hen she gets down to forty below."

It was surprising how all these preparations consumed time. It was nearly
the end of August when these plans had been worked out and with the
setting up of the _Gitchie Manitou_ in its novel aerodrome and the
storing away of its oil and gasoline in a little bark lean-to, the camp
appeared to be ready for serious work.

For a week Ewen and Miller had been setting up the wood boiler and engine
for operating the derrick. From the night he unceremoniously left camp,
Chandler, the Englishman, had not been heard from.

Each Sunday all labor ceased in camp and Ewen and Miller invariably spent
the day, long into the night, in Fort McMurray. The boys also visited
this settlement, which had in it little of interest. There was no store
and nothing to excite their cupidity in the way of purchases. They heard
that Chandler had gone down the river, but the information was not
definite and, although Colonel Howell left messages for his discharged
employee, the man did not reappear and sent no word.

Colonel Howell's other workmen, Ewen and Miller, were not companionable
and did not become comrades of the boys. Now and then, in the month's
work, Norman and Roy had heard Colonel Howell freely criticize them for
the method of their work or for some newly omitted thing they had failed
to do during the winter.

When the stores and supplies had been compactly arranged in the rear of
the living room and the new storehouse, the cabin and its surroundings
seemed prepared for comfortable occupancy in the coldest weather.

The only man retained out of the river outfit was a Lac la Biche
half-breed, a relative of Moosetooth, who was to serve both as a cook and
a hunter. At least once a week, the entire party of young men went with
Philip Tremble, the half-breed hunter, for deer or moose. This usually
meant an early day's start, if they were looking for moose, and a long
hike over the wooded hills to the upland.

One moose they secured on the second hunt and to the great joy of the
boys Philip brought the skin of the animal back to camp. The antlers,
being soft, were useless. This episode not only afforded a welcome change
in meat which, as Colonel Howell had predicted, could not be told from
tender beef, but it sadly interfered with the work on the aerodrome.

When the Indian had prepared a frame for dressing the skin and lashed the
green hide with heavy cord between the four poplar sides and had produce