An hour later they separated, Frank to look along one ridge, while Jerry had taken a notion to see what the other might have in the shape of game.

Frank spent quite a long time scouring the woods that covered the side of the valley.  He had not put up anything worth while, and was even thinking about heading back to the place where he had agreed to meet his chum, when a distressing little accident occurred.

Just as he was hurrying down a steep bank his foot caught in a vine, and he was hurled forward with such violence that his head, coming in contact with the hard ground, received such a blow that he was rendered unconscious.

Frank never knew just how long he remained insensible.  It might have been only a few minutes, or perhaps half an hour slipped by while he lay there.  When he finally opened his eyes he looked up into a dusky face, and realized that it belonged to an Indian!

CHAPTER XVII

AT THE CAMPFIRE OF THE CREES

Frank was not at all alarmed.  In the first place, he had been assured by Mr. Mabie that these Crees were not inclined to be hostile.  Then, again, he saw that it was no fierce face of a warrior that bent over him, but the pitying one of a child.

“Hello!  Who are you?” he asked, a little weakly, for his head was still swimming more or less from his shock.

“Little Mink,” came the reply, though the boy apparently had to nerve himself to keep from running away.

“And you found me knocked out, did you?  What are you doing here, Little Mink?” Frank sat up as he spoke, though he realized that he would be unsteady on his feet when he tried to stand.

“Teepee down by river, not far off.  Little Mink have snare for rabbit.  Him go see if ketch one, find paleface here.  Think dead, then him open eyes.  Good!”

Frank was amused at the air of the little fellow.  He knew something about the ways of civilized Indians, having been among them in Maine, hence he could see that this boy was endeavoring to ape the manners of his elders.

“Would you help me get down to your camp, Little Mink?  I feel weak after my tumble, and my own camp is far away,” he said.

Now, Frank knew very well that a loud shout would, in all probability, have fetched Jerry to the spot.  He had an object in making this appeal to the Indian lad, and watched his dusky face closely as the other considered the proposal.

Perhaps Frank, fearing a refusal, may have put on more agony than the state of his feelings really warranted.  At any rate, he succeeded in swerving the boy from a condition of caution to that of sympathy.

“Little Mink help.  Him lead paleface to teepee,” he said, and the look that accompanied the words told Frank as plainly as words could have done that the boy was trusting in his honor not to betray them.

Accordingly, he hung on to the lad, and in this fashion they went for half a mile or so, when the river was reached.  Presently Frank discovered signs of a camp not far in the distance.  A little pale smoke was rising over the thicket, and he also saw a conical skin teepee, while on the shore were three bullboats.