CHAPTER X
THE CAMP ON THE WOLF'S TOOTH ROCKS
The dusk was falling again and the weary travellers were looking eagerlyfor the right sort of camping ground, when the most startling thinghappened.
As the miles were covered a feeling of security was beginning to grow.Why, they could not have explained, except that they were naturallyhopeful, even when tired--which was a good thing if you consider thestrain to come still. They did not complain of the biting wind, or ofthe snow that continued to fall at intervals, because it was a helptowards safety in their opinion. Certainly it was far more difficult todistinguish objects.
Nell gave a joyful exclamation as the right kind of place loomed justahead of them--a wooded, rocky arm stretching out into the lake. Hadthere been water it would, of course, have been a promontory; as it wasit offered a screen and some shelter. It was much less exposed andhardly the place that a bull moose would gallop over or wolves be foundon. It was altogether promising.
"Here we camp," said Nell, and David dropped his harness, stretching hisarms with a sigh of relief.
Leaving the sled they both climbed up the steep and rocky bank, beatinga way through snow-covered juniper bushes on to the wooded promontory.Above the lake and sheltered to a great extent, the place seemed idealto their hopes. David began hacking a clear space with quick strokes ofthe little axe--a woodman learns that quick tentative stroke in thebitter north, because in the frost his axe blade is liable to fly into athousand splinters like glass if used as it would be in a warmerclimate--a sort of brisk tap, with caution. Nell went down again to thesled to bring up necessaries, for it was plainly labour lost to haul thesled up on to the promontory.
In so doing her attention was drawn to the dog Robin, who was not actingaccording to his usual rule, which was to lie down and watch while campwas made, waiting for his supper. He moved restlessly about, nose to theground, this way and that, round, in and out, and presently disappearedamong the underwood.
When Nell got up to the top again, laden with sleeping bags, food andutensils, David drew her attention to this.
"Some animal," said Nell; "what a plague! We must look out, Da, it mightbe a bear."
David thought it couldn't be.
"Bears are still asleep," he said.
"Not when thaws begin," Nell answered decidedly, as she cherished thelittle flame in the birch bark. "Just a breath of warmer wind and theold things wake up. Dad says you can't always count on them either,because they are so hungry and there's nothing for them to eat--noberries, no roots, no fish, because the streams are not free, nonothing. I hope it isn't a bear. Robin couldn't fight a bear."
"We should have to make polite speeches to it like the Red men do," saidDavid. "Oh, what's the use of bothering when ninety-nine-to-one it'sonly a chipmunk."
The fire burned up and a cosy glow danced on the bushes that shieldedthe little open space. The snow water began to bubble in the billy-can.Nell was kneeling on the ground slicing bacon into the pan when from thecorner of her eye she caught the movement of an alien shadow. She sprangup with a swift movement in time to see a shape melt backward into theunderbrush.
Drawing her revolver the girl was in pursuit on the instant. Davidfollowed because she went--he had seen nothing himself. Nell divedahead with the quick judgment of a woodswoman in choosing her path, andbrought up suddenly in utter astonishment within a few yards of thefire.
Motionless before her stood a figure wrapped in the usual Indianblanket, moccasins on the feet, head and arms muffled in the blanket.The only thing that moved was the curious roving glance of the blackeyes--absolutely black and shining like a squirrel's.
For an Indian she was pretty, her skin being much lighter in shade thanthat of the average Redskin girl. After the first shock of being caughtshe smiled, showing most beautiful teeth.
"Shines-in-the-Night," said Nell, speaking in a mixture of Chippewa andEnglish, "you are very far from the camp of your people. Is it wise?"
"It is wise," answered the girl, and her voice was very low and quitemusical. "My brother the Lizard knows, and I also know, that thetrapper Little Eyes has a bad heart towards the tall white sister. Shehas known only his forked tongue. His heart is very black."
"It is black," agreed Nell, "but we are not afraid, because the trail islost and Little Eyes will try in vain to find it when he goes back tothe log house of our father."
The Indian shook her head, her curious, inscrutable eyes full ofintelligence.
"My sister is deceived. Little Eyes will not return to the log house."She held up one hand and touched three of the fingers of it with theother hand. "One sun--Little Eyes leaves the camp of my father thePickerel and comes to the log house. He sees a writing on the door,with fire and powder he blows away the lock, and long time he searchesin the house of my sister----"
"I _said_ he would," muttered Nell to David aside.
"Brute!" said the boy.
Shines-in-the-Night glanced from one to the other, then she went on:
"My brother the Lizard has seen these things. I have followed the trailof my sister, while the Lizard went to the Abbitibbi River in thefootsteps of Little Eyes. I say that he will not return to the loghouse. It is empty. He cannot find that which he seeks. Little Eyeshas a quick mind, it darts like the head of a snake. He will comeacross--see----"
Suddenly she went down on one knee and made a little plan with bits ofstick for the rivers.
In a flash Nell saw the danger. Finding that the girl and boy had notgone to the shack at Abbitibbi River, the trapper could start at once ona long slanting line to the foot of the lake on which they were nowcamping. He would argue reasonably that they had followed the course oftheir river, as the easiest trail, and must cross the lake to follow ondown to Moose River. Therefore, the best--the most certain--place tointercept them would be where the river left the lake and went on againthrough the woods twenty miles to the eastward. He would not take thetrouble to chivy them all over the lake, simply because they were quitesure to leave it by the frozen river road, and there, where it wascomparatively narrow, he was bound to find the trail.
If he arrived before they did, he would wait, knowing they had notpassed. If they went by first he would see the trail and follow closeon their heels.
Either way it seemed as though he must catch them.
Poor Nell, very tired, cold, and hungry, felt this blow more than shewould have done had she been fresh. She looked at the bits of stick,understanding well how the two rivers ran, side by side, as it were,though so very many miles apart, over a hundred miles.
"But he can't do it in the time," said David. He had been watching theplan also with interested eyes. "Look at the miles he's had to go.First from our shack across to Abbitibbi, then, right away down to thebase of the lake. Look at it, Nell, he couldn't do it in the time.Four days!"
Nell said nothing. She was remembering vividly that one strong manalone on snowshoes, travelling light, goes at least three times as fastas they could at the best, with the sled, and the handicap ofinexperience on the long trail. After all, David was but twelve, thoughhe was so big and strong, and that long day at the waterfall rocks hadbeen a set-back, while the trapper was a very old hand and used toimmense journeys over the snow in the pursuit of his calling.
Shines-in-the-Night stood up again, and made an eloquent gesture of onearm towards the distant southern shore of the lake.
"We shall know," she said, "when the Lizard comes across the snow. Isaid to him at the ending of the sun on this finger"--she held up herfourth finger--"the tall white sister will rest and make camp on therock that is like a wolf's tooth. You shall come across and tell me,and our hearts shall be like the heart of the fox that is not deceived.And now let my sister eat and rest, for who shall say how soon she musttake the trail?"
"Oh, I say," ejaculated David, "I thought we were in for a decent spellto-night." Then glancing at Nell he pulled
himself together and added,"It's awfully jolly of Shines-in-the-Night to take such a lot oftrouble."
"My sister's heart is very good towards us," said Nell gently. "She isbrave as the cow-moose and kind as the wood-dove in summer. It is wellfor us, and we will not forget. Let her come and eat with us now, thatwhen the Lizard comes we may be strong, if there is a long trail to gowithout sleep or rest."
So it came to pass that in a few minutes the three were resting at thecamp fire, making a good meal, and shortly after that David was soundasleep. Then Nell, sleeping as she had not done for many nights,because of the sense of security given her by the presence of theRedskin girl who sat by the fire wrapped in her blanket, feeding theflame at intervals and listening with the acuteness of sense that gaveher hearing and instinct like an animal.
About midnight both the girl and the dog raised their heads to listen,and two minutes after they left the camp with movements noiseless as amusk-rat and went down to the edge of the lake. The Lizard came back upthe bank with them. He did not say he was exhausted, or even tired, asa boy of any Western nation would have done; it would have been quitebeneath the dignity of the son of a "brave" to make a complaint. He atethe food his sister gave to him, offering bits to Robin--the"ninnymoosh"--and he answered the questions she asked him in their ownmusical tongue, in low tones and few words.
Then Shines-in-the-Night shook Nell gently by one shoulder, and thesilent little camp was roused to busy action all in a moment.
The Lizard had brought rather staggering news. So much so that Nellfelt a sinking at the heart. Her spirit rose to meet it directly after,but that required some pluck.
It appeared that the Indians were right. Stenson had followed the planthey had prophesied and was, even at that moment, camped on the othershore of the lake, the southern shore opposite. Nor was he alone.Another trapper was with him, though, of course, the Lizard could nottell his name.
Then the boy said something to Shines-in-the-Night, and she passed it onto Nell.
"My brother the Lizard has seen the tall white man--the father of mysister. He is not sick, but he halts on one knee where the catamountbit him. He cannot yet go on the long trail. He is not troubled,because Little Eyes has spoken to him with a forked tongue and told himthat my sister is well and content with a message."
"_Ah_," murmured David, with meaning, "just what we said, Nell! Well,of all the stinkers! But it's a jolly good thing that Dad's all right,anyway."
Nell agreed vaguely. She was thinking of the money tied round herwaist! Whatever happened she would save her father's earnings, hisyears of work and labour, but certainly they were in rather a tightcorner. Most people would have called it a hopeless one.
She looked at Shines-in-the-Night, who was two years older than herselfand had all the shrewd cunning and knowledge of the wild bred in her byher Redskin forefathers. Nor did the Indian girl fail at this crisis.All the time she had been sitting by the fire while the white wanderersslept, she had been thinking out a plan, and it was formed in her mind,complete and practical in every detail.
Now she explained it.
Two on the Trail: A Story of Canada Snows Page 10