“Then I say stay hyar. They may need ye. Ef the wust comes, push out yer raft an’ make fer the plains. Ye mout git off thet way. Ef so be I’m above ground, I won’t be two days gone. I’ve left ye meat enough to last a week, ef ye don’t go too heavy on it. Good-by, gal. Ef I don’t come back and ye git away, remember the old man sometimes, won’t ye?”
Millicent threw her arms about his neck, and kissed him as she might have kissed her father. The face of the old man worked for a moment, and then the undaunted one was sniveling.
“Thar, git away. Ye’ve made a baby of me at last. I knew ye would. Now let me go. Good-by, boys. Whatever happens, take keer of the little gal. Be sure of that.”
He sprung upon the dam and crossed to the other side. They saw him clamber up the distant side of the mountain, and turn to wave his hand in token of farewell. Then he passed over the crest and was lost to sight.
A strange feeling fell upon them then. A feeling of loneliness, a sense of insecurity, and all felt how much they had learned to love and trust Trapper Ben. Jan felt his loss most of all, and went aside, where he cast himself down on the ground and put his arm before his eyes.
The others did not care to stay the tide of the honest Dutchman’s sorrow, and a half-hour passed in unbroken silence, when suddenly Millicent cried:
“Look there, look there!”
Above them, on a ledge of rocks, stood the strange creature which had haunted them since their entrance into the hills. Jan ran for his roer, but Bentley seized him and would not let him fire. But, at the sight of the gun, the monster sprung away and concealed himself behind a rock, from which he peeped out at them, dodging back when the gun was presented.
“Don’t you dare to fire,” said Bentley. “You do not know what danger you may bring down upon us by the act.”
Jan yielded reluctantly, and laid aside the gun. The moment he did so the creature, with its fierce laugh, sprung up the cliff and disappeared.