map-maker.

"It's the country of the Abitibi and Missanabie Rivers," Horace
explained. "These red crosses show where I found my diamonds--see, in
the Whitefish River, the Smoke River, and another river that hasn't any
name, so far as I know. Right here is the trappers' cabin where you
boys found me. My bones might have been up there now but for you, old
boy!"

And he thumped Fred's back affectionately.

"If you hadn't come along when you did I'm pretty certain our bones
would be there, anyway," said Fred.

"Well, let's hope we all saved one another. But see, most of these
diamonds were found many miles apart. They didn't grow where I found
them. They must have been washed down, perhaps from the very
headwaters of the river. Now look at the map. Do you see, all these
three rivers rise in pretty much the same region."

"So they do," said Fred, his eyes fixed on the paper. "Then you
think--"

"The stones were probably all washed down from that region. The
blue-clay beds, the diamond field, must be up there, somewhere within
this black circle I've drawn."

Fred's heart began to throb with excitement.

"But some prospector would have hit on them before now," he said.

"I doubt if any prospector has ever gone in there. They say it's one
of the roughest bits of country in the North, and no mineral strikes
have ever been made in that region. I've never been up there myself.
It's up in the hills, you see; the rivers are too broken for a canoe,
and the ground is too rough to get over on foot, except in the winter.
The Ojibwas hunt there in the winter, they say, and I dare say there's
plenty of game."

"But if it's so rough to get into, how can we travel?"

"Oh, often those bad places are not so bad when you get there. I'd
like to see the place I couldn't get into if there were diamonds there!
We'll get into it somehow, for the diamond-beds must surely be there if
they're anywhere. But there's no doubt it'll be a rough trip."

"Rough? What of that?" cried Fred. "If your theory is right we'll
make our fortunes--millions, maybe! Of course you'll let me go, won't
you? And Maurice, and Mac?"

"I couldn't manage without you. But mind, not a word to anybody else!"

They telephoned the other boys that day, and in the evening a meeting
was held in Fred's room, like the previous time when the first
expedition had been so hurriedly planned. But this was to be a
different affair, carefully thought out a