"What's that! You dare call me a coward!" and the infuriated man strode over to Jerry's father with upraised rifle. But Mr. Baxter did not flinch. Looking Callack straight in the face, he never moved away from under the poised weapon. The man's bravery was too much for the coward. Muttering something below his breath Callack moved away, calling to the Indians to bring along the captives and the sleds.
"Are you going to let Johnson lie there and freeze to death?" asked Mr. Baxter.
"Let him freeze! What do I care?" was the cruel answer.
"If you do I shall charge you with deliberate murder when I reach a settlement," threatened Mr. Baxter.
"Maybe you'll never reach one."
But the threat evidently had some effect, for, at a muttered word from Callack, some of the Indians carried the unconscious colored man to one of the tents of the enemy's camp.
It was quite light, for the Aurora Borealis was streaming across the sky, giving a radiance like that of a full moon, only more beautiful. The captives could see that they were in the hands of quite a large band of Indians. More of the Alaskans had evidently arrived since the first skirmish. Among them was Zank, on whose evil face was an ugly grin at his success in betraying those who had trusted him.
"It would have been better if you'd given up the gold at first," said Callack with a sneer. "Then I'd have let you go down to the river with your sleds and dogs. Now I don't know what I'll do with you. But first I'll get the gold."
"Will you?" thought Fred, as he recalled the cunning way in which they had buried it.
Callack gave some more orders, and the Indians began taking the things off the sleds of the captives. The dogs were removed and tied at a distance from the other animals, so the different teams would not fight.