rde of
mosquitos in the early morning was the absolute silence of the forest. The
six Indians had taken one of the two boats, and with the dog had silently
drifted away during the night down the current of Gold.

CHAPTER X.

BUILDING THE CAMP.

The chagrin of Swiftwater Jim was almost too great for expression when the
discovery of the Indians' desertion was made.

"It was what I had feared," he said. "Still, I thought our talk last night
had absolutely satisfied them. I don't think they were so much afraid of
us as that they desired to be sure that the sacred bone got back safely to
their village, and they knew that a big feast would be made for them when
they returned. It would be useless to pursue them, for it would be a hard
trip back to White Horse, and there would be no certainty of our being
able to keep them if we got them back. Our work here is so nearly finished
that I believe if we turn to it heartily we can complete it in the time we
intended and get back to Skagway in time to meet Colonel Snow on his
return from the northwest. How about it?"

The Scouts, and especially Rand, felt themselves to be to a certain extent
responsible for the situation in which they found themselves that they
readily agreed to turn to and exert themselves to the utmost to finish up
the work of preparing the camp for the winter's work.

The sod house had been practically finished by the Indians before they
deserted, the only thing remaining to be done consisting of the hanging of
a pair of stout double doors on the casings that had been let into the sod
as the walls went up, the finishing of the windows and the erection of a
chimney for the big fireplace that had been built into the house at one
end.

The doors had nothing artistic or ornate about them, and in half a day
were constructed of rough lumber and hung on strong hinges from among the
hardware in stock. Instead of glass for the windows, which hard freezing
of the sod house and settling of the walls might have a tendency to
shatter, double sheets of mica, such as is used in the flexible tops of
automobiles, were set in and plastered with clay which was burnt to the
hardness and consistency of brick by a plumber's flash lamp sending out
the hot flame of burning gasoline in the hands of Swiftwater.

The construction of the chimney was a novel experience for the boys, who
knew little of the expedients that pioneers far from stone and lime were
compelled to reso