“What about headlights?” asked the detective. “We don’t want Siwash or his driver to see us.”
“They haven’t yet,” said Clement. “That rear lamp would go out if they did. It’s a closed car, anyhow, and unless we were right up to them I don’t think they would notice our lights. But to be on the safe side they might be half-switched down, though.”
He rose and spoke to the genial and husky driver about this.
“Sure,” said that individual, and he checked down his lights until there was but a faint radiance on the road before them. “If this wasn’t such a hell of a trail I’d cut ’em out altogether. Must have some light. I’ll bump my springs to scrap else.”
“Put down all repairs to us,” said Clement. “You’re a good scout to take this on. There may be trouble.”
“Ain’t exactly done tatting all me life meself,” grinned the driver.
“I guess you haven’t,” smiled Clement, looking at his burly figure. “Where are those chaps heading for?”
“Hudson Bay and the Arctic Belt gen’rally, sh’d say, from the way they’re hitting it,” grinned the man. “Somewhere fresh t’me anyways. Not that I mind novelties, only I hope this trail holds to wherever they’re going.”
There was, indeed, every indication that the trail would not. It had become astonishingly rough, so that they bumped and soared on the padded seats in an astounding way, their only satisfaction being that Siwash and his companion in front were also feeling the strain, and had checked their pace down to something more humanly bearable.
As the road grew rougher the country became more inhospitable and empty. Its emptiness, in fact, was impressive. They had, some time ago, left the last vestige of the township behind them. They had passed the last of the outlying mines—the blank and almost inhumanly empty grouping of a discarded and probably forgotten working. They were now heaving and shouldering along this strange trail, where grass proclaimed a lack of traffic, going always into a bleak, strange land where not even the bark of a dog gave indication of the dwellings of man. The enormous emptiness of it weighed on the mind.