en, in the southeast, came the first faint streak of dawn. Day is
born as suddenly as it dies in these regions, and it was soon light
enough for Mukoki to resume his trail at a trot. A few minutes more
and a clump of balsam and spruce loomed up out of the plain ahead of
them. Neither Rod nor Wahigoon recognized it until the old warrior
halted the dogs close in its shadows and they saw the look of triumph
in his face.

"The camp!" breathed Wabi.

"The camp!"

Trembling, his voice quivering with suppressed excitement, the Indian
youth turned to Roderick Drew.

"Rod--it's all up to you!"

Mukoki, too, had come close to his side.

"There--camp!" he whispered. "Now--where Minnetaki's trail?"

The old warrior's eyes were blazing.

"Where?"

A dozen paces away was the balsam shelter they had built. But that was
all. Not a track was left in the snow. The warm sun had obliterated
every sign of their presence of a short time before!

If their own trail was gone what could he hope to find of Minnetaki's
dainty foot-prints?

Deep down in his heart Rod prayed for guidance in this moment of
terrible doubt.

CHAPTER IV

ROD FOLLOWS THE MAN-FOOTED BEAR

"I must wait until it is lighter," he said. He tried to control
himself, to fortify himself with the assurance which he no longer
felt.

"We will have breakfast," suggested Wabi. "We have cold meat and there
will be no need of a fire."

Finishing before the others, Rod grasped his rifle and walked out from
among the trees. Wabi made a movement as if to follow, but Mukoki held
him back. There was a shrewd light in his eyes.

"He do better--alone," he warned.

The red glow of the sun was rising above the forest and Rod could now
see far about him. He had come out from the cedars, like this, on the
afternoon that he had gone to hunt and had found Minnetaki's trail. A
mile away he saw the snow-covered ridge where he had hunted for moose.
That ridge was his first guide, and he hurried toward it while Mukoki
and Wabigoon followed far behind him with the dogs and the sledge.
He was breathless when he reached the top. Eagerly he gazed into the
North. It was in that direction he had gone on the afternoon of his
discovery of the strange trail. But nothing that he recognized met his
eyes now, no familiar landmark or tree to guide him again over his
wandering footsteps of that day. Vainly he sought along the ridge for
some slight sign of his former presence there.