To find this was a hard problem; to find McGuire's hiding spot for his money more so. It meant trailing a human being of greater cunning than any animal that roamed this wilderness; and yet with the double incentive of robbing and revenge now decided upon by this half-breed, he set about solving it. A day's journey up the Fox Hole brought him to the carry over into another stream, and here a probably month-old trail, crossing and recrossing it, was found. Whoever left the tell-tale footprints wore boots, and as McGuire was the only hunter or trapper in this region known to wear them, this seemed evidence that it was he. Then as two trails led over, with only one returning, that proved he had made two trips across to carry his canoe and belongings and had not returned. This was plain enough, but when once over, the question of whether he went up or down stream was another matter. It was an even chance, however, and Pete decided to go up, and keep sharp watch for any signs which would indicate that he was on the right track. To trail any animal in this wilderness was child's play to Pete; but to follow another trapper journeying by canoe was not so easy. Halts for night camps he must of course make, collections of drift in some narrow part of the stream he would inevitably disturb, and where a carry around a rapid came, a trail would be left. These were the only signs possible to discover, and for these Pete now watched. The slow-running waterway he ascended the first day wound through a stately forest of spruce. Its banks were low and well defined, yet always covered by undergrowth. No breaks in them, no openings where a night halt would naturally be made; but ever of the same unvarying character, and shadowed by the overhang of interlaced boughs. With one eye keen to any even the slightest signs of human progress up this stream, and ears ever alert, Pete paddled on. Wildwood sights and sounds, however, were met in plenty. Once a lordly moose, seeing or smelling him, snorted and plunged away, crashing through the undergrowth. Deer were seen or heard at every turn of the stream, and dozens of muskrats were noticed swimming or diving off the bank, with now and then an otter or a mink, to vary this monotony.