“—On Easter Day—
Back home to play
On Easter day,
Babette! Babette!”
and as he found it he understood to the full the look of pain upon his cousin’s face. Again he looked up the river. Beyond the island a line of black dots appeared, and by them marched two larger dots.
“Poor devil!” he murmured as he turned again to the fire.
CHAPTER X
A DESPERATE SITUATION
AN HOUR LATER Roger Bracknell started on his way back to the police-post, in a not very happy frame of mind. The chief of Fort Pilgrim was a man with little tolerance for failure, and the corporal knew that when he made his report it would be received with frowns. That was inevitable, but there was nothing for it but to return. His cousin and the Indian Joe had taken very effective measures to prevent him following on their trail when they had left him with a depleted dog-team and with only sufficient rations to carry him as far as North Star Lodge. Sorry as he was for his cousin he yet resented the action which had left him helpless, and his failure rankled as he swung steadily forward on the southward trail. Before the end of the day, however, a thought came to him. Duty was duty, and if he could reach North Star Lodge, there would be dogs there, and he could requisition them in the King’s name, and return to the pursuit. It did not seem a very nice thing to contemplate, but his oath of service left him no option, whilst the officer at Fort Pilgrim was bound to look askance at the whole affair, if he returned to explain that Koona Dick was his cousin, and that he had escaped him. Besides, there was Joy to consider. She could never be safe from molestation whilst Dick Bracknell was at large. It was even possible that the latter, finding the Territory growing too hot for him, might venture to follow her to England, and as her husband claim his rights. That must be prevented at all costs, even at the cost of Dick suffering incarceration in the penal prison at Stony Mountain.
The end of the day, however, brought an unlooked-for event, which made an end of these half-formed plans. He had camped for the night, and having fed his dogs with the dried salmon-roe which formed their staple food, was preparing his own meal, when one of the animals gave a sudden sharp howl of pain. He looked hastily round, and saw the dog twisted in some kind of spasm, its backbone arched, its legs jerking in a strange fashion. He went to it, and as he approached the spasm ended, and the dog lay in the snow completely exhausted. He was stooping over it, wondering what was the matter when the other two dogs howled simultaneously, and he turned swiftly to see one of them leap straight in the air, and in a moment both of them were in spasms similar to the one he had already witnessed, and before his eyes one of them curled up like a bow, then suddenly relaxed, and lay stark and dead.