"But are you sure he spoke truth," objected Sam. "You have never looked kindly on him. You left Haukemah"s band to go with us. How could he trust you?"
She looked at him bravely.
"Little Father," she replied, "there is a moment when man and woman trust utterly, and when they say truly what lies in their hearts."
"Good G.o.d!" cried Sam, in English.
"It was the only way," she answered the spirit of his interjection. "I had known before only his forked tongue."
"Why did you do this, girl? You had no right, no reason. You should have consulted us."
"Little Father," said she, "the people of your race are a strange people. I do not understand them. An evil is done them, and they pa.s.s it by; a good is done them, and they do not remember. With us it is different. Always in our hearts dwell the good and the evil."
"What good have we done to you?" asked Sam.
"Jibiwanisi has looked into my heart," she replied, lapsing into the Indian rhetoric of deep emotion. "He has looked into my heart, and in the doorway he blots out the world. At the first I wanted to die when he would not look on me with favour. Then I wanted to die when I thought I should never possess him. Now it is enough that I am near him, that I lay his fire, and cook his tea and caribou, that I follow his trail, that I am ready when he needs me, that I can raise my eyes and see him breaking the trail. For when I look up at him the sun breaks out, and the snow shines, and there is a light under the trees. And when I think of raising my eyes, and he not there, nor anywhere near, then my heart freezes, Little Father, freezes with loneliness."
Abruptly she arose, casting aside the blanket and stretching her arms rigid above her head. Then with equal abruptness she stooped, caught up her bedding, spread it out, and lay down stolidly to rest, turning her back to both the white men.
But Sam remained crouched by the fire until the morning hour of waking, staring with troubled eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Later in the morning d.i.c.k attempted some remark on the subject of the girl"s presence. At once Sam whirled on him with a gust of pa.s.sion utterly unlike his ordinary deliberate and even habit.
"Shut your d.a.m.ned mouth!" he fairly shouted.
d.i.c.k whistled in what he thought was a new enlightenment, and followed literally the other"s vigorous advice. Not a syllable did he utter for an hour, by which time the sun had risen. Then he stopped and pointed to a fresh trail converging into that they were following.
The prints of two pairs of snow-shoes joined; those of one returned.
Sam gasped. d.i.c.k looked ironical. The interpretation was plain without the need of words. The Chippewa and the girl, although they had started to the southeast, had made a long detour in order again to reach Jingoss. These two pairs of snow-shoe tracks marked where they had considered it safe again to strike into the old trail made by the Chippewa in going and coming. The one track showed where Ah-tek had pushed on to rejoin his friend; the other was that of the girl returning for some reason the night before, perhaps to throw them off the scent.
"Looks as if they"d fooled you, and fooled you good," said d.i.c.k, cheerfully.
For a single instant doubt drowned Sam"s faith in his own insight and in human nature.
"d.i.c.k," said he, quietly, "raise your eyes."
Not five rods farther on the trail the two had camped for the night.
Evidently Ah-tek had discovered his detour to have lasted out the day, and, having satisfied himself that his and his friend"s enemies were not ahead of him, he had called a halt. The snow had been sc.r.a.ped away, the little fire built, the ground strewn with boughs. So far the indications were plain and to be read at a glance. But upright in the snow were two snow-shoes, and tumbled on the ground was bedding.
Instantly the two men leaped forward. May-may-gwan, her face stolid and expressionless, but her eyes glowing, stood straight and motionless by the dogs. Together they laid hold of the smoothly spread top blanket and swept it aside. Beneath was a jumble of warmer bedding. In it, his fists clenched, his eyes half open in the horrific surprise of a sudden calling, lay the Chippewa stabbed to the heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The silence of the grave lay over the white world. Deep in the forest a tree detonated with the frost. There by the cold last night"s camp the four human figures posed, motionless as a wind that has died. Only the dogs, lolling, stretching, sending the warm steam of their breathing into the dead air, seemed to stand for the world of life, and the world of sentient creatures. And yet their very presence, un.o.btrusive in the forest shadows, by contrast thrust farther these others into the land of phantoms and of ghosts.
Then quietly, as with one consent, the three living ones turned away.
The older woodsman stepped into the trail, leading the way for the dogs; the younger woodsman swung in behind at the gee-pole; the girl followed.
Once more; slowly, as though reluctant, the forest trees resumed their silent progress past those three toiling in the treadmill of the days.
