When the half-breed, Pete Bolduc, reached Tim's Place, he was more dead than alive. A week of crawling through swamps, wading or swimming streams, sleeping under fallen trees, while sustaining life on frogs, raw fish, and one muskrat, had eliminated about all desire to obtain Chip, and left a murderous hate instead. And McGuire was its object. Pete reasoned that he had bought the girl and paid for her. Her father, never intending to keep faith, had connived at her escape, and knowing of these campers, had hired her for a serving maid, and they would inevitably take her out when they left. It was all a part of McGuire's plot and plan, and no doubt this stranger had also paid him for her possession. Two other facts also seemed proof positive that these conclusions were correct. First, McGuire had never been seen at Tim's Place since the girl's escape; second, it would have been impossible for her to reach these campers without aid. But she was lost to him for all time, as Pete now realized. The stern faces and ready rifles of her protectors had convinced him of that, and all that remained was to find McGuire, force him to give back the money, then obtain revenge. Neither was this an easy task, for McGuire was a dangerous man, as Pete well knew, and the more he considered the matter, sojourning at Tim's Place and nursing his hate meanwhile, the more he realized that the killing of McGuire must precede the obtaining of his money. And now, where to find McGuire became a question. Pete knew that at this season he usually devoted a month or more to a trapping trip, that in starting out he always ascended the Fox Hole, and that his location for this purpose was the head waters of another stream, reached by a carry from the Fox Hole. For a week Pete remained at Tim's Place, and then, obtaining a canoe, returned to his hut on this stream. And now, in the seclusion of his own domicile, certain other facts and conclusions bearing upon the present whereabouts of McGuire occurred to him. For many years they had been friends in a way, or at least as much so as two such scamps ever are. Together they had made many canoe trips to the Provinces to obtain liquor. In these expeditions, McGuire had furnished the means; but outlawed as he was, had remained in hiding while Pete transacted the business and later shared the profits. Pete's hut had also been used as headquarters, and near by it the smuggled liquor had been secreted. On rare occasions, also, McGuire had broken away from his usual abstemiousness, and here, with Pete for companion, had indulged in an orgie. At these times he invariably boasted how cunning he had been in eluding all hated officers of the law, how much money he was worth, and how securely he had it hidden. The one most pertinent fact, the location of this hiding spot, he never betrayed. But now Pete--almost as shrewd as he--reasoned that it would most likely be somewhere in this region annually visited by him.