nd-bank and crept down to his side. It knelt there with clasped
hands. It showed a white face in the moonlight, on which glistened two
diamonds.

By and by it rose with energetic action, and still moving noiselessly
as a ghost, turned toward the lake, and clambering around the barrier
of ice, dropped to the edge of the water on the other side.

Here a dugout was drawn up on the stones, well hidden from the view of
any one on shore. She got in and, paddling around the ice, entered the
mouth of the creek. Grounding her craft with infinite care on the
sand, she groped for a moment in her baggage, then arose and stepped
ashore, carrying several long, thin strips of moose-hide.

CHAPTER X

ON THE LAKE

The three men sleeping on the floor of the shack suddenly started up
in their blankets.

"What was that?" they asked each other.

"A shout for help," said Jack.

Joe sprang up and opened the door. Some confused sounds from the
direction of the creek reached his ears, but he had not enough
woodcraft to distinguish them from the legitimate sounds of the night.

The fire was black now. Big Jack struck a match.

"Sam's gone!" he cried suddenly.

Shand felt around the floor with his hands. "His blankets, too!" he
added.

"Treachery!" cried Joe with an oath. "You wouldn't believe me before.
That's why he hid the guns. Come on, I heard something from the
creek."

They pulled on their moccasins and, snatching coats, ran out. Husky
remained on the bed, cursing. At the creek-mouth the sand-bank was
empty. The last pallid rays of the moon revealed nothing.

They were accustomed to come there many times a day to wash or to draw
water, and the welter of foot-prints in the sand gave no clue. Finally
Joe, with a cry, pounced on a dark object at the water's edge and held
it up. It was Sam's neck handkerchief.

"Here's the mark of a boat, too, in the sand," he cried. "I knew it!
Gone together in her boat!"

"It was a man's voice I heard," objected Jack. "What for would he want
to cry out?"

"Wanted to give us the laugh when he saw his get-a-way clear," said
Joe bitterly. "Oh, damn him!"

"As soon as it's light----" muttered Shand, grinding his teeth.

"What'll you do then?" demanded Joe.

"I'll get him!" said the quiet man.

"We have no boat."

"Boat or no boat."

"Oh, you're going to do great things. He belongs to me."

Shand sneered. "Take it out on him with your tongue."

Joe replied with a torrent