o the young
lads, who stepped off with swinging gait to the southward. Had the
journey been smooth and even, it would have lost the major part of its
charms.

The boys carried enough with them to give them all they were likely to
need in the way of food for twenty-four hours. It would have been little
trouble to take enough to last through the four days; but there was
something unprofessional in such a course which caused their souls to
rebel. The magnificent forest contained plenty of game, and they would
have been poor sportsmen, indeed, had they confessed by their action
that they distrusted their ability to procure it.

The trail over which the two walked, Fred slightly in advance, was
marked with such distinctness by the hoofs of the six horses that had
passed along it in Indian file but a short time before that it was no
trouble for the boys to recognize it, nor were they likely to have any
difficulty in keeping to it throughout the whole distance.

It was a little past noon, when they reached a small brook whose
current was so cold and clear that they took a long draught from it, and
then sat down and ate their simple lunch. They felt little fatigue, and
as a goodly number of miles remained to be traveled, according to the
schedule of Fred Linden, they leaped lightly across the waste and were
soon under way again.

"Do you know," said Fred, later in the afternoon, "that I've been
thinking we have not paid enough attention to one or two important
matters."

"What are they?"

"I don't know what has become of Deerfoot, and we may not see him again;
but we know enough of him to understand that whatever he says is worth
remembering. Now, he told us yesterday that that Winnebago, from whom he
took that rifle, belonged to a party of those warriors, and it seems to
me that if they are anywhere, it is between us and the camp, and we are
likely to see more of them."

"I'm of the same opinion with yersilf, but jest now there is somethin'
else that gives me concern."

"What is that?" asked the surprised Fred, stopping and turning around.

"Some person or animal has been followin' us for the last half hour.
I've heard it more than once, and it ain't fur off this very minute."

The two boys stood still and looked over the trail along which they had
been traveling. Fred Linden's fear was that Terry had discovered the
presence of some of the very Winnebagos whom he dreaded, but he was
mistaken. That which they saw w