“Mr. Wade, I know woodsmen better than you do. There are a good many things about Colin MacLeod that I don’t like. But when it came to a matter of John Barrett’s daughter Colin MacLeod would be as square as you or I.”
“You told them it was John Barrett’s daughter?”
“I did not,” said the old man, stoutly. “There was no need to. If it had been John Barrett’s daughter she would have been queening it in those camps when I got there. She hadn’t been there. There has been no woman there. Colin MacLeod and his men didn’t take Miss Barrett from that tote team. And I’ve made sure of that point because I knew my men well enough to make sure. She isn’t there!”
“There is no one else in all these woods to trouble her,” declared Wade, brokenly.
“No one knows just who and what are movin’ about these woods,” said Christopher, in solemn tones. “In forty years I’ve known things to happen here that no one ever explained. Hold on, Mr. Wade!” he cried, checking a bitter outburst. “I’m not talking like Tommy Eye, either! I’m not talking about ha’nts now. But, I say, strange things have happened in these woods—and a strange thing has happened this time. Barrett’s daughter is gone. She’s been taken. She didn’t go by herself.” He gazed helplessly about him, searching the avenues of the silent woods.
“North or east, west or south!” he muttered, “It’s a big job for us, Mr. Wade! I’m goin’ to be honest with you. I don’t see into it. You’d better eat.”
The young man pushed the proffered food away.
“You eat, I say,” commanded old Christopher, his gray eyes snapping. “An empty gun and an empty man ain’t either of ’em any good on a huntin’-trip.”
He started away, dragging the sled, and Wade struggled along after him, choking down the food.
When they had retraced their steps as far as the Enchanted tote road, Christopher turned to the south and trudged towards Pogey Notch. The trail of the tote team was visible in hollows which the snow had nearly filled. The snow lay as it had fallen. The tops of the great trees on either side of the road sighed and lashed and moaned in the wind that had risen at dawn. But below in the forest aisles it was quiet.