RODERICK SEES THE FOOTPRINT Rod was now plunged for the first time in his life into the heart of the Wilderness.

Seated in the bow of the birch-bark canoe which was carrying them up the Sturgeon, with Wabi close behind him, he drank in the wild beauties of the forests and swamps through which they slipped almost as noiselessly as shadows, his heart thumping in joyous excitement, his eyes constantly on the alert for signs of the big game which Wabi told him was on all sides of them.

Across his knees, ready for instant use, was Wabi's repeating rifle.

The air was keen with the freshness left by night frosts.

At times deep masses of gold and crimson forests shut them in, at others, black forests of spruce came down to the river's edge; again they would pass silently through great swamps of tamaracks.