y walked on down the beach to have
a look at the country below, leaving Moise to do what he could with
the broken boat. The boys joined Alex.

Presently they saw, not far around the bend, a long dugout canoe
pulled up on the beach. Near by was a little fire, at which sat two
persons, an old man and a younger one. They did not rise as the
visitors approached, but answered quietly when Alex spoke to them in
Cree.

XIX

NEW PLANS

"These men say," interpreted Alex, as he turned to the boys, "that
it's sixteen to twenty miles from here to the end of the portage out
of the hills, across the north bank, which cuts off the thirty miles
of canyon that nobody ever tries to run. They say for a little way the
river is wide, with many islands, but below that it narrows down and
gets very bad. They're tracking stuff up-stream from the portage to a
surveyors' camp which depends on their supplies. They say they will
not sell their canoe, because they couldn't get up-stream, but that if
we can get east of the portage there's a man, a sort of farmer,
somewhere below there, who has a boat which perhaps he would sell."

"What good would that do us?" demanded John. "A boat twenty or thirty
miles east of here across the mountains isn't going to help us very
much. What we want is a boat now, and I don't see how we can get along
without it. Won't they sell their canoe?"

"No, they don't want to sell it," said Alex; "they say they're under
employment, and must get through to the camp from Hudson's Hope on
time. We couldn't portage a dugout, anyhow. But they say that we can
go on up there with them if we like, and then come back and go around
by the portage. What do you say, Mr. Rob?"

Rob answered really by his silence and his tight-shut jaw. "Well,"
said he, "at least I don't much care about turning back on a trail.
But we'll have to split here, I think, unless we all go into camp. But
part of us can go on through by the river, and the rest come on later.
Maybe we can _cache_ some of our luggage here, and have it brought on
across by these men, if they're going back to Hudson's Hope."

"That sounds reasonable," said Alex, nodding. "I believe we can work
it out."

He turned and spoke rapidly in Cree to the two travelers, with many
gestures, pointing both up and down the stream, all of them talking
eagerly and at times vehemently.

"They say," said Alex at last, "there's a place at the foot of the
high bank above the canyo