But Tom took no note of the fact. He was utterly indifferent to everything around him, and it is hard to tell how he would have lived if he had not been cheered and sustained by the hope—which sometimes amounted to positive conviction—that there were brighter days in store for him, and that his affairs would soon take a turn for the better. He was in a very repentant frame of mind, and promised himself over and over again that, if he ever got back among civilized people, he would lead an honest and respectable life, in spite of all the temptations that could be thrown around him. His first hard work should be to return every cent of Mr. Smith’s money, and when that was done he would once more be able to look honest men in the face. The valley, which they reached at noon that day, was by no means as fine a hunting ground as Tom had expected to find it. It was not so well watered or so effectually protected from the storms as the one in which they had first taken up their abode, and consequently the deer, and the wolves that preyed upon them, were not found in any great numbers. Their want of success of course had its effect upon the temper of his partner, and for three long weeks he never spoke a civil word to Tom, who lived in constant apprehension of open violence. Lish grumbled every time the firewood gave out before morning, and swore whenever he looked at the very small supply of bacon and cracker they had left. Finding that he grew worse every day, Tom, who feared an outbreak above all the other evils that threatened him, gradually gave up wolfing and devoted himself to his camp duties; but not even the sight of the nice fat grouse that were set before him every night, and which Tom had snared in the neighboring woods, could put Lish in good humor. From this time forward Tom provided all the fresh meat that was served up in that camp, for Lish would not expend his ammunition on anything smaller than a deer, and that was an animal he did not often see. When Tom stopped putting out bait for the wolves he gave the wolfer another cause for displeasure, and the man took his own way to show how mad he was over it. One afternoon, when Tom came in from making the round of his snares, he was surprised to see that the skins they had captured, which were piled in one corner of the lean-to after being cured, had disappeared. Believing that the camp had been robbed during his absence, and that he would be sure to suffer for it when his partner returned at night, Tom threw down the grouse he had captured and made the circuit of the lean-to, looking for the robber’s trail. He found it after a short search, and the moment he saw it he knew that it had been made by Lish himself. He followed it up for a few hundred yards, taking care to step exactly in the wolfer’s tracks, and presently came within sight of a tree, which had been partly uprooted by the wind.