teak, which
would be their only fresh meat for many days. The crew, out of a common
pan, helped themselves to boiled potatoes and fried pork, to which each
man appeared to add bannock from his own home supplies. The Indians drank
tea.

"Gentlemen," remarked Colonel Howell, as he lifted a tin of steaming
coffee, "here's to a friend of civilization--delicious coffee. We will
know him but a few days longer. He will then give way to the copper
kettle and tea."

"How about fresh eggs and beefsteak?" laughed Paul.

"Eggs, my dear sir, have always been a superfluous luxury patronized
mostly by the infirm and aged. As for beefsteak, it cannot compare with a
luscious cut of moosemeat, the epicurean delight of the Northwest. It is
a thing you may not have at the Waldorf, and a delicacy that not even the
gold of the gourmet may lure from the land of its origin."

"How about bear meat?" asked Roy, recalling with some concern his lost
opportunity in the early dawn.

"Rather than starve, I would eat it," responded Colonel Howell, "and
gladly. But to it I prefer rancid salt pork."

In such badinage, the leisurely stop passed while the boys finished their
first meal in the wilderness, topping it off with the luscious red
raspberries that were just in perfection all around the camp.

That day the boats drifted fifty miles, luncheon being eaten on the rear
deck. A night landing was made on a gravelly island to escape as far as
possible the many mosquitoes. Tents were not erected but alongside a good
fire the blankets were spread on the soft grass beneath the stunted
island trees and with mosquito nets wrapped about their heads all slept
comfortably enough.

Where the Indians slept no one seemed to know. When the boys and their
patron turned in as dark came on, at eleven o'clock, the half-breeds were
still eating and smoking about their removed camp fire. In this manner,
with no accidents, but with daily diversions in the way of shooting,
venison now being one of the daily items of food, the voyageurs at last
reached the Grand Rapids.

From this place, for sixty miles, a tumultuous and almost unnavigable
stretch of water reached to the vicinity of Fort McMurray, the end of
their journey. The greatest drops in the water and the most menacing
perils were encountered at the very beginning of the Rapids, where for
half a mile an irregular island of rock divided the stream. On one side
of this the river rushed in a whirlpool that no