“The first day he rest and smoke and ask many questions.”
“Questions? About what?”
“He asked if Nanette or I have beheld two men, one of whom is Corporal Bracknell, who took the Northward trail when you went southward. He ask if we have seen him since that time, and I answer no, for it is the truth, and Rayner he smile to himself as is the way of a man with a hidden thought.”
“And the second man of whom he asked?”
“I know him not!” answered the Indian, “neither him nor the name of Dick which he bore.”
“Dick!” Joy swung round to her companion. “You hear, Babette. He asks after Dick, whose body, as he told me, he had thrust into an ice-hole. I thought when he told me that he lied and now I know.”
She turned to the Indian again. “And the other days?”
“The other days,” answered the Indian gravely, “he drink much brandy and a little coffee, and the two bad men they go on a journey and return yesterday. They bring news I think, for at dawn tomorrow they depart with Rayner.”
“No! Not tomorrow,” cried Joy, “but this very day.”
“That will be as you desire, mistress. When we return——”