"The canoe wants a patch on her bilge," he said. "Could you sew on a bit of the thin cedar with the copper wire, Graham? There's some caulking gum in the green can." "It would take me a day to make a neat job." "No hurry," replied Carnally. "The outlet from the lake's just beyond that rise and it looks pretty good. When you have finished the canoe, you and Andrew could take her down and wait for me where the creek runs into the river we're looking for." "It would be hard work at the portages. But why aren't you coming with us?" Andrew asked. "I ought to make the creek where Mappin cached the first lot of stores for our other trip in about two days' march." "We have enough without them." "That's so. Anyhow, I want to look at the cache. Stores are a consideration on a trip like this; the less you have to pack over the portages, the quicker you can travel. Though we didn't find it, Mappin knows where the cache was made." "I don't see the drift of this," Andrew said. Carnally smiled. "Hasn't it struck you that we might be followed? Sending up the canoe and camp truck would show the people at the Landing that we were ready to start, and Mappin knows our line roughly as far as the cache. You can't make camp and haul across brush portages without leaving a trail." "Ah! That makes one think. Of course, we would have no legal claim to the lode unless we got our stakes in before anybody else." "It's not enough. You have to get back to a government office and file your record before you're safe. Well, considering everything, I guess I'll start for the cache at sun-up." The others agreed to this and after he left the next morning they set to work on the canoe and repaired her satisfactorily. Then they launched her on the outflowing stream and a few days later made camp on the bank of a larger river, where they sat beside their fire late at night. The gorge was filled with the clamor of rushing water, but the night was very still, and they could hear sounds in the bush through the deep-toned roar of the flood. Outside the glow of the fire, which fell on the straight spruce trunks, there was nothing to be seen; but they sat listening, for Carnally had been longer than he expected and Andrew was anxious. At last, Graham raised his hand. "I heard something!" Andrew turned his head, but for a while could hear only the hoarse turmoil of the river. Then he started as a faint crackle came out of the shadows. It rose again, more clearly, and presently a man's dark shape emerged from the gloom. A few moments later Carnally threw off his pack and sat down by the fire, his boots badly ripped and his clothing tattered. "I struck some pretty rough country," he explained. "The creek winds a lot and I came across the range." "Did you find the cache?" Andrew asked. "Sure! It had been opened not long before and provisions taken out." Graham moved abruptly. "I suppose the things couldn't have been taken by Indians?"