e last of the conventions, and we'll
tell it good-by without a whimper." With the goodly array of foodstuff
spread out upon the sand, and with his back carefully turned upon the
pool of dread, he felt that he could afford to be light-hearted.

There was only a little more of the rummaging to be done. A
canvas-covered roll unlashed from its place beneath a canoe-stay proved
to be a square of duck large enough to make a small sleeping-tent.
Inside of this roll there was an ample stock of cartridges for the two
repeating rifles lying cased in their canvas covers in the bottom of the
boat, and an Indian-tanned deerskin used as a wrapping for the
ammunition. With the guns there was a serviceable woodsman's axe. In
the bow, where Prime had dropped the two savage-looking hunting-knives,
there were a few utensils: a teapot, a camper's skillet large enough to
be worth while, tin cup and plates, an empty whiskey-bottle, and a
basin--the latter presumably for the dough-mixing.

After they had their findings lying on the sand the tender conscience
came in play again, and nothing would do but everything must be put back
just as they had found it, Prime drawing the line, however, at a portion
of the tobacco and enough of the food to serve for supper and breakfast.
During the remainder of the afternoon they left the canoe-load
undisturbed, but when evening came Prime borrowed the basin, the cups,
plates, and the larger skillet. Farther along he borrowed the canvas
roll and the axe and set up the tiny sleeping-tent, placing it so that
Lucetta, if she were so minded, could see the fire.

Just before she retired the young woman made a generous protest.

"You mustn't do all the borrowing for me," she insisted. "Go right down
there and get one of those blanket-rolls for yourself. I shan't sleep a
wink if you don't."

The next morning there were more speculations, on the young woman's
part, as to the whereabouts of the canoe-owners, with much wonderment at
their protracted absence and the singular abandonment of their entire
outfit, even to the weapons. Whereat Prime invented all sorts of
theories to account for this curious state of affairs, all of them much
more ingenious than plausible.

For himself, the mystery was scarcely less unexplainable. Why two men,
evidently outfitted for a long journey, should stop by the way, build
five fires that were plainly not camp-fires, and then fall to and fight
each other to death over a bag of E