The Wilderness Trail Part 13

"I did not wish to tell you, Captain," he said, with dignity, "but you forced me. Then, too, perhaps, it is just as well that you know early rather than late. Perhaps, old Maria took the girl just for spite of old Fitzpatrick. I hope that is the only reason."

"And yet--and yet--!" muttered Donald between clenched teeth. His tongue refused to utter the foul alternative.

Silent, they moved out in the storm once more, and McTavish bent to the work with a will. It was good to battle, to struggle with the elements on this wild night; it was good to weary himself with labor and to keep his mind alert with the changing exigencies of every step. Else, he should be beside himself with fear and impotence.

In flashes, he pondered on what he had heard: the Indian woman's fruitless visit to Fitzpatrick, her relationship to Charley Seguis, her sudden abduction of Jean. There was something about these things that presented to his understanding a wall of insurmountable height.

Then, he recalled his last interview with Jean and the suspicions that had been cast upon himself, suspicions he had vainly endeavored to fathom. What was in the wind, anyhow? he asked himself. There seemed to be forces at work over which he had no control, forces big with portent, heavy with menace. Like a towering thunder-cloud that casts its sickly green over all about, so these unknown influences were overshadowing all the lives around him.

There was but one thing to do. Probe matters to the bottom, force the issues, and drive these disquieting rumors out of the country.

But how to accomplish this? There was but one answer to that question in Donald's mind, and it was the answer of the man in primitive surroundings thousands of years ago. He would marry Jean Fitzpatrick out of hand, and then start asking questions. If she did not yet love him, she would learn to; if her father did not like it, he would have to make the best of matters. For the present, Sturgeon Lake was out of the question for Donald. He would attend to that later. Just now, Jean was in danger of worse things than death, and needed him. He would devote his attention entirely to her.

All that night, Rainy, McTavish, and the dogs toiled like galley-slaves, not sure of their exact direction, but aware that they were taking a general southerly course away from the fort.

Morning found them fully ten miles on their way, with no back trail, and the blizzard lessening perceptibly. It did not matter now. Their tracks would be taken for those of a trapper running his line.

They halted for breakfast in the lee of a bluff, just as a muddy light made itself apparent.

"Shall we rest now, Captain?" asked Rainy.

But Donald said no, and told the old servant his reasons and his plans. An hour's inactivity represented to him a hundred hideous possibilities. They must travel fast in the general direction of Sturgeon Lake, and try to pick up the trail of Maria, the squaw...

So, after an hour, they pressed on again, finding easier traveling and making better time.

That night they came to a little lake, perhaps a mile wide, and on the opposite sh.o.r.e discerned a wretched shanty. They decided to camp here, for the dogs were weak with exhaustion. Rainy attended to the unharnessing of the animals and the unpacking of the sledge, while Donald went out to cut wood for the fire and boughs to sleep on. When he returned and entered the cabin, he found the Indian examining something closely. It proved to be a charred ember. Rainy fingered it and smelled it, and finally announced that it was not more than a day old. The two then went outside, and circled slowly about the shanty.

Here, forty miles from Fort Severn, the blizzard had been light, and the snowfall trifling. Presently, they uncovered faint tracks leading away southwest, and judged, from the edge of the crust where the sledge had occasionally broken through, that they were not older than thirty-six hours.

Once more, the mania for travel seized McTavish, and he was all for setting out on the trail that night. But Peter Rainy restrained him, showing him the folly of such action, since both dogs and men were unfit for work.

In the cabin, at one time, there had been a bunk. The flat shelf still projected out from the wall. Donald entered with an armful of spruce boughs, and threw them on the bunk. While he was arranging them to a semblance of smoothness for the blankets, his hand struck something hard and cold. He picked the object up and held it to the light of the fire. Then, with a cry, he leaned forward, and examined it intently.

It was a bone b.u.t.ton from Jean Fitzpatrick's fur outer garment.

That it was hers, there could be no doubt, for the reason that in the very center was a tiny raised flag-pole and flag, the latter enameled red--the banner of the Hudson Bay Company. The b.u.t.tons were a curiosity, and were the work of an old squaw for whom Jean had done many little kindnesses.

How had it got here? There was but one explanation: Maria, Tom, her full-blooded Indian son, and Jean had occupied this lonely cabin.

