t there entranced, drinking in the mysterious knowledge that
trappers have learned through succeeding generations, and handed down to
their successors.

So the time passed, and yet there was no sign of Eli.

Cuthbert finally sat up straight, and a look of growing concern could be
seen upon his fine manly face as he said:

"There's no use talking, my boy, I'm really afraid something has
happened to Eli Perkins. He couldn't get lost if he tried, and the fact
that he's not here makes me think he's tumbled into trouble with a big
T. Now, the question is what can we do about it?"

CHAPTER XII.

ON THE TRACK OF ELI.

Owen tossed the trap aside.

Evidently he had been expecting some such remark from the other and was
not at all surprised at being called on for assistance.

"I think that if anything has happened to Eli we can lay it to that
ungrateful dog, Stackpole," he remarked, frowning a trifle, as if his
memories of the timber-cruiser were not of the most pleasant character
imaginable.

"You don't like that fellow one little bit, I can see; and do you know
the thought struck me when I saw him curl his lip on seeing you with us
that at some time in the past you two must have been at loggerheads,"
observed Cuthbert.

"Which is true, every word of it. If you had looked closer you might
have noticed a little notch in the fellow's left ear. I was the cause of
that, and it happened some years ago, when I was much smaller than I am
now, and less able to take care of myself. But I was born in the woods,
and brought up with a rifle in my hands, so that I learned early in life
to shoot straight."

"Yes," interrupted Cuthbert, "I saw that you were a dead shot when you
tried my pet Marlin and brought down that hawk on the wing. I thought I
had some little ability in that line myself, but when I saw you trim
that buccaneer of the air so easily as if you were not half trying, I
gave up thinking myself in it. But please go on, Owen."

"Where we lived was a lonely section. My father had offended some one
high in authority marrying my mother, and he felt this influence more or
less all his life; but I did not mean to speak about that just now, only
to explain how it was we chanced to be so far removed from other people.

"Once in a while some wandering timber-cruiser like Stackpole would drop
in on us, and you can understand that as a general thing they were
mighty welcome, for they brought us news of the outer worl