"Let "em go, kid!" cried Waseche, and the sharp crack of the dog whips rang on the air to the cries of: "Mush! Hi! Hi! Mush-u! Mush-u!"
Both teams shot away toward the inclined trail of the river. Neck and neck, they ran over the crusted snow, while the three free dogs romped and raced beside them.
While most of the Indians followed directly in the wake of the retreating men, a few of the wiser ones cut straight for the head of the trail down which the outfit must pa.s.s. Waseche"s eight _malamutes_, travelling lighter than Connie"s big ten-team, forged to the front and gained the incline at the same moment that three Indians led by Annunduk, the young chief, leaped out upon the trail. The natives, tired by their long exertions at the dance, had thrown away their weighted harpoons and, except for a short club that Annunduk had s.n.a.t.c.hed from a _cache_ frame as he ran, were unarmed.
Waseche dodged a blow from the club and an Indian who tried to throw himself upon the flying sled was hurled from the trail and rolled end over end down the steep hundred-foot slope to the river.
A quarter of a minute later McDougall"s big _malamutes_ swung into the trail and would have dashed past the spot before the Indians could have collected their senses, had not O"Brien, with Irish impetuosity, leaned far over the side and aimed a mighty blow of his fist at the head of Annunduk. The blow swung wide and O"Brien, losing his balance, pitched headlong into the snow almost at the Indian"s feet.
Connie, whose attention was upon the rushing dogs, felt the sled leap forward as the man"s weight was removed, and without an instant"s hesitation halted the dogs in their tracks and, clutching his dog whip, ran to the a.s.sistance of O"Brien, who was clawing and rolling about in the snow in a vain effort to regain his feet.
There was not a second to lose. By the light of the stars the boy saw Annunduk leap forward with club upraised, while the remaining Indian was making ready to spring upon the defenceless man from behind. Connie redoubled his efforts and, just as the chief raised his club for a long shoulder swing at O"Brien"s head, the boy"s fifteen-foot gut lash sang through the thin air. There was a report like a pistol-shot and, with a loud yell of pain, Annunduk dropped his club and clutched frantically at his face.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "The boy"s fifteen-foot lash sang through the thin air."]
Meanwhile the other Indian had almost reached the Irishman who had scrambled to his hands and knees. Connie leaped backward to get the range of his long whiplash, but before the boy could draw back his arm, the air roared with a long, throaty growl and Slasher, the savage wolf-dog, with back-curled lips and flashing fangs, leaped past and launched himself full at the throat of the Indian. With awful impact, the great tawny brute landed squarely upon the man"s chest, carrying him backward into the snow. The next instant the air was filled with frightened shrieks and ferocious, full-mouthed snarls as the wolf-dog tore and wrenched at the heavy skin shirt, while the terrified Indian protected his face with his arms.
The whole incident occupied scarcely a minute, and Connie half-dragged the dazed O"Brien to his feet and hurried him to the sled. With a loud whistle to Slasher, the boy cracked his whip above the ears of the leader and, just as the head of the trail became black with pursuing Indians, the _malamutes_ shot away, with Slasher running beside them, growling fiercely and shaking a great patch of quill-embroidered shirt front which waved from his tight-clamped jaws.
Down on the river, Waseche Bill was in the act of swinging his dogs for a dash over the back trail when the long ten-team rushed out onto the rime-carpeted ice. All danger from pursuit was past, and they jogged the teams slowly northward, while all about them fell the frost spicules in a feathery shimmer of tinsel. Ten minutes later O"Brien pointed out the trail which pa.s.sed between two enormous rocks and entered the valley of the Ignatook, the creek of the stinking steam, into which the Indians dared not venture. And it was with a grateful sense of security and relief that they headed the dogs for the spot where they were to camp, in the old tunnel of the lost mine of the Ignatook--at the end of the dead man"s lonely trail.
