th' spring trappin'. We'll be startin' early on Friday. We'll go down
your trail an' spring your traps up on th' way out, Bill."

A late breakfast of fried ptarmigans, and a late afternoon dinner of
boiled goose, with an evening "snack" of ptarmigan before
retiring--the last of the game reserved from the fall
shooting--together with camp bread and tea, comprised the Christmas
menu.

Directly after breakfast Ed and Bill made ready for packing on their
toboggans the light outfit which they were to use on their outward
trip; and this done, the four held a service of song in which all
joined heartily, and spent the remainder of the day luxuriously
lounging in the tilt and telling stories.

Shad was sincerely missed. He had looked forward keenly to the
Christmas feast, and many hearty good wishes were expressed for
him--that even among the Indians he might pass a pleasant day--that he
would not find the hardships so great as his friends had feared--and
that he would soon return to them in safety and none the worse for his
experiences.

Then the thoughts turned to home, and speculations as to what the
far-off loved ones were doing at the moment.

"I'm thinkin' a wonderful lot of home now," said Bob. "Tell Mother an'
Father, Ed, I'm safe an' thinkin' of un every day, an' of Emily, away
off somewheres in St. Johns t' school. It's makin' me rare lonesome t'
think o' home without Emily there. An'--an'--tell Mother, Ed--I never
forgets my prayers."

"That I will, lad!" promised Ed heartily. "An' what you wantin' me t'
say t' Bessie, now? Tell she about th' Injun lass an' th' fine
deerskin coat she's givin' you?"

"Tell Bessie I always carries th' ca'tridge bag she gives me--an' I'm
thinkin' how 'tis she that makes un--an' I'll be glad t'--get home t'
th' Bay," directed Bob hesitatingly.

"Oh, aye. Glad t' get back t' see th' Bay, I'm thinkin'," laughed Ed.

As Bob and Dick returned to the tilt an hour before daybreak, after
watching Ed and Bill disappear down the trail in the still, bitter
cold of the starlit morning, Bob remarked:

"I'm feelin' wonderful strange--I'm not knowin' how. 'Tis a
lonesomeness--but different--like as if somethin' were goin' t'
happen."

"An' I has th' same sort o' feelin'," confessed Dick. "'Tis like th'
stillness before a big storm breaks at sea--'tis like as if some one
was dyin' clost by."

XVIII

THE SPIRIT OF DEATH GROWS BOLD

When Ungava Bob was gone, Shad Trowbridge return