tween the cabin timbers was dug out, and by noon there was not
a square inch of the interior of the camp that had not been searched.

There was no more gold.

In a way this fact brought relief with it. Both Wabi and Rod gradually
recovered from their nervous excitement. The thought of gold gradually
faded from their minds; the joy and exhilaration of the "hunt life"
filled them more and more. Mukoki set to work cutting fresh cedars for
the floor; the two boys scoured every log with water from the lake and
afterward gathered several bushels of moss for refilling the chinks.
That evening supper was cooked on the sheet-iron "section stove" which
they had brought on the toboggan, and which was set up where the ancient
stove of flat stones had tumbled into ruin. By candle-light the work of
"rechinking" with moss progressed rapidly. Wabi was constantly bursting
into snatches of wild Indian song, Rod whistled until his throat was
sore and Mukoki chuckled and grunted and talked with constantly
increasing volubility. A score of times they congratulated one another
upon their good luck. Eight wolf-scalps, a fine lynx and nearly two
hundred dollars in gold--all within their first week! It was enough to
fill them with enthusiasm and they made little effort to repress their
joy.

During this evening Mukoki boiled up a large pot of caribou fat and
bones, and when Rod asked what kind of soup he was making he responded
by picking up a handful of steel traps and dropping them into the
mixture.

"Make traps smell good for fox--wolf--fisher, an' marten, too; heem
come--all come--like smell," he explained.

"If you don't dip the traps," added Wabi, "nine fur animals out of ten,
and wolves most of all, will fight shy of the bait. They can smell the
human odor you leave on the steel when you handle it. But the grease
'draws' them."

When the hunters wrapped themselves in their blankets that night their
wilderness home was complete. All that remained to be done was the
building of three bunks against the ends of the cabin, and this work it
was agreed could be accomplished at odd hours by any one who happened to
be in camp. In the morning, laden with traps, they would strike out
their first hunting-trails, keeping their eyes especially open for signs
of wolves; for Mukoki was the greatest wolf hunter in all the Hudson Bay
region.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW WOLF BECAME THE COMPANION OF MEN

Twice that night Rod was awakened by Mukoki