ers.

Five minutes passed---ten. Still George waited, watching a little
spiral of smoke curl up into the air. Then the canoe came into sight
again, bobbing gently away from the island. Now it was empty.

"Hello! He's not in it!" Rawson exclaimed, shading his eyes with
one hand. "The canoe has floated away with his clothes! He'll
have to swim for it!"

In another moment he saw Joe scramble up on one of the boulders,
fling off his remaining clothes, and dive into the water in pursuit
of the flighty craft. Reaching it, the Indian did not climb aboard,
but swam back to shore, pushing it in front of him. Then Rawson
stepped down from his rock and slipped along the bank until he
emerged from the undergrowth just where Joe was landing.

"Mighty careless of you, Joe," he said, laughing.

Startled, Joe looked around to see whence came the familiar voice.
His eyes met Rawson's, and he grinned with pleasure, as soon as
he had recovered from the surprise of seeing the unexpected
apparition of a naked white man in those wilds. Red man and white
man, children of the wild, in a state of nature, shook hands in
friendly greeting. Then Rawson explained how they had been waiting
for Joe to appear on the scene.

"What have you got there, Joe?" he finally asked, pointing to a
brisk little fire and a pile of flat stones heating therein.

"Got heap plenty fine fish," answered Joe. "We have dinner here
on island, what?"

"All right. Lend me this old canoe, and I'll go and get the boys
and bring them over, while you are cooking the fish."

This was done; and when all had dressed and piled into the canoe, a
jolly and hungry party gathered on the island. Joe showed them how
to broil the fish on the hot stones; they brought out their
sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, and milk, and all "fell to" with a
keen appetite. Joe remembered seeing Ralph at the market in
Oakvale, and he grunted approvingly when informed that Ralph was
to be a visitor at camp.

They paddled across the lake and began the journey through the
woods on the southern shore. But they had not gone far when they
were overtaken by a thunderstorm, which drove them to the shelter
of a cave at the base of a cliff forming one side of a broad ravine.
The rain fell in torrents, mingled with hail, the thunder rolled
and reverberated among the hills, and the skies were riven by vivid
flashes of lightning. Within the cave, however, they were snug
and dry.

"We're saf