l be up-stream all the
way, after we leave this river."

"Do we have to go back the way we came?"

"Well, instead of turning up the Missanabie River when we come to it,
we might go straight down it to Moose Factory, the Hudson Bay Company's
post at the mouth; but if we did that, these foxes would never live
till we got back to Toronto. It would be too long and hard a trip for
them."

"That settles it. We don't go that way," said Mac. "Surely we can get
home in ten or twelve days the way we came, and we ought to be able to
kill enough to live on during that time."

"How many cartridges have we?" asked Horace dubiously.

Macgregor had nineteen cartridges in his belt, and there were six more
in the magazine of the rifle. Fred had only ten shells in his pockets,
and the shotgun was empty. They had left the fishing tackle at camp,
but luckily they had plenty of matches.

"If we can get a deer within the next day or so, or even a few ducks or
partridges, we may make it," said Horace. "But I've noticed that game
is always scarce when you need it most. Now if we turned back and
tried to recover our outfit, we should certainly have to fight the
trappers, and probably we'd be worsted, for they outmatch us in
weapons. One of us might be killed, and we'd be almost certain to lose
the foxes."

"Trade these foxes for some flour and bacon? I'd starve first!" said
Fred.

"So would I!" cried Macgregor. "But we won't starve. We didn't starve
last winter, when we hadn't a match or a grain of powder, and when the
mercury was below zero most of the time, too."

"Well, we'll go on, if you say so," said Horace. "It's a mighty
dangerous trip, but I don't see what else we can do."

"Forward it is, then!" cried Fred.

"And hang the risk!" exclaimed Mac, springing up to push the canoe into
the water.

"Do you think those men will really follow us, Horace?" asked Fred.

"Sure to," replied his brother. "It'll take them a few hours to patch
up their canoe, but they 're probably better canoemen than we are, and
we'll have to work mighty hard to keep ahead of them."

Fred was more optimistic. "They'll have to work mighty hard to keep up
with us," he said, as they launched the canoe.

Going down the river was very different from coming up it. The current
ran so swiftly that the boys could not add much to their speed by
paddling; all they had to do was to steer the craft. The water was so
high that they could run most