g we might manage to do if the worst came,"
proceeded Ned. "Up here there are lonely trading posts run by the Hudson
Bay Company, at each of which you'll find a factor in charge. If we
could only run across one of these posts, I reckon, there would be some
way found for getting us down to civilization inside of a month or so."

"That long?" observed Teddy.

"What would it matter, so that we didn't have to do the grand hike?"
Jimmy asked, afflicted with dizzy visions of five hundred miles of
tramping over rough country, supporting themselves, meanwhile, in the
most primitive fashion by shooting game, and cooking the same over fires
made with flint and steel, or the bow and stick method known to scouts
generally.

"Of course," added Frank, somewhat satirically, "Teddy would like to
have one of those Zeppelin airships come along and give us a lift. I
guess all of us would be glad if that happened; but the chances are so
small, we don't want to consider 'em, do we, Ned? So here we are, facing
a puzzle that's going to give us no end of trouble and work. If it was
hard to get in, it's going to be a much bigger job to get out again."

"It's getting late, as it is," remarked Jack, as he looked toward the
west where the sun was hovering over the horizon, and ready to take the
final plunge, though, of course, it would not be dark for a long time
afterwards, thanks to the length of the Northern twilight in midsummer.

"First, let's get where we can look up and down the river, principally
down," was Ned's advice, "though there's a mighty slim chance that we'll
see anything of our stolen canoes."

This proved to be the case, for when they had found an elevated
position, where it was possible to see far down the stream, there was
not a thing in sight, save a mother duck teaching her little brood to
swim and find food.

"No use, seems like; they've gone a long time back," said Jimmy.

"I wonder if that was what they told the fellows over at the mine, when
they mentioned a trap?" observed Frank, seriously, glancing hastily
around him at the same time, as though half expecting to see a dozen
ugly-faced men appear from the bushes and rocks.

"Not while Tamasjo was reading the smoke signs," Ned assured him, "or he
would have learned enough to tell us what to expect when we got here.
But, first of all, we ought to move off."

"You think they'll come here later on, when they learn how we got out of
the old mine and headed across