CHAPTER XV
O"BRIEN"S CANS OF GOLD
When Connie Morgan and Waseche Bill awoke, the morning after their midnight escape from the village of the strange Indians, they found O"Brien busily engaged in the preparation of breakfast.
The tunnel of the ancient mine, that had been the abode of Carlson and Pete Mateese, was merely a rude entry which followed the slant of an outcropping ma.s.s of native copper. The entry was approximately five feet high and six feet wide, and led obliquely into the face of a rock-cliff for a distance of a hundred feet where it widened into a chamber, or room, perhaps twenty feet in diameter and seven or eight feet in height.
Three walls of the room were formed by the copper ore which showed plainly the marks of the primitive tools of the forgotten miners. The fourth wall was of solid rock--the wall of the fissure that contained the vein of ore. At the angle formed by the roof and the rock wall, a wide crack, or cleavage cleft, slanted sharply upward and outward to a point on the face of the rock-cliff high above the mouth of the tunnel, and thus formed a natural chimney for the rude fireplace that had been built directly beneath it.
The odour of boiling coffee was in the air and by the fireplace squatted O"Brien, prodding tentatively at the caribou steaks that sizzled noisily in the long-handled frying pan. Upon a flat stone that had evidently served for a table, an ancient lamp which consisted of a rudely hammered copper pan containing blubber grease and a bit of moss wicking, flared its smoky illumination.
"Good marnin" to yez," greeted the Irishman, as the two partners slipped from their sleeping bags and drew up close to the fire. "Sure, bhreakfasht"ll be riddy in wan minit--an" a good job ut is, to be settin" wanst mor-re amongst Christians, an" aytin" whoite man"s grub, inshtead av suckin" a shtrip av blubber, along av th" flat-faced Injuns, yondher."
Connie laughed:
"Yes, but you nearly spilled the beans when you tumbled off the sled."
"Ahroo! Dar-rlint! Ut"s a gr-rand lad ye ar-re! Ye shud av seen um!" he cried, turning to Waseche Bill. "Oi wanted to git jist th" wan swoipe f"r um to remimber me by, but Oi mished um fair an" square, an" over Oi wint loike a frog off a log in a bog. An" jist phwin Annunduk wuz about to presint his soide av th" case wid a bit av a club th" heft av a pick handle, crack! goes th" b"y"s whiplash fair in th" face av um, an" phwin th" other goes to jump on me back, Whirra! They"s a roar loike th" Zoo tur-rned loose f"r recess, an" th" wolf-dog"s a-top av um, fang an"
claw! Ye shud av seen ut! "Twuz a gr-rand soight!"
Waseche smiled proudly as he listened to the Irishman"s account of the accident on the trail.
"Yo" say, they won"t follow us in heah?" he asked.
"Niver a wan av thim. They think this valley is th" counthry av th" evil spirits. We"re safe now--an" hooray, f"r Flor-ridy, an" th" land av sunshine!"
"We-all ain"t out of the woods yet. I"m sho" glad to be shet of them Injuns, though. How many times did yo" say they"d brung yo" back?"
"Twinty-wan toimes. But, Oi hadn"t no dogs--an" thim two tomatty cans is heavy!"
"Where are the cans?" asked Connie, who had only half believed the Irishman"s tale of gold.
"Set by now an" ate, an" Oi"ll show ye thim--the two av moine, an" th"
twilve av Car-rlson"s an" Pete Mateese"s."
The meal over, O"Brien loosened a cleverly concealed wedge that held in place a stone which served as a door to a small compartment, about eighteen inches square and three feet deep, that had been chiselled into the copper on a level with the floor.
""Tis th" safe," he grinned. "Foire proof, an" bhurglar proof, too, av ye don"t know th" combynation, fer wid th" little wedge in place, th"
more ye pryze on th" rock th" toighter ut shticks."
Pushing the stone aside, the man reached into the interior and, one at a time, removed fourteen tin cans, which he carefully deposited upon the floor. Over the top of each, serving as a cover, and concealing the contents from view, was bound a piece of caribou skin, smoke-dried, with the hair on.
