Three hours before the tardy Arctic sunrise, she heard Terogloona pounding at their door. She found that sleep had banished fear, and that every muscle in her body and every cell of her brain was ready for action, eager to be away.
As for Patsy, she could not dress half fast enough, so great was her desire for the wonderful adventure.
CHAPTER XXIV
CAMP FOLLOWERS
It was just as Marian was tightening the ropes to the pack on her sled that, happening to glance away at a distant hill, she was reminded of Patsy’s latest story of the purple flame. From the crest of that hill there came a purple flare of light. Quickly as it had come, just so quickly it vanished, leaving the hill a faint outline against the sky.
“The purple flame,” she breathed. “I wonder if we can leave those mysterious camp-followers of ours behind?”
On the instant a disturbing thought flashed through her mind. It caused an indignant flash of color to rise to her cheek.
“I wonder,” she said slowly, “if those mysterious people are spies set by Bill Scarberry to dog our tracks?”
“They may start with us,” she smiled to herself, as she at last dismissed the subject from her mind, “but unless they really are Bill Scarberry’s spies and set to watch us, they’ll never finish with us. Camp-followers don’t follow over five hundred miles of wild trail. They’re not that fond of hard marching.”
In this conclusion she was partly wrong.
Just as the sun was painting the distant mountain peaks with a gleam of gold, the collies began to bark and the broad herd of reindeer moved slowly forward. Marian and Patsy touched their deer gently with the reins, and they were away.