s gamebag.

"Now for a climb that is a climb!" cried Dave. "Roger, this puts me in
mind of some climbing I did in Norway."

"Were you in Norway?" questioned Sid Todd, curiously.

"Oh, yes, I once went there to find my father," answered Dave.

Before them was a steep incline, covered with stones and a stunted
growth of cedars. Up this they went with care, for some of the stones
were loose and afforded only an uncertain footing. Once Phil slipped and
commenced to roll. He bumped against Dave, and both went flat.

"Grab a tree!" sang out Roger. But there was no need to offer this
advance, for Dave had already done so. He saved himself and Phil from
rolling further. But a frying-pan the shipowner's son carried broke
loose from the pack on his back and went clattering down the rocks to
the very foot of the hill.

"For the love of flapjacks, stop that noise!" cried Sid Todd, in a low
voice. "Time you get to the top of the hill them deer will be ten miles
away!"

"I--I couldn't help it," answered Phil, as he arose and gazed
sorrowfully after the frying-pan. "Shall I go back after it?" he asked.

"Where is it?"

"I see it--sticking in the fork of a cedar tree," answered Roger, and
pointed out the pan.

"Let it alone--we can get it when we come back," said the cowboy. "Now
don't make any more noise, or you won't get no chanct at them deer, mark
my words!"

All of the boys understood the importance of keeping quiet, and as they
neared the top of the hill where the deer had been discovered, they
moved with great caution and spoke only in whispers.

"The wind is blowing toward us, and that's in our favor," said Sid Todd.

"I know it," answered Dave. "Deer can scent a fellow a long way off if
the wind is towards them."

The cowboy now took the lead and told the lads not to make a sound that
was unnecessary. Thus they covered another hundred yards. Here was a
ridge of rocks and beyond the top of the hill.

"They are gone!" murmured Roger, as his eyes discovered that the top of
the hill was abandoned.

"I'll crawl forward and take a look," said Todd. "Keep quiet now, or we
won't git nuthin'."

The cowboy disappeared over the top of the hill, crawling forward on his
hands and knees. He was gone fully ten minutes--a time that to the boys,
just then, seemed like an age. They looked to their weapons, to see that
the firearms were ready for use.

Presently Dave, who was on the watch, saw Todd arise in a clump of
bus