“Yes. We have very little money left, and the man didn’t want money anyway. He said he would take us to Pembina for the watch.”
Walter grunted wrathfully, and Elise went on. “When Father said we must stop and make a fire, we weren’t far from the woods. Our guide said we could go down to the river bank and camp, but that would delay us. It would take longer to reach Pembina, and he would have to have more pay. He wanted the chain as well as the watch. Father agreed and we came into the woods and stopped. Max and I ran around and tried to get warm. Our eyes hurt and Father was almost blind. The man made Father give him the watch and chain at once. He put them in the pouch where he carried his tobacco and flint and steel. Then he whipped the dogs and jumped on the sled, and they ran away and left us.”
“The miserable brute!” cried Walter.
“He ran away and left us,” Elise repeated, “without any food or snowshoes. Everything we owned, except the blankets Max and I had been wrapped in when we were riding, was on the sled. It was a cruel way to treat us.”
“Cruel? Why even the meanest Indian——” Walter’s wrath choked him.
“He is an Indian. They call him a bois brulé, but he looks just like an Indian. No one but a savage could be so cruel.”
“He’s worse than a savage. He must be a fiend. Why did Kolbach let you come with such a fellow?”
“Monsieur Kolbach didn’t know we were coming,” Elise explained. “The Indian said he was a friend of Monsieur Kolbach’s brother.”
“Fritz? That’s not much of a recommendation.”
“Do you know Monsieur Fritz? Has he been at Pembina? I have never seen him.”