ugh the roving eyes seemed to be doing double
duty. The meal devoured, he produced a black clay pipe with a broken
stem and uttered a single word, "Tabac'?" and when the want was supplied
he crumbled himself a pipeful from the twist which Prime handed him.

Prime filled his own home-made pipe, and at its lighting the guest began
a curt inquisition.

"W'ere you come from?"

Prime explained without going into any of the kidnapping details.

"You campin' out for fon, mebbe, yes?" was the next query.

"A little that way," said Prime.

"You shoot wiz ze gon? W'ere all dat game w'at you get?"

"It isn't the game season," Prime parried. "We haven't tried to shoot
anything."

"But you 'ave ze gon. Lemme see 'um," holding out a hand for the rifle.

Prime passed over the gun nearest at hand and drew the other one up
within reach. The inquisitive supper guest looked the weapon over
carefully and seemed to be trying to read something in the scratches on
the stock.

"_Vraiment!_ she's one good gon," he commented, passing it back. "W'ere
you get 'um?"

[Illustration: "_Vraiment!_ she's one good gon," he commented.... "W'ere
you get 'um?"]

Prime did not answer the question. He thought it was high time to ask a
few of his own.

"What river is this?" he wanted to know.

"You make canoe on him and you not know dat? She is Mishamen; comes
bimeby to Riviere du Lievres."

"How far?"

"One, two, t'ree day; mebbe more."

"You mean that we will reach a town in two or three days?"

"Mebbe so, if you don' get los'."

Prime exchanged a quick glance with his fellow castaway. Lucetta
signalled "Yes," and he acted accordingly.

"What will you charge to show us the way to the nearest town?" he asked.

The small man did not seem especially eager for money. He was examining
the gun again. "_Moi_, I can't go--too bizzee. W'ere you got dis gon?"

"It came with our outfit," said Prime shortly. "We got it when we got
the canoe."

"And w'ere you got dat canoe?"

The inquisition was growing rather embarrassing, but Prime answered as
best he could.

"We got the outfit up at the big lake where we started from. We have
come all the way down the river."

With this the restless-eyed querist appeared to be satisfied. At all
events he did not press the questioning any further, and was content to
take another pipe-filling from Prime's tobacco twist and to tell a
little more about himself. He was "one ver' great trapper," in his ow