Part 16 (2/2)

”It can't be helped,” declared Hamp ”We don't want to travel in the rain Keep your spirits up, old fellow The tiht it won't,” assented Jerry ”We've got a lot to do First of all, the catamount must be taken away froht to make a search back in the woods for those men I'm worried about thereed to postpone the expedition until afternoon

The boys went back to the cabin, and tied a rope about the catareat deal of trouble, they succeeded in dragging the body to the mouth of the tunnel

Then they set to ith sharp knives and reood condition The carcass was hauled out on the ice, where it would ultimately be devoured by wolves

After a cold dinner, the boys donned snowshoes and oilskin coats and sallied forth again They traveled down the lake as far as the point where they had seen theThen they entered the forest, and tramped backward and forward for several hours

But not a trace could be found of the two prospectors, Raikes and Bogle, or their ca and carefully, and varied their shouts by firing guns at frequent intervals No reply caned in the forest

”It's no use,” declared Jerry ”We ive up and return I don't suppose the men had more than a campfire, and the traces of that are buried under the snow”

”But what became of them?” asked Hamp

”I don't know,” replied Jerry ”I'm sure they're not dead, anyhow”

”I'll bet they packed up and left for a safer neighborhood as soon as they knew the stor,” said Brick ”They didn't leave since, for ould see their tracks on the snow”

”That's about it,” assented Jerry ”No doubt they struck back toward the mountains They didn't worry about us, for Raikes kne snugly ere fixed”

This solution to the mystery was accepted, and the boys returned to their camp

On the way back Jerry shot a brace of spruce partridges, and these made a savory supper, varied with two fresh pickerel which Ha fire was made at the mouth of the tunnel, and here the meal was cooked and eaten

Jerry's prediction as to the weather had co, and the air was much crisper and colder By nine o'clock the stars were shi+ning from a steel-blue sky

The boys went to bed early, so as to be fresh for the morrow's journey

They rose at daybreak, hurried down a cold breakfast, and packed the sleds This was a task that required somented by the catamount's skin and the antlers of the buck

Then, with feelings of ret and pleasure, the boys looked their last on the snug little cabin where they had witnessed such stirring scenes, and crawled through the tortuous passages of the tunnel, dragging the sleds behind them They strapped on their snowshoes, and started directly across the lake

The walking was h here and there was a for wind

The distant line of forest gradually beca travelers reached the eastern shore of Moosehead Lake They were not more than two miles from the upper end, and after a brief consultation, they decided to push straight on for Chesumcook Lake, which was about twenty hborhood,” Jerry assured Brick ”Ga-places Chesu lake, only it's narrow The Penobscot River flows out of it”

Brick illing to do anything that his corant spruce woods, and pushed rapidly over the crusted snow