emen, fire--breakfast--and then work. We shall be a bit more handy
in making another. Wish we'd had a bit o' paint."

"Paint! What for?" cried Dallas and Abel in a breath.

"Only to have touched it up, and made it look pretty for 'em."

"Never mind!" said Dallas, through his teeth. "We'll make it to look
pretty for them when we find them."

"So we will, my son," cried the Cornishman, and as he gathered chips and
branches together he kept on indulging in a hearty laugh at the prospect
of the encounter; and as the two young adventurers glanced at the man's
tremendous arms, they had sundry thoughts about what would happen to the
thieves.

The Cornishman was right; they were much more handy over making the
second raft, and worked so hard that by the end of the following day a
new and stronger one was made and loaded ready for the next morning's
start.

But this time a watch was kept, one of the party sitting on board until
half the night had passed, when he was relieved by another; and as the
sun rose, breakfast was over, and they cast off the rope from the
pine-stump which had formed the mooring-post.

The morning was glorious, and the sun lit up the snow-covered mountains,
making the scene that of a veritable land of gold. A light breeze, too,
was blowing in their favour, so that their clumsy craft was wafted down
the lake, which here and there assumed the aspect of a wide river of the
bluest and purest water, the keen, elastic air sending a thrill of
health and strength through them, and it seemed as if the tales they had
heard of the perils they were to encounter were merely bugbears, for
nothing could have been pleasanter than their passage.

"Let's see," said Dallas, who was well provided with map and plan; "when
we get to the bottom of this lake there are some narrows and rapids to
pass along."

"So we heard," said the Cornishman. "Well, so much the better. We
shall go the faster. I suppose they're not Falls of Ni-agger-ray.--I
say, can you gents swim?"

"Pretty well," was the reply. "Can you?"

The big fellow scratched his head and screwed up his face into a queer
smile.

"You ask my two mates," he said.

"No, I asked you," said Dallas.

"Not a stroke, my son. If we get capsized I shall trust to being six
foot three and a half and walk out. I don't s'pose it'll be deeper than
that. If it is, I dessay my mates'll lend me a hand."

"Then we mustn't capsize," said Abel.

"Well, it would