“No,” returned Oscar, “that fellow and his Indian friends are nearly always away at this time of year. You say you saw them in the woods, but they must have gone back again, for there has not been a sign of life about their cabin. His place is over opposite us on the spur of Jasper Peak; you can see it plainly enough by daylight. Every season about this time they go down-State to sell their furs and have a final spree before they come back for the winter. He is an ugly neighbor, Half-Breed Jake is, when he has just had his fling. He does not ever like to stay away very long, for he likes to watch the place and drive out any one that might try to settle hereabouts.”
“But he hasn’t driven you out,” said Hugh. “Has he tried?”
“Oh, yes, he has tried,” replied Oscar cheerfully, “but he hasn’t succeeded yet.”
They set out very early the next morning, having arisen before sun-up to get their work done and to cook the dinner they were to carry with them. Oscar took down his spare rifle from where it hung upon the wall and gave it to Hugh.
“You may have a chance at a partridge or even a deer,” he said. “You had better take it along.”
They walked down past the spring into the thickly wooded ravine with its little stream that separated them from Jasper Rock. At one point they could look up and see even more plainly than from the hill above, the Pirate’s cabin. It was a tumbledown log building with a few rude outhouses and ragged fences. A black hen rose suddenly from a tuft of weeds at their feet and ran squawking up the hill toward her unlovely home.
“I hardly know how his stock keeps alive while he is gone,” observed Oscar, “but the creatures are all half wild, anyway, and used to ranging the woods and foraging for themselves.”
After they had tramped some distance, Oscar decreed that they were to separate.
“See,” he said, showing Hugh the map, “here are these two little streams flowing on each side of this hill, and joining where we are now. You follow this one, going up and down the slope on one side of the ravine to find traces of where the boys might have passed by or camped. When you reach the swampy land where the stream rises, turn back and come down the other side. Then when you get to where the two streams meet, follow up the other branch in the same way. It will take you nearly all day to do that and to come back here, where it is easy enough to find the way home.”
Hugh agreed to follow these instructions carefully and went off, a good deal elated at being trusted to search alone. He found the ravine narrow and the going very rough. He clambered laboriously up and down, up and down, finding nothing but some very old deer tracks and the footprints of some little wood animals that he could not identify. Before long he grew hot and rather tired and sat down by the stream to rest. He began to wonder if there were not some easier way of performing the task and presently decided that there was. The valley was so small that he felt he could easily examine both slopes at once; then, when he reached the marsh, he could cut across the intervening hill and follow the other fork down to the point of junction. His journey from Rudolm had made him feel quite like an experienced woodsman already, so that he felt very confident that he had thought of a better plan than Oscar’s. He pushed on resolutely and reached the headwaters of the creek about noon. There he ate his lunch, rested a little and then turned gayly to clamber up the hill.