ce
the deep solitudes of the wilderness. They stood so long thus that it
seemed as though the little animal and the man had been petrified by the
unwonted sound. If so, the spell was quickly broken. The loud report
of a fowling-piece was heard at a short distance. The squirrel
incontinently disappeared from the spot on which it stood, and almost
instantaneously reappeared on the topmost branch of a high tree; while
the young man gave a smile of satisfaction, threw the rifle over his
shoulder, and, turning round, strode rapidly away in the direction
whence the shot proceeded.

A few minutes' walk brought him to the banks of a little brook, by the
side of which, on the projecting root of a tree, sat a man, with a dead
goose at his feet and a fowling-piece by his side. He was dressed in
the garb of a hunter; and, from the number of gray hairs that shone like
threads of silver among the black curls on his temples, he was evidently
past the meridian of life--although, from the upright bearing of his
tall, muscular frame, and the quick glance of his fearless black eye, it
was equally evident that the vigour of his youth was not yet abated.

"Why, Stanley," exclaimed the young man as he approached, "I've been
shouting till my throat is cracked, for at least half an hour. I verily
began to think that you had forsaken me altogether."

"In which case, Frank," replied the other, "I should have treated you as
you deserve, for your empty game-bag proves you an unworthy comrade in
the chase."

"So, so, friend, do not boast," replied the youth with a smile; "if I
mistake not, that goose was winging its way to the far north not ten
minutes agone. Had I come up half an hour sooner, I suspect we should
have met on equal terms; but the fact is that I have not seen hair or
feather, save a tree-squirrel, since I left you in the morning."

"Well, to say truth, I was equally unfortunate until I met this luckless
goose, and fired the shot that brought him down and brought you up. But
I've had enough o' this now, and shall back to the fort again. What say
you? Will you go in my canoe or walk?"

The young man was silent for a few seconds; then, without replying to
his companion's question, he said,--"By-the-bye, is it not to-night that
you mean to make another attempt to induce the men to volunteer for the
expedition!"

"It is," replied Stanley, with a alight frown. "And what if they still
persist in refusing to go?"

"I'll