“Let him eat,” said Malachi; “it’s long for a lad to be two days without food, for I’ll answer he left as soon as he heard we were gone, and did not wait for yesterday’s supper. Indeed, he must have done so, for he must have followed the trail some time yesterday to be up with us to-night; so let him eat in quiet.”
“What surprises me, Malachi, is how he could have found his way to us.”
“Well, sir, I do confess that I’m as much surprised almost as I am pleased,” replied Malachi. “It is really a great feat for a lad to accomplish all by himself, and I am proud of him for having done it; but from the first I saw what a capital woodsman he would make, and he has not disappointed me.”
“There are not many who would have been able to do it, that’s certain,” said Martin. “I wonder as much as you do, Mr Alfred, how he could have done it; but he has the gift.”
“But suppose he had not come up with us, how would he have lived in these woods? It is a mercy that he has fallen in with us,” said Captain Sinclair.
John slapped the barrel of his rifle, which was lying by him, and which Captain Sinclair had not perceived.
“You don’t think that John would come into the woods without his rifle, sir, do you?” said Malachi.
“I did not perceive that he had it with him,” said Captain Sinclair, “but I certainly ought to have known John better.”
John having finished his supper, they all lay down to rest, one keeping watch that they might not be surprised.
At daylight they made their breakfast, and then went down again to the borders of the lake, where the trail had been lost. After a long examination, Malachi called the Strawberry, and pointing to the edge of the water, asked her to look there. The Strawberry did so, and at last decided that there was the mark of the bottom of a canoe which had been grounded.