a blazing fire. Then we'll skin the wildcat, and get the deer
swung up to the branches of some of these trees. We won't do anything
more to them until morning."

"Except cut some steaks off for supper," added Brick, in a hungry tone.

"Don't be worried," Jerry replied. "I'll give you a supper fit for a
king to-night."

"But what in the world will we ever do with all this venison?" asked
Hamp. "It will make an awful pile, even when it is cut up."

"It certainly will," admitted Jerry. "There's only one thing to do that
I can see. We'll take what we can to Chesumcook to-morrow, and when we
get a camp picked out, we'll come back for the rest with two empty
sleds."

This sounded practical, and the matter was dropped. The boys hurried up
the valley, and presently came to the deer which Jerry had shot. It was
a fine, plump animal, and lay in the very center of the salt lick. Two
minutes later they reached the spot where the successful hunt had been
planned.

As they emerged from the bushes they made a startling and mysterious
discovery. The sleds were gone.

CHAPTER XVI.

ON THE TRAIL.

The boys were dumfounded by their loss. The theft was a most daring one,
and must have been committed within the past few minutes.

"Somebody will wish he had stayed honest," muttered Hamp, vengefully.
"I'm glad we all have our guns."

"There was only one thief," declared Jerry. "Look! you can see the dim
marks of his snowshoes. Here's where he turned the sleds around."

"And he's taking them back the way they came," added Brick. "In the same
ruts, too. He must have hitched them together."

"We'll catch him," said Hamp. "He can't have much of a start. Come on,
before it gets dark."

The boys started eagerly along the trail, unmindful of the wealth of
venison they were leaving behind.

At the end of half a mile they were not in sight of the thief. Jerry
bent down and scanned the sled marks.

"Something wrong here," he said. "The trail is no longer double."

The boys tramped up and down the valley, poking behind every rock and
into every clump of bushes and trees. Gradually they became widely
separated.

Suddenly a loud shout from Hamp drew his companions to him. His search
had proved successful.

Behind a fringe of bushes, at the very base of the left-hand mountain,
the faint ruts again appeared on the snow-crust.

"Now for a stern chase," said Jerry. "