, Daddy?" he asked.

The old man shook his head. "He ain't in th' camp," he muttered. "He
tuk Jack's gun whilst he slep' an' ut's huntin' he's gone--Lard hilp
um!"

"Where is Bill?" the lumberman inquired.

"Av ye're quick, ye may catch um in th' office--av ye ain't Oi'm
thinkin' ye niver will foind um. Be th' luk in his eye, he's gone
afther th' b'y."

The lumberman plunged again into the storm and made his way to the
office. It was empty. As he turned heavily away the door opened and
Ethel Manton flung herself into the room, gasping with exertion. Giving
no heed to her uncle's presence, the girl's glance hurriedly swept the
interior.

Her hand clutched at the bosom of her snow-powdered coat as she noted
that the faded mackinaw was gone from its accustomed peg and the
snowshoes from their corner behind the door.

Instantly the truth flashed through her brain--Charlie was lost in the
seething blizzard and somewhere out in the timber Bill Carmody was
searching for him.

With a smothered moan she flung herself onto the bunk and buried her
face in the blankets.

* * * * *

The situation the foreman faced when he plunged into the whirling
blizzard in search of the boy, while calling for the utmost in man's
woodsmanship and endurance, was not so entirely hopeless as would
appear. He remembered the intense interest evinced by the boy a few
days before, when he had listened to the description of the rocky ledge
which was the home of the _loup-cerviers_, and the eagerness with which
he begged to visit the place.

What was more natural, he argued, than that the youngster, finding
himself in unexpected possession of a rifle and ammunition, had decided
to explore the spot and do a little hunting on his own account?

The full fury of the storm had not broken until noon, and he figured
that the boy would have had ample time to reach the bluff where he
could find temporary shelter among the numerous caves of its rocky
formation.

Upon leaving the office, the boss headed straight for the rollway, and
the mere holding his direction taxed his brain to the exclusion of all
other thoughts.

The air was literally filled with flying snow fine as dust, which
formed an opaque screen through which his gaze penetrated scarcely an
arm's reach.

Time and again he strayed from the skidway and brought up sharply
against a tree, but each time he altered his course and floundered
ahead unt