coals now ready.

"That's a new idea," grinned Walter, "making your game supply its own
cooking-pot. My! but it smells good, though."

In a very short time, Chris pronounced the gopher done and it was
lifted from the coals and the shells cut apart revealing the steaming,
juicy meat within.

Our hungry party pronounced the meat far sweeter and more tender than
chicken, and the empty shells soon bore evidence to their sincerity.

After a brief rest, they mounted and again took up the trail, soon
leaving behind their halting-place, which the boys named Lake
Christopher, much to the vain little darky's chagrin. He had a shrewd
suspicion that he would not hear the last of his fright for many a day.

CHAPTER III.

WOODCRAFT.

For a while the little party rode forward in silence, winding in and
out between pretty lakes and bunches of timber, with no path to guide
them, but with the help of the compass, managing to edge slowly to the
west. Charley still maintained the lead, but in the open country
through which they were traveling it was possible to ride abreast, and
Walter soon spurred up beside his chum.

"Do you know, Charley, I begin to feel like a babe in the woods," he
confessed. "I suspect you are the only one of us who knows anything
about woodcraft. I know nothing about it, I am sure Chris doesn't, and
I suspect the captain is far more at home reefing a top-sail. You have
got to be our guide and leader, I guess."

"I have hunted a good deal, and a fellow can't help but learn a few
things if he is long in the woods," said Charley, modestly, "but I've
never been so far into the interior before. I wish, Walt," he
continued gravely, "that there was someone along with us that knew the
country we are going to better than I, or else that we were safely back
in town once more."

"Why?" demanded Walter in astonishment.

"I dread the responsibility, and," lowering his voice so the others
could not hear, "I have seen something I do not like."

"What?" queried his chum, eagerly.

Charley produced a square plug of black chewing tobacco from his
pocket. "I picked that up in the edge of the clearing this morning,"
he explained. "It wasn't even damp, so it must have been dropped after
the dew settled last night."

"Some lone hunter passed by in the night," suggested Walter, cheerfully.

"I wish I could think so," said Charley anxiously. "But you know as
well as I that there are some gangs of lawless