--< 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]