would travel by canoe up the Sturgeon River to Sturgeon Lake, take
portage to Lake Nipigon, and arrive at Wabinosh House before the ice of
early winter shut them in. There was little time to lose in making
preparations, and the fourth day following the receipt of Wabi's letter
found Rod and his mother waiting for the train which was to whirl the
boy into his new life. Not until the eleventh did he arrive at
Sprucewood. Wabi was there to meet him, accompanied by an Indian from
the Post; and that same afternoon the journey up Black Sturgeon River
was begun.



CHAPTER III

RODERICK SEES THE FOOTPRINT


Rod was now plunged for the first time in his life into the heart of the
Wilderness. Seated in the bow of the birch-bark canoe which was carrying
them up the Sturgeon, with Wabi close behind him, he drank in the wild
beauties of the forests and swamps through which they slipped almost as
noiselessly as shadows, his heart thumping in joyous excitement, his
eyes constantly on the alert for signs of the big game which Wabi told
him was on all sides of them. Across his knees, ready for instant use,
was Wabi's repeating rifle. The air was keen with the freshness left by
night frosts. At times deep masses of gold and crimson forests shut them
in, at others, black forests of spruce came down to the river's edge;
again they would pass silently through great swamps of tamaracks. In
this vast desolation there was a mysterious quiet, except for the
occasional sounds of wild life. Partridges drummed back in the woods,