--{ TO CARIBOO AND BACK }—

Arthur laughed as he pointed to the deer’s
carcass.

“Not right off,” Jim agreed. “All the same
you're a better fellow than I took you to be,
Arthur, and I might as well say it first as last.”

Not a word from Arthur, only his pale face
flushed with pleasure.

Jim was the first to speak again, prosaically
as usual: “Guess the professor’s nag had better
take half this load. Jinks is fagged out.”

“You're right, and Bony’s big; he can take
more than half. Let’s get at it.”

Together they cut the meat into quarters
and while they worked Jim gave a history of
his adventures and heard in return that the
party had only gone a few miles further on the
previous day. But as the morning’s trail was
clear and good they had made fifteen miles
before striking their noon camp by the side
of a creek. It was there that Arthur had left
them.

“Twenty miles to go,” Jim reflected, “before
we get to the creek. If they had any trouble
getting across, they would be delayed and would
not be very far ahead on the other side. Ten
or fifteen miles maybe.”

[104]