“Strange man!” he said significantly.  “Find track soon!”

“Do you mean,” asked Sandy, “that there’s some one chasing us up?”

“Find track soon,” was all the explanation the Indian would make.

“Of course!” Sandy declared.  “We couldn’t think of going back to the cabin without butting into some new combination!”

In a short time the Indian discovered the footprints he was looking for, and pointed them out to the boys.  Two persons had passed that way not long before.  The tracks in the snow showed that one had worn moccasins and the other ordinary shoes.

“I should think that fellow’s feet would freeze!” Sandy observed.  “He don’t seem to have any overshoes on!”

“How do you know?” asked Thede.  “He may have a small foot and wear overshoes shaped like a shoe itself.”

“I wish we could follow the trail and find out where they’re going!” Sandy observed.

“I’m game for it!” declared Thede.

The two boys pointed to the foot-prints and started to follow them.

The Indian seemed pleased at the idea, and soon led the way toward the range of hills whither the foot-prints pointed.

“The first thing we know,” Thede suggested, “we’ll be running into a nest of black bears.  They’re thick as bees up in this country, and they’ll be hungry, too, with all this snow on the ground.”

The words were hardly out of his mouth before a succession of low, angry growls came to the ears of the boys, and the next moment they saw Oje springing into the lower branches of a great fir tree.

“I guess he knows what’s good for his health!” shouted Sandy.  “Me for a tree, too!”

The boys probably never made quicker motions in their lives.

“Have you got a searchlight with you?” asked Thede.

Sandy shook his head sadly.

“Then we can’t see to shoot the beasts,” wailed Thede, “and it looks to me like one of those long, cold nights in a tree!”

CHAPTER XVIII

A PILLAR OF FIRE

“Can you build a fire with one match?” asked Thede, after a short silence, during which the boys had been trying in vain to get a shot at the bears.

“Of course I can!” answered Sandy.  “What’s the good of going through all those Boy Scout examinations, if a fellow can’t build a fire with one match?  Of course I can build a fire with one match!”

“Can you build a fire with one match up in a tree?” asked Thede, with a suspicion of mirth in his voice.

“Of course I can!” answered Sandy.

“Up in a tree in the darkness, on a windy night?” asked Thede.

“If this thing is going to your head, you’d better drop down and make a run for the camp!” advised Sandy.

“Honest, now,” asked Thede, “can you make a fire with one match in a green tree, in a high wind, on a dark night?”