For the remainder of the distance down the stream the current was rapid, and they made splendid time. It was only a little after two o’clock when the Indian guided the canoe to a sandy spot and informed them that they were at the end of their trip, so far as travel by water was concerned.
“We better hide the canoe in a safe place,” Bob declared, as he stepped onto the shore.
“You bet,” Jack agreed. “We don’t want to come back here and find it gone. We sure would be in a pickle then.”
“We find um good place hide him,” Kernertok assured them.
Bob and Rex insisted on carrying the canoe, although Jack declared that he was getting tired of being treated like a baby and Kernertok insisted that he was all right.
“Injun heap tough,” he said several times, but the boys would not give in to him.
So with the Indian leading the way, they plunged at once into the dense forest of spruce and pine. For fully a quarter of a mile they carried the canoe before they found a hiding place which satisfied them. A thick clump of cedars, growing so closely together that it was impossible to see more than a few feet into it, offered what seemed to all of them, a secure place.
Using the utmost care to break no branches, they dragged the canoe into the center of the clump. After they emerged, Kernertok carefully removed all traces of their presence.
“Nobody find um now,” the Indian assured them, as he looked toward the cedars.
“I’ll say they won’t,” Rex declared. “But are you sure that we can find it again?”