As the two boys were coming out of the big gate, after their tour of inspection, Walter, who was ahead, caught sight of a tall figure disappearing around one corner of the stockade. He glanced towards the shore. The boats were deserted. The voyageurs had sought friends within the stockade or in the tents and cabins outside the walls. The Swiss were visiting the fort or wandering about the point.
“Do we take on more supplies here?” Walter asked his companion.
“If we can get them,” Louis returned. “They can spare little here, they say. Are you so starved that you think of food all the time?” he questioned smilingly.
“No, I’m not quite so hungry as that. I just saw Murray carrying a sack, and I wondered what he had.” Louis looked towards the boats. “Where is he? I don’t see him.”
“He didn’t go to the boat. He was coming the other way. He went around the corner of the wall.”
“With an empty sack?”
“No, a full one.”
Louis stared at the corner bastion. “He was going around there, carrying a full sack? You are sure it was Murray?”
“I saw his back, but I’m sure. He has that red handkerchief around his head, you know.”
“Well, it was not anything for us he was taking in that direction,” Louis commented, “and we brought nothing to be left at Norway House. It is some affair of his own. He——”