comes for Doctor Joe. Pop's to the Post with
+the dogs and I has to walk, and facin' the wind 'twere hard. And now
+Doctor Joe's gone, the poor man'll sure die!"
+
+"You has wonderful grit to come!" said Jamie admiringly. "'Tis
+wonderful frosty and nasty outside."
+
+"'Twere to save the boss's life! 'Tis the scout law," Peter asserted
+stoutly. "I'll be goin' to the Post now for Doctor Joe."
+
+"You're nigh done up, Peter. You'll be stayin' here with Jamie. _I'm_
+goin' to the Post for Doctor Joe," declared Andy.
+
+"I am most done up," Peter confessed. "But the wind'll be in your back
+goin' to the Post. She's just startin' though, and she'll be a
+wonderful sight worse than she is now before you gets there. 'Twill be
+terrible nasty."
+
+"I'm goin' too," said Jamie.
+
+"You're not goin'," said Andy. "I'm bigger and I can travel faster if
+you're not comin'. 'Twould be wrong to leave Peter here alone."
+
+"I'm _goin_!" repeated Jamie stubbornly.
+
+"Won't you be stayin' with me?" pleaded Peter. "I--I'm afeared to stay
+here alone with those two men like to come in on me."
+
+"I'll stay," Jamie consented.
+
+A blast of wind shook the cabin.
+
+"I'm fearin' you can't do it, Andy! 'Twill soon be too much for flesh
+and blood out on the Bay!" said Peter.
+
+"'Tis in my scout oath to do my best," said Andy, adjusting the hood
+of his sealskin netsek. "I'm goin', now."
+
+Andy closed the door behind him. It was pitchy dark. The snow was
+driving in blinding clouds, and he stood for a moment to catch his
+breath. Then he felt his way down across The Jug and out upon the Bay
+ice. Here the full force of the north-east blizzard met him. He
+staggered and choked with the first blast, then in a temporary lull
+forged ahead.
+
+The storm, as Peter predicted, had not reached its height. Each
+smothering blast of fury was stronger and fiercer than the one before
+it. Andy took advantage of the lulls, and save when the heavier blasts
+came and nearly swept him from his feet, maintained a steady trot. In
+the swirl of snow-clouds he could see nothing a foot from his nose.
+Once he found himself floundering through pressure ridges formed by
+the tide near shore. This he calculated was the tip of a long point
+jutting out into the Bay, half-way between The Jug and the Post. Ten
+miles of the distance was behind him. He drew farther out upon the
+ice.
+
+There were times when Andy had to throw himself prone upon the ice
+with his face down and sheltered by his arms to escape suffocation.
+
+"'Tis gettin' wonderful nasty," he said, "but I'll have plenty o'
+grit, like Jamie says, and with the Lord's help I'll pull through."
+
+Then he found himself repeating over and over again the prayer:
+
+"Dear Lord, help me through! 'Tis to save a life, and the scout oath!
+Dear Lord, help me through!"
+
+The gale had now risen to such terrific proportions that often he was
+compelled to crawl upon his hands and knees. With each momentary lull
+he would rise and stagger forward. His legs worked at these times
+without conscious effort. It was strange his legs should be like that.
+They had never felt like that before.
+
+And so, crawling, staggering upright, crawling again, and lying for
+minutes at a time with his face in his arms that he might breathe when
+he was well-nigh overwhelmed and suffocated, Andy kept on.
+
+He could recall little of the last hours on the ice. It was a
+confused sensation of rising and falling, staggering and crawling
+until he collided with an obstruction, and recognizing it as the jetty
+at the Post, his brain roused to a degree of consciousness, and his
+heart leaped with joy.
+
+With much fumbling he succeeded in donning his snow-shoes, which were
+slung upon his back, for the twenty yards that lay between the ice and
+the buildings was covered with deep drift. Once he stepped upon a dog
+that lay huddled and sleeping under the drift. It sprang out with a
+snarl and snapped at his legs. A hundred of the savage creatures were
+lying about in the snow.
+
+Day comes late in Labrador. It was still pitchy dark outside when
+Andy, at eight o'clock in the morning, lurched into the kitchen at the
+Post house, and fell sprawling upon the floor. He had been battling
+the storm for ten hours.
+
+David and Margaret, Eli and Mark and several others were there. Doctor
+Joe was at breakfast in the Factor's quarters, and they called him.
+Andy's face was covered with a mass of caked snow and ice. His nose
+and cheeks and chin were white and badly frosted, and upon removing
+his mittens and moccasins, his hands and feet were found to be in the
+same condition.
+
+Mr. MacCreary, the factor, placed a bed at Doctor Joe's disposal, and
+when the frost had been removed and circulation had been restored,
+Andy was tucked into warm blankets.
+
+"That chap had grit," remarked Mr. MacCreary as he and Doctor Joe left
+David and Margaret by the bedside and Andy asleep. "The Angus boys are
+all gritty fellows. They're the sort the Company needs."
+
+"Yes," Doctor Joe agreed heartily, "and they never shirk their duty.
+Andy is a Boy Scout, and he did what he considered his duty. Now I
+must go to the lumber camp and fix up that boss, if he isn't beyond
+fixing up."
+
+With the coming of dawn the wind subsided and the snow ceased to fall.
