him
curiously.

"His being with us presents a problem," said Dick. "What are we to do
with him?"

"I'm sure I don't want him along," answered Sam promptly. He had hot
forgotten the treatment received at Putnam Hall.

"None of us want him, I take it, Sam. But we can't leave him behind to
starve. And I doubt if he can find his way back to the Baxter camp
alone."

"No, he can't do that," put in the guide. "It is easy to see he knows
nothing of the woods and mountains. He was a fool to come here."

"If we take him along, we ought to make him do his share of the work,"
said Tom. "But I don't like it. He'll be forever spying on us, and if we
find that treasure he'll try to get it away, mark my words."

"The only thing we can do is to watch him, and not let him have any gun
or pistol," said Dick. "He won't dare to leave us, unarmed, especially
if we tell him of all the wild animals that are around."

The subject was discussed for fully an hour, but no satisfactory
conclusion was reached, and presently one after another dropped off to
sleep; the guide being the last to lie down, after fixing the camp-fire
for the night, so that a share of the warmth might drift into the
shelter.

On the following day the sun came up bright and clear. It was still
bitterly cold, and they were loath to leave the vicinity of the
camp-fire. But John Barrow urged that they make good use of the clear
weather, and so they started up the river as soon as they had disposed
of their breakfast of fish and birds.

"To be sure I'll go along, if I can walk," was what Jasper Grinder said
on being questioned, "I wouldn't remain behind alone for a fortune, and
I am sure I can't find the Baxter party now. Please don't cast me off!
It wouldn't be human!"

"I believe you'd cast us off, if we were in a similar situation," was
Tom's comment. "The way you treated Sam at the Hall shows that you don't
care how some folks suffer. But you can go along, for we are not brutes.
But you've got to be careful how you behave, or otherwise out you go,
to shift for yourself, no matter how cold it is or how many wild animals
are around."

"I will do nothing that does not meet with the approval of all of you,"
answered the former teacher humbly. "And remember, Thomas, I was willing
to aid you when you were a prisoner in the cave in the gully."

"You were--for a big consideration," returned Tom dryly. "Let me tell
you flatly, I don't take much stock in your so-calle