The Young Treasure Hunter Part 26

"Yes, we had it," admitted Mr. Baxter calmly. "One of your spies saw it."

"Then where is it now? You've got to give it up! I see! You have it concealed about you."

He strode over to Mr. Baxter and began to feel about his clothing. The impossibility of any one hiding a lot of bulky sacks about him without having them show did not occur to Callack until he had convinced himself that Mr. Baxter had no gold under his fur suit. Neither had the boys nor Johnson.

Callack was plainly puzzled. He had confidently expected to get the gold when he captured the fugitives. Now that it was neither among their baggage nor on their persons, he did not know what to do. But he was determined to have the bags of nuggets.

Approaching close to Mr. Baxter, and shaking his fist in the face of the bound man, he asked:

"Are you going to tell me where that treasure is?"

"No, I am not," was the bold reply.

"Then you'll suffer for it!"

He turned aside, called to some of the Indians, and the three captives were led into one of the tents, while a guard of several of the Alaskans was stationed outside.

"Well, they've got us," said Fred softly when they were left alone.

"Yes," admitted Mr. Baxter, "but they haven't got the gold."

CHAPTER XXII

ANXIOUS HOURS

The situation of the captives was desperate. They were in the power of a white man as savage, or more so, as any of the Indians. To add to this, he was enraged at his failure to discover the gold, to obtain which he had risked so much. What he might do to compel them to reveal the hiding place they could only guess.

For a while after being thrust into the tent there was silence among the three. They had been roughly handled, the exertion to escape had been hard, and they were utterly discouraged. It looked as though they had failed almost in the moment of success.

"Do you think Holfax will bring any aid?" asked Fred after a long pause.

"I think he will try," replied Mr. Baxter. "Whether he can bring enough of his friends to drive away this band of rascals is another matter. He ought to come along pretty soon, if he had good luck in reaching a camp and can persuade enough to come back with him."

"I wish I could loosen some of these knots," remarked Jerry. "I'm tied so tightly that I can't move, and I'm getting cold."

It was very cold, even in the shelter of the tent, and wrapped as they were in thick fur garments, for they were tied so tightly that their blood could not circulate freely.

"Let's see if we can't loosen some of our bonds," suggested Fred. "The exertion will make us warmer even if we can't. And if we get loose we may be able to escape."

"No, don't try that part of it," advised Mr. Baxter.

"Why not?"

"Because, angry as he now is over not finding the gold, Callack would probably order us shot at once. If we wish to save our lives we will have to go slow. Try to loosen the thongs, by all means. That, as Fred says, will warm us up. But even if we get loose it will be advisable to stay in the tent. For, if we should manage to get out, we could not go far without dogs and sleds, and it would be impossible to harness the animals un.o.bserved. No, boys, we'll have to stay here awhile and take our chances."

The Indians had been in such a hurry to tie their captives so that a search might be made for the gold that the knots were not very secure.

It did not take a great deal of exertion to undo them, and the three were able to stand up and stamp about, thereby warming themselves.

"I feel better," announced Fred. "Now if they'd bring us in something to eat we wouldn't be so badly off."

"I wonder how it goes with poor Johnson," said Mr. Baxter. "That was a cruel blow he received. Callack shall pay for that some day."

"He's a brute!" exclaimed Fred. "I wish I was big enough to fight him."

"I fancy if Johnson ever got at him in a fair fight Callack would wish he had never tried any of his tricks," observed Jerry.

Anxious hours pa.s.sed. The captives, looking from the tent, saw Callack and several Indians grouped about the supplies they had taken from the sleds of the prisoners. They were appropriating to their own use such of the articles as they fancied, while Callack, unwilling to believe the gold was not there, was minutely examining every robe and garment, hoping to find part of the treasure concealed in the folds, or sewed up in them.

It was getting lighter with the approach of morning, though the days were successively getting shorter and shorter as the winter season advanced.

At last Callack became convinced that there was no trace of the gold to be found in the baggage of his prisoners. He gave up the search, and, calling to some of the Indians, ordered them to replenish the campfires, which had died down in the excitement over the attempted escape.

"I hope he thinks to send us some breakfast," remarked Fred, as from the tent the captives saw the Indians preparing a repast.

"He's not very likely to, unless he thinks that by getting us in good humor we will tell him where the gold is," said Mr. Baxter.

"Will you tell him?"

"Never! And I hope you boys will remain firm, no matter what he does."

"I'll not," declared Fred. The search for the gold had been too hard, and the possession of it meant too much to him to make him willing, even under stress of dire threats, to tell where it was hidden.

"He'll have to threaten me good and hard before I'll tell him where it is," said Jerry.

"Perhaps he may find it himself," suggested Fred.

"I don't think so," observed Mr. Baxter. "We hid it very carefully, and it will take some digging, even if he thinks to try that method, before he'll come upon it. By that time Holfax and his men may arrive."

That it was not Callack's plan to starve his captives was shown a little later, when a couple of Indians came in with some hot tea and some meat. There was also some cold tallow, an article of diet much esteemed by the Alaskans in the winter, and the treasure finders had learned to eat it. For fats are very heating, and some such food as that is much needed in the Arctic region.

"He's up to some move," said Fred, as, looking from the tent-flap, he saw a lot of the Indians beginning to break camp.

"Maybe they're going to leave us here and go back to the cave where we found the gold, thinking that we left it hidden there," suggested Jerry.

"No, they know we brought the gold away," said his father. "Their spy was there for that purpose."

"They certainly are moving the camp," went on Fred.

Moving it they were, but for no great distance. The tents and supplies, including those of the prisoners, their sleds and dogs, were taken toward the place where the ice fort had been built around the base of the great hummock.

"He's going back to our old camp!" exclaimed Fred.

"I thought he would," added Mr. Baxter. "He's going to have a try for the gold there. Well, I hope he doesn't find it."

A little later Callack approached the tent where the three captives were.