Excitedly he broke on the slumbers of his Indian companion, and after showing him the brooch, bade him accompany him to the place where he had found it, and there pointed to the footmarks on the river bank.
"Can you read the meaning of those signs?"
The Indian studied them as a white man would a cryptogram, and presently he stood up, and spoke with the slow gravity of his race.
"The Klootchman she came from the river. The man he carry her from the water in his arms."
"How do you know that, Joe?"
The Indian pointed to certain footprints which were much more deeply marked than the others.
"The man he carry heavy weight when he make these, and the Klootchman she weigh, how much? One hundred and ten pounds, sure. He not carry that weight back to the canoe, because the Klootchman she walk." He pointed again, this time to the smaller footprints, and to Ainley, reading the signs through the Indian's eyes, the explanation amounted to a demonstration.
"Yes, yes, I understand," he cried, "but in that case where is she?"
The Indian looked up and down the river, then waved a hand upstream. "The man he take her back to camp."
"Then why did we not meet them as we came down?"