Soon afterwards they went to sleep and rising an hour or two before daylight broke camp and turned back across the hills. The march was rough and toilsome, and when they camped at night fatigue and drowsiness checked conversation, but Blake's party were sensible of a difference in Lane's manner. It had become reserved and he had a thoughtful look. Reaching the village one evening, they were surprised to find that some of the Indians had returned and after supper Lane summoned them into the tepee he occupied. Emile interpreted, but he had some difficulty in making himself understood, for which Harding was inclined to be thankful.
The Sergeant began by explaining the authority and business of the North-West Police, of whom it appeared one or two of the Indians had heard, after which he made Emile ask them if they knew Clarke. One of them said they did and added that he stayed with them now and then. Lane next asked why they took him in and the Indian hesitated.
"He was a big medicine man and cured us when we were ill," he replied.
"Do you know these white men?" Lane asked, indicating Blake's party.
An Indian declared that they had never seen them, though he added that it was known they were in the neighbourhood. Being questioned about this, he explained that about the time of Clarke's arrival one of the tribe had come in from the North, where he had met a half-breed who told him that he had travelled some distance with three white men who were going to the settlements. Knowing the country, they had calculated that the white men could not be very far off. As he heard this Harding felt anxious. He saw where Lane's questions led, and that the Sergeant meant to sift the matter thoroughly. There was not much cause to fear that he and his friends would be held responsible for Clarke's death, but he suspected things he did not wish the police to guess, and the Indians might mention having seen a white man's footprints on the occasion when he had forcibly taken Clarke away. Owing perhaps to their difficulty in making themselves understood, nothing was, however, said of this, and by and by Lane asked—
"How was it you left the white man in your village by himself?"
The Indians began to talk to one another, and it was with some trouble Emile at length elicited an answer.
"It is a thing that puzzles us," said one. "The white man came alone and told us he had seen tracks of caribou three days' journey back. As we had no meat and our fish was nearly done, six of us went to look for the deer."
"Six of you?" said Lane. "Where are the rest? These tepees would hold a good many people."
"They are hunting farther North," answered the man. "When we got to the place the white man told us of we could see no caribou tracks. As he was a good hunter, we thought this strange, but we went on, because there was another muskeg like the one he spoke of and we might not have understood him. Then the snow came and we camped until it was over and afterwards came back, finding no deer. When we reached the tepees, he had gone and we do not know what has become of him. We could not follow because the snow had covered his trail."