him. But he might have heard us anyway. Let that
go. But if you'd have killed that hound as you started out to do, you'd
have done more harm than your fool head could straighten out in a
lifetime. That hound--why--he's the best thing we've got. I'd--I'd
almost rather lose our rifles than him--" he trailed off again into
rumination.

Dick, sobered as he always was when his companion took this tone,
inquired why, but received no answer. After a moment Sam began to sort
the contents of the sledge, casting aside all but the necessities.

"What's the plan?" Dick ventured.

"To follow."

"How long do you think it will be before we catch him?"

"God knows."

The dogs leaned into their harness, almost falling forward at the
unexpected lightness of the load. Again the little company moved at
measured gait. For ten minutes nothing was said. Then Dick:

"Sam," he said, "I think we have just about as much chance as a snowball
in hell."

"So do I," agreed the old woodsman, soberly.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

They took up the trail methodically, as though no hurry existed. At the
usual time of the evening they camped. Dick was for pushing on an extra
hour or so, announcing himself not in the least tired, and the dogs
fresh, but Sam would have none of it.

"It's going to be a long, hard pull," he said. "We're not going to catch
up with him to-day, or to-morrow, or next day. It ain't a question of
whether you're tired or the dogs are fresh to-night; it's a question of
how you're going to be a month from now."

"We won't be able to follow him a month," objected Dick.

"Why?"

"It'll snow, and then we'll lose th' trail. The spring snows can't be
far off now. They'll cover it a foot deep."

"Mebbe," agreed Sam, inconclusively.

"Besides," pursued Dick, "he'll be with his own people in less than a
month, and then there won't be any trail to follow."

Whereupon Sam looked a little troubled, for this, in his mind, was the
chief menace to their success. If Jingoss turned south to the Lake
Superior country, he could lose himself among the Ojibways of that
region; and, if all remained true to him, the white men would never
again be able to get trace of him. _If all remained true to him:_--on
the chance of that Sam was staking his faith. The Honourable the
Hudson's Bay Company has been established a great many years; it has
always treated its Indians justly; it enjoys a tremendous prestige for
infallibility. The bonds