e who had evidently rubbed up against the hard places of life
while to him had been given the "snaps;" or on the other hand if it
might be the realization that in this waif of the Unknown Land his soul
had discovered the mate or chum for which he had looked so long and so
far--perhaps it might be a commingling of the two.

Twice had Owen risen, and the other imagined he was about to come around
to his side of the fire to glance over his shoulder at the charts; but
both times young Dugdale had simply stepped to the pile of wood and,
taking up an armful, tossed it upon the dying blaze.

Cuthbert was beginning to fancy he would have to make a move himself to
draw the other's attention to what he was doing, so wrapped up did Owen
seem in his own personal affairs; when suddenly he discovered that those
wonderfully keen gray eyes of the rover were glued upon the papers he
held upon his lap.

Then it was that Owen did come around to his side of the fire, and the
disturbed look upon his face gave way to a bright smile as he remarked:

"I didn't notice what you had there, before. I was so bound up in my own
affairs. I suppose those are maps of this country you have; perhaps I
could be useful in telling you whether they are accurate or not, for I
rather guess I've picked up considerable information during these years
of wandering in the woods here. If you don't mind me looking at them--"

"Why, to tell the truth that's just what I was wishing you would do, old
chap, but I hated to break in on your brown study. Here's a
supposed-to-be reliable chart of this region, which I paid a man a good
sum to get up for me; but already I've found it more or less crooked,
and have begun to lose confidence in its accuracy. Perhaps you could
show up the faults, and set me right, so that if the time ever comes
when I have to depend on the thing I won't get astray; for truth to tell
it would be no fun to find oneself lost on these upper reaches of the
great Saskatchewan. Sit right down here, and squint your optic over this
set of hen-tracks, made by the halfbreed, Dubois."

"Dubois, you say--why, I know the fellow well. He ought to be able to
make a decent map of this country, for he's spent many years roaming
over it, though I think he was more concerned about stealing some honest
trapper's pelts than anything else. Why, see here, he's made an awful
botch of this thing right around this quarter, where he certainly knows
every foot of ground.