“Don’t matter,” he told himself. “Might be anyone, a trapper, a prospector, a lone Indian. But my comrades have gone ahead. How am I to overtake them?”
In his eyes as he tried in vain to catch some glimpse of those who had glided from his field of vision was a glint of despair.
The hunchback, who during all this time had been studying his face, did not appear satisfied.
Selecting larger sticks, he constructed on the ground a larger raft. With infinite pains he built up a new wooden man, four dogs and a sled.
Then, with equal care he began moulding small models from snow. One was a rude cooking pot, another a flat pan, a third a prehistoric lamp. Other figures were added. When all these were done, he piled them on the newly made raft, and atop them all, a disc of metal taken from a pocket of his skin trousers.
Still Johnny did not understand. When he shook his head, the hunchback seized the metal affair and pressed it into his hand.
“Green,” he told himself as he turned it over, “Green like copper, but heavy as lead. What can it be? What—
“Green gold!” he cried excitedly. “And now I understand. It is Timmie and his green gold they are following. He rides ahead on a raft.”
Seeing that he was at last understood, the hunchback roared with hoarse laughter.
After that, having seized Johnny’s hunting knife, with a few clever strokes he shaped a miniature canoe. In this he placed two sticks. After pointing to one, he struck Johnny a light blow. Then, after touching the other, he smote his own breast.