bit, and then come back here for breakfast."

They found nothing hostile in the forest, and when they returned to the
hollow the thin gray edge of dawn showed on the far side of the lake.
Having no fear of further attack, they lighted a small fire and warmed
their food. As they ate day came in all its splendor and Robert saw the
birds flashing back and forth in the thick leaves over his head.

"Where did the Ojibway get his canoe?" he asked.

"The Frenchmen like as not used it when they came down from Canada,"
replied the hunter, "and left it hid to be used again when they went
back. It won't be worth our while to look for it. Besides, we've got to
be moving soon."

After breakfast they carried their own canoe to the lake and paddled
northward to its end. Then they took their craft a long portage across a
range of hills and launched it anew on a swift stream flowing northward,
on the current of which they traveled until nightfall, seeing throughout
that time no sign of a human being. It was the primeval wilderness, and
since it lay between the British colonies on the south and the French on
the north it had been abandoned almost wholly in the last year or two,
letting the game, abundant at any time, increase greatly. They saw deer
in the thickets, they heard the splash of a beaver, and a black bear,
sitting on a tiny island in the river, watched them as they passed.

On the second day after Robert's escape from the tomahawk they left the
river, made a long portage and entered another river, also flowing
northward, having in mind a double purpose, to throw off the trail
anyone who might be following them and to obtain a more direct course