“Gollies, how could I forget?” the red-headed lad panted. “I left the flag back there at the hut—the other guy chucked it in the mud last night!”
“We can’t stop!” urged Dirk. “That Indian will get us——”
“No! Sagamore Carrigan give it to me to keep safe—it’s the honor of Lenape, he said! I got to get it! Say, Van, these birds don’t want me. It’s you they’re after—you keep runnin’, and maybe I’ll catch up with you!”
He was off before Dirk could speak further, racing back the way they had come, perhaps into the very arms of the enraged Mink. Dirk, however, had no intention of deserting his friend. He could see nothing in the direction of the hut save a thin column of greasy-looking smoke through the trees. He threw himself on the needle-carpeted earth, his chest heaving with exertion and excitement. If Brick came back this way, with the Indian after him, perhaps he could divert his attention, lead him a chase through the underbrush——
A squawking flight of large birds, crows and bluejays among them, swooped over his head. He rose on his elbow to mark their noisy passage. Not five yards off, the low scrub-oak bushes rustled and parted, revealing a rusty-coated, sharp-nosed animal with a brushy tail. It was a fox. Dirk did not move; the fox saw him, but cast only an incurious eye on him, and trotted off swiftly as if on urgent business at a far place.
Dirk jumped to his feet. A curl of smoke crept across the slanting bars of sunlight that fell to the floor of the glade. A distant murmur like a rising wind came to him, and his mouth went dry with fear. Why wasn’t Brick back? What was happening there through the screening forest?
He took a step forward, as if to run to his comrade’s assistance. As he did so, he caught sight of Brick on the other side of the glade, waved, and ran to his side. The Irish lad’s face was pale, but he clutched in one hand the bedraggled banner he had risked recapture to save.
Dirk took his arm. “Are you all right, old fellow? Where is Mink?”
“I—I fell down once, and he saw me, but he couldn’t get down from the roof. Say, some of the bushes and trees are on fire—I could hear ’em sizzle. Let’s get out of here!”
“Which way is the lake, do you know?”