art sank like lead when he came to the lake. There was
but one thing to do now, and he ran his canoe close along the
right-hand shore, looking for an opening. His progress was slow. A
dozen times he entangled himself in masses of reeds and rice, or thrust
himself under over-hanging tree-tops and vines to investigate the
deeper gloom beyond. He had returned two-thirds of the distance to the
straight-water where he had given up the pursuit when the bow of his
canoe ran upon a smooth, sandy bar that shelved out thirty or forty
feet from the shore. Scarcely had he felt the grate of sand when with a
powerful shove he sent his canoe back, and almost in the same instant
Pierre's rifle leveled menacingly shoreward. Drawn up high and dry on
the sand-bar were the two canoes.

For a space Philip expected that his appearance would be the signal for
some movement ashore; but as he drifted slowly away, his rifle still
leveled, he was filled more and more with the belief that he had not
been discovered. He allowed himself to drift until he knew that he was
hidden in the shadows, and then quietly worked himself in to shore.
Making no sound, he pulled himself up the bank and crept among the
trees toward the bar. There was no one guarding the canoes. He heard no
sound of voice, no crackling of brush or movement of reeds. For a full
minute he crouched and listened. Then he crept nearer and found where
both reeds and brush were trampled down into a path that led away from
the river.

His heart gave a bound of joy, and he darted along the path, holding
his rifle ready for instant use. The trail wound through the tall grass
of a dry swamp meadow and, two hundred yards beyond the river, plunged
into a forest. He had barely entered this when he saw the glow of a
fire. It was only a short distance ahead, hidden in a deep hollow that
completely concealed its existence from the keenest eyes that might
pass along the river. Stealing cautiously to the crest of the little
knoll between him and the light, Philip found himself within fifty feet
of a camp.

A big canvas tent was the first thing to come within his vision. The
fire was built against this face of a rock in front of this, and over
the fire hovered a man dragging out beds of coals with a forked stick.
Almost at the same moment a second man appeared from the tent, bearing
two huge skillets in one hand and a big pot in the other. At a glance
Philip knew that they were preparing to cook a m