look of bewildered amazement and stared about him as though the cabin and the boy were both totally unfamiliar. It was not until his eyes fell upon Nicholas that he seemed satisfied and dropped off to sleep again. It was broad daylight now and time for Hugh to realize that he was exceedingly hungry. He fell to examining his own stores, Edmonds’ and Half-Breed Jake’s, to see what the combined larder afforded. There was not much in his pack, for he had not thought he would be very long away from the cottage; there was nothing in Edmonds’, but quite a supply of flour and bacon in Jake’s store room.
“I don’t care to use anything that belongs to that gang unless I have to,” he thought. “It was probably all stolen in the first place.”
As he was putting one of the bags back into place, he knocked down a gun that had been standing in the corner and that now fell at his feet with a loud clatter. He picked it up and recognized with delight that it was Oscar’s rifle, the same one that he himself had dropped in the woods the day that he was lost. This would be a
