LOWERED THE CAN CAUTIOUSLY BY A STRING
NORTHERN DIAMONDS
BY
FRANK LILLIE POLLOCK
With Illustrations
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1914 AND 1915, BY PERRY MASON COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY FRANK LILLIE POLLOCK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published September 1917
NOTE
This book has appeared in the Youth's Companion in the form of aserial and sequel, and my thanks are due to the proprietors of thatperiodical for permission to reprint.
FRANK LILLIE POLLOCK
ILLUSTRATIONS
LOWERED THE CAN CAUTIOUSLY BY A STRING . . . . . . Frontispiece
THE OTHER BOYS HAD BEEN BUSY
"THAT IS OUR CABIN. LET US COME IN, I SAY"
DRAGGED HIM UP, PROTESTING, AND RUBBED SNOW ON HIS EARS
FLUNG THE SACK INTO THE MAN'S LAP
From drawings by Harry C. Edwards
NORTHERN DIAMONDS
CHAPTER I
It was nearly eleven o'clock at night when some one knocked at the doorof Fred Osborne's room. He was not in the least expecting any callerat that hour, and had paid no attention when he had heard the doorbellof the boarding-house ring downstairs, and the sound of feet ascendingthe steps. He hastened to open the door, however, and in the dimhallway he recognized the dark, handsome face of Maurice Stark, andbehind it the tall, raw-boned form of Peter Macgregor.
Both of them uttered an exclamation of satisfaction at seeing him.They were both in fur caps and overcoats, for it was a sharp CanadianDecember night, and at the first glance Fred observed that their faceswore an expression of excitement.
"Come in, boys!" he said. "I wasn't going to bed. Here, take yourcoats off. What's up? You look as if something was the matter."
"Is Horace in town?" demanded Peter.
Fred shook his head. Horace was his elder brother, a mining engineermostly employed in the North Country.
"He's still somewhere in the North Woods. I haven't heard from himsince October, but I'm expecting him to turn up almost any day now.Why, what's the matter?"
"The matter? Something pretty b