“Yes—I shall go back. I shall help. We must save your mistress. I know the cabin on the creek and I know the sick man whom she went to see; and I do not think she will come to any harm in that quarter. But the men in the camp, who, as you think, watch the cabin, are different. There is something there that I do not understand. But we will find out ... we will rest now, and in four hours we start. I will feed the dogs again now, for there is a hard journey before us. The wind has changed and the trail will soften in the morning.”
“Yes. It is from the south. The spring is knocking at the door, and in a week the ice will grow rotten, but before then we will find my mistress!”
“Yes,” answered the corporal simply. “We will find her.”
The Indian had disposed his blankets near the fire and within five minutes was sound asleep. A little time later Sibou also slept, but Corporal Bracknell made no attempt to close his eyes, since he knew that for him sleep was impossible. He lit his pipe, and sat staring into the fire, the prey of gnawing anxiety. The mystery of the men in the camp who watched Dick Bracknell’s cabin, utterly confounded him. Were they men whom his cousin had wronged during his none too scrupulous career in the North? That was just possible. Daily, men in those wild latitudes took the law into their own hands, enforcing verdicts that not infrequently were more just than those of the law itself. Were these men of that type? Then his mind dismissed the suggestion. In that case why had they killed George, and attacked his son, the lad who, overborne by his labours, was now sleeping there on the other side of the fire?
They might be roving Indians. The use of arrows suggested that, but one had a rifle—— Suddenly he sat bolt upright, his eyes staring widely, as another possibility flashed through his mind.
“Adrian Rayner!”
He was appalled at the thought, but the more he dwelt upon it, the stronger his suspicion grew. Adrian Rayner was in the North and he had two Indians with him, “bad men,” as Chief Louis had said. The corporal was morally certain that Rayner was the man who had made the attempt on Dick Bracknell at North Star; and if he knew that he were still alive, what more likely than that he should make a second attempt? There was nothing surprising about that, but the attack on Joy Gargrave’s party was something that passed his comprehension altogether. Try as he would he could find no sufficient explanation for that, the one possibility that presented itself to his mind being that Adrian Rayner was for some reason anxious to make Joy dependent upon himself, and so had deliberately set out to destroy her escort. Then the thought suggested itself to him that after all he might be building on a false assumption. The man responsible for the death of George, and for the attack on the cabin, might not be Rayner at all.
Restlessly his mind groped among the possibilities which the mystery suggested, and not once during the four hours that he had decreed for rest did his eyes shut. At the end of that time he wakened Sibou, and, impatient to get away himself, helped in the preparation for making a start, allowing the boy Jim to sleep until the last available moment, and when at last they took the trail he was conscious of relief. It was at least something to feel that he was on his way to the help of Joy.
They travelled six hours and then made a halt for a brief rest and a meal, afterwards resuming their way. As noon approached they found the hard crust of the snow softening, and the going becoming harder, but there was no slackening of effort, and late in the afternoon they arrived at a point opposite the creek on the far side of the river. There in the shadow of the woods they waited till darkness fell, and then leaving the boy in charge of the dogs, the corporal and Sibou crossed the river, and made a detour which would bring them out at the head of the creek where the cabin was located.
They reached the neighbourhood of their objective in about an hour’s time, and then moved forward with extreme caution, looking for the camp which the boy had described as being opposite the cabin. But no glow of blazing logs met their gaze, and the edge of the forest presented a front of unbroken shadow. Sibou sniffed the air thoughtfully.