The Assiniboin repeated the words and followed. In a moment both were arousing and harnessing their dogs. The men’s shouts, the whines and howls of the tired beasts, lashed and beaten to force them to speed, could be heard long after men and sled had disappeared into the woods and the night.
XXIV
A SORE HAND
“Now we know it was Murray and Kolbach who camped here the night before we came,” said Louis, after the guests were gone. “Then they tried to burn this old cabin so no one else could use it. That is a trick of rival traders to make each other as much trouble as they can.”
“The Northwest Company used to destroy Hudson Bay houses whenever they got a chance,” put in Neil.
“Yes, and the Hudson Bay men did the same to the Northwesters.”
“That was a queer way to try to burn a house though,” Neil remarked, “to begin at the top. Kolbach must have had to clean off the snow before he could set the fire.”
“Perhaps it was Kolbach who cleaned away the snow, but I think the plan to burn the cabin was as much le Murrai’s as Kolbach’s,” Louis asserted. “I believe they tried to start fire in other places as well as the roof. At the back there is a place where a fire has burned close to the wall. The logs are charred and black. They started several fires, I think, but they did not stay to watch them. As le Murrai said, only the roof burned well. What do you think, Walter?”
Walter had scarcely been listening. He was examining his right hand, which still smarted. Raising his head at the question, he replied carelessly, “About the fire? They set it, of course. Lucky for us it didn’t burn better.” He looked again at his stinging palm. “I wonder if Murray ever washes his hands. The dirt came off on mine. It makes this scratch sting.”
“Let me see.” Louis seized his friend’s hand, turned the palm to the firelight and bent over it. “That is no dirt,” he exclaimed. “It is sticky, a gum of some sort. You say it was not there before Murray shook hands with you? And now it hurts?”
“My hands were clean. I washed them before we began to get supper. That scratch certainly does hurt; much more than it did at first.”