"Eight o'clock, Mukoki."
"Woonga here las' night," declared the old Indian slowly. "Leave camp four hour ago!"
What did it mean?
Had Minnetaki been hurt, so dangerously hurt that her captors had not dared to move her?
Rod asked himself no more questions. But he was trembling. And Mukoki and Wabigoon went on with strange, unnatural faces and breathed not the whisper of a word between them. The mystery was beyond them all. But one thing they realized, whatever had happened they were close upon the heels of the savages. And each step brought them nearer, for with every mile the freshness of the trail increased. Then came another great surprise.
The trail divided!
At the edge of a small opening the Indians had separated themselves into two parties. The trail of one sledge led into the northeast, that of the other into the northwest!
With which sledge was Minnetaki? They looked at one another in bewilderment.
Mukoki pointed to the trail into the northeast.
"We must fin' sign—sign of Minnetaki. You take that—I take this!"