"How is this, Francois, that you chose a place to make your fire that looks as if it might be second-best? According to my notion, over yonder is an ideal site for cooking fire."
When Ned said this the French-Canadian voyageur looked up and nodded.
"Eet is surely as you say heem be, but when I deescover zat zere haf been a pig party stop here mebbe last night, I tink you might vant me to look closer, and see vat ze signs say."
From his manner Ned understood that somehow Francois scented danger because of the presence of these men in this region. They might of course only prove to be miners sent up here by the syndicate that had obtained the right to the new mining region said to exceed in richness the famous Mesauba country. On the other hand, it was possible that they were minions of unscrupulous capitalists, sent here to block any effort on the part of the scouts to learn the truth with regard to the nature of the great fraud, if the claim put up to Mr. Bosworth proved to be such.
And Ned knew that the guide had acted wisely in leaving the cold ashes alone.
CHAPTER V.
WOODCRAFT.
Nothing more was said about the ashes of the dead fire left behind by some party that had recently been there, until the trout had been deliciously cooked and eaten. All of them declared that they had never tasted finer flavored fish than those big gamey fellows of that Far North river. It really seemed that the further they journeyed toward the Arctic Circle the sweeter the trout became.
"They were pretty big fellows, too," Frank Shaw said, as they sat there filling up with dinner.
"Never saw larger ones, only in the Lake Superior region," Ned confessed; "and eight-pounders are common along the northern sh.o.r.e where several small rivers empty into the lake. I saw a bunch of that size at the Government fish hatchery at the Soo when I pa.s.sed through there on a steamboat, and shot the rapids with the Indian guides. They were dandies, I tell you, boys. Think of it, genuine speckled trout weighing eight pounds, and every ounce of them fighting weight too."
Finally, when they were all ready to cry quits, having had a glorious meal, Ned thought of what the veteran guide had said about that dead fire.
"Now suppose you and Tamasjo take a good look at the ashes, and the lay of the land around, so as to tell us what you can read there," he told the voyageur.
At that some of the other boys began to stare, for they had heard nothing up to then about the late presence of others on the spot. But they knew Ned well enough to be sure that he had some good object in saying what he did; and accordingly all of them flocked after the two guides when they made for the nearby spot where even Jimmy had noticed the remains of a fire.
The scouts remained quiet while Francois and the Cree got down on hands and knees the better to examine into the signs. Ned and some of his chums would themselves have been easily able to read certain things in connection with these ashes. For instance, remembering that it had rained most of the second day before, and there was no sign of water about the ashes, they would have set it down as positive that the fire had been made _afterwards_. That was an easy thing to make out; and perhaps there were others they could figure; but when in the presence of veterans Ned was only too willing to observe all that was done, and profit by it.
The two men did not confine themselves to sifting the ashes through their fingers, and comparing notes in a jargon which the boys could not understand, but which they imagined must be Cree talk.
They moved further away, and looked the ground over.
"I noticed that there were plenty of hoof tracks around here," Jimmy up and declared; "but say, it never flagged me that a fellow could learn a heap from just stickin" his nose down close to such. "Tis a safe bet we"ll know everything but the names of the gossoons before Francois and his red pal quit."
Some of the others were feeling the same way. They too had noticed that there were plenty of footprints around, but being more interested in the feast then being prepared, they had not thought fit to bother about giving the same more than a casual glance.
On Ned"s part, he would have devoted some of his time to this business only for the promise of the voyageur to read the signs after they had eaten.
After some little time had pa.s.sed Francois came and stood before them.
His face was almost as inscrutable as that of the Sphinx, or a Cree Indian. Whatever the character of his finding, it did not show outwardly.
"Well, how about these men, Francois; they must have been here last night, you think, don"t you?" Ned started to ask him.
"Eet is so, sare. Zey leave zis place just same time we be saying _bon jour_ to our own camp up ze rivaire."
"How many were they?" was Ned"s next question; for Francois could not tell his story at length, but seemed to wait to have it drawn from him piece-meal as though he might be a willing witness in the box.
"Thirteen, all men at zat."
"Hunters, trappers, miners, or prospectors?" demanded Ned.
That caused the other to give one of his suggestive shrugs.
"Nozzing like zat right now, sare," he went on to declare, so positively that it was evident he had found the Indian also agreed with him. "Some of zat crowd zey wear ze moccasin ze same as Tamasjo here. Ozzers have boots wiz ze heel. But zey carry no traps along wiz zem, I tell you zat, sare."
"And if they were miners intending to work in the holdings of the syndicate they would have carried tools along, picks, shovels and the like?" remarked Jack.
Francois shook his head in the negative.
"Nozzing like zat, pelieve me, sare," he urged.
"Well, go on and tell us what you think they may be," Ned pursued.
"I zink they pe a pad crowd," answered the guide. "Zis tells ze tale,"
and he held up some greasy cards which he must have gathered in the bushes behind the rocks near which the dead ashes lay.
Tamasjo also stooped and lifted something that glittered in the sunlight. When the scouts saw that it was a suspicious looking black bottle, they could guess as to what the nature of its recent contents had been. Nevertheless, it was pa.s.sed around and every fellow had a chance to take a sniff at it.
"Deadly stuff, sure as you"re born!" Jimmy p.r.o.nounced, making a wry face.
"Whisky or old rye or something like that," Frank declared; and it spoke well for those five boys that no one was positively able to identify the odor, though well knowing its general character as an aid to drunkenness.
"That seems to settle it, so far as the tough kind of men they were,"
Ned continued; "and now we want to try and find out if they were looking for us to come down the river; and also, try and guess where they"ve gone to. They had boats, of course, Francois?"
The guide held up two fingers.
"Batteau, plenty room in same for all. Tamasjo and me, we tink zey haf gone down stream. Pig bay lie only half-day"s journey zat way. Eef we go on, mebbe so we arrive zere by night. Better hold up, and make ze last part of ze trip in ze dark, so zat zey no see us."
"I understand what you mean, Francois," the patrol leader hastened to say; "and it sounds good to me, I admit. When we do go down to the salt water we will take advantage of your advice."
"What"s that, Ned," broke in Jack; "you don"t mean to say there"s any doubt about our going down, sooner or later, do you?"
"Oh! no, we"re bound to see the famous Hudson Bay before we leave this section," the other a.s.sured him; "but I"ve been thinking things over, and come to a certain conclusion."
"Let"s hear what it is, won"t you, Ned?" Jimmy besought him.
"Yes, that is if Francois is through telling us about these parties."
"How about that, Francois?" Ned asked, turning to the voyageur.
"Eet is about all zat is worth knowing, sare. Of course, we haf learn zat zis man who is captaine to ze bunch, he is mooch pig, a giant, and zere is sooch a man I know whose name eet is Sol. Greggs; heem it might be who is conducting zis gang. He is a pad man, a thief who robbed traps many times, and so he gif me zis scar on ze cheek when we fight eet out."
"That sounds just like the kind of a rascal the syndicate would send up here to run things, if they were trying to work a tremendous swindle and expected to keep curious people from investigating," Jack boldly declared.
"But how about you telling what your plans are, Ned?" queried Frank.