WOODCRAFT.
Nothing more was said about the ashes of the dead fire left behind by some party that had recently been there, until the trout had been deliciously cooked and eaten. All of them declared that they had never tasted finer flavored fish than those big gamey fellows of that Far North river. It really seemed that the further they journeyed toward the Arctic Circle the sweeter the trout became.
"They were pretty big fellows, too," Frank Shaw said, as they sat there filling up with dinner.
"Never saw larger ones, only in the Lake Superior region," Ned confessed; "and eight-pounders are common along the northern shore where several small rivers empty into the lake. I saw a bunch of that size at the Government fish hatchery at the Soo when I passed through there on a steamboat, and shot the rapids with the Indian guides. They were dandies, I tell you, boys. Think of it, genuine speckled trout weighing eight pounds, and every ounce of them fighting weight too."
Finally, when they were all ready to cry quits, having had a glorious meal, Ned thought of what the veteran guide had said about that dead fire.
"Now suppose you and Tamasjo take a good look at the ashes, and the lay of the land around, so as to tell us what you can read there," he told the voyageur.
At that some of the other boys began to stare, for they had heard nothing up to then about the late presence of others on the spot. But they knew Ned well enough to be sure that he had some good object in saying what he did; and accordingly all of them flocked after the two guides when they made for the nearby spot where even Jimmy had noticed the remains of a fire.
The scouts remained quiet while Francois and the Cree got down on hands and knees the better to examine into the signs. Ned and some of his chums would themselves have been easily able to read certain things in connection with these ashes. For instance, remembering that it had rained most of the second day before, and there was no sign of water about the ashes, they would have set it down as positive that the fire had been made afterwards. That was an easy thing to make out; and perhaps there were others they could figure; but when in the presence of veterans Ned was only too willing to observe all that was done, and profit by it.
The two men did not confine themselves to sifting the ashes through their fingers, and comparing notes in a jargon which the boys could not understand, but which they imagined must be Cree talk.
They moved further away, and looked the ground over.
"I noticed that there were plenty of hoof tracks around here," Jimmy up and declared; "but say, it never flagged me that a fellow could learn a heap from just stickin' his nose down close to such. 'Tis a safe bet we'll know everything but the names of the gossoons before Francois and his red pal quit."
Some of the others were feeling the same way. They too had noticed that there were plenty of footprints around, but being more interested in the feast then being prepared, they had not thought fit to bother about giving the same more than a casual glance.
On Ned's part, he would have devoted some of his time to this business only for the promise of the voyageur to read the signs after they had eaten.
After some little time had passed Francois came and stood before them. His face was almost as inscrutable as that of the Sphinx, or a Cree Indian. Whatever the character of his finding, it did not show outwardly.
"Well, how about these men, Francois; they must have been here last night, you think, don't you?" Ned started to ask him.
"Eet is so, sare. Zey leave zis place just same time we be saying bon jour to our own camp up ze rivaire."
"How many were they?" was Ned's next question; for Francois could not tell his story at length, but seemed to wait to have it drawn from him piece-meal as though he might be a willing witness in the box.
"Thirteen, all men at zat."
"Hunters, trappers, miners, or prospectors?" demanded Ned.
That caused the other to give one of his suggestive shrugs.
"Nozzing like zat right now, sare," he went on to declare, so positively that it was evident he had found the Indian also agreed with him. "Some of zat crowd zey wear ze moccasin ze same as Tamasjo here. Ozzers have boots wiz ze heel. But zey carry no traps along wiz zem, I tell you zat, sare."
"And if they were miners intending to work in the holdings of the syndicate they would have carried tools along, picks, shovels and the like?" remarked Jack.
Francois shook his head in the negative.
"Nozzing like zat, pelieve me, sare," he urged.
"Well, go on and tell us what you think they may be," Ned pursued.
"I zink they pe a pad crowd," answered the guide. "Zis tells ze tale," and he held up some greasy cards which he must have gathered in the bushes behind the rocks near which the dead ashes lay.
