limbs as he slowly
advanced upward.

Rob remained aloft for some moments, but at last descended and
rejoined Alex.

"Now, what did you see, Mr. Rob?" inquired the old hunter.

"Well, I don't know," said Rob; "it's hard to figure out exactly, of
course. But Mackenzie talks about high mountains off to the northwest,
and a parallel range of mountains running to the south, with a narrow
valley between. That, of course, must be this river, and as near as I
can tell, it must have been about here that he and Mackay and the
Indian hunters took to the shore to spy out the way."

"And jolly well got lost, too, eh?"

"They certainly did--got lost from their boat for an entire day! I can
imagine how they felt when they didn't know whether the boat was above
them or below them. Mackenzie says the mosquitoes about ate them up.
They sent branches down the river to let the boatmen know they were
above them. It wasn't until night that finally they found the boat was
far below them. I'll warrant they were glad when they got together
again. The truth is, the men were almost ready to turn back and leave
Mackenzie where he was."

"They'd have done that a dozen times but for his courage," said Alex.
"Well, now, what would you do, Mr. Rob, if you should get lost in the
woods or mountains any time?"

"I'd try to keep cool," said Rob, "but I'm not sure that I could. It's
a mighty bad feeling--I know what it is myself. What would you do,
Alex, if you ever got lost in a storm, or anything of that kind?"

"Sit down and build a fire," answered Alex. "Go to sleep, take it
easy, and wait till my mind got cool. Then when you're rested and all
ready to go on, you nearly always know which is the right direction.
You see, an Injun is a good deal like a dog, as Moise would say. But
now suppose I should get separated from you in here--how would you get
back to camp?"

"Well, you see," said Rob, "there is that high mountain on this side
of the river, and there is one right opposite, far off on the east
side. I know our camp is on the line between those two peaks. Of
course I'd know the river was downhill, unless I wandered off over
some other little divide. I'd just simply go downhill as straight as I
could until I hit the river. Of course I couldn't tell, maybe, whether
I was just above or below the camp. But I'd wait to see smoke, and I'd
fire off my rifle, hoping that some one would hear me. Then I think I
would not go very far from that plac