ried, and Peter and Maurice cut
in alternately:--

"Heard you were sick with smallpox--"

"Came up to find you--"

"Came in on skates, and--"

"A gang of outlaws turned us out of the cabin--"

"Found your diamonds."

"I don't half understand it all," said Horace, "but I see that you
fellows have acted like good friends. We can't get in the cabin, you
say? Well, you've a camp somewhere, haven't you?"

They started for the camp in the snow, and on the way Fred gave his
brother a somewhat incoherent account of what had taken place.

"You fellows certainly have acted like friends to me--like brothers,
rather!" said Horace. "I'll never forget it, boys!"

And he shook hands with them all round.

"Not a bit!" said Maurice, in embarrassment. "We were hoping that
you'd let us in on the ground floor of a diamond mine. Fred says there
was a whole bagful of diamonds that you had hidden in the cabin. What
do you suppose they're worth?"

"If they're all diamonds, perhaps a hundred thousand dollars," replied
Horace.

"Gracious!" gasped Maurice, and said no more.

But Fred's attention had been fixed on the pack that his brother
carried.

"What have you there, Horace?" he asked.

"Grub. Bacon, hardtack, tea, cold boiled beans. Why, I never thought
of it, but you must all be as hungry as wolves. Well, there's enough
for a square meal here, anyhow, and to-morrow we'll find some way of
getting those rascals out of the camp."

They built up the camp-fire, and Horace got out his provisions,
together with a couple of partridges he had shot late that afternoon.
But Macgregor, as medical adviser, refused to let them eat as much as
they wanted. A little tea and a few mouthfuls of meat were all he
permitted them to have; he promised, however, that they should have a
full meal in a couple of hours. He took the same ration himself; but
Horace ate heartily.

"But where have you been since you left the cabin?" Fred asked.

"At a lumber camp on the Abitibi, about forty miles from here," Horace
replied. "I've been convalescing."

"If we'd only known that there was anything of the sort so near,"
remarked Peter, "we'd have made for it ourselves."

"I stumbled on it by chance. However, I'd better explain in detail.
As you seem to have heard, I came sick to this trappers' shack. I'd
been in an Indian camp a week before, on the Nottaway River, where they
had had smallpox, but I've been vaccinated four or five times,