Connie reached for a can, but to his surprise it remained motionless as if nailed to the floor. It seemed incredible to the boy that such great weight could be encompa.s.sed within so small a s.p.a.ce, and it was only at the expense of considerable effort that he succeeded in raising it to his lap. Cutting the thongs, he removed the cover and there, showing yellow and dull in the guttering flare of the blubber lamp, was gold!
O"Brien spread an empty pack-sack and the boy poured the contents of the can upon it, and with his fingers levelled the golden pyramid. Before him lay nuggets, flat, dark flakes of "float," and bright yellow grains of "dust"--hand-shovelled, and hand-sluiced from the hot, wet sands of the Ignatook. Waseche Bill stared speechless at the row of skin-covered cans, at the pile of yellow metal, and back to the row of cans. For years this man had toiled and mucked among the placers of the gold fields, had sunk deep shafts, and shallow; had tunnelled, and drifted, and sloshed about in ice-cold muddy creek beds, but in all the years of toil and hardship and peril, he had never gazed upon a sight like this.
Even Ten Bow, with its rich drift sands, was a barren desert in comparison with this El Dorado of the frozen waste.
"Nine thousan" dollahs a can--mebbe ten," he estimated, in an awed voice. "No wondeh Carlson came back!" He turned to O"Brien:
"How deep was his shafts?"
"Shafts!" exclaimed the Irishman, "sure, they ain"t no shafts! Ye dam off a puddle av wather phwer uts shallow an" throw in a chunk av oice to cool ut, an" thin ye wade in an" shovel ut into ye"re sluices."
"An" wateh the yeah around!" cried Waseche.
"Aye, an" no dumps to wor-rk out in th" shpring--ye clane up as ye go.
Wan shovel is good f"r a can, or a can an" a half a month."
The idea of a man measuring his dust by the forty-pound can, instead of by the ounce, was new, and Waseche Bill laughed--a short, nervous laugh of excitement.
"Come on! Shove them cans back in the hole an" le"s go stake ouh claims.
Yo" done stoke yo"n, ain"t yo", O"Brien?"
"Oi"ve shtaked nawthin"! Oi jist scooped ut out here an" there, phwere their claims wasn"t. Oi want none av this counthry! Oi"ve had enough av ut as ut is! Oi won"t shtay wan minit longer thin Oi"ve got to--not av Oi c"n shovel out pure gold be th" scoopful! Oi want to be war-rm wanst more, an" live loike a civiloized Christian shud live, wid a pig an" a cow, an" a bit av a gar-rden.
"Ye"ll not be thinkin" av shtayin" here?" he asked anxiously.
"No, O"Brien," answered Waseche, "not _this_ trip. But we ah goin" to stake ouh claims an" then, lateh, why me an" th" kid heah--we ah comin"
back!"
"Come back av ye want to," said O"Brien with a shrug. "But luk out ye don"t come back wanst too often. Phwere"s Car-rlson, an" Pete Mateese?
Thim"s min that come back! An" wait till ye see th" skulls an" the bones along th" gravel at th" edge av th" wather--thim wuz min, too, wanst--they come back. An" luk at _me_! Four av us come in be way av Peel River--an" three av us is dead--an" many"s th" toime Oi"ve wisht Oi wuz wan av thim." O"Brien replaced the stone, and the three turned their attention to their surroundings. One side of the room was piled to the ceiling with the caribou venison and fish of which O"Brien had spoken.
They also found a sled and a complete set of harness for a six-dog team--Carlson"s six dogs that had found their way into the boiling pots of the White Indians. Scattered about the stone floor lay numerous curiously shaped stone and copper implements, evidently the mining tools of a primitive race of people, and among these Connie also found ancient weapons of ivory and bone.
Slowly they made their way toward the entrance, pausing now and then to examine the rough walls of the tunnel which had been laboriously driven through the ma.s.s of copper ore.