They hurried forward. Martin MacLean had said the cache was in the third of the three big trees nearest the creek. They speedily reached the tree and Toma climbed it. He was gone for some time, Dick and Sandy straining their eyes upward through the dark foliage.
Toma came down much slower than he had gone up. As he dropped to the turf, Dick and Sandy awaited anxiously his report.
“Him gone,” said Toma briefly. “Cache not there!”
Dick’s eyes narrowed, and Sandy’s countenance grew glum indeed.
“Maybe this isn’t the tree,” Dick ventured.
“Him right tree,” Toma was certain.
“It must have been Govereau’s men,” Dick spoke, after a short silence.
“Mebbe so,” Toma grunted.
CHAPTER VIII
DICK DROPS A MOOSE
The loss of the cache, more than anything else, had cast its shadow of gloom over the spirits of Dick and Sandy. Toma, however, who had made the discovery, seemed not so deeply concerned.