nd
eggs, tea, cocoa, sugar, and butter, with various cooking utensils, his
medicine chest, a hurricane lamp, candles, and a can of oil. Rube had
made out a long list of their requirements, and busied himself
collecting them.

"How many blankets?" he inquired.

"None," Kiddie answered. "Two ground sheets an' our sleepin' bags 'll
be enough. An' we'll take the Indian teepee. It's better 'n a canvas
tent. Shift all these fixin's inter the garden, an' then we'll start
puttin' back everything we c'n do without. What d'you want the books
for? You'll have no time fer readin'; we'll talk instead. You c'n do
without a lookin' glass. Put tin dippers in place of the china cups
an' saucers. Where's the fryin'-pan? Don't ferget soap an' towels."

In the garden he rejected a surprising number of things which Rube had
thought necessary. He reduced the equipment to the smallest possible
bulk. Nevertheless, he forgot nothing that was essential and included
nothing which did not afterwards prove indispensable. The whole outfit
occupied only a small space in the canoe.

They were carrying the bundles down to the lakeside when Rube, who was
leading, stopped and looked back. Kiddie had come to a halt, and,
still with the wigwam poles over his shoulder, was staring curiously at
the ground at his feet.

"You passed by without noticin' that, Rube," he said, when the boy went
back to him. What he was staring at was the stub of a cigarette. "It
wasn't lyin' there when I went along here this mornin', I guess. You
c'n see by the ash that it hasn't been here long. Less'n an hour, I'd
say. Who dropped it, I wonder? There ain't anybody in this yer camp
smokes cigarettes."

He searched for footprints, but could discover none; a newly-broken
twig was all the sign that he could see. He glanced around among the
trees, but there was no visible movement, and a whip-poor-will was
singing undisturbed from a high bough of a balsam tree close at hand.

"No occasion ter worry about a trifle like that," he remarked, as he
went on in the direction of the lake. "All the same, I'm some curious."

He did not look back while carrying the long teepee poles through the
narrow ways between the closely-growing trees. Had he done so, even
the sureness and quickness of his eyesight might still have missed the
cleverly hidden form of Broken Feather, who lay at full length in the
midst of an elder bush, stealthily watching him.

CHAPT