--< TO CARIBOO AND BACK }--

growing along it?” queried Jim as he pointed
the place out.

“Yes, I see. It’s just like other places.
Do stay with us!”

“There’s water there, and there’ll be deer
coming down presently from those hills to
drink,” he waved towards a distant ridge, “‘and
I’m going to bag one of them!’ ‘

“James O’Brien,” his mother burst out,
“yell be worrying me to death, ye will! It'll
be dark in two hours and those woods do be
quite a ways from the trail and no place to be
spending the night in.”’

“Now, Mother, who talked about spending
the night there? Not I, for one! This is the
time of day to nab the deer. Think of the fresh
deer’s meat we'll have if my luck’s good! Bet-
ter than pemmican, eh, Betty?”

But Betty only repeated, ‘‘I wish you’d stay
here with Arthur and me. I’m so lonely with
you gone all the time.”

The mention of Arthur’s name made Jim
glance in his direction and he was taken aback
by the eager gleam he caught in the boy’s eye
as he looked up. What did it mean? It couldn’t

[90]