He stated however that, as the track was beaten, he should experience little fatigue, and seemed so confident that I suffered him to depart with a supply of singed hide.
Next day I received information which explained why he was so unwilling to acquaint us with the situation of Mr.Back's party.

He dreaded that I should resolve upon joining it when our numbers would be so great as to consume at once everything St.Germain might kill, if by accident he should be successful in hunting.

He even endeavoured to entice away our other hunter, Adam, and proposed to him to carry off the only kettle we had and without which we could not have subsisted two days.

Adam's inability to move however precluded him from agreeing to the proposal but he could assign no reason for not acquainting me with it previous to Belanger's departure.

I was at first inclined to consider the whole matter as a fiction of Adam's, but he persisted in his story without wavering, and Belanger when we met again confessed that every part of it was true.