was busy cooking.

Mackintosh gave a snort of assumed contempt.

"Bacon and coffee! Who thinks o' bacon and coffee on a morning like
this? Fegs! but have you no' ears for the birds, nor nostrils for the
scents of Nature? Man, but I'd sooner have a sniff o' the backwoods----"

"Than a mouthful of bacon? Not I," chimed in Alf merrily, at which the
man laughed heartily as he turned on his heel.

"I'm thinking that there's very little poetry in a hungry stomach," he
said. "Well, 'get a gait on.' You'll find a wash-hand basin behind the
tent, and breakfast'll be ready when you are."

The boys needed no second bidding, and it was not many minutes before
they were ready to show how well they could appreciate the half-breed's
culinary art.

While the lads were breakfasting, Mackintosh and Haggis busied
themselves with striking the tent and packing the rest of the camp
outfit upon the single pack-horse that accompanied the naturalist's
wanderings. The two men had already fed at an earlier hour, and had
stowed away most of their belongings in preparation for the journey.

"We'll be making straight for the Silver Lake, where the hanky was
found," explained Mackintosh as they set off. "Haggis'll maybe pick up
tracks there that'll be o' use to us." And so a northerly route was
taken--crossing an arm of the Athabasca, and then following a course
through the woods under the unerring guidance of the half-breed.

Towards noon the Scotsman called a halt, as he pointed to a small
clearing through which ran a small stream of clear water.

"This'll no' be a bad place for us to eat our dinner, lads," he said.
"If you'll unpack the mare and tether her, Haggis, we can see aboot the
fire and the meat."

"Don't you think it would be well if we were to shoot something?"
suggested Bob. "You see, we don't know where we may have to go yet, and
game may be scarce. There seemed to be any amount of it on the way here.
It would be as well to save what we have in hand."

"A good thought," returned Mackintosh approvingly. "Let's see what the
pair o' you can do wi' your guns while Haggis and I are setting things
to rights."

"I'll go one way and you the other, Bob, and see which of us will have
the best bag in half an hour!" said Alf, with the eager delight of a
friendly competition in prospect.

"Right you are," agreed Arnold heartily, "You go to the right; I'll take
the left, and in half an hour we'll meet again at the camp and compare
n