“Why, you’re suffering from mal de raquet. Dan’s right; we must stay here till you’re better—a day or two will fix that. Mustn’t try to travel with mal de raquet. It’s a mighty uncomfortable companion.”
At the end of two days, however, Paul was in fairly good condition again, and the journey was resumed without further interruption, save twice they were compelled by storms to remain a day in camp.
Two weeks had elapsed since leaving the post when finally, late one afternoon, Amesbury shouted back to the lads:
“Come along, fellows. We’re here at last.”
Ahmik had stopped and was shoveling snow with one of his snowshoes from the door of a low log cabin, half covered with drifts. It was situated in the center of a small clearing among the fir trees which looked out upon the white frozen expanse of South Indian Lake.
“This is our castle,” Amesbury announced as Paul and Dan joined him. “Here we’re to live in luxurious comfort. That’s the southern extremity of Indian Lake. What do you think of it?”
“’Tis a wonderful fine place t’ live in if th’ trappin’s good,” said Dan.
“It looks mighty good to me. What a dandy place it must be in summer!” Paul exclaimed.
Ahmik now had the door cleared and they entered. The cabin contained a single square room. At one side was a flat-topped sheet-iron stove, similar in design to the tent stove commonly in use in the north, but of considerably larger proportions and heavier material. Near it was a rough table, in the end opposite the door stood a rough-hewn bedstead, the bed neatly made up with white spread and pillow cases. A shelf of well-thumbed books—the Bible, Shakespeare, Thomas à Kempis, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Wordsworth’s Poems, Robinson Crusoe, Mother Goose’s Melodies, Aesop’s Fables, David Copperfield, and some random novels and volumes of travel and adventure. On one end of a second table, evidently used as a writing desk, were neatly piled old magazines and newspapers, on the other end lay some sheet music and a violin, and in the center were writing materials.