uld have done, after that ducking, for my
matches must have been wet, and I would have gone to sleep hungry and
cold."

The tall lad hastened to interrupt him, evidently not fancying being
thanked for doing what was apparently the greatest pleasure in the world
to him.

"Hold on, please; we understand all that. You're a thousand times
welcome, and I tell you right now nothing could have happened to please
me better than meeting up with you. You can bet there's something
besides chance in it. Now, naturally you're wondering what in the
dickens two fellows of our stripe are doing wandering about up here in
the Far Northwest like a couple of nomads.

"Well, perhaps when you learn the actual truth you'll wonder harder than
ever how it is one of us has escaped landing in a lunatic asylum up to
this time; but as some of my friends say to me, youthful enthusiasm is
responsible for many queer things, and so long as my wonderful ambition
is to copy after Stanley in the line of exploring, why, they don't
worry.

"They say I have more money than I know what to do with, anyway, and if
it must be blown in somehow, why, this is a harmless way of doing it,
dangerous only to myself, and any other foolish chap whom I may
influence to accompany me on my mad expeditions," and as he spoke he
glanced affectionately in the direction of the homely, freckled but
good-humored Eli, who returned the look with a grin and an emphatic nod
of approval.

"Now, you see, Eli has been with the lumbermen all his life, and is as
hardy as they make them. What he doesn't know about the woods isn't
worth telling; and so we make a pretty good team, for I've picked up a
little knowledge about camp life during my canoeing days in the East,
and manage to fill in the gaps in Eli's education, along the line of
woodcraft.

"I might as well make a full confession in the start, for you're bound
to get on to my weakness if we see much of each other, and I hope we
will. Ever, since I was knee-high to a grasshopper I've been inoculated
with the exploring bee, read everything ever printed in that line, and
pictured myself doing wonderful stunts like Livingstone and Stanley."

It was only to be expected then that when I was left my own master at
the death of my father, I would pursue my hobby to the limit; and I
rather guess I have been on the jump for two years. Haven't made myself
famous yet, and a little of my enthusiasm in that line has dribbled
away; but I'm