but if a whiff of smoke was now rising it was too small
for them to see. My trail, however, led them to the bank over which
they heard my feeble answering shout. So down the bank they scrambled,
to come to a sudden halt, transfixed with amazement, as they told me
afterwards, that such a wreck as I could stand and live.

The spectacle I presented certainly must have been an unusual one--a
man all skin and bones, standing in drawers and stocking feet, with the
remnants of a pair of trousers about his hips, there in the midst of
the snow-covered forest. They were heavily clad and had their caps
pulled far down over their ears to protect them from the biting wind,
while I did not even have my hat on.

It was some time before I could realise that living men were before me.
As if in a half-dream, I stood stupidly gazing at them. But with the
return of sensibility I recollected that George had gone to find Donald
Blake, and gradually it dawned upon me that he was there. I spoke his
name "Donald Blake." At that Donald stepped forward and grasped my
hand warmly and firmly like an old friend.

"Did George get out and send you?" I asked.

"Yes, sir; it was he that sent us, sir. He's safe at my house."

"Have you found Hubbard?"

"Not yet, sir. We smelled smoke a mile and a half above, where our
camp was last night, an' came down to find you, sir."

I remember telling Donald that he had better leave me something to eat,
and go on to Hubbard as fast as he could. He replied that Duncan and
Bert, the two young fellows, would stay with me, while he and Allen
would continue on up the valley. During this talk, the kind-hearted
trappers had not been idle. While two of them cut wood for a rousing
fire and put the kettle on for tea, the others made a cosey couch close
to the blaze and sat me on it. They gave me a very small piece of bread
and butter.

"You'd better eat just a small bit at first, sir," said Allen. "You're
fair starved, and much grub at th' beginnin' might be th' worse for
you."

Before I had my tea, Donald and Allen were ready to start. Allen
hesitated for a moment; then asked:

"If the other man be dead, sir?"

"Dead?" I said. "Oh, no, he won't be dead. You'll find him in the
tent waiting for you."

"But if he be dead?" persisted Allen. "He may be, and we sure can't
bring th' body out now, sir."

Although still struggling against the fear that my reason told me was
only too well founded, I re