Tamasjo also stooped and lifted something that glittered in the sunlight. When the scouts saw that it was a suspicious looking black bottle, they could guess as to what the nature of its recent contents had been. Nevertheless, it was passed around and every fellow had a chance to take a sniff at it.
"Deadly stuff, sure as you're born!" Jimmy pronounced, making a wry face.
"Whisky or old rye or something like that," Frank declared; and it spoke well for those five boys that no one was positively able to identify the odor, though well knowing its general character as an aid to drunkenness.
"That seems to settle it, so far as the tough kind of men they were," Ned continued; "and now we want to try and find out if they were looking for us to come down the river; and also, try and guess where they've gone to. They had boats, of course, Francois?"
The guide held up two fingers.
"Batteau, plenty room in same for all. Tamasjo and me, we tink zey haf gone down stream. Pig bay lie only half-day's journey zat way. Eef we go on, mebbe so we arrive zere by night. Better hold up, and make ze last part of ze trip in ze dark, so zat zey no see us."
"I understand what you mean, Francois," the patrol leader hastened to say; "and it sounds good to me, I admit. When we do go down to the salt water we will take advantage of your advice."
"What's that, Ned," broke in Jack; "you don't mean to say there's any doubt about our going down, sooner or later, do you?"
"Oh! no, we're bound to see the famous Hudson Bay before we leave this section," the other assured him; "but I've been thinking things over, and come to a certain conclusion."
"Let's hear what it is, won't you, Ned?" Jimmy besought him.
"Yes, that is if Francois is through telling us about these parties."
"How about that, Francois?" Ned asked, turning to the voyageur.
"Eet is about all zat is worth knowing, sare. Of course, we haf learn zat zis man who is captaine to ze bunch, he is mooch pig, a giant, and zere is sooch a man I know whose name eet is Sol. Greggs; heem it might be who is conducting zis gang. He is a pad man, a thief who robbed traps many times, and so he gif me zis scar on ze cheek when we fight eet out."
"That sounds just like the kind of a rascal the syndicate would send up here to run things, if they were trying to work a tremendous swindle and expected to keep curious people from investigating," Jack boldly declared.
"But how about you telling what your plans are, Ned?" queried Frank.
"It's only fair you should know," replied the other; "so listen to what my idea is. In the first place, according to the map we have of the country up here, we believe that this supposed-to-be-wonderful mine must lie somewhere to the left of the mouth of this very river. Now it struck me that perhaps we might carry out our plans better if we hid our boats somewhere near by, and took a scout off in that direction."
"That does sound mighty sensible, Ned!" admitted Jack Bosworth, after considering the suggestion for a brief time.
"Suppose we try it," Frank added.
"One thing I like about the plan," Jimmy spoke up, "is that it will give us a chance to stretch our legs some. To tell you the truth, I'm getting tired of squatting there like a squaw in the tepee, with little or nothing to do. I like to carry out my share of the work; but you somehow seem afraid to let me paddle, just as if a reformed joker like me would be careless, or actually try to upset the old canoe. So I put my vote in as wanting to look for the mine over land."
Each of the other scouts quickly let it be known that they were in full sympathy with Ned's suddenly sprung plan. Of course, this would make some changes in their arrangements; but the more they looked it over, the better they all liked the idea.
"I'm chuckling to think how that bunch will keep on waiting for us to come down-stream," Frank observed, as they prepared to again enter the boats, since Ned did not mean to abandon the river craft until they had gone some distance further.
"There's only thing I hope won't happen," remarked Jack.
"And what might it be, if you don't mind telling?" Jimmy asked.
"We must be sure to hide our boats, so that there will be small chance of their being discovered by anybody," Jack continued, seriously. "Think what a dickens of a scrape we'd be in if we had to go back all the way afoot. It would take us many weeks, and chances are we'd be overtaken by winter before we got to civilization."
