ng for scraps that we're throwing in the river. I----"

"Colonel," exclaimed Roy at once, "you've said enough. Get up what you
can spare and we'll have bannocks baking in that settlement before noon."

"I don't want to get you into another blizzard," began the colonel, yet
his satisfaction was apparent.

"Don't you worry about that," broke in Norman. "I think we feel a good
deal the same way about this. Besides, aren't we working for you?"

"Nothing like that!" expostulated the oil prospector. "This isn't an
order."

"I'll help get the stuff ready," began Paul, "for I know that's all I can
do. Is this Chandler trapping near there?" he went on, as he gulped down
the last of his tea.

"Says he's been helping them," explained Colonel Howell, "but he couldn't
have done much, judging by his appearance."

"Is he going back there?" asked Roy curiously.

"He didn't say," answered Colonel Howell slowly. "But he's got his money
now and I imagine he won't go much farther than Fort McMurray. I don't
care for him and I don't like him around the camp. He's too busy talking
when the men ought to be at work."

It was an ideal winter's day, the atmosphere clear and the temperature
just below zero. There was no cause for delay and while Norman made a
tracing and a scale of the route, Paul and Roy drew the _Gitchie Manitou_
into the open. Colonel Howell and the half-breed cook had been busy in
the storehouse, arranging packets of flour and cutting up sides of fat
pork. Small packages of tea were also prepared, together with sugar, salt
and half a case of evaporated fruit. The only bread on hand was the
remainder of Philip's last baking of bannock.

"See how things are," suggested Colonel Howell, when these articles were
passed up to Roy, "and if they're as bad as Chandler says, we'll have to
send Philip out for a moose. These things'll carry 'em along for a few
days at least."

The look on the young Count's face was such that Norman was disturbed.

"Paul, old man," he said, "I know you'd like to go with us and we'd like
to have you. But we've got more than the weight of a third man in all
this food. I hope you don't feel disappointed."

"Well, I do, in a way," answered Paul, with a feeble attempt at a smile,
"but it isn't just from curiosity. I envy you fellows. You're always
helping and I never find anything to do."

"You can help me to-day," laughed Colonel Howell. "I'm going to cap that
gas well or bust it open in a new