while Paul
attended to their scanty food supply and arranged the sleeping bags as
rugs on the crisp snow floor, Roy started a fire. The blaze emphasized
the darkness without and, realizing that their companions had no signal,
the two boys split up a torch with the axe and carried it outside where,
while they could keep it alight, it might serve as a beacon.

But this was not necessary. Both the Indian and Norman came in, guided by
Paul's revolver shot. Neither reported signs of game. Both were elated
over the house which was already so warm within that the heavy coats and
mittens could be discarded.

"I s'pose supper's all ready," exclaimed Norman after he had got his
numbed limbs warmed.

"No," answered Roy, "I've just been waiting for you so we could have it
all fresh and hot. I'm going to prepare it myself and everything's going
to be in trapper style. It won't be much but it's all you need and it's
according to the rules and regulations. I've already got my hot water.
Now I'll get the bannocks ready."

"Didn't you bring those I made for you?" asked Philip, the camp cook and
hunter.

"I prefer to make 'em myself," answered Roy, "just as the Indians make
'em in the woods."

Philip smiled and Norman and Paul looked somewhat disappointed but
neither made objection.

"Here's my flour," explained Roy who had already rolled up his sweater
sleeves and produced an old flour bag with a few pounds of flour in the
bottom of it. "I mixed the baking powder with the flour before we left
camp so as to save time," he explained.

"Seems to me we've got all night," interrupted Norman. "They don't do
that to save time--you're mixed. They do that to save carrying the baking
powder in a separate package."

"Anyway," retorted Roy, "it's the way real trappers do."

He had rolled the sides of the sack down to make a kind of receptacle at
the bottom of which lay his flour. Then with a piece of wood he pried off
the top of the tea kettle and was about to pour some boiling water onto
the flour when Philip with a grunt stopped him.

"Non," exclaimed the Indian. "You spoil him."

Over Roy's feeble protest the Indian scooped up snow and deposited it in
the boiling water until the fluid was somewhat cooler. Then he passed the
kettle to the waiting Roy who began to mix his Indian bread. But had
Philip allowed Roy to proceed in his generous application of water, his
proposed bannocks would have resulted in flour paste. In the end, be