THE SHADOW OF DEATH
Rod was hardly conscious of what passed during the next half-hour. The
excitement of the sudden entrance of Minnetaki's brother and the old
Indian set his head reeling, and he sank back upon the blankets, from
which he had partly raised himself, fainting and weak. The last that
he heard was Minnetaki's warning voice, and then he felt something
cool upon his face. It seemed a long time before he heard sound again,
and when he stirred himself, struggling toward consciousness, there
came a whisper in his ear urging him to be quiet. It was Minnetaki,
and he obeyed.
After a little he heard low voices, and then movement, and opened his
eyes. He could feel Minnetaki's gentle hand stroking his face and
hair, as if weaning him to sleep, and at his feet he saw Mukoki, the
old warrior, crouching like a lynx, his beady eyes glaring at him. The
glare fascinated Roderick. He had seen it in Mukoki's eyes before,
when the Indian believed that injury had come to those he loved; and
when the white boy saw it now, bent upon himself, he knew that he,
too, had become more than a friend to this savage pathfinder of the
wilderness. Minnetaki's caressing hand and the fearful anxiety in the
crouching posture of the old hunter thrilled him, and two words fell
from his lips before they knew that he had come back into life.
"Hello, Muky!"
Instantly the old Indian was at his side, kneeling there silent,
trembling, his face twitching with joy, his eyes gleaming, and where
he had crouched a moment before there came Wabigoon, smiling down upon
Rod in his own bursting happiness, which was only held in check by
Minnetaki's hand and the almost inaudible "Sh-h-h-h!" that fell from
her lips.
"You right--me wrong," the white boy heard Mukoki saying. "You save
Minnetaki--kill Woonga. Very much dam'--dam'--dam'--brave man!"
Mukoki was pressed back by Wabi's sister before he could say more, and
a cool drink of spring water was placed to Roderick's lips. He felt
feverish and the water gave him new strength. He turned his face to
Minnetaki, and she smiled at him. Then he saw that the dead outlaw had
been removed from the cabin. When he made an effort to raise himself a
little the girl helped him, and rolled a blanket under his shoulders.
"You're not so badly hurt as I thought you were, Rod," she said. "That
is, you're not dangerously hurt. Mukoki has dressed your wound, and
you will be better soon." Wabigoon, coming nearer, put both arms
around his lovely little sister and kissed her again and again.
"Rod, you're a hero!" he cried softly, gripping his comrade's hand.
"God bless you!"
Rod blushed, and to restrain further effusions closed his eyes. During
the next quarter of an hour Minnetaki prepared some coffee and meat,
while both Mukoki and Wabi cared for the sledge-dogs outside.
"To-morrow, if you are stronger, we're going to take you on to
Kenegami House," the girl said to him. "Then you can tell me all about
your adventures during the winter. Wabi has told me just enough about
your battles with the Indians and about the old skeletons and the lost
gold-mine to set me wild. Oh, I wish you would take me with you on
your hunt for gold!"
"By George, I wish we could!" exclaimed Rod with enthusiasm. "Coax
Wabi, Minnetaki--coax him hard."
"You'll coax him, too, won't you, Rod? But then, I don't suppose it
will do any good. And father and mother wouldn't listen to it for a
moment. All of them are so afraid that some harm is going to befall
me. That's why they sent me from Wabinosh House just before you boys
returned. You see the Indians were more hostile than ever, and they
thought I would be safer at Kenegami House. How I do wish they'd let
me go! I'd love to hunt bears, and wolves, and moose, and help you
find the gold. Please coax him hard, Roderick!"
And that very day, when he was strong enough to sit up, Rod did plead
with his half-Indian comrade that Minnetaki might be allowed to
accompany them. But Wabi stanchly refused even to consider the
proposition, and Mukoki, when he learned of the girl's desire, grinned
and chuckled in his astonishment for the next half-hour.
"Minnetaki ver' brave--ver' brave girl," he confided to Rod, "but she
die up there, I guess so! You want Minnetaki die?"
Rod assured him that he did not, and the subject was dropped.
That day and night in the old cabin was one of the pleasantest within
Rod's memory, despite the youth's wound. A cheerful fire of dry pine
and poplar burned in the stone fireplace, and when Minnetaki announced
that the evening meal was ready Rod was for the first time allowed to
leave his bunk. For the greater part of the day Wabi and Mukoki had
searched in the chasm and along the mountains for signs of the outlaw
Indian's band, but their search had revealed nothing to arouse their
fears. As mysterious and unaccountable as the fact seemed, there
was no doubt that the old cabin was a retreat known only to Woonga
himself, and as the four sat in the warm glow of the fire, eating and
drinking, the whole adventure was gone over again and again until
there seemed no part of it left in doubt. Minnetaki described her
capture and explained the slowness of their flight after the massacre.
Woonga was ill and had refused to move far from the scene of the
slaughter until he had fully regained his strength.
"But why did Woonga kill the Indian back on the trail?" asked Rod.
Minnetaki shuddered as she thought of the terrible scene that had been
enacted before her eyes.
"I heard them quarreling," she said, "but I couldn't understand. I
know that it was about me. We had gone but a short distance after the
sledges separated when Woonