repared. See, Frank has shot a deer, so that we shall fare well
to-night.--Ah, Prince! come along. What! more game?" he added, as Dick
and Massan entered the halo of light, and threw down the choice morsels
of a fat deer which they had killed among the mountains.

"Ah! oui, monsieur," said Massan, chuckling as he laid aside his axe and
gun; "we might ha' killed three o' them if we had been so minded; but we
couldn't ha' brought them into camp, an', as Dick said, 'tis a pity to
kill deer to feed the wolves with."

"Right!" exclaimed Frank; "but did any of you see Bryan? He gave me the
slip in the mountains, and, I fear, has lost himself."

To this the men replied in the negative, and some of them smiled at the
idea of the blacksmith being lost.

"No fear, vraiment! He no lost," cried La Roche with a laugh, as he
lifted the huge kettle from the fire and placed it in the midst of the
men, having previously abstracted the best portions for the special
benefit of his master. "No fear of Bryan, certainment; he like one bad
shilling--he come up toujours. Ah! mauvais chien, him give me all de
trouble ov get supper ready mylone."

"I trust it may be so," said Stanley. "We are all here except him and
Oolibuck, whom I have sent to the coast for a few days to watch for the
ship. But let us have supper, La Roche, and spread ours nearer the fire
to-night--it is rather cold; besides, I want to hear the reports of the
men."

In compliance with this order, the lively Frenchman spread the supper
for his master's family close beside that of the men, and in a few
minutes more a most vigorous attack was made on the viands, during the
first part of which the hungry travellers maintained unbroken silence.
But as the cravings of nature began to be satisfied, their tongues found
time to remark on the excellence of the fare. The salmon was superb.
Even Edith, who seldom talked about what she ate, pronounced it very
good. The white-fish were better than any of the party had ever eaten
in their lives, although most of them had travelled over the length and
breadth of the North American wilderness. The ducks were perfect. Even
the ptarmigan were declared passable; and the venison, with an inch of
fat on the haunches--words were not found sufficiently expressive to
describe it. Those who are philosophically inclined may suspect that
some of this super-excellence lay in the keen appetites of the men.
Well, perhaps it did.

While