Cree guide talked fairly good English, though with something of an
effort. When indulging in any extended conversation with Francois, he
invariably resorted to his native tongue.

Turning to Francois now, he rattled off a lot of talk that sounded
almost like gibberish to the scouts, who waited for the voyageur to
translate it.

"He says zat ze smoke tell heem most of ze men haf already started over
to ze mine. Eet also say zat zey will have us all in ze trap soon,"
explained the French Canadian.

The boys looked at each other blankly.

"The dickens they do!" burst out Jimmy. "They'll have to get up right
early in the morning to find us asleep. Say, he didn't tell what they
expected to do when they sprung that fine trap, did he, Francois?"

"Nozzings, sare," responded the other, with a negative shake of his
head. "I myself haf also read ze signs pret well, but zey do not tell
vat it ees zey haf do to cage us. Zere, you see ze smoke ett haf done. I
zink zey must be put ze fires out."

"That leaves us nearly as much in the air as before, don't it, Ned?"
Jack complained.

"Only that we've learned the men are on the way across somewhere," Frank
objected.

"And that they think they've got us up a tree, though we haven't the
least notion what kind of tree," added Teddy, thoughtfully.

Ned looked serious, but if he had ideas of his own, he did not mention
them just then. Perhaps he thought his chums had troubles enough as it
was, without assuming any imaginary ones that might turn out to be false
alarms.

"We'd better be pushing on again, boys," he remarked, "if all of you
have swallowed what water you want from this fine spring here."

Apparently they had, for presently the column was in motion again.
Somehow, even Jimmy had sobered more or less. Something about the
passing back and forth of the smoke communications must have put a
damper on his spirits; though, a short time before, he had been fairly
bubbling over with joy, because of the success that had recently come
their way.

It would have been all very well for the scouts to have depended wholly
on themselves had they been alone at this time; but having two
experienced guides along, Ned was not conceited enough to think that he
knew it all, and could utterly dispense with their advice.

Consequently, he did not hesitate to ask questions of Francois whenever
a situation confronted them that seemed to offer two solutions. A
mistake, at this stage of the g