Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/200



For a long time after Ick Far and the boy were asleep the man sat smoking by the fireside. His eyes sparkled with daring and time and again he smiled into the coals. Once or twice he pursed his lips to whistle, but with a glance toward the sleeping forms, grinned instead. As a matter of fact Notorious Bishop had been at his wit's end to know how to proceed. True to the Superintendent's prediction he had avoided the passes and crossed the divide at the head of a steep and almost inaccessible canyon; a proceeding by which he gained the Yukon country unobserved, but which, also, necessitated the abandonment of all his outfit except a very light pack which contained only the barest necessities. Furthermore, he was unfamiliar with the Yukon territory, and knew nothing of the patrols or the stations of the Mounted. He was proceeding, therefore, with the utmost