their businesses.

There are several adults, all men, in the story, but the principals
are two lads whose fathers are leading the expedition. Another hero is
an American settler, who has great wisdom and character, having much
more experience of the wilderness than any of the others. Other
important characters are the mules that carry their equipment, and also
the extremely important water kegs. The horses are very important, too.
You will love this book, especially if you can make it into an
audiobook, but it will be one of no mean duration.

________________________________________________________________________
THE PERIL FINDERS, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.

CHAPTER ONE.

THE WESTERN PARADISE.

"Well, boys, where have you been?"

The speaker, a sturdy-looking, sun-tanned man, seated upon a home-made
stool at a rough home-made table in a home-made house of rugged,
coarsely-sawn boards, with an open roof covered in with what one of the
boys had called wooden slates, had looked up from his writing, and as he
spoke carefully wiped his pen--for pens were scarce--and corked the
little stone bottle of ink so that it should not evaporate in the
super-heated atmosphere, before it was wanted again for the writing of
one of the rare letters dispatched to England, these being few, the
writer preferring to wait till the much-talked-of better days came--the
days for which they had been patiently waiting five years.

The boys looked sharply one at the other, their eyes seeming to say,
"You tell him!" But neither of them spoke, and the penman said
sharply--

"Hallo! Been in some mischief?"

The boys spoke out together then, and muddled or blurred their reply,
for one said, "No, fa," being his shortening of _father_, and the other
cried, "No, sir," both looking indignant at the suggestion. "What have
you been doing, then?"

"Fishing, sir."

"Good lads!" cried the first speaker, leaning back on his seat, and
starting up and grasping the rough edge of the table to save himself
from falling, while the boys burst out laughing.

"Yes, you may laugh, my fine fellows," said the first speaker rather
pettishly, "but it wouldn't have been pleasant for me if I had gone
down."

"No, fa," said his son, colouring and speaking quickly. "I beg your
pardon! I am sorry."

"I know, Chris. You didn't think. I suppose it looked droll."

"Yes, sir," said the other boy, hastily. "I beg your pardon too. You
thought you wer