undoubtedly been two men in the party. They had reached the island
before the rain of two days before. This was disclosed by the fact
that some of the tracks were partly washed away by the rain, and the
earth was caked where the wind and sun had dried it afterwards.

Natives of the coast, as was the case with David and Jamie and Andy,
wore home-made sealskin boots in summer and buckskin moccasins in
winter. The sealskin boots had moccasin feet with one thickness of
skin, and were soft and pliable. None of them ever wore soled boots
that would admit of hobnails. It was plain to the boys, therefore,
that the men who made the tracks were not natives of the country.

Early in the summer a lumber company had begun the erection of a camp
at Grampus River, which lay twenty miles to the southward from The
Jug, and on the opposite side of Eskimo Bay. A steamship had brought
in men and supplies, and all summer men had been building camps and
preparing for lumbering operations during the coming winter.

It was the first steamer to enter the Bay, and its advent had been an
occasion of much curiosity on the part of the people. Many of them
made excursions to Grampus River to see the strangers at work. Thomas
had made such an excursion with David and Andy. Strange, rough,
blasphemous men they seemed to the God-fearing folk of the country.
These were the men wearing hobnailed boots of which David spoke, and
there was small doubt in the mind of the boys that the men who had
camped on the island and had stolen the boat were from the Grampus
River lumber camp.

It proved a tedious undertaking to repair and make seaworthy the
damaged boat. The trees on the island were, for the most part, small