Everywhere they looked, but nothing was discovered, and,
weary and disheartened, they turned back with dusk. Dick returned
across the first lake above the tilt. As he strode along one of his
snow-shoes pressed upon something hard, and he stopped to kick the
snow away from it. It was a deer's antler. He uncovered it farther and
found a chain, which he pulled up, disclosing a trap and in it a
silver fox, dead and frozen stiff. He straightened up and looked at
it.
"A Christmas present for Bob an' he never got un," he said aloud. "Th'
lad's sure perished not t' be findin' his silver."
Here was a discovery that meant something. Bob had been setting traps
in that direction, and might have a string of traps farther on.
Possibly he had gone to put them in order when the storm came, and had
been caught in it farther up, and perished. Anyway it was worth
investigation. When Dick returned with the fox and the trap to the
tilt he told the others of his theory and it was decided to
concentrate their efforts in that direction in the morning.
Accordingly the next day they pushed farther to the westward across
the second lake, and at a point where a dead tree hung out over the
ice found fresh axe cuttings. A little farther on they saw one or two
sapling tops chopped off.
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