orad a leetle and make room for a man and
a paddle, for the fire is arter ye and the time has come to jine works."

The young man did as the trapper requested. He intermitted a stroke and
the hounds, at a word, moved into the middle of the boat and crouched
obediently in the bottom, but whimpering in their gladness at hearing
their master's voice again. The boat was under good headway when it
passed the point of the ledge on which the trapper was standing, but as
it glanced by, the old man leaped with practised agility to his place in
the stern and had given a full and strong stroke to his paddle before he
had fairly settled to his seat.

"Now, Herbert," he began, "ease yerself a bit, for ye have had a tough
pull and it's good seven miles to the rapids. The fire is sartinly
comin' in arnest, but the river runs nigh onto straight till ye git
within sight of 'em, and I think we will beat it. I didn't feel sartin
that ye had got the pups, Herbert, for I could see by the signs that ye
wouldn't have any time to spare. Was it a tech and a go, boy?"

"The fire was in the pines west of the shanty when I entered it,"
answered the young man, "and the smoke was so thick that I couldn't see
it from the river as I landed."

"I conceited as much," replied the trapper, "I conceited as much. Yis, I
knowed 'twould be a close shave ef ye got 'em, and I feared ye would run
a resk that ye oughtn't to run, in yer love for the dogs."

"I didn't propose to leave the dogs to die," responded the young man; "I
think I should have heard their cries in my ears for a year, had they
been burned to death in the shanty where we left them."

"Ye speak with right feelin', Herbert," replied the trapper. "No, a
hunter has no right to desart his dog when danger be nigh; for the
Creator has made 'em in their loves and their dangers, alike. Did ye
save the powder and the bullits, boy?"

"I did not," responded Herbert; "the sparks were all around me and the
shanty was smoking while I was feeling around for the dogs' leash. I
heard the canister explode before I reached the first bend."

"'Twas a narrer rub, boy," rejoined the trapper. "Yis, I can see 'twas a
narrer rub ye had of it, and the holes in yer shirt show that the sparks
was fallin' pritty thick and pritty hot, too, when ye come out of the
shanty. How does the stroke tell on ye, boy?" continued the old man,
interrogatively. "Ye be pullin' a slashin' stroke, ye see, and there's
five mile more o