not finished
the trench when night came and, to the surprise of Colonel Howell and
Paul, the _Gitchie Manitou_ had not returned. This fact especially
disturbed Colonel Howell and Paul because soon after noon the bright day
had ended and the afternoon had passed with lowering clouds and other
evidences, including a decided drop in the temperature, that a bad night
was approaching.

The northward flight of the aviators had been made without any
premonition of this change. After the monoplane had reached the high
ground, Norman could not resist a temptation to make his way some miles
back from the river, where the boys could see that the sparse timber grew
very much thinner and that within five miles of the river the timberland
disappeared altogether in a wide prairie or plain. Still farther to the
east, they could make out irregular elevations on the plain, which
appeared to be treeless ridges.

"I wish we had time to go over there," remarked Roy, "for we may never
get back this way and I'd like to have had one good look at the caribou
lands."

But the general nature of this treeless, barren waste had been
ascertained and Norman brought the swift car back on its flight toward
the river. Colonel Howell had explained to them that the Indian village
they were seeking was one hundred miles from the gas camp. As it was not
certain that Pointe aux Tremble could be easily made out from a distance,
it was necessary to keep careful watch of the chronometer and the
propeller revolution gauge.

The flight over the picturesque banks of the great river was now getting
to be an old story to the boys and protected as they were in the inclosed
cockpit, the journey proceeded with only occasional comment. They had
left the camp at nine twenty-five o'clock, having set the engines at
fifty miles, and, allowing for their detour, at a quarter after eleven
o'clock Roy arose and began to use his binoculars. But either the reputed
distance or the boys' calculations were wrong, for it was not until a
quarter of twelve o'clock that they caught sight of a few cabins
scattered along the riverbank within a fringe of poplar trees.

It was necessary to find a suitable landing place and both aviators
busied themselves in this respect with no great result. What clearing
there was seemed to be full of tree stumps and large brush. The car,
having passed over the few cabins of what seemed to be a deserted
village, with no living thing in sight, it was