"They are coming!" exclaimed Croisset. "M"seur, I swear to--"
Again Howland"s pistol covered his heart.
"Then it is even more necessary that I kill you," he said with frightful calmness. "I warned you that I would kill you if you led me into a trap, Croisset. The dogs are bushed. There is no way out of this but to fight--if there are people coming down the trail. Listen to that!"
This time, from still nearer, came the shout of a man, and then of another, followed by the huskies" sharp yelping as they started afresh on the trail. The flush of excitement that had come into Howland"s face paled until he stood as white as the Frenchman. But it was not the whiteness of fear. His eyes were like blue steel flashing in the sunlight.
"There is nothing to do but fight," he repeated, even more calmly than before. "If we were a mile or two back there it could all happen as I planned it. But here--"
"They will hear the shots," cried Jean. "The post is no more than a gunshot beyond the forest, and there are plenty there who would come out to see what it means. Quick, M"seur--follow me. Possibly they are hunters going out to the trap-lines. If it comes to the worst--"
"What then?" demanded Howland.
"You can shoot me a little later," temporized the Frenchman with a show of his old coolness. "_Mon Dieu_, I am afraid of that gun, M"seur. I will get you out of this if I can. Will you give me the chance--or will you shoot?"
"I will shoot--if you fail," replied the engineer.
Barely were the words out of his mouth when Croisset sprang to the head of the dogs, seized the leader by his neck-trace and half dragged the team and sledge through the thick bush that edged the trail. A dozen paces farther on the dense scrub opened into the clearer run of the low-hanging banskian through which Jean started at a slow trot, with Howland a yard behind him, and the huskies following with human-like cleverness in the sinuous twistings of the trail which the Frenchman marked out for them. They had progressed not more than three hundred yards when there came to them for a third time the hallooing of a voice.
With a sharp "hup, hup," and a low crack of his whip Jean stopped the dogs.
"The Virgin be praised, but that is luck!" he exclaimed. "They have turned off into another trail to the east, M"seur. If they had come on to that break in the bush where we dragged the sledge through--" He shrugged his shoulders with a gasp of relief. "_Sacre_, they would not be fools enough to pa.s.s it without wondering!"
Howland had broken the breech of his revolver and was replacing the three empty cartridges with fresh ones.
"There will be no mistake next time," he said, holding out the weapon.
"You were as near your death a few moments ago as ever before in your life, Croisset--and now for a little plain understanding between us.
Until we stopped out there I had some faith in you. Now I have none. I regard you as my worst enemy, and though you are deuced near to your friends I tell you that you were never in a tighter box in your life. If I fail in my mission here, you shall die. If others come along that trail before dark, and run us down, I will kill you. Unless you make it possible for me to see and talk with Meleese I will kill you. Your life hangs on my success; with my failure your death is as certain as the coming of night. I am going to put a bullet through you at the slightest suspicion of treachery. Under the circ.u.mstances what do you propose to do?"
"I am glad that you changed your mind, M"seur, and I will not tempt you again. I will do the best that I can," said Jean. Through a narrow break in the tops of the banskian pines a few feathery flakes of snow were falling, and Jean lifted his eyes to the slit of gray sky above them.
"Within an hour it will be snowing heavily," he affirmed. "If they do not run across our trail by that time, M"seur, we shall be safe."
He led the way through the forest again, more slowly and with greater caution than before, and whenever he looked over his shoulder he caught the dull gleam of Howland"s revolver as it pointed at the hollow of his back.
"The devil, but you make me uncomfortable," he protested. "The hammer is up, too, M"seur!"
"Yes, it is up," said Howland grimly. "And it never leaves your back, Croisset. If the gun should go off accidentally it would bore a hole clean through you."
Half an hour later the Frenchman halted where the banskians climbed the side of a sloping ridge.
"If you could trust me I would ask to go on ahead," whispered Jean.
"This ridge shuts in the plain, M"seur, and just over the top of it is an old cabin which has been abandoned for many years. There is not one chance in a thousand of there being any one there, though it is a good fox ridge at this season. From it you may see the light in Meleese"s window at night."
He did not stop to watch the effect of his last words, but began picking his way up the ridge with the dogs tugging at his heels. At the top he swung sharply between two huge ma.s.ses of snow-covered rock, and in the lee of the largest of these, almost entirely sheltered from the drifts piled up by easterly winds, they came suddenly on a small log hut. About it there were no signs of life. With unusual eagerness Jean scanned the surface of the snow, and when he saw that there was trail of neither man nor beast in the unbroken crust a look of relief came into his face.
"_Mon Dieu_, so far I have saved my hide," he grinned. "Now, M"seur, look for yourself and see if Jean Croisset has not kept his word!"
A dozen steps had taken him through a screen of shrub to the opposite slope of the ridge. With outstretched arm he pointed down into the plain, and as Howland"s eyes followed its direction he stood throbbing with sudden excitement. Less than a quarter of a mile away, sheltered in a dip of the plain, were three or four log buildings rising black and desolate out of the white waste. One of these buildings was a large structure similar to that in which Howland had been imprisoned, and as he looked a team and sledge appeared from behind one of the cabins and halted close to the wall of the large building. The driver was plainly visible, and to Howland"s astonishment he suddenly began to ascend the side of this wall. For the moment Howland had not thought of a stair.
Jean"s att.i.tude drew his eyes. The Frenchman had thrust himself half out of the screening bushes and was staring through the telescope of his hands. With an exclamation he turned quickly to the engineer.
"Look, M"seur! Do you see that man climbing the stair? I don"t mind telling you that he is the one who hit you over the head on the trail, and also one of those who shut you up in the coyote. Those are his quarters at the post, and possibly he is going up to see Meleese. If you were much of a shot you could settle a score or two from here, M"seur."
The figure had stopped, evidently on a platform midway up the side of the building. He stood for a moment as if scanning the plain between him and the mountain, then disappeared. Howland had not spoken a word, but every nerve in his body tingled strangely.
"You say Meleese--is there?" he questioned hesitatingly. "And he--who is that man, Croisset?"
Jean shrugged his shoulders and drew himself back into the bush, turning leisurely toward the old cabin.
"_Non_, M"seur, I will not tell you that," he protested. "I have brought you to this place. I have pointed out to you the stair that leads to the room where you will find Meleese. You may cut me into ribbons for the ravens, but I will tell you no more!"
Again the threatening fire leaped into Howland"s eyes.
"I will trouble you to put your hands behind your back, Croisset," he commanded. "I am going to return a certain compliment of yours by tying your hands with this piece of babeesh, which you used on me.
After that--"
"And after that, M"seur--" urged Jean, with a touch of the old taunt in his voice, and stopping with his back to the engineer and his hands behind him. "After that?"
"You will tell me all that I want to know," finished Howland, tightening the thong about his wrists.
He led the way then to the cabin. The door was closed, but opened readily as he put his weight against it. The single room was lighted by a window through which a ma.s.s of snow had drifted, and contained nothing more than a rude table built against one of the log walls, three supply boxes that had evidently been employed as stools, and a cracked and rust-eaten sheet-iron stove that had from all appearances long pa.s.sed into disuse. He motioned the Frenchman to a seat at one end of the table. Without a word he then went outside, securely toggled the leading dog, and returning, closed the door and seated himself at the end of the table opposite Jean.
The light from the open window fell full on Croisset"s dark face and shone in a silvery streak along the top of Howland"s revolver as the muzzle of it rested casually on a line with the other"s breast. There was a menacing click as the engineer drew back the hammer.
"Now, my dear Jean, we"re ready to begin the real game," he explained.
"Here we are, high and dry, and down there--just far enough away to be out of hearing of this revolver when I shoot--are those we"re going to play against. So far I"ve been completely in the dark. I know of no reason why I shouldn"t go down there openly and be welcomed and given a good supper. And yet at the same time I know that my life wouldn"t be worth a tinker"s d.a.m.n if I _did_ go down. You can clear up the whole business, and that"s what you"re going to do. When I understand why I am scheduled to be murdered on sight I won"t be handicapped as I now am. So go ahead and spiel. If you don"t, I"ll blow your head off."
Jean sat unflinching, his lips drawn tightly, his head set square and defiant.
"You may shoot, M"seur," he said quietly. "I have sworn on a cross of the Virgin to tell you no more than I have. You could not torture me into revealing what you ask."
Slowly Howland raised his revolver.
"Once more, Croisset--will you tell me?"
"_Non_, M"seur--"
A deafening explosion filled the little cabin. From the lobe of Jean"s ear there ran a red trickle of blood. His face had gone deathly pale.
But even as the bullet had stung him within an inch of his brain he had not flinched.
"Will you tell me, Croisset?"
This time the black pit of the engineer"s revolver centered squarely between the Frenchman"s eyes.
"_Non_, M"seur."
The eyes of the two men met over the blue steel. With a cry Howland slowly lowered his weapon.
"Good G.o.d, but you"re a brave man, Jean Croisset!" he cried. "I"d sooner kill a dozen men that I know than you!"