Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay | Page 8

know for sure, sare. Ze light it was mos' uncertain like. I aim
down low as I pull ze trigger. Zen he disappear, and I am unable to say
if so be he drop down just to sneak avay, or because he wounded."
"Well, we can soon find out," impulsive Jimmy exclaimed; "me to grab
up a fine torch, and lead the way. Some of the rest of you form a
bodyguard around me, and be ready to give 'em a volley if they so
much as peep."
It was just what Ned had been about to propose, so as Jimmy thought
of the plan first he was allowed to have his way.
The fagot which Jimmy picked out of the fire was burning briskly by
now, at one end, and could be made to serve very well as a torch, if

only one knew how to handle it. Jimmy had taken lessons in this art,
and first of all he swung the brand swiftly around his head several
times, so as to make it burn more briskly.
"There, that will do, Jimmy," Jack told him; "and now lead us out, you
ferocious little monster. Hold the torch so it won't blind us, remember.
And if they open fire you be sure to duck, so we won't be shooting you
in the back."
"Oh! I'll side-step all right, if only you give me the tip," Jimmy went on
to say.
He was already starting out with Francois to show him the way to the
spot where the latter had his last glimpse of the supposed spy. All of
the scouts were fairly quivering with eagerness; and at the same time a
cold feeling began to creep over them at the thought of what they might
discover the next minute.
Francois had shot low, and only meant to wound, but then his bullet
might have glanced upward, and inflicted a fatal injury.
A dozen and more paces they went. Everyone was excited, and looking
this way and that, for who could say what the adventure might not
mean? If there was one prowler around there might be a dozen or a
score. They remembered what Ned had said concerning the possibility
of the reckless plotters composing the mining syndicate gathering
together a lawless crowd, and meaning to chase the explorers out of
that section of country, should they threaten to discover that a fraud
was in the act of being perpetrated.
"Was it about here, Francois, that you saw him vanish?" asked Ned,
who had been keeping an eye on the guide, and judged from his actions
that they must have arrived close to the suspected spot.
"I am think so, ver' mooch," admitted Francois, eagerly, and then after
taking a backward look toward the campfire, he added: "Yes, it ees so,
sare. I gif you ze word of a man zat ought to know, zat he was here
when I fire ze shot."

"Well, it looks as though you didn't knock him over, Francois,"
observed Frank, "because there was nobody lying amidst the brush."
Without replying, the French Canadian and the Indian guide fell on
their knees, and seemed to be closely examining the ground upon
which none of the party had as yet set afoot.
"Tamasjo has found something," observed Teddy quickly, as he saw
the Indian lower his head closer to the ground, and evidently examine
some object with eagerness.
Ned was down beside him almost instantly.
"It's a plain footprint, all right," he announced as soon as he had been
able to take a quick observation.
"That proves Francois did see a skulker then, and wasn't dreaming,"
Jack was heard to say, as though he may have been entertaining some
doubt on the subject up to that moment.
"He scared him off, even if his lead was thrown away," Jimmy
ventured, with a slight touch of scorn in his manner, as though he
fancied he could have given a better account of himself, had the chance
come his way.
"Hold on, don't be in such a rushing big hurry to say he wasted his
lead," Ned warned him.
"What's that, Ned; did he hit the sneak after all?" Jack demanded.
"Well, spots of fresh blood don't grow on the bushes up here, even if
we do seem to run across lots of queer things," Ned went on to say, as
he pointed to where they could all see that it was so.
This fact added to the excitement. If the unknown whom they looked
on as some species of spy, had been wounded, it looked like a serious
piece of business for the little party of explorers. He must have friends
not far away, and after the gantlet of defiance had been thrown down

by this shot, these men might