, but as he softly dipped his paddle, his ears caught the
sound of a faint wheeze close at hand, followed by a muffled bark.
Dropping the paddle, he leaned over the side of the canoe and lifted in
his faithful dog. As he laid the animal down, the feathered end of an
arrow brushed his cheek. Gently feeling with his fingers, he found that
the barb had only slantingly penetrated the fleshy part of the dog's
thigh. A short, deft stroke of his knife made it easy to pull out the
arrow. Picking up his paddle, he turned the canoe midstream, and after a
few strokes came alongside Raven Wing who had been holding his canoe
from floating away with the current.

"Come in with me," said Hawk Eye in a low voice. "We must keep together
or we may become separated in the darkness."

Raven Wing climbed into Hawk Eye's canoe and held on to his own while
Hawk Eye bent to his paddle. In a short time they were far down stream.

At early dawn they came across the two Chippeway canoes. Fastening to
each a long strip of buffalo hide, they easily towed them down the
river.

It was pleasant paddling as the beautiful Minnesota twisted and turned
in its broad and sunny valley. Cottonwood and willow bordered its banks,
which rolled back in gentle slopes of pale green, dotted with tree
clumps, to the broad prairie. Blooming wild rose vines crept close to
the water which sparkled in the sunshine or reflected the tints of the
sky.

At its mouth, where it emptied into the Mississippi, the Minnesota
spread out around a great flat island.

"We will not beach our canoes here," said Hawk Eye. "Fearless Bear
advised me to see the trader on that little island yonder. He is known
to deal justly with the red men. The Sioux call him Walking Wind."

Running their own canoes gently up on the sandy beach, they pulled the
empty Chippeway canoes a little further up on shore and looked about
them.

"Come, we will go to the post," said Hawk Eye, pointing to a building
made of native limestone, with shutters and doorways of wood painted
white.

As the boys drew near, they noticed groups of Indians with their squaws
and Canadian boatmen with pipes in their mouths, gathered in front of a
great wing, which on entering they found to be the company store.
Blankets, traps, sleigh bells, scarlet cloth, beads, silk handkerchiefs
and earbobs lay spread upon long counters. On others, already sorted
and packed for shipment, lay pelts of muskrat, fox, wolf, beaver and
mi