“If you’re looking for him, you’re a trifle late,” jocularly asserted the nearest man. “He pulled out yesterday mornin’ in a boat, goin’ down the river. And he seemed in a hurry; but he stopped to laugh and twiddle his thumb at his nose to the boys who saw him go, and said he was right sorry he hadn’t had a chance to skin the whole blamed camp before he set sail. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
He laughed boisterously at his own joke, a laugh in which we did not join, for now we knew, indubitably, that Jim had sufficient reason for haste. It was Bill, slow and cautious, who asked another question, pertinent to our quest.
“Any one else gone from the camp?” he asked.
“Nope! No one else had any reason to be in a rush,” was the response.
“What makes you think Jim was in a hurry?” asked George, frowning at the man.
“Because he just dumped himself, and some blankets, and grub into a canoe that belonged to an Injun, and paddled away as if he was out to break records,” asserted our informant. “Somebody asked him what was his rush, and he said he had a new job that he must move fast to grab. Cute of him, wasn’t it? He was a smart son of a gun, all right, and would have his little joke, right up to the last.”
Again the man laughed, and then, as the steamboat was about to land, hurriedly left us and started toward the river bank.
Bill beckoned us to one side.
“Boys,” he said, “we’ve got just one chance, and that is to get to St. Michaels as soon as he does. Unimak Pass probably isn’t clear of ice yet, and he will have to lay there until the steamer can get in from outside to take him away. We’ve got to try to catch him between here and there, and we’ve got several hundred miles to do it in. Two of us better rustle a boat. The others arrange for some one to keep an eye on our cabin up in the gulch, and buy grub for a cruise. Then it’s a case of work at the oars and make time. Let’s get a move on ourselves.”
We did, most effectually, and in just two hours’ time were shoving a crude, whipsawed skiff out into the river, and feeling the current catch us and sweep us toward the Ramparts below. We had begun the grim chase to overtake the one man who had paid his toll of gratitude by robbing the man who had twice saved his life, and it was certain that, did we overtake him, this time there would be no escape; for we would bring him back for trial.