CHAPTER PAGE I. THE CABIN AT THE JUG 9 II. THE THICKENING MIST 21 III. DOCTOR JOE 34 IV. INDIAN JAKE, THE HALF BREED 42 V. UNCLE BEN GIVES WARNING 55 VI. THE TRAPPING PARTNER 67 VII. IN THE HEART OF THE WILDERNESS 73 VIII. ANDY’S BEAR HUNT 82 IX. THE STEALTHY MENACE OF THE TRAIL 91 X. THE FIGHT WITH A WOLF PACK 101 XI. A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE 107 XII. ALONE IN THE STORM-SWEPT FOREST 118 XIII. A NIGHT IN THE OPEN 125 XIV. A MAN’S GAME 132 XV. A DAY ON THE ICE 138 XVI. CHRISTMAS EVE ON THE FUR TRAILS 148 XVII. INDIAN JAKE’S SURPRISE 156 XVIII. SNOWBLIND 166 XIX. THE HALF BREED DESERTS 174 XX. A LETTER FROM THE GREAT DOCTOR 183 XXI. THE TRAIL OF THE DESERTER 195 XXII. THE BURNING TILT 202 XXIII. HUNGRY DAYS 220 XXIV. UNCLE BEN APPEARS 232 XXV. “TROUBLES THAT NEVER CAME TRUE” 240
The Jug, as Thomas Angus often remarked, was as snug and handy a place to live as ever a man could wish. Ten miles up the Bay was the trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and at Wolf Bight, twelve miles directly across the Bay from the Jug, the trading post of Trowbridge & Gray, and then only five miles to the eastward, at Break Cove, lived Doctor Joe.
“Neighbors right handy all around,” declared Thomas, “and no chance of ever gettin’ lonesome.”
The Jug was a well sheltered bight on the north side of Eskimo Bay, and here, in the edge of the forest, stood Thomas’ cabin.
Near by the cabin Roaring Brook rushed down through a gorge in a vast hurry to empty its sparkling waters into the bight; and behind the cabin, shrouded in silence and mystery, stretching away into unmeasured distances, lay the great unpeopled wilderness.
“Room enough,” said Thomas, “for a man to stretch himself.”
The Angus home was much like every other trapper’s home in the Eskimo Bay country, though somewhat larger and more commodious, perhaps, than was usual. Thomas believed in “comfort, and plenty o’ room to stretch, indoors as well as out,” and this sentiment led him to make no stint of timber or labor when he builded.
“The timber is here for the takin’, and right handy,” said he, “and a bit more work don’t matter.”
The cabin was built of logs, and faced the south, with its entrance through an enclosed porch on the western gable. This porch served both as a protection from winter storms and as a store room. Here were kept dog harness, fish nets, and innumerable odds and ends incident to the life and occupation of a trapper and fisherman. And in one end of the porch, neatly piled in tiers, was an ever-ready supply of firewood.
