AN UNSEEN ENEMY. 63 
and we all started for home, although the two New 
Yorkers wanted to stay and finish their sport." 
Why did they go out, then ? 
" Because they could not stay without guides. And 
both guides refused, quietly and respectfully, but firmly, 
to spend another day in that locality. 
" We got out in safety, with the exception of the 
lighter canoe. That we left behind. Why ? Because it 
had carried the dead ; because the dead had claimed it ; 
because it belonged to the dead. 
" John Feathertop and I, as well as Jim here, were 
poor enough ; but there wasn't money enough in all the 
Hudson's Bay territory to hire us ever to visit that lake 
again." 
As Joe concluded his story, with a furtive glance at 
the staring eyes about him, a loon in the lake below 
suddenly made night hideous with its maniac laughter. 
Mr. Button could feel little Nat shiver in his arms. 