"Our ammunition wouldn't hold out that long," broke in Jimmy, visibly disturbed at the thought "and glory be, whatever would we do for grub to eat? It may be true that the rivers are full of fine trout, but me stomach would go back on me if so be I had to eat them every solitary day, week in and out."
"Oh! what would be the use of our being scouts if we didn't know how to trap animals and birds," Ned told him, reprovingly. "In fact, while, of course, I wouldn't say I'd like to have the experience, there's no doubt in my mind but that it would be a great education to the lot of us. And if we pulled through we'd feel as if we were fitted to go anywhere, under any conditions."
"Huh! after all we've experienced on our little trips," said Frank, "seems to me as if that would be only a walkover. For one, it doesn't faze me a whit. If Ned gave the word I'd start out with him to walk around the world, and with never a single cent in our pockets to begin with. Chances are we'd land back in New York inside of two years millionaires. That would be just like it. All the same I think we ought to cover our canoes, and keep them from falling into the hands of enemies. It is a pretty husky tramp from here to Montreal, and over tough country at that, with rivers to cross, and bogs miles around to avoid."
"Excuse me, if you please," muttered Jimmy, whose desire for a chance to stretch his legs did not contemplate such an extended trip as walking all the way to the metropolis on the St. Lawrence.
They were soon speeding down-stream again. Other small rapids they came upon, but none of the same dimensions as the cataract lately passed.
Jimmy was presently observed making gestures, and having drawn the attention of those in the nearby canoes to himself, he called out:
"Sure it's a connecting link with home!"
"What is?" demanded Jack.
"Be after dipping your hand over the side, and tastin' the water!" replied the scout who was in the boat with Tamasjo and Frank.
Upon doing so, Ned, who had quickly guessed what Jimmy meant, found that there was indeed a brackish taste to the water, as though the influence of the great tides of Hudson Bay might be felt this far up the stream; it would have gone much further only for the numerous rifts that told of a descent of several feet in the drop of the river.
Ned concluded that they had gone quite far enough for the present. Upon asking the voyageur, he learned that they could reach the mouth of the river inside of a couple of hours, if they chose to use their paddles in addition to the set of the now sluggish current of the widening stream.
"Keep on the watch for a suitable hiding place for the boats," he told the others, "and remember, it must be on the larboard side, because that's the way we expect to tramp in search of the wonderful copper mine."
Every one after that kept on the alert for such a place as would be suitable for the purpose to which they intended to put it. Of all the five scouts, it seemed the irony of fate that Jimmy should actually be the one to first make a discovery.
"I'm only a dub at this business, I know," he said after a while, with a grin on his freckled face, that was almost as red as his hair, thanks to the action of the summer sun and the winds they had encountered; "yes, only a tyro, so to speak; but d'ye know it strikes me that over yonder amongst the canes the canoes would lie so snug and unbeknown that nothin'd bring harm to the same, while we chanct to be awanderin' around."
Ned being close by gave one look and then laughed.
"Jimmy, I want to tell you right now," he remarked, "that if you'd only devote more of your time to scout lore you'd be a wonder. That growth of thick reeds is just a dandy place to do the business, and on the proper side of the river at that. We can push in, each following exactly in the wake of the preceding boat. Jack and myself will bring up the rear, and carefully fix the reeds again, so that no one on the river ten feet away would dream that boats had made a passage there. Head in, fellows, and pick out your way carefully, making only one track or channel."
This, those in the foremost canoe did, and close behind them came the second boat, the paddler using his blade with extreme caution, so as not to disturb the reeds more than was absolutely necessary. Finally, Jack and Ned wound up the procession, the latter kneeling in the stern of the canoe, where he could use his hands dextrously and swiftly cause the bent-over canes to resume their former position. In this fashion then they finally came to the land, still surrounded by the little wilderness of reeds, out of which they could emerge as soon as the boats were securely fastened.