Jack expected that they would head down the lake toward the Donahue camp, as he had no idea that the men were other than employed by Big Ben. But, to his surprise, they soon turned north and, after proceeding in this direction for an hour or more, bore sharply to the east. Whither they were bound he had not the least idea, as they were now in a stretch of country strange to him. He knew that there were no towns for many miles in that direction, the section being probably the wildest in all Maine. Not a word was spoken as they hurried along, covering mile after mile.
Jack’s legs were beginning to ache and his breath was coming in short pants when, suddenly, they emerged from the dense woods onto the shore of a lake.
“If I’m not mistaken this is Chesuncook Lake,” he thought as the men came to a halt, and for the first time since they had started began to talk in the French language. Jack could understand French fairly well, but they talked so rapidly and with a dialect which he had never heard before, that although he was able to catch a word here and there, he was unable to get the drift of the conversation.
Evidently Jack was not the only one who was tired, for they rested for nearly a half hour before they started again. Their way now led straight across the lake, which was about two miles wide at that point. On reaching the opposite shore, they plunged again into the deep forest which lined the bank. The men did not now seem to be in as great a hurry as at first, and for this Jack was very thankful, as he was very tired and felt that he would not be able to keep up the pace they had been going much longer.
It must have been nearly two hours later, and the boy had about decided to refuse to go any farther, when suddenly a small log cabin loomed out of the darkness directly in front of them. Much as he loathed the two Frenchmen, Jack could not but feel a thrill of admiration for the way in which they had steered a straight course through the pathless forest when it was so dark it was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.
“They must have cats’ eyes,” he thought as they stopped in front of the cabin.
The door was not locked and, without hesitation, one of the men pushed it open and stepped inside.
“Geet in thar,” the other man ordered, as he pushed Jack ahead of him.
It was pitch dark in the room, but the men were evidently familiar with the location of things, for in a moment the one who had entered first had a lamp lighted. For an instant the light dazzled Jack’s eyes so that he was obliged to close them. When he opened them a moment later he saw that he was in a cabin which evidently had been occupied at some not very distant date. The room contained but little furniture, two or three common straight backed chairs, a rough table, and a well battered iron stove was all, with the exception of a couple of rude bunks built one above the other against one side of the room. In the corner of the room was a pile of stove wood and in another a crude closet. The cabin held but the single room.
“Geet the fire goin’ Pierre, and I’ll see what I can find to eat,” ordered the larger of the two men.