“First detour,” sang out Barry. “What do you say we hike some and see if we can bring down a rabbit?”

The others were agreeable, and they took to the shore. The trees were sufficiently far back from the banks to allow them to proceed. Pulling the sled was harder, and Barry relieved Kent of it. They tramped along, and just before noon Mac took a shot at a squirrel, but missed.

“Bum shot,” he exclaimed, in disgust.

“You needn’t lament over that,” Kent consoled. “It would be quite a job to bring that lightning dodger down with a rifle.”

At noontime they halted and made temporary camp. The twins cut into the wet wood and hewed to the center for the dry heart of it. The other two boys scraped away the snow and piled some rocks for a fireplace. After some fanning and blowing, the damp wood caught fire and blazed up.

Kent searched among the articles on the sled and then straightened up. “Say, look here. Did anybody think to bring coffee?”

The other three boys looked at one another blankly. “I didn’t,” Barry admitted, and the twins admitted the same.

“We can live without it,” Mac pointed out.

“Sure we can, but you know how good it tastes on a camping trip, especially in winter. We haven’t even got cocoa along. And I was sure that the sled was fully packed! Is there any place that we can get it along the line?”

“We could swing away from the river a little bit and get it at Fox Point,” Barry said.

“We’ll do that, then. I guess we can go without it for a few days. Come on and get your plates out.”

The journey was resumed immediately after dinner, and they skated for a few miles. Then some rocks made it necessary for them to go around, and they walked some more. Chancing to see an old mill on a branch of the river, they explored it, and before long nightfall was upon them and they stopped to make an overnight camp. Two small camping tents were set up and sleeping bags spread out. Then they made a fireplace and gathered a supply of wood. By the time that the fire was going it was pitch dark, and the flames flashed up into the inky blackness like living tongues, throwing the black tree trunks into bold relief against the white background of the snow-covered earth.

“Fellows, this is just right!” Tim exclaimed, looking around him with delight. Barry and Kent were bent over the fire, and Mac was coming in with a load of wood on his shoulder.

“It’s colder camping than we are used to,” Kent remarked.

Mac threw his load of wood on the ground. “Boys, we may be able to get some coffee,” he said. “There is another campfire just a short distance over there.”

The others looked up with interest. “Where?” Barry and Kent asked in chorus.

Mac pointed in the direction from which he had brought the wood. “Just a little way over there. I was chopping wood on the top of a knoll, and I could see their fire through the trees.”

“We could go over there and borrow some coffee,” Tim said.

“It would be nice to know who our neighbors are,” Barry commented.

“Unless,” said Kent, slowly, “those neighbors happen to be Carter Wolf and his particular friends. If so, the less they know about our whereabouts, the better for us.”

CHAPTER VI
Strange Treatment

There was a moment of silence after Kent had spoken. The boys were not afraid of the Wolf boy and his companions, but they had no desire to camp too close to them. Carter possessed a mean spirit, and they felt it best to avoid him wherever possible.

“I hardly believe that they will camp out in the woods,” Tim said. “I’ll bet they will go to a cabin or some more comfortable place. If it is Wolf, he won’t give us any coffee.”

“Or sell us any, either,” Mac added.

“We wouldn’t need to walk right into that other camp,” Barry advised. “It ought to be easy to approach the place without making any noise. I think we should find out who is camping there.”

“Tim and I will go over and scout around,” Mac offered.

“All right,” Barry nodded. “We’ll get supper ready. If anything goes wrong, just sing out and we’ll come hopping over.”

“Nothing will happen if we get running first,” Tim grinned. “Shall we offer to pay for the coffee?”

“Sure,” nodded Kent. “They may have a small supply, and we wouldn’t want to take it away from them. If they give it to you, that will be all right, but we should offer to buy it.”

Tim pushed his camping ax down into his belt case. “Come on, Mac. Let’s see where you spotted that fire.”

Leaving Barry and Kent at the campfire, the two brothers hiked off into the woods to the knoll where Mac had been cutting wood. It was an uphill climb, and their breath showed in little, frosty clouds before they got to the place. Finally Mac pointed off through the spruce trees.

“There it is. See that fire down there?”

Following the direction of Mac’s mittened finger, Tim saw a small point of light down in a hollow. It came evidently from a small fire and appeared to be less than a half-mile away. They were unable to see anything else except the little flame.

“Somebody down there, all right,” Tim nodded. “Well, let’s go calling.”

“And we’ll look before we knock,” Mac chuckled. “It might be the wrong house!”

They descended the other side of the knoll and tramped on toward the lone campfire. Underfoot the snow crunched and broke with a cold, snapping sound and the rocks were slippery. The stars stood out brilliantly overhead, and they had no difficulty in making their way through the Vermont forest. They rounded a ragged bluff of rock, and the fire was now very near.

“Slow up now and let’s get a good look at this outfit,” Mac whispered.

Tim nodded silently, and they began to approach the camp as noiselessly as possible. Keeping behind friendly trees, they slipped closer and closer until they could see around the clear space in the center of which a small fire burned fitfully.

“It isn’t Wolf and his bunch,” Mac whispered.

“No, only a man and a woman,” Tim returned, in an equally low tone.

The camp was occupied by a man and a woman. Close beside the fire could be seen some camping equipment, a frying pan which had apparently been placed in the snow while hot, a knapsack, and a brightly colored blanket and a pair of gloves. Against a near-by stump leaned a rifle, and the man had a hunting knife at his belt. They had just finished supper, and the smell of fish lingered on the air. The woman was placing chunks of snow in a pan, and when this was finished she put the pan on the fire. There was a sizzling sound as the snow on the outside of the pot slid into the fire.

Before advancing any further, the boys studied the man and woman closely. They were dark-skinned and looked to be French. Both of them were warmly dressed for winter travel, and their camping equipment was battered and blackened, indicating much use. The woman wore a coat with a rich fur collar, and both of them seemed perfectly at home in the woods. They exchanged no words and were engrossed in their tasks. The man was cleaning scraps from a plate while the woman waited for the snow to melt.

Tim reached over and pushed Mac. “Might as well go to it,” he said, and the brothers left the shelter of the trees and approached the camp.

They had advanced several steps before the campers heard them coming. They had left the trees