The camp dropped back; it confused itself in the frost mists; it was gone, gone into the mystery and the vastness of the North, gone with its tragedy and its symbol of the greatness of human pa.s.sion, gone with its one silent watcher staring at the sky, awaiting the coming of day. The frost had mercifully closed again about its revelation. No human eye would ever read that page again.
Each of the three seemed wrapped in the splendid isolation of his own dream. They strode on sightless, like somnambulists. Only mechanically they kept the trail, and why they did so they could not have told. No coherent thoughts pa.s.sed through their brains. But always the trees, frost-rimed, drifted past like phantoms; always the occult influences of the North loomed large on their horizon like mirages, dwindled in the actuality, but threatened again in the bigness of mystery when they had pa.s.sed. The North was near, threatening, driving the terror of her tragedy home to the hearts of these staring mechanical plodders, who now travelled they knew not why, farther and farther into the depths of dread.
But the dogs stopped, and Billy, the leader, sniffed audibly in inquiry of what lay ahead. Instantly, in the necessity for action, the spell broke. The mystery which had lain so long at their horizon, which but now had crept in, threatening to smother them, rolled back to its accustomed place. The north withheld her hand.
Before them was another camp, one that had been long used. A conical tepee or wigwam, a wide s.p.a.ce cleared of snow, much debris, racks and scaffolds for the accommodation of supplies, all these attested long occupancy.
Sam jerked the cover from his rifle, and cast a hasty glance at the nipple to see if it was capped. d.i.c.k jumped forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed aside the opening into the wigwam.
"Not at home!" said he.
"Gone," corrected Sam, pointing to a fresh trail beyond.
At once the two men turned their attention to this. After some difficulty they established the fact of a three-dog team. Testing the consistency of the snow they proved a heavy load on the toboggan.
"I"m afraid that means he"s gone for good," said Sam.
[Ill.u.s.tration: d.i.c.k jumped forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed aside the opening into the wigwam]
A further examination of camp corroborated this. The teepee had been made double, with the s.p.a.ce between the two walls stuffed with moss, so evidently it had been built as permanent winter quarters. The fact of its desertion at this time of year confirmed the reasoning as to the ident.i.ty of its occupant and the fact of his having been warned by the dead Chippewa. Skulls of animals indicated a fairly prosperous fur season. But the skulls of animals, a broken knife, a pile of balsam-boughs, and the deserted wigwam were all that remained. Jingoss had taken with him his traps, his pelts, his supplies.
"That"s a good thing," concluded Sam, "a mighty good thing. It shows he ain"t much scared. He don"t suspect we"re anywhere"s near him; only that it ain"t very healthy to spend the winter in this part of the country.
If he"d thought we was close, he wouldn"t have lugged along a lot of plunder; he"d be flying mighty light."
"That"s right," agreed d.i.c.k.
"And in that case he isn"t travelling very fast. We"ll soon catch up."
"He only left this morning," supplemented d.i.c.k, examining the frost-crystals in the new-cut trail.
Without wasting further attention, they set out in pursuit. The girl followed. d.i.c.k turned to her.
"I think we shall catch him very soon," said he, in Ojibway.
The girl"s face brightened and her eyes filled. The simple words admitted her to confidence, implied that she, too, had her share in the undertaking, her interest in its outcome. She stepped forward with winged feet of gladness.
Luckily a light wind had sprung up against them. They proceeded as quietly and as swiftly as they could. In a short time they came to a spot where Jingoss had boiled tea. This indicated that he must have started late in the morning to have accomplished only so short a distance before noon. The trail, too, became fresher.
Billy, the regular lead dog, on this occasion occupied his official position ahead, although, as has been pointed out, he was sometimes alternated with the hound, who now ran just behind him. Third trotted Wolf, a strong beast, but a stupid; then Claire, at the sledge, sagacious, alert, ready to turn the sledge from obstruction. For a long, time all these beasts, with the strange intelligence of animals much a.s.sociated with man, had entertained a strong interest in the doings of their masters. Something besides the day"s journey was in the wind. They felt it through their keen instinctive responsiveness to the moods of those over them; they knew it by the testimony of their bright eyes which told them that these investigations and pryings were not all in an ordinary day"s travel. Investigations and pryings appeal to a dog"s nature. Especially did Mack, the hound, long to be free of his harness that he, too, might sniff here and there in odd nooks and crannies, testing with that marvelously keen nose of his what his masters regarded so curiously. Now at last he understood from the frequent stops and examinations that the trail was the important thing.