The camp was soon looking quite cozy again, when the tents had been placed and everything made snug.

"I'm going to like this place almost as well as the one under the cascade," remarked Will, who had been rather skeptical all along.

So the first evening came along, and supper was the same hearty, enjoyable meal they had always found it. The camp appet.i.tes worked overtime, the coffee tasted splendid, the elk steaks were just what each one had been hungering for, and as the cook supplemented these with a heaping platter of flapjacks the contentment of the four chums seemed complete.

"How long do we stay here, Mr. Mabie?" asked Bluff, never hesitating when in search of information.

"Possibly a week or so. Then back to the ranch, and a new line of experiences. This terribly dry weather is making me anxious, for the range is drying up, and we shall be hard set to find pasture for the cattle soon, unless rain comes along."

"Do you have such a dry spell in summer often up here?" asked Frank.

"Never saw the equal of this since I settled in the valley, many years ago. Now, down in Ohio, where I originally came from, they have drouths even in May, at times, and I've seen things go to the dogs more than once, gardens dried up, and even a forest fire in July, but never up here," replied the stockman.

"The woods look as though it wouldn't take a great deal to set them going," declared Frank. "One of the men threw a match down to-day, after lighting his cigarette, and it seemed like magic the way the fire flashed up. He had to be quick to jump on it before the breeze carried it along."

Mr. Mabie frowned.

"I won't ask you which man it was, Frank; but I must warn them again to be more than ordinarily careful about throwing matches around and leaving a fire burning anywhere in the woods. Many a grand forest has been ruined by such carelessness," he said.

"How does that happen, sir?" inquired Bluff.

"It is easy. The careless hunter or trapper leaves his dying fire when he breaks camp. Then up comes a sudden wind and some of the red cinders are blown into the dead leaves or punk gra.s.s. Fanned by the breeze, they become a roaring flame in a minute, and the mischief is done. Be careful, boys, please."

"We certainly will, sir," replied Frank sincerely. "Not to speak of the damage done, it must be mighty unpleasant to be caught in a forest fire.

I've read of such things, but never hankered for a personal experience."

On the following day they started to look into the possibilities for big game around the new camp.

"Reddy, here, says he knows of a bear den that we ought to visit some time later. While at it, you boys must see all there is going in the way of sport, for you may never come out this way again, though I hope that will not be the case. To-day, however, we will take things a bit easy,"

remarked the ranchman.

Although the stockman did not speak any plainer, Frank knew just what he meant.

"He thinks we must be feeling the effects of our little excitement yesterday, Jerry, and that the soreness in our muscles will take our ambition away for to-day," he said aside to his chum.

"Tell me about that, will you! To prove that we're tougher than Mr.

Mabie thinks, let's you and I engineer a little hunt of our own?"

proposed the other quickly.

Accordingly, they started out, going down the valley.

"The walk will do us good, anyhow," declared Frank, "even if we don't run across any big game."

"I was asking Mr. Mabie about moose, and he said that occasionally one is seen in this region, though generally they hang out further east.

I've always wanted to get a moose, but was never able to be up in the woods where they are found, when the law was off. How about you, Frank?

Ever shoot at one?"

"Never had that luck, though I've seen many in the summer time, in Maine. Somehow, it seems to go against the grain doing this hunting at such a queer time. I guess it won't be long before they have as strict laws up here as we have to protect such game as deer and elk."

"How about panthers and grizzlies?" asked Jerry.

"They don't want to protect those fellows. You've got a right to knock one over, or a wolf, any time you want, if he doesn't get you first,"

laughed Frank.

An hour later they separated, Frank to look along one ridge, while Jerry had taken a notion to see what the other might have in the shape of game.

Frank spent quite a long time scouring the woods that covered the side of the valley. He had not put up anything worth while, and was even thinking about heading back to the place where he had agreed to meet his chum, when a distressing little accident occurred.

Just as he was hurrying down a steep bank his foot caught in a vine, and he was hurled forward with such violence that his head, coming in contact with the hard ground, received such a blow that he was rendered unconscious.

Frank never knew just how long he remained insensible. It might have been only a few minutes, or perhaps half an hour slipped by while he lay there. When he finally opened his eyes he looked up into a dusky face, and realized that it belonged to an Indian!

CHAPTER XVII

AT THE CAMPFIRE OF THE CREES

Frank was not at all alarmed. In the first place, he had been a.s.sured by Mr. Mabie that these Crees were not inclined to be hostile. Then, again, he saw that it was no fierce face of a warrior that bent over him, but the pitying one of a child.

"h.e.l.lo! Who are you?" he asked, a little weakly, for his head was still swimming more or less from his shock.

"Little Mink," came the reply, though the boy apparently had to nerve himself to keep from running away.

"And you found me knocked out, did you? What are you doing here, Little Mink?" Frank sat up as he spoke, though he realized that he would be unsteady on his feet when he tried to stand.

"Teepee down by river, not far off. Little Mink have snare for rabbit.

Him go see if ketch one, find paleface here. Think dead, then him open eyes. Good!"

Frank was amused at the air of the little fellow. He knew something about the ways of civilized Indians, having been among them in Maine, hence he could see that this boy was endeavoring to ape the manners of his elders.

"Would you help me get down to your camp, Little Mink? I feel weak after my tumble, and my own camp is far away," he said.

Now, Frank knew very well that a loud shout would, in all probability, have fetched Jerry to the spot. He had an object in making this appeal to the Indian lad, and watched his dusky face closely as the other considered the proposal.

Perhaps Frank, fearing a refusal, may have put on more agony than the state of his feelings really warranted. At any rate, he succeeded in swerving the boy from a condition of caution to that of sympathy.

"Little Mink help. Him lead paleface to teepee," he said, and the look that accompanied the words told Frank as plainly as words could have done that the boy was trusting in his honor not to betray them.

Accordingly, he hung on to the lad, and in this fashion they went for half a mile or so, when the river was reached. Presently Frank discovered signs of a camp not far in the distance. A little pale smoke was rising over the thicket, and he also saw a conical skin teepee, while on the sh.o.r.e were three bullboats.

As Little Mink came into camp, a.s.sisting the white hunter, several squaws began an excited jabber that brought out a couple of bucks.

"A hungry-looking lot all around," was the mental comment of the young hunter.

He had seen that Little Mink did not look as though he had enjoyed a bountiful share of food lately, and the rest of the party were certainly no better off.