per Zeb, "that if you lads had done a bit
of huntin' back over the barrens after you sees the wolves that you'd
have found some scatterin' deer there then. Wolves follows deer and
kills un to eat, and there's not like to be wolves when there's no deer
about."

As soon as breakfast was finished the dogs were harnessed, and day was
just breaking when Skipper Zeb and Toby and Charley set forth on their
caribou hunt. They had scarcely reached the marsh below the barrens when
the dogs began to sniff the air, and to show much eagerness to go
forward.

"See un sniff! See un sniff, now!" and Skipper Zeb grinned. "The wind's
down from the barrens, and the dogs smells the caribou. We'll find un
feedin' there, and there'll be aplenty of un."

At the edge of the barrens the komatik was stopped, and the dogs were
secured that they might not interfere with the hunting. Then the three
proceeded cautiously, with their rifles ready, over the slope of a
knoll, Skipper Zeb in advance. On the summit of the knoll Skipper Zeb
halted, and pointed to a moving mass nearly a mile away.

"See un?" said he. "There's hundreds of un! There's not much danger
we'll startle they, with the wind nuth'ard. When deer are in big bands
they don't startle easy. We'll get all we wants of un."

Gently rising knolls punctuated the barren plateau. Skipper Zeb, leading
the way, set forward at an easy but rapid pace. As they approached the
feeding herd, he practiced some caution, until at length he stopped,
crouching behind a rock, until the boys joined him.

For some time, following depressions between the knolls, the caribou had
been hidden from view. Now, peering over the rock, they saw the great
herd directly before them. Hundreds upon hundreds of the sleek, graceful
animals, spreading over the hills and knolls beyond, were pawing away
the hard snow and eating the thick growth of moss that lay beneath it,
with some old bucks strolling among them as sentinels.

"We're in fine shootin' range, and we'll be gettin' all we wants of un,"
said Skipper Zeb. "Go at un now!"

Charley was so excited that he could hardly hold his rifle, but he aimed
and fired. Skipper Zeb and Toby fired at the same time, and the three
continued to shoot into the herd until fourteen of the fine antlered
beasts lay stretched upon the snow.

"That's enough of un!" directed Skipper Zeb. "'Twill be all we wants,
and there'll be enough for Long Tom Ham, too. We'll knock down no more
t