ut it in his hands,
and I ducked down State street in search of this gink with the
rings in his ears."

"And didn't find him?"

"If I had you wouldn't find me up here in this beastly country,"
replied Thede. "That is," the boy went on, "if I had found him
with the Little Brass God in his possession."

"So you really did find him?" questioned George.

"Yes, I ran across him in a saloon down near Twelfth street, and
stuck to him like a bulldog to a cat's back for two days and
nights."

"Why didn't you go and tell Finklebaum where he was, and let him do
the watching? That's what you should have done!"

"Not for mine!" answered the other. "Old Finklebaum would have
taken the case out of my hands, and fooled me out of my hundred
simoleons. I follows this gink around until he becomes sociable
and sort of adopts me. I gets into his furnished room down on
Eldridge court and searches it during his absence. There ain't no
Little Brass God there!"

'"Did you ever get your eyes on it?" asked George.

"Never!" was the reply. "But he acts funny all the time, and I
think he's got it hidden. When he gets ready to come back to the
Hudson Bay country he asks me how I'd like to come up north with
him and learn to be a trapper, so I says that if there's anything
on earth I want to be it's a trapper, and I come up here, making
him think I'm after fur, when all the time I'm after the Little
Brass God."

"Are you sure the man you followed is the man who brought the toy?"
asked George, "You might have picked up the wrong man, you know."

"No I didn't!" replied Thede. "I've heard this man, Pierre,
muttering and talking in his sleep, and I know he has the Little
Brass God hidden. I'll go back to Chicago some day with it in my
possession and Old Finklebaum will pay me a couple of thousand or
he'll never get hold of it again! Won't it be a great story to
tell the boys on State street about the times I'm having up here."

The door opened and Pierre entered, anger flashing from his eyes.

CHAPTER IV

LOST IN THE STORM

"What you do here?" demanded Pierre, standing with his back against
the door and facing George with a snarl of hate and suspicion.

"I got lost!" was the quick reply.

"You go 'way!" shouted the trapper.

"Aw, what's the matter with letting him stay here all night?" asked
Thede. "These boys are hunting and fishing, and the kid got lost
in the swamp. He's all right!"

"He follow me!" insiste