At first it seemed a crushing blow.

They had three courses open to them--to seek a location farther north, to assume that one side of the lake was theirs, or to find out exactly who and what the stranger was.

They decided on the last.

The canoe was launched and loaded, and they set out to look for what they hoped they would not find, a trapper's shanty on the lake.
After skirting the shore for four or five miles and disturbing one or two deer, as well as hosts of ducks, the voyagers landed and there still they found that fateful bootmark steadily tramping southward.

By noon they had reached the south end of the west inlet that leads to another lake, and again an examination of the shore showed the footmarks, here leaving the lake and going southerly.