"Well, don't shoot more than half a dozen minks—or half a dozen deer, either!" shouted Uncle Barney after them; and then they started off and were soon out of sight, skating along the eastern shore of Snowshoe Island.
Left to himself, Uncle Barney began to pace the floor of his cabin impatiently. Evidently the old lumberman was turning over something in his mind—something which bothered him a great deal.
"Of course they are safe!" he murmured to himself. "It couldn't be otherwise. The last time I looked, the tin box was just where I had left it. I don't see why I should get so nervous over it."
Presently he drew out his pipe, filled it, and sat down in front of the fire to smoke. As he did this, a slight noise outside the cabin attracted his attention.
"I wonder what that was?" he asked himself, and, arising, looked out of one of the cabin windows. Then he went to the door and gazed around. No one was in sight, and he closed the door again.
"Must have been the wind, or something like that," he murmured. "Or else I'm getting more nervous than I ever was before. Now that I've got used to those boys around, it seems dreadfully lonely when they are gone;" and he heaved a deep sigh.
He remained in front of the fire for the best part of half an hour. Then, as if struck by a sudden determination, he leaped up, knocked the ashes from his pipe, and began to put on his snowshoes. He donned his heavy coat and his cap, locked up his cabin, and strode off in the direction of the heavy woods in the center of the island.
Although Barney Stevenson was not aware of it, the noise he had heard while seated before the open fire had betokened something of importance. Entirely unknown to the old lumberman or to the Rover boys, Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell had arrived in the vicinity of the two cabins on the northern point of the island. Both of the youths were armed, but they approached the cabin occupied by the old lumberman with the greatest of secrecy.
"It looks like another wild-goose chase to me," growled Slugger Brown, when they were close to the place. "We've been here three times now, and the old man hasn't done a thing out of the ordinary."
"Well, we're sure of one thing, anyway," Nappy replied. "He hasn't got those deeds anywhere around that cabin—or at least no place where we could locate them."