or him. As he did so, I
saw him again shiver violently several times. This made me more than
ever apprehensive that he had received a chill. He confessed, indeed,
that his head ached terribly, and that he felt sometimes extremely hot,
and then very cold. Even a mugful of hot soup, which we got him to
swallow, did not seem to do him any good; and as he was now unable to
attend to Martin, I took his place.

The next morning, as I feared, though Martin was slightly better, Alick
was very ill and utterly unfit to proceed on the voyage. We at once
made up our minds to remain where we were for that day, or perhaps for
longer if necessary. Alick, though very weak, was perfectly conscious.

"Don't lose time," he whispered to me; "but do you and Robin go out and
try and shoot some game. If our voyage is delayed we may be running
short of provisions. Pat will remain with Martin and me, for as he is
no shot, he would only be throwing the ammunition away."

Pat, who was not vain of his powers as a sportsman, readily consented to
this.

"Shure, I'll be afther taking good care of the jintleman," he said. "If
a bear or a wolf comes this way, faith, he'll be sorry for it to the end
of his days."

Bouncer accompanied us, and he was so well-trained that he would assist
us greatly should we fall in with a deer. We were more successful even
than we expected, for we killed a small deer and three squirrels, and on
our return saw several other animals--another deer, a raccoon lodged
comfortably high up between the branches of a tree, a black fox, and a
wolverine; which showed us that, should we have to remain on the spot,
we were not likely to run short of provisions.

"If we have to remain out during the winter, we shall want skins of all
sorts to make clothes and bed-coverings," observed Robin.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because I think that there is a great chance of our not getting to the
fort before the winter sets in," he answered. "We have already been a
long time about our voyage, and I fear, both from your brother's and
Martin's state, that we may be detained here several days. Alick's
fever is only just commencing, and Martin cannot recover in a hurry;
though he's not worse to-day, he's very little better."

I could not help agreeing with him, and when we got back to the camp we
were both confirmed in the opinion he had expressed. Alick's fever had
increased, and Martin was still so weak that he could