Quietly Langdon returned to where Bruce was sleeping, and in a minute or two Bruce returned with him, rubbing his eyes.  And then he, too, stared, and the men looked at each other.

“Dog meat,” breathed Langdon.  “You brought it home for dog meat, Bruce!”

Bruce did not answer, Langdon said nothing more, and neither talked very much for a full hour after that.  During that hour Metoosin came and dragged Pipoonaskoos away, and instead of being skinned and fed to the dogs he was put into a hole down in the creek-bottom and covered with sand and stones.  That much, at least, Bruce and Langdon did for Pipoonaskoos.

This day Metoosin and Bruce again went over the range.  The mountaineer had brought back with him bits of quartz in which were unmistakable signs of gold, and they returned with an outfit for panning.

Langdon continued his education of Muskwa.  Several times he took the cub near the dogs, and when they snarled and strained at the ends of their leashes he whipped them, until with quick understanding they gripped the fact that Muskwa, although a bear, must not be harmed.

In the afternoon of this second day he freed the cub entirely from the rope, and he had no difficulty in recapturing it when he wanted to tie it up again.  The third and fourth days Bruce and the Indian explored the valley west of the range and convinced themselves finally that the “colours” they found were only a part of the flood-drifts, and would not lead to fortune.

On this fourth night, which happened to be thick with clouds, and chilly, Langdon experimented by taking Muskwa to bed with him.  He expected trouble.  But Muskwa was as quiet as a kitten, and once he found a proper nest for himself he scarcely made a move until morning.  A part of the night Langdon slept with one of his hands resting on the cub’s soft, warm body.

According to Bruce it was now time to continue the hunt for Thor, but a change for the worse in Langdon’s knee broke in upon their plans.  It was impossible for Langdon to walk more than a quarter of a mile at a time, and the position he was compelled to take in the saddle caused him so much pain that to prosecute the hunt even on horseback was out of the question.

“A few more days won’t hurt any,” consoled Bruce.  “If we give the old fellow a longer rest he may get a bit careless.”

The three days that followed were not without profit and pleasure for Langdon.  Muskwa was teaching him more than he had ever known about bears, and especially bear cubs, and he made notes voluminously.

The dogs were now confined to a clump of trees fully three hundred yards from the camp, and gradually the cub was given his freedom.  He made no effort to run away, and he soon discovered that Bruce and Metoosin were also his friends.  But Langdon was the only one he would follow.

On the morning of the eighth day after their pursuit of Thor, Bruce and Metoosin rode over into the eastward valley with the dogs.  Metoosin was to have a day’s start, and Bruce planned to return to camp that afternoon so that he and Langdon could begin their hunt up the valley the next day.