try and guess where they've
gone to. They had boats, of course, Francois?"

The guide held up two fingers.

"Batteau, plenty room in same for all. Tamasjo and me, we tink zey haf
gone down stream. Pig bay lie only half-day's journey zat way. Eef we go
on, mebbe so we arrive zere by night. Better hold up, and make ze last
part of ze trip in ze dark, so zat zey no see us."

"I understand what you mean, Francois," the patrol leader hastened to
say; "and it sounds good to me, I admit. When we do go down to the salt
water we will take advantage of your advice."

"What's that, Ned," broke in Jack; "you don't mean to say there's any
doubt about our going down, sooner or later, do you?"

"Oh! no, we're bound to see the famous Hudson Bay before we leave this
section," the other assured him; "but I've been thinking things over,
and come to a certain conclusion."

"Let's hear what it is, won't you, Ned?" Jimmy besought him.

"Yes, that is if Francois is through telling us about these parties."

"How about that, Francois?" Ned asked, turning to the voyageur.

"Eet is about all zat is worth knowing, sare. Of course, we haf learn
zat zis man who is captaine to ze bunch, he is mooch pig, a giant, and
zere is sooch a man I know whose name eet is Sol. Greggs; heem it might
be who is conducting zis gang. He is a pad man, a thief who robbed
traps many times, and so he gif me zis scar on ze cheek when we fight
eet out."

"That sounds just like the kind of a rascal the syndicate would send up
here to run things, if they were trying to work a tremendous swindle and
expected to keep curious people from investigating," Jack boldly
declared.

"But how about you telling what your plans are, Ned?" queried Frank.

"It's only fair you should know," replied the other; "so listen to what
my idea is. In the first place, according to the map we have of the
country up here, we believe that this supposed-to-be-wonderful mine must
lie somewhere to the left of the mouth of this very river. Now it struck
me that perhaps we might carry out our plans better if we hid our boats
somewhere near by, and took a scout off in that direction."

"That does sound mighty sensible, Ned!" admitted Jack Bosworth, after
considering the suggestion for a brief time.

"Suppose we try it," Frank added.

"One thing I like about the plan," Jimmy spoke up, "is that it will give
us a chance to stretch our legs some. To tell you the truth, I'm getting
tired of squa