washed Andy and Jamie took down the tent, while
David shouldered a pack and preceded them to the place where they had
moored the boat the previous evening. A few minutes later he came
running back, and in breathless excitement startled them with the
announcement:

"The boat's gone!"

"Gone where?" asked Andy incredulously.

"Gone! I'm not knowin' _where_!" exclaimed David.

"Has she been took?" asked Jamie, excitedly.

"Took!" said David. "The painter were untied and she were took!
There's tracks about of big boots with nails in un!"

Andy and Jamie ran down with David. No trace of the boat was to be
found.

In the earth above the shore were plainly to be seen the tracks of
two men wearing hobnailed boots.

"They's fresh tracks," declared David.

"Made this marnin'," Andy agreed. "They's the same kind of tracks as
the ones I see under Lem's window. Whoever 'twere made these tracks
shot Lem and took his silver."

"And now we're left here on the island with no way of gettin' off,"
said David.

"What'll we be doin'? How'll we ever get away?" asked Jamie in
consternation.

But that was a question none of them could answer.

CHAPTER VII

THE MYSTERY OF THE BOAT

The boys looked at each other in consternation. They were marooned on
a desolate, rocky, sparsely wooded island. Boats passed only at rare
intervals, and a fortnight, or even a month, might elapse before an
opportunity for rescue offered. Their provisions would scarcely last a
week, and the island was destitute of game.

"Whoever 'twere took the boat," Andy suggested presently, "were on the
island when we comes."

"Aye," David agreed, "and makin' for Fort Pelican. They been up as far
as Lem's and they's gettin' away with Lem's silver to sell un."

"'Tis strange boots they wears," said Jamie. "Strange boots them is
with nails in un."

"'Twere no man of The Labrador made them tracks," David declared.

"I never sees boots with nails in un," said Andy, "except the boots
the lumber folks wears over at the new camp at Grampus River."

"Aye," agreed David, "they wears un. When we goes over with Pop last
month when the big steamer comes I sees un. Plenty of un wears boots
with nails in."

"That's who 'twere took our boat!" said Andy. "'Twere men from the
Grampus River lumber camp."

"Let's track un and see where they were camped," suggested David.

The trail was easily followed. Here and there a footprint appeared
where soil had dri