otes."

With a few words of friendly chaffing as to which would be the more
successful, the chums parted. Each was determined that his gun should
prove a superior Nimrod's skill, and both were stirred to high spirits
by the excitement of the quest.

It must not be a matter for surprise that the boys could take such
pleasure in the diversions of the moment, even recollecting the serious
nature of the mission on which they had embarked with the original
Skipper Mackintosh. The truth was that, once having been convinced that
the absent men were indeed alive, the weight of anxiety was greatly
lifted by that knowledge. As we are already aware, their fathers were
men who had had many a backwoods adventure in their youth. They were
well capable of taking care of themselves according to the circumstances
in which they were placed. Hence the chief anxiety now was to hasten a
meeting, when they would learn aright the cause of the elders' absence;
and, though they could not conjecture what that cause could be, they
felt assured that accident (in the ordinary sense of the word) was not
the reason. Ordinary accidents of the hunt were not likely to meet two
such experienced sportsmen at one time; and if one had suffered the
other would have found means to communicate the fact ere this. The boys
felt assured that to some other cause the matter must be attributed, and
so they were fairly at ease in their minds, though, of course, anxious
to hasten the time when the mystery would be explained.

Thus it was that when the opportunity occurred for this diversion in
the form of a little friendly rivalry, each set off in the highest of
spirits.

Holden at once plunged into the thickest part of the bush at the back of
the little camp-ground. Arnold decided to follow the downward course of
the stream, in the hope that it might lead to a lake or pool where duck
might fall to his lot.

Pushing his way through the scrub that bordered the running water, Bob
went some distance without any success. Then he heard the sound of a gun
some way to the rear, and he smiled to himself, as he thought that his
chum had already commenced operations.

Spurred on by the thought, the boy hastened his steps, and increased his
vigilant scrutiny of the bush for the first signs of game. But luck did
not come his way for some time, and his anxiety not to be beaten in the
contest led his feet farther than the half-hour's limit merited.

It was not until he had