--«¢f To CARIBOO AND BACK }—-
mals had been led to their railing and tied up
and the last things were carried on the raft and
the cry was, “All aboard!”

Mary had been very busy herself that last
hour, for she had discovered a ciump of hazel
trees and had set to work like any squirrel to
gather the nuts, beating them off the branches
and storing them in a bag; thinking all the time
how Betty and the two boys would enjoy a
handful of nuts to vary their coarse food and
scant rations. One ear she kept open for a
possible shot from Jim’s gun. He would not
waste precious powder, that she knew, and if
he shot at all she hoped it would mean game for
the pot. She had no anxious thoughts for Betty,
who generally followed the professor around
when they were in camp.

This morning, however, the professor and
his companion had been doing some mending
on their dugout, stopping a tiny crack that had
appeared, and at the time that Jacques yelled,
“All Aboard!” he and John Nott were ready
with their paddles to push out into the stream.
For once they had decided to go ahead of the
others.

Jim and Arthur had emerged from the for-

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