too valuable to share with a lot of guides and
backwoodsmen. If we find that fellow alive, and he has really
discovered anything, it would be strange if he wouldn't give us a
chance to stake out a few claims that might be worth thousands--maybe
millions. And it struck me that there was a quicker way to get to him
than by snowshoes or dogs. The streams are frozen, the ice is clear,
and the skating was fine at Muirhead."

"An expedition on skates?" cried Fred.

"Why not? There's a clear canoe way, barring a few portages, and that
means a clear ice road till it snows. But it might do that at any
moment."

"A hundred and fifty miles in two days?" said Fred. "Sure, we can do
it. I'll set the pace, if you fellows can keep up."

"Anyhow, I came straight down to the city and saw Maurice about it. He
said you'd be the best third man we could get. But I had hoped we
could get Horace, so as to have his expert opinion on what that man may
have found."

"The last time I heard from Horace he was at Red Lake," said Fred, "but
I wouldn't have any idea where to find him now. He always comes back
to Toronto for the winter, and he can't be much later than this."

"Well, we can't wait for him," said Maurice regretfully. "I'm sorry,
but maybe next spring will do as well, when we go to prospect our
diamond claims."

"Yes, but we've got to get them first," said Peter, "and there's a
man's life to be saved--and it might snow to-night and block the whole
expedition."

"Then we'd get dogs and snowshoes," Maurice remarked, "but it would be
far slower traveling than on skates."

"We must rush things. Could we get away to-morrow?" Fred cried.

"We must--by the evening train. Maurice and I have been making out a
list of the things we need to buy. Have you a gun? Well, we have two
rifles anyway, and that'll be more than enough, for we want to go as
light as possible. You'll need a sleeping-bag, of course, and your
roughest, warmest woolen clothes, and a couple of heavy sweaters.
We'll carry snowshoes and moccasins with us, in case of a snowfall.
I'll bring a medicine case and disinfectants."

"Will we have to pack all that outfit on our shoulders?" Fred asked.

"No, of course not. I have a six-foot toboggan, which I'll have fitted
with detachable steel runners to-morrow, good for either ice or snow.
We'll haul it by a rope. But here's the main thing--the grub list."

Fred glanced over the scribbled rows of the caref