, the load resting between these ends
and the steed's tail. It was, as it were, a cart without wheels or
body. Meekeye mounted the horse after the fashion of a man.
Petawanaquat and Tony together mounted another steed. Three dogs formed
part of the establishment. These were harnessed to little poles like
those of the horse, and each dragged a little load proportioned to his
size. Thus they left the spur of the Rocky Mountains and travelled over
the plains towards Red River settlement.

About the same time, and with the same destination in view, and not far
distant from the same region, another party on horseback commenced their
journey towards the rising sun.

The two parties ultimately met--but these and other matters we shall
reserve for our next chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

A TERRIBLE DISASTER AND A JOYFUL MEETING.

We left Ian Macdonald, it will be remembered, far away in the western
wilderness, suffering from the wounds received during his memorable and
successful combat with a grizzly bear. These wounds were much more
serious than had at first been supposed, and, despite the careful
nursing of Vic Ravenshaw and Michel Rollin, he grew so weak from loss of
blood that it became evident to all of them that they should have to
take up their abode in that wild unpeopled spot for a considerable
period of time. They therefore planned and built a small log-hut in a
wood well stocked with game, and on the margin of a little stream where
fish abounded.

At first Victor resolved to ride to the nearest fort of the fur-traders
and fetch a doctor, or the means of conveying their wounded friend to a
place where better attendance and shelter were to be had, but
insurmountable difficulties lay in the way. There were no doctors in
the land! The nearest abode of civilised man was several hundred miles
distant, and neither he nor Rollin knew the way to any place whatever.
They had depended entirely on Ian as a guide, and now that he was
helpless, so were they! It would have been difficult for them even to
have found their way back to the Red River Settlement without the aid of
the scholastic backwoodsman. They were constrained, therefore, to rest
where they were, hoping from day to day that Ian would regain strength
sufficient to bear the fatigue of a journey. Thus the winter slowly
slipped away, and wild-fowl--the harbingers of spring--were beginning to
awake the echoes of the northern woods before Ian felt himse