"Think of the use for our traps back in those wooded hills. Why, I wager we shall lay in a store of pelts the first winter five times as great as ever happened in Virginia. But how glad I am the dreadful journey is done. Kate and mother both stood it better than father expected. How brave they are, and what a blessing it is to have such a mother and sister."
Bob's eyes filled while he was speaking; but they were tears of gratitude, not sorrow.
Sitting there, and gazing as if fascinated out upon the broad and majestic stream which from this time on was fated to enter so deeply into their new life, Bob did not notice that his younger brother was wandering around the place. Sandy had always been as curious as any woman, and this propensity had more than a few times brought him face to face with trouble.
It was perhaps half an hour after the five hunters had left them when Bob suddenly aroused to the fact that for some time he had not heard anything from his brother.
"I wonder where he can be?" he said to himself a little anxiously as he scrambled to his feet to glance around. "Strange that he is not in sight. Perhaps after all he did lie down, and in this warm sunshine has gone to sleep."
The idea pleased him, and he started to search for some sign of the missing one.
Three minutes, five passed, and still he had not discovered Sandy. He had not as yet called, thinking that there was no need.
"Perhaps I can track him," Bob said to himself, as he once more reached the spot where he had been reclining.
It was not very difficult to ascertain where the footprints of his brother made a distinct trail, for, although Sandy wore moccasins, the soil was soft, and he had not been at any pains to hide his tracks.
So Bob moved along, to the right and to the left, just as Sandy had happened to make his way when investigating the site for the proposed settlement. Thus by slow degrees he found himself doubling on their own trail.