nt to bed they loaded their guns and laid them close at
hand.

But the night passed without any disturbance, and after breakfast they
set out at once to trail the ranger. They followed the river for about
four miles, to a point where the stream broke through the hills in a
succession of cascades and rapids; but although they searched all the
landscape with the field-glass from the top of the hills, they saw no
sign of man. Beyond the ridges, however, the river turned sharply into
a wooded valley. They struggled through the undergrowth, found another
curve in the river, rounded it--and then stepped hastily back into
cover.

About two hundred yards upstream stood a log hut on the shore, at the
foot of a steep bluff. A wreath of smoke rose from its chimney, but no
one was in sight. Talking in low tones, the boys watched it for some
time. Then they made a detour through the woods, and crept round to
the top of the bluff. Peering cautiously over the edge, they saw the
cabin below them, not fifty yards away.

It looked like a trappers' winter camp. It was built of spruce logs,
chinked with mud and moss. A deep layer of scattered chips beside the
remains of a log pile showed that the place had been used all winter.

Presently a man came out of the door, stretched himself lazily, and
carried a block of wood into the cabin. It was not the man they had
seen, but a slender, dark fellow, dressed in buckskin, who looked like
a half-breed. In a moment he came out again, and this time the ranger
came with him. There was a third man in the cabin, for they could hear
some one speaking from inside the shack.

For some moments the men stood talking; their voices were quite
audible, but the boys could not make out what they were saying. The
two men examined a pile of steel traps beside the door and a number of
pelts that were drying on frames in the open air.

"These aren't rangers. They're just ordinary trappers," Mac whispered
to Horace.

"They've certainly been trapping. But why do they want to run us out
of the country?"

In a few minutes both men went into the cabin, came out with rifles,
and started down the river-bank.

"They may be going down to our camp," Horace said, "and we must be
there to meet them. We'd better hurry back."

The boys started at as fast a pace as the rough ground would allow.
Owing to dense thickets, swamps, and piled boulders, they could not
make much speed. In about twenty minute