in
college, but I'll stay anyhow. My experience with you will be worth
the sacrifice of a year in college, I'm sure."

"Now that be grand!" exclaimed Bob, his face beaming pleasure.

"An' Shad stays, Ed, he'll give Bob a hand with th' tilts," suggested
Dick. "Can't you go back, now, with me an' Bill, t' help us up with
our outfits? 'Twill be a wonderful hard an' slow pull for just th' two
of us."

"Be you thinkin', now, you can manage th' tilts?" asked Ed, turning to
Bob.

"O' course me an' Shad can manage un," assured Bob.

"I'll go back, then, Dick," consented Ed. "'Twould be hard t' manage
with just two on th' boat."

Arrangements were made for the three trappers to bring Shad some
adequate winter clothing upon their return, letters were written home,
and at daylight on Monday morning adieus were said. Bob and Shad stood
upon the shore watching the boat bearing their friends away, until it
turned a bend in the river below and was lost to view.

"We'll not see un again for five weeks," said Bob regretfully, as they
retraced their steps to the embers of the camp-fire over which
breakfast had been cooked.

"And in the meantime," began Shad gaily, with a sweep of his arm, "we
are monarch, of all--" Suddenly he stopped. His eyes, following the
sweep of his arm, had fallen upon two Indians watching them from the
shadow of the spruce trees beyond their camp.

VI

OLD FRIENDS

"Sishetakushin and Mookoomahn!" exclaimed Bob.

The moment they were recognised the two Indians strode forward,
laughing, and grasped Bob's hand in a manner that left no doubt of
their pleasure at meeting him, while both voiced their feeling in a
torrent of tumultuous words.

They were tall, lithe, sinewy fellows, clad in buckskin shirt,
tight-fitting buckskin leggings, and moccasins. They wore no hats, but
a band of buckskin, decorated in colours, passing around the forehead,
held in subjection the long black hair, which fell nearly to their
shoulders. In the hollow of his left arm each carried a long,
muzzle-loading trade gun, and Mookoomahn, the younger of the two, also
carried at his back a bow and a quiver of arrows.

"These be th' Injuns I were tellin' you of," Bob finally introduced,
when an opportunity offered. "Shake hands with un, Shad. This un is
Sishetakushin, an' this un is his son, Mookoomahn. I've been tellin'
they you're my friend."

In their attitude toward Shad they were dignified and reserved.
Neither could