54 THE RED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
quick, but carefully.' If the bird had sung first, it would 
have meant, ' Stay there ; I'm coming back.' 
" I answered the bird call, and stepped out of the canoe, 
pulling it up a little on a big rock. Then I went into 
the bushes and found John. 
" He was standing near an old pine stub that had been 
our landmark for the second canoe. It ought to have 
been just six paces from that stub, in a little overgrown 
run, covered with brush. The fir and spruce, with a few 
white cedars, grew so thick along the edge of the run 
that nobody would have found the canoe without a hard 
hunt, and a hint as to its hiding-place. Nobody in the 
world knew of that place but John and I. The canoe 
was gone.'' 
Joe paused impressively, having dropped his voice to 
its lowest gutturals in pronouncing the two words, 
" Canoe gone ! " — and looked around the firelit circle of 
faces to observe the effect. 
The result of the survey proving satisfactory, he 
lighted his pipe anew with a blazing twig from the camp- 
fire. 
" But that wasn't the worst of it," he continued, more 
solemnly than ever. " There wasn't the faintest sign of 
any stranger there. Not a track showed in the earth 
between that spot and the lake. Not a twig, as far as 
we could see in any direction, was broken or bent ; even 
the boughs that had been thrown over the run were 
absolutely undisturbed. 
