“Of course not,” smiled the speaker. “We wouldn’t all be so blamed cheerful if he was. But when I found him, he was delirious, and I don’t mind telling you that I was nearly frightened stiff.
“I was so excited, that I don’t know exactly what I did. I remember starting the fire and trying to bathe his wound in some warm snow-water. He was wounded in his right arm, which was badly swollen and almost black from infection.”
“Did Malemute Slade recognize you?” Dick asked.
“No, he was too sick for that. But he kept asking for water, sometimes sitting up and staring wildly about him. I gave him all the water he would drink, and late in the afternoon his fever subsided and he fell in a deep sleep.
“You can bet,” Sandy went on, “that I had been doing a lot of thinking. I couldn’t let him stay there like that. I was afraid he was going to die. I decided that the best thing I could do was to go back to the fort for help before it was too late.
“Shortly before dark, I banked my fire and started out. I knew I couldn’t be very far from the Run River trail, probably not more than two miles west of it. I found the trail, after a good deal of trouble, and reached Fort Good Faith soon after midnight.”
“Where is Malemute Slade now?” Dick wanted to know.
“He ought to be at the post by this time,” Corporal Richardson replied. “As soon as Sandy appeared and told us the news, I called for a little party of volunteers and we started out. The cabin, where Malemute Slade lay wounded, is between here and the Run River trail, so, of course, we stopped there first, bundled him up and sent him back in a hurry. Then we came on here for you, Dick. There is a dog team and sleigh waiting for you outside.”
“I wonder how Slade happened to get wounded?” came Dick’s next question.
“I don’t know,” the corporal replied. “We won’t be able to find that out until Slade is sufficiently recovered to tell us. However, I know this: It’s a bullet wound, and the weapon his assailant used was fired at close range. The hole in his arm is a large one. I’m afraid the bone is shattered.”