l strands' and
woke up next morning thinking I had popped off in my sleep to
'Greenland's icy mountains.' Herb Heal! you know what tricks a
thermometer, if we had one, might play in our camp from this out; talk
sense to these fellows."

Herb, who had risen an hour before his charges, had already fetched
fresh water, coaxed up the fire, and was busily mixing flapjacks for
breakfast. His ears, however, had caught the drift of the talk.

"Guess Cyrus is right," he said. "Seeing as it's the first time you
Britishers have slept off your spring mattresses, I'd say, light out for
the city and steam-heat afore the snow comes. Oh! you needn't get your
mad up. I ain't thinking you'd growl at being snowed in. I know better.

"By the great horn spoon! I b'lieve I'll go right along to Greenville
with you," exclaimed the guide a minute later. "I might get a chance to
pick up a bargain of a second-hand rifle there. And I guess you'd be
mighty sick o' your luck, Dol, if you had to lug them moose-antlers part
o' the way yerself. I ain't stuck on carrying 'em either, if we can get
a jumper."

But there was a third reason, still more powerful than these two, why
he should make a trip to the distant town, which stirred Herb's mind
while he stirred his cakes. His sturdy sense told him that it would be
well he should put in an appearance when Cyrus made a statement before
the Greenville coroner as to the cause and manner of Chris's death.

"Now, you boys, we don't want no fooling this blessed day," he said,
when breakfast was in order, and the campers were emptying for the
second time their tin mugs of coffee. "There's sport before us--tearing
good sport. Whatever do you s'pose I come on this morning when I was
cruising over the bog for water? Caribou-tracks! Caribou-tracks, as sure
as there's a caribou in Maine!

"Who's for following 'em? We hain't got much provisions left; and I
guess a chunk of broiled caribou-steak about as big as a horse's upper
lip would cheer each of us up, and make us feel first-rate. What say,
boys?"

"By all that's glorious!" ejaculated Cyrus, his eyes striking light.
"Caribou-signs! Of course we'll follow them. A bit of fresh meat would
be pretty acceptable, and a good view of a herd of caribou would be
still more so--to me, at any rate. That would just about top off our
exploring to a T."

"We've got to be mighty spry, then," said the woodsman, lurching to his
feet, muscles swelling, and nostrils spread