Ed and Bill together.

"Aye, dead. Drove over th' falls by Mingen Injuns," continued Dick.
"Five or six days ago, she's sayin'. They's six o' them Injuns down
north o' here, huntin' deer, an' their camp's up th' river somewheres.
I'm not knowin' rightly where, but we'll find un, an' we'll shoot them
Injuns just like a passel o' wolves. If we don't, they'll sure be
layin' for us an' shoot us."

"Be you sure, now, th' lads is dead?" insisted Ed.

"They's no doubtin' it. She tells th' story straight an' clean as a
rifle shot;" and Dick went on to repeat in detail the story he had
heard from Manikawan.

"It looks bad, now, whatever," commented Ed. "But they's a chanct they
gets a ashore. I were caught onct in th' rapids above Muskrat Falls,
an' thinks it all up with me--right in th' middle o' th' rapids,
too--an'--"

"Ed," broke in Dick, with vast impatience, "this be no time for
yamin'. You knows you never could be gettin' out o' them rapids an'
not goin' over th' falls. An' these rapids is a wonderful sight
worse."

"Maybe they be," admitted Ed. "Th' poor lad, now, bein' killed in that
way. Dick," he continued, raising his tall, awkward figure to its full
height and placing his hand on Dick's shoulder, "me an' you's stood by
one 'nother for a good many years, an' in all sorts o' hard places,
an' if it's fight Injuns with you now, Dick, it's fight un, an' Bill's
with us."

"Aye," said Bill, "that I am."

The boat was unloaded, and with heavy hearts the men prepared and ate
their evening meal. Then while they smoked their pipes, light packs
were put up and all was made snug for an early start the following
morning.

With the first blink of dawn the three determined men, armed with
their rifles, swung out into the forest, and rapidly but cautiously
filed up the old portage trail in the direction Manikawan had taken.

X

THE VOICES OF THE SPIRITS

Heedless of drizzling rain and snow, of driving wind and gathering
darkness, Manikawan ran forward on the trail. Hatred was in her heart.
Vengeance was crying to her. Every subtle, cunning instinct of her
savage race was aroused in her bosom.

She was determined that those who had sent her beloved White Brother
of the Snow to destruction in the deadly place of evil spirits must
die. How she should compass their death she did not yet know; this was
a detail for circumstance to decide, but it must be done. White
Brother of the Snow was of her tribe; the law of