+Eli harnessed his dogs when it was light, and with the lumberman who
+had been stabbed, but whose injuries were not after all serious, he
+and Doctor Joe set out for Grampus River.
+
+At the lumber camp they found Lige Sparks, Obadiah Button and Micah
+Dunk installed as volunteer nurses. The man had a broken arm, three
+broken ribs, and had suffered internal injuries that demanded prompt
+attention.
+
+"If Andy hadn't come for me, and if I'd been delayed much longer in
+reaching the camp," said Doctor Joe later, "the man would have died.
+Thanks to the boys, his life will be saved."
+
+That day and that night Doctor Joe remained with his patient. On the
+following morning it became necessary for him to return to The Jug for
+additional dressings and medicines. Eli drove him over.
+
+The sky was clear, and the morning was bitterly cold, with rime
+hanging like a filmy veil in the air and glistening like flakes of
+silver in the sunshine. Doctor Joe and Eli ran in turns by the side of
+the komatik, while the dogs trotted briskly.
+
+"What's that, now?" asked Eli, pointing to a black object far out on
+the white field of ice, as they approached The Jug.
+
+"I can't make out," said Doctor Joe after a long scrutiny.
+
+"We'll see," and Eli turned the dogs toward the object.
+
+"It looks like a flatsled," said Doctor Joe as they approached.
+
+"'Tis a flatsled," said Eli. "'Tis the men ran away from the lumber
+camp."
+
+A gruesome sight met them as Eli brought the dogs to a stop. Huddled
+close and lying by the side of the toboggan, partially covered by
+drift, were the stiff-frozen bodies of two men.
+
+"They were lost in the storm," said Eli presently. "They must have
+been wanderin' about till the frost got the best of un."
+
+Doctor Joe and Eli lifted the remains to the komatik, attaching the
+toboggan to trail behind, and with their ghastly burden they turned in
+at The Jug.
+
+Jamie and Peter, vastly concerned for Andy's safety, met them, and
+were as vastly relieved when they learned that Andy would be not much
+the worse for his experience, and that the lumber boss would live.
+
+The two bodies were carried into the wood-shed and laid side by side
+upon the floor, to remain there until evening, when Doctor Joe and Eli
+would return them to Grampus River for burial. It was then that Jamie
+looked for the first time upon the upturned dead faces, and as he did
+so he exclaimed, with horror:
+
+"They's the men! They's the men that had the cache and tied me up!"
+
+"They've been hard men in life and probably done much evil in their
+day, but they're past it now and we'll treat their remains gently and
+humanly," said Doctor Joe as he covered their faces with a cloth.
+
+Then they undid the flatsled and carried the contents into the cabin,
+where the things would be safe from the dogs. There were provisions, a
+bag of clothing, two thirty-eight calibre rifles, a quantity of
+ammunition and a small bag, which Jamie declared was the bag which had
+been cached in the tree.
+
+"I'm goin' to look at un," said Eli. "'Twill do no harm."
+
+Eli undid the bag and drew forth a package which proved to contain a
+large roll of bills, amounting to several hundred dollars. Then
+followed two marten pelts, a red fox pelt, and the pelt of a beautiful
+silver fox. Eli shook the silver fox pelt, and holding it up examined
+it critically.
+
+"'Tis Pop's silver!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Doctor Joe.
+
+"'Tis Pop's silver! I'd know un anywheres!" declared Eli positively.
+
+"Then," said Doctor Joe, "it was not Indian Jake but these men who
+shot your father and stole the fur."
+
+"And stole our boat!" Jamie broke in excitedly.
+
+"'Twere they stole the silver," Eli admitted, "and the Lord punished
+un. I'm wonderful glad my bullet went abroad and didn't hurt Indian
+Jake."
+
+"We all thought Indian Jake guilty," said Doctor Joe. "How easy it is
+to pass judgment on people, and how often we misjudge them!"
+
+"And knowin' he didn't take un, and after I'd tried to kill he," went
+on Eli contritely, "he were wonderful good to me, havin' me bide to
+supper and givin' me deer's meat."
+
+"I'm rememberin'," broke in Jamie, "that the men were talkin' o'
+somethin' they were takin' from the ship, and fearin' the lumber boss
+would find out about un. 'Twere the money they means."
+
+There was a howl of arriving dogs outside, and Jamie rushed to the
+door to meet David and Andy and Margaret, and, to his unbounded
+delight, Thomas and Indian Jake.
+
+While Thomas was being overwhelmed by Jamie, Indian Jake with a broad
+grin extended his hand to Eli.
+
+"How do, Eli?"
+
+"How do, Jake?" Eli took Indian Jake's hand. "I got the silver back,
+Jake, and you never took un. I'm wonderful sorry the way I done."
+
+"I've got your ca'tridges here, Eli," grinned Indian Jake. "You can
+have un back now."
+
+"But didn't Andy have grit, now!" Jamie's voice rose above the babel.
+"Didn't he have grit to go out in the night when 'twas _that_ nasty!
+And a stout heart, too, like a man! Andy's a wonderful fine scout,
+whatever!"
+
+And so ended the mystery of the shooting and the robbery of Lem Horn,
+and so the guilty were discovered and punished, as in some manner and
+at some time all wrong-doers are discovered and punished. It is the
+immutable law of God.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Troop One of the Labrador, by Dillon Wallace
+
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