ootprints he saw that they had been made the evening
before, and by little ones who were hurrying on as rapidly as possible.

As quickly as he could he followed them up until they were lost again on
the dry rocks on the other side; then he fired his gun, and while
waiting the coming of others he kept diligently searching for some other
signs of the wanderers.

Not long had he to wait ere he was joined by Mr Ross, Mustagan, and
others. They were all excited, and glad to see these footprints, but
judged by the hardness of the sand in the steps that the children had
passed over the creek some hours before dark the previous evening. This
being the case, they might have travelled some miles farther before they
were stopped by the storm and darkness. But no needless time was spent
in surmises and conjecturing. A new starting point had been found, and
from it the search was again renewed with all the vigour possible.

If Wenonah and Roderick had been pure white children, brought up in a
civilised land with all the ignorance incident to such regions, they
would have been found long ere this; but their part Indian blood and
thorough training in that wild north land was now really to them a
misfortune--first, because they had the strength and training to push on
with such wonderful speed and endurance; again, it also made them wary
and cunning, and so fearful of being tracked by wild beasts or hostile
Indians that they carefully, but rapidly, moved along in a way that
children not brought up in such a land would never have dreamed of.

So, while the Indians were looking for traces of the children, the
wandering lost ones were doing all they could not to leave behind them
the vestige of a trail. Thus hours passed on, the sun went down in
beauty, the shadows of night began to fall; still not another sign of
the wanderers had been found.

Discouraged and annoyed at failure, one after another of the searchers
returned to the spot where the footsteps had been discovered. Here the
camp had been made, and here had come Mrs Ross, with the boys and
others.

The sight of the tiny footsteps of the hurrying feet of her little
darlings nearly broke her heart. But she crushed down her great sorrow,
that nothing in her should divert anyone, even her husband, in the
search for those who were still exposed to so many dangers--lost in the
great forest of so many thousands of square miles.

The last to come in was Mustagan, and his fa