"Surely it is hers," said Peter Rainy, examining the object. "But see, Captain. It's now six days since they took her away. The trail going from here was made day before yesterday. Why should they have stayed here so long?"

"I don't know--I don't know!" muttered Donald, walking up and down outside the door excitedly. "But we have no other clew; we must follow this one. With two women they are traveling slowly. We can overtake them."

During the night, the sky cleared, and, when McTavish woke after several hours of troubled sleep, the stars were bright. It was four o'clock; but he routed out his whole establishment, and in less than an hour they were on their way, so that by daylight they had put fifteen miles behind them.

They traveled as they had never done before, following the dim trail before them with the speed and instinct of wild things.

Tireless, elastic, winged with snowshoes, the miles flowed under them.

At eleven o'clock, they came upon the ruins of a camp-fire, which had evidently been scattered that morning, and, encouraged by this, Donald could barely stop to make tea. The afternoon was a race with darkness. Could he have done so, he would have commanded the sullen sun to stand still. Now, with a vicious cut at the faltering dogs, now with a cry of encouragement to Peter Rainy, he ran on, his shirt open at the front, his throat bare.

Hour by hour, the trail grew fresher. Now, they paused at the open glades before crossing them. They listened for the jingle of bells in the distance, and took their own off the harness, an act that nearly ended their day's journey, for the dogs could scarcely be induced to travel without this musical accompaniment. Darkness, at last, began to settle.

Suddenly, the force of inspiration that had held him up so long, deserted the young man, and he wavered where he stood, shading his eyes across an open s.p.a.ce.

"What do you see, Peter?" he gasped, sitting down abruptly, for very weakness.

The Indian stood gazing for a long time in silence.

"Far off, I see a shanty and a dog-train in front of it," he said, slowly. "And, now, I see smoke coming from the chimney."

"How many people are there?" cried Donald excitedly, getting to his feet again. "Tell me, quick! How many?

"That I cannot see," answered the Indian, after a moment's piercing scrutiny.

"Mush! Mush on!" cried McTavish, curling the long whip over the dogs' backs, and once more the mad race was under way.

Over the smooth, glazed crust, into low, powdery drifts, under windfalls or around them, down the forest aisles, or across bare, open s.p.a.ces, they whirled, the men at a tireless, gliding lope, the dogs at a fast trot.

Nearer came the shanty and its curl of smoke. Now, it was but a quarter of a mile away, and the going was all down-hill and clear.

The men jumped aboard the sledge, and called to the dogs, which responded by breaking into a gallop. Thus silently, without bells, the equipage descended upon the unknown travelers in the shanty.

A hundred yards away, the strange dogs sounded the alarm, and, ten seconds later, Donald's team was engaged in a free fight that threatened to put an end to every strip of harness.

While Peter Rainy stayed to separate the combatants, Donald sprang off, and rushed ahead to the shanty. At that moment, two persons stepped out of the door, a man and a woman.

Even at fifty yards, there could be no doubt as to their ident.i.ty: They were the old hag Maria and her Indian son, Tom.

CHAPTER XII

MARIA TAKES ACTION

"Good-evening," said Donald, courteously, in the Ojibway tongue.

With all his impatience, he knew better than to be precipitate.

Tom and Maria responded in kind to his salutation, and the usual amenities of those who find themselves at a camping-place together were exchanged. Of course, the newcomers would not think of occupying the cabin, since the others had reached it first, even though Donald's rank in the Hudson Bay Company ent.i.tled him to the best to be had.

They were fortunate, he said, in the locating of such an admirable shelter; in fact, it was one of the best he had seen, warm, well made, with room for the dogs. Whose was it? They told him an Indian name, and he continued his complimentary talk, approaching the door all the time.

Truly, this good Indian would have to be recommended to the factor for keeping his place in such fine order. See! Even the door fitted in its frame, and did not sag on its hinges when he opened it.

There would be--He entered.

The monologue suddenly ceased, and, after a silent moment, a groan from the heart of the agonized man came to the ears of those outside.

Presently, he emerged, white and wretched-looking, his face drawn with weariness and disappointment.

Yet, in his eyes there was something that made the two rascally Ojibways shift uneasily. Donald was not sure whether or not he had heard a smothered snicker, during the moment that he found himself alone in the cabin, but he intended to find out.

"Tom," he said, "where are the hunting-grounds to which you are going?

"By Beaver Lake."