e the boys?" asked the visitor.

"Who are you?" demanded Will.

"Pierre!" was the short reply.

"Why do you ask about the boys?"

Pierre explained in broken English that one of the boys who
evidently belonged to the camp had coaxed his companion away.

"Who is your companion?" asked Will, "and why do you come here
looking for him? Who was it that visited your cabin?"

Pierre laboriously explained what had taken place on the previous
evening, and Will listened with an anxious face.

"And you left them there together, and when you returned they had
disappeared? Is that what you mean to say?"

Pierre nodded.

"He coax my boy away," he said sullenly.

"Is this boy you speak of your son?" asked Will.

"Chicago boy!" was the reply.

"Why don't you go on and tell me all about the boy and about
yourself?" inquired Will. "What's the use of standing there
grunting and trying to make me understand nods and scowls?"

Pierre explained that he had been in Chicago to see the sights, had
fallen in with Thede, and agreed to bring him into the forest with
him. His explanation was not very clear as he talked more mongrel
French than English, so Will was not very well informed at the end
of the recital. Pierre looked suspicious as well as disappointed.

"Well," Will explained to the half-breed after a moment's
deliberation, "I suppose you'll turn in now and help me find the
boys!"

Pierre nodded and pointed toward the campfire.

"Build him big!" he said. "Boys come cold."

Accepting the hint, Will piled great logs on the fire while the
half-breed looked sullenly on. The boy then dressed himself in his
warmest clothing and the two set out together.

"Have you any idea which way to go?" asked the boy.

Pierre pointed away to the south.

"Wind blow that way," he said. "They follow the wind."

Numerous times, as the two tramped through the snow together, Will
caught the half-breed looking in his direction with eyes of hate.

After proceeding some distance, he fell in behind Pierre, and so
the two traveled through the wilderness, each suspicious and
watchful of the other. After walking an hour or more they came to
a place where Tommy and Sandy had built their fire on the previous
night.

There the half-breed read the story written upon the snow like a
book. Pointing here and there, he explained to Will that two boys
had been caught in the storm and had built a fire. He showed, too,
that a third boy had