e people whose eyes gleamed from out of masses of fur, and who
had hands, and flung spears. On the eighth day the madman sank
back into his old lethargy. On the fourth day after that the three
adventurers, worn and exhausted, reached the shore of Lake Nipigon.
Thirty miles across the lake was Wabinosh House, and it was decided
that Mukoki and Rod should leave for assistance, while Wabigoon
remained with John Ball. The two rolled themselves in their blankets
immediately after supper, and after three hours' sleep were awakened
by the young Indian. All that night they paddled with only occasional
moments of rest. The sun was just rising over the forests when they
grounded their canoe close to the Post. As Rod sprang ashore he saw a
figure walk slowly out from the edge of the forest an eighth of a mile
away. Even at that distance he recognized Minnetaki! He looked at the
sharp-eyed Mukoki. He, too, had seen and recognized the girl.

"Muky, I'm going along in the edge of the woods and give her a
surprise," said Rod courageously. "Will you wait here?"

Mukoki grinned a nodding assent, and the youth darted into the edge of
the forest. He was breathless when he came up a hundred yards behind
the girl, screened from view by the trees. Softly he whistled. It was
a signal that Minnetaki had taught him on his first trip into the
North, and he knew of only two who used it in all that Northland, and
those two were the Indian maiden and himself. The girl turned as
she heard the trilling note, and Rod drew himself farther back.
He whistled again, more loudly than before, and Minnetaki came
hesitatingly toward the forest's edge, and when he whistled a third
time there came a timid response from her, as if she recognized and
yet doubted the notes that floated to her from the shadows of the
balsams.

Again Rod whistled, laughing as he drew a little farther back, and
again Minnetaki answered, peering in among the trees. He saw the
wondering, half-expectant glow in her eyes, and suddenly crying out
her name he sprang from his concealment. With a little cry of joy and
with hands outstretched Minnetaki ran to meet him.

CHAPTER XVIII

JOHN BALL'S STORY

That same morning two big canoes set out across Lake Nipigon for
Wabigoon and John Ball. Mukoki returned with the canoes, but Rod
remained at the Post, and not a moment's rest did he have during the
whole of that day from the eager questions of those whom he had so
completely s