They cruised the country on all sides for likely lines for traps. They built a solid little hut of logs and poles, all complete with a hearth and chimney. They chinked the cracks in the walls with moss, the cracks in the chimney with clay, and made the roof tight with sheets of birch bark. Between bouts of construction work and exploration, Mark instructed Jim in the art of handling a canoe in still water. The nights fell suddenly from snappy to shivery. Mark made a horn of birch bark one night and, by producing a variety of grunts and gurgles and groans from it, lured a big bull moose into the open beside the lake. Jim shot the deluded creature by the light of the Hunter's Moon. They decided, next day, that one of them should take out the canoe and the moose-meat before the water-route was closed by ice; and that the other should remain on the ground and build a second hut six miles to the northward and then go south and east to the glen on foot; after which they would return together on the snow to Kettle Pond with traps and a toboggan and the balance of the winter's supplies. As Jim didn't know the way out across country he volunteered to take out the canoe and moose-meat. CHAPTER VIII THE QUEER OLD WOMAN Todhunter made the home trip safely, but not a day too soon. His work on the portages was doubled. Singlehanded, he had to go and come twice every time with the moose-meat and make a third round with the canoe. Strong as he was, he found the canoe a staggerer, for he had not yet acquired the trick of balancing it. He spent two days and several hours of a third in negotiating the reaches of rocks and white waters. But, once clear of the obstructed areas, he traveled with both speed and ease, running with the lively current and dipping the paddle occasionally with a twist or sweep. Rusty Trap Falls forced him ashore again to a short bout of carrying, but from that onward the way was swift and open. Following Mark's instructions, he descended Racket River to a point within twenty yards of the fork of the roads, there cached the canoe among the bushes and the meat in a tree and completed his homeward journey on foot. It was night and bitterly cold, with a skin of ice along the edges of the river and over every pool of still water, and the white stars fairly snapping. Jim reached the Ducat house at nine o'clock, found the family at home, and Melchior Hammond and another young man present. At sight of Jim, Flora jumped to her feet and upset the album, laughed and sat down again; Peter and Sam went out to hitch up and go after the canoe and moose-meat; and Mrs. Ducat stopped her rocking and darning and said, "Flora, you get a good hot supper for Jim with cream to his preserves." Melchior shook hands with Jim, inquired politely after Mark's health and whereabouts and then remarked that he guessed he might as well go along with the men as far as the fork of the roads.