d Pierre.

"Sure, I did!" George replied, trying to give the impression that
the matter was rather a good joke on himself. "I heard you
smashing through the bushes and I thought you were some kind of a
wild animal, and so I followed you up. I got so far away from camp
that I couldn't find my way back. Then I saw your light and came
here."

"Where your gun?" demanded Pierre, pointing suspiciously to the
boy's empty hands. "You no shoot without gun!"

George drew an automatic from his pocket and held it up in the
firelight. Pierre eyed it enviously.

"We hunt with these things!" the boy said.

Pierre continued to regard the boy with suspicion, for a long time
but he finally seated himself before the fire and began to grumble
because Thede had not been more active in the preparations for
supper.

"It's a wonder you wouldn't come home and get supper yourself once
in a while!" exclaimed the boy, "You needn't think I came up here
in the cold to wait on you, Old Hoss!" the lad added with a wink at
George. "I didn't leave my happy home for any such menial service."

Pierre grumbled out a few sentences in mongrel French and proceeded
to prepare a solitary meal. Thede winked at George and began
cooking enough supper for both of them.

George was thinking fast while the boy was sweating before the
scorching heat of the fire. He was wondering whether Thede had
told him the exact truth concerning his connection with Pierre. He
was wondering, too, whether the boy had told all he knew of the
Little Brass God.

Here were two parties in the Northern wilderness in quest of the
same thing! It occurred to the wondering boy that Pierre might
have been sent into the Hudson Bay country in quest of the
individual who had purchased the Little Brass God at the
pawnbroker's shop.

This, he argued, would be just about what Finklebaum would be
likely to do. On the discovery of his loss, he would naturally
seek some one familiar with the northern country and dispatch them
in quest of the lost prize. In case this should prove to be the
fact, the boy Thede might not have been taken into the confidence
of the two men.

He might be telling what he believed to be the truth concerning the
matter. The advantages to the pawnbroker of this secret
arrangement would be many. In the first place, anyone following
Pierre would naturally suppose him to be the person having
possession of the Little Brass God. This would naturally cau