"They"re stopping," she said. "I wonder why?"
Instantly the vision of the morning flashed through her mind.
"The river!" she exclaimed in alarm. "If-if we can"t cross it, we"ll have to camp at the edge of the forest. And that is bad, very bad. Animals that are cowards, and slink away by day, become daring beasts of prey at night."
A hurried race forward confirmed her worst suspicions; there, at her feet was a river, flanked on one side by willows and on the other by a steep bank. It was not a broad stream-she could throw a stone across it-but it did flow swiftly. Its powerful current had thus far defied the winter"s fiercest blasts. It was full to the brim with milky water and crowding cakes of ice. No creature could brave that torrent, and live.
"Blocked!" she cried. "And just when I was hoping for so much!"
Sinking down upon the snow, she gave herself over for a moment to hopeless despair. The next moment she was on her feet. With arms outstretched toward the stars as if in appeal for aid, she spoke through tight clenched teeth:
"We must! We will! We will win!"
As if in mockery of her high resolves, at that moment there came to her ears the long-drawn howl of a timber wolf.
The call of the wolf was answered by another, and yet another. At the moment they seemed some distance away, but Marian trembled at the sound.
"A wolf travels fast," she told herself as she turned to hurry back to Patsy and her faithful Eskimo.
"Listen!" she exclaimed, as she came near to her companions. "Sounds like ten or twelve of them howling at once. Terogloona, do wolves travel in packs?"
"Mebby not," the Eskimo shrugged his shoulders, "but often they are many.
Then they call to one another. They come all to one place. Then there"s trouble. There will be trouble to-night, and we have no rifle. We-"
He broke off abruptly to lean forward in a listening att.i.tude. "That is strange," he murmured, "They have found some prey back there where they are, perhaps a caribou."
As they stood at strained attention, it became evident to all that the creature being pursued was coming down the wind toward them. The yap-yap of the wolves, now in full pursuit, grew momentarily louder. At the beginning they had seemed two miles away. Now they seemed but one mile; a half mile. The girls fairly held their breaths as they watched and waited.
And now it seemed that the wolves must be all but upon them. Then, with a sudden cry, Marian saw the great spreading antlers of old Omnap-puk, the king of reindeer and caribou, rise above the ridge.
"He"s not alone. There are others," Patsy breathed.
"Reindeer!" Marian murmured in astonishment.
It was true. One by one at first, then by fives and tens, a drove of deer, fifty or sixty in number, appeared on the crest of the hill and came plunging down toward Marian"s herd.
The old Monarch had never before joined their herd, but this time, without a second"s hesitation, he plunged straight on until he came to the edge of the herd. Then, with a peculiar whistled challenge, he wheeled about and with antlers lowered for battle, pawed defiance at the on-rushing band of wolves.
Then a strange and interesting drama began to be enacted. There was a shifting and turning of deer. Front ranks were quickly formed. When the wolves, with lolling tongues and dripping jaws reached the spot, they found themselves facing a solid row of bayonet-like antlers.
Quick as they were to understand the situation, and to rush away in a circle to execute a rear attack, the deer, under the monarch"s leadership, were quicker. Other lines were formed until a complete circle of antlers confronted the beasts of prey. The weaker and younger deer were in the center.
Then it was that the girls discovered for the first time that they, too, were in the center; that they were surrounded by the restless, snorting, pawing herd of deer. In their interest at watching the progress of events, they had not been aware of the fact that the deer, in swinging about, had encircled them.
That they were in peril, they knew all too well. They read this in the look of concern on Terogloona"s face.
"Circle hold, all right," he said soberly. "Not hold, bad! Deer afraid.
Go mad. Want"a trample down all; want"a get away fast. Mebby knock down my master"s daughter, her friend, Terogloona, Attatak; knock down all; mebby trampled. Mebby die. Mebby wolf kill."
There was apparently nothing to do but wait. To the wolf pack new numbers appeared to be added from time to time. The sound of their yap-yapping came incessantly. The circle swayed now to this side and now to that as some frightened deer appeared ready to break away. It was with the utmost difficulty that the girls prevented themselves from being knocked down and trampled under the sharp hoofs of the surging deer.
"What will it be like if the circle breaks and they really stampede?"
groaned Patsy. For the first time in her Arctic experience she was truly frightened.
"I don"t know," answered Marian. "We can only trust. I wish we were out of this. I wish-"
A sharp exclamation escaped Marian"s lips. Over to the left a deer had gone down. The wolves appeared to have cut the tendons to his forelegs.
There was terrible confusion. It seemed that the day was lost, that the stampede was at hand.
"Keep close to me," Marian whispered bravely. "Some way we will pull through."
Patsy gripped her arm for the final struggle. Then, to her astonishment, she heard the sound of a shot, then another, and yet another.
"Someone to our rescue," cried Marian. "Who can it be?"
CHAPTER XXVI THE MYSTERIOUS DELIVERER
Accustomed as they were to the presence of men, the reindeer, not at all frightened by the shots, held their position in the impregnable circle.
The cowardly wolves began to slink away at the first shot. It seemed no time at all until the only sound to be heard was the rattle of antlers as the deer broke ranks and began to scatter again for feeding.
Some moments before the girls could make their way out of the center of the herd the firing ceased.
"Who could it have been?" Patsy asked.
"Don"t know," said Marian. "Whoever it was, we must find them and thank them."
This task she found to be more difficult than she had supposed. There had doubtless been tracks left by the strange deliverer, but these had already been trampled by the deer. Search as they might, they could find no trace of the person who had fired the shots. Mute testimony of his skill as a marksman, two dead wolves lay on the snow close to the spot where the defensive circle had been formed.
"What did you make of that?" Marian asked at last in great bewilderment.
"Terogloona, where could they have gone?"
"_Canok-ti-ma-na_" (I don"t know), Terogloona shook his head soberly.
One of Marian"s sleds had been left at the edge of the forest. Upon returning to this, they experienced another great surprise. Lying across the sled was a rifle, and in a pile beside it were five boxes of cartridges.
"A rifle!" exclaimed Marian, seizing it and drawing it from his leather sheath. "A beauty! And a new one!"
The two girls sat down on the sled and stared at one another in speechless silence.
Terogloona and Attatak soon joined them.
"It was the Indian, the one we saved from starving!" exclaimed Patsy at last, "I just know it was."
Terogloona shook his head. "Old rifle, mebby all right," he mumbled; "new rifle, mebby Indian not give."