Putting two fingers to his lips, he sent out a shrill whistle. A moment later two beautiful collies came racing up to him.
“Collies!” he cried in great joy, “reindeer collies. Why, here I am all set up in business, with a herd of reindeer and collies to help herd them.”
He sat down to think. This was undoubtedly the herd which had been held by the Indians. Had the fire caught them unawares and had they been burned alive? Or had they set the fire in the hope of concealing their theft of the reindeer?
“If they’re still alive and did not set the fire,” he told himself, “they’ll be along after the fire dies down and there’ll be more trouble. On the other hand, if I could take some of these deer out upon the ice floe to meet Joe and the explorers, it would be a great boon to them. Plenty of meat, the right kind too. It might save their lives.
“But there’s the outlaw!” he exclaimed suddenly. “Got to settle him first. He can’t—why he can’t be more than eight or ten miles from the food depot on Flaxman Island. A brisk morning’s walk, that’s all.”
After careful deliberation he decided to mount his reindeer and ride directly for the shore of the island. The island would be solidly connected to the shore by the ocean ice. He would search out the depot and ride boldly up to it.
“Surely,” he told himself, “no man who plots mischief is going to be afraid of an unarmed boy riding a reindeer. Hope I can catch him unawares and steal a march on him.”
Having put his plan into action, his faithful reindeer and he soon went racing away over the tundra. Coming to the shore of the island, in order to reach the north shore where the food depot was placed he began skirting it.
The ice was everywhere smooth as a floor and covered with just enough snow to give the reindeer good footing.
“Would be a regular lark if it wasn’t so dangerous. This marching right up to a man you have followed for thousands of miles is not what it’s cracked up to be.”