Sandy saw the logic in Dick’s reasoning and said no more about it, while they set to work completing the skinning and quartering of the remaining four musk-oxen.
“I think we’d better haul the meat away from here before we cache it,” Dick advised, when they were about finished. “Those fellows will probably come back here as soon as we leave, and search for a cache.”
“Maybe it would be a good idea to follow them for a ways to see where they are going. They might lead us right to Corporal Thalman’s prison,” was Sandy’s suggestion.
“That’s possible and it’s a good idea,” said Dick. “But supposing they strike off in some other direction, and lead us right into the rest of Mistak’s band?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Sandy considered.
“Take um meat ’long for way,” Toma spoke up gravely. “When find out bad fella not mean to come back here, cache meat.”
“That’s just the thing to do!” exclaimed Dick. “We won’t lose any time that way and we’ll be pretty sure the meat will not be stolen when we come back after it.”
In a few minutes the fresh meat was loaded onto the long sledge and they were once more on the way.
The outlaws had had time to travel about half a mile before the boys set out on their trail, and even Toma’s keen eyes saw no sign of them as they wound down the ravine. Dick hoped, as Sandy had, that the outlaws might lead them to the vicinity of Corporal Thalman’s prison. Yet, when two miles on the trail, the snowshoe tracks they were following swung toward the sea, Dick knew no such good fortune was destined to be theirs. Half hoping the outlaws might turn toward the glacier again, the boys kept on following them for a short time, but soon gave up, deciding to depend entirely upon the map to guide them.
Tracing the back trail until they reached the point where they had turned north after the outlaws, the boys halted to cache their meat, since they were now reasonably certain that Mistak’s men did not intend to come back looking for it.