g twenty years older, they scattered to bring wood again. They
built up the fire to a roaring blaze that gave some real warmth.

"Aren't those fellows likely to make off the first thing this morning,
and take all our outfit with them?" said Maurice.

"They're almost certain to. We must keep watch on the cabin," said
Fred.

"We must hope they don't," added Peter. "We'd have to follow
them--follow them till we dropped or captured them. For they'd be
taking away our lives with them."

In view of this danger, they sent Maurice at once to reconnoiter the
place, which was not more than a quarter of a mile distant. He was
gone nearly half an hour, and on his return reported that smoke was
rising from the cabin, but that there were no signs that the men
intended to depart.

And he had had a stroke of luck. A couple of partridges had flown up
and perched stupidly on a log, so close to him that he had been able to
knock one of them over with a cleverly thrown club.

In less than a minute that partridge's feathers were scattered on the
snow, and it was cut up and roasting on sharp sticks before the fire.
Too ravenous to wait until it was thoroughly cooked, the boys began to
eat it, but Maurice made a wry face at his second mouthful.

"No salt!" he remarked.

The half-cooked flesh was nauseous without salt, and hungry though they
were, they got it down with difficulty. It did them good, however, and
they all felt more capable of facing the situation.

"The first thing we must do," said Peter, "is to find a better
camping-place, put up some sort of shelter, and gather plenty of wood."

"Why, you don't expect to live like this long?" cried Fred, looking
startled.

"It's hard to say. You know we're fearfully handicapped. Our only
chance is to get those fellows off their guard, for if we strike once
and fail, we'll probably never get another chance. We must lie low,
and make them think that we've gone away, or that we're dead. We'll
put our new camp half a mile away, or more, and one of us must keep
watch near the cabin from sunrise to sunset."

It sounded disheartening, but they could think of no other plan.
Eventually, Maurice went to stand guard, while Fred and Macgregor
searched for a camp-site.

They could not find what they wanted. Dead timber in any quantity was
scarce. At the end of a couple of hours Fred went to relieve Maurice,
and found him walking round and round a tree in order to keep from
fr