"That's a good suggestion," said Mr. Waterman.
"We can easily do it in a day," said Pud.
"Possibly not," said Mr. Waterman. "We'll take sufficient grub for a week for we do not know just where our search may lead us. We may come out on the Portneuf River, fifty or sixty miles away."
"I didn't think of that," said Pud.
They were soon ready. Mr. Waterman and Pierre brought along their guns. The party was made up of the three boys, the two leaders just mentioned and Mr. Anderson. They were soon over in to the second lake. There they stopped to fish, except Mr. Waterman, who went off to one end of the lake as he thought that he was pretty sure to bag a duck or two there. He was right, as his gun was heard occasionally during the next two hours. The fishing was fine and when Mr. Waterman returned with six fine young ducks, the boys knew that they were going to have a big supper again. They had lunch and then went on to the cabin. They determined to stay there all night and just explore the gulch.
"I have often been up on the sides of this gulch but I have never been down here to see what was here," said Mr. Anderson.
Behind the cabin they found an excellent spring with a little stream leading away from it.
"I guess we'll make no mistake if we take this spring for a starting point to-morrow. This stream will surely lead us out of the gulch, as it must have an outlet," said Mr. Waterman.
"There is sure to be an outlet because there is no lake here," said Bob.
The stream led them further down the gulch and they found themselves going down even further. When they had reached a point about a half mile from the cabin, they found that the path they had been following stopped and turned up the hill. This was not the path they had previously noted as leading to the top of the mountain.