The incident did not seem to affect the appetites of the boys, for they attacked the fish industriously. When the meal was finished and the dishes cleared away; Will turned to his chums with a sober look on his face. When he spoke it was with suppressed excitement. "Do you boys know exactly why we are in the Hudson Bay country?" he asked, "How much did Mr. Horton tell you?"
"Nothing at all!" Tommy replied.
"He just told us to come with you!" George cut in.
"When I tried to cross-examine him," laughed Sandy, "he said he was afraid we wouldn't go if he told us what sort of a game we were mixing in."
"Well," Will went on in a moment, "he told me to tell you after we got into camp on Moose river."
"Go on and tell us, then," chuckled Tommy.
"I don't believe it's any great mystery!" Sandy interrupted.
"We came here," Will said, speaking seriously, "to find the Little
Brass God. Odd sort of a quest, that, eh?"
"What's the Little Brass God?" demanded Sandy.
"Did you think it was a load of hay?" asked Tommy. "The Little
Brass God is the Little Brass God. Didn't you know that?"