“‘Swag’ is a wonderful strange soundin’ word, now,” said David.  “I never hears un before.”

“I’m thinkin’ I knows what ’tis they hid now!” exclaimed Andy suddenly. “’Tis Lem Horn’s silver!  ’Tis the men hid un that shot Lem and stole the silver!  ’Tweren’t Indian Jake shot Lem at all!  ’Twere men from the lumber camp!  What they calls ‘swag’ is Lem’s silver!”

“That’s what ’tis, now!  ’Tis sure Lem Horn’s silver!” David exploded excitedly.  “I never would have thought of un bein’ that!  Andy’s wonderful spry thinkin’ things out, and he’s mostly always right, too!”

“And Indian Jake never stole un!  He never stole un!” Jamie burst out joyfully.  “I were knowin’ all the time he wouldn’t steal un!  Indian Jake wouldn’t go shootin’ folk and stealin’ from un!”

“It may be,” said Doctor Joe.  “At any rate it seems extremely probable the ‘swag’ as they call it is stolen property that has been hidden.  That word and the threat together with the other circumstances make it quite certain, indeed, that whatever it is they refer to was stolen.  That’s a safe conclusion to begin with.  We have decided that we may be quite sure, also, that the men that hid the cache so carefully were none of our own Bay people, but men from the lumber camp.  We have heard of nothing else than Lem Horn’s silver fox having been stolen in the Bay.  We have some ground, therefore, to suppose that the ‘swag’ is Lem Horn’s silver fox.  It will be a fine piece of work to search out the cache, and if it proves to contain Lem’s silver fox, recover it for him.  We will be doing a good turn to Lem and at the same time will lift suspicion from Indian Jake.  If we find the cache and there is nothing in it that should not be there, we will not interfere with it.  Now how shall we go about it to trace it?  Let’s hear what you chaps think is the best plan.”

“We’ll separate and look for the rock they tells about,” suggested David.  “There’s like to be some signs so we’ll know un when we sees un.  If we finds the rock ’twill not be hard to pace off the way they says in the paper.”

“And we’ll be lookin’ out for other signs,” added Peter. “’Tis likely they’ve been cuttin’ wood or breakin’ twigs or makin’ a fire.”

“The brook ain’t froze, and I’m thinkin’ now they been walkin’ there and leavin’ tracks, if they were going’ for water, and ’tis likely they were gettin’ water to boil the kettle,” reasoned Seth.

“Suppose,” suggested Doctor Joe, “two of you follow up the brook, one on each side, and the rest of us will spread out on each side of the two following the brook, and look for the rock and other signs that will guide us.”

“We better make a writin’ for each of us just like the writin’ in the can with what it says about how to find the cache if we finds the rock,” suggested Andy.  “I for one’ll never be rememberin’ all of un without a writin’ to look at whatever.”

“That’s true, Andy,” agreed Doctor Joe, “and none of us would.”