“And why should they attack us at all?” asked Joy.
“They may be out for plunder. Most of these fellows have a weakness for the possessions of white men. I’ve seen one of them risk his life for a woodman’s axe, and they’ll give their heads for a sheath knife. They will have seen the cabin and may think that there are things worth having here, but in any case they will find out the mistake in a very few days.”
“Why?”
“Because we haven’t more than two or three days’ stock of food,” replied Bracknell grimly. “There’s only a small stock of coffee, a few beans and some frozen moose meat. That’s why I suspected Joe of trying to get your outfit. But I’ve changed my mind now. I think that those fellows outside may have killed your man—and Joe also, if we only knew!”
“Then our position is rather desperate?”
Bracknell nodded. “If those beggars really mean business, we’re in a pretty tight corner. They may rush the cabin or they may wait. In either case they will get us!”
“There is one possibility that you have not thought of yet,” said Babette slowly.
“What is that?”
“It is that this attack may not have been made by any roving tribe at all.”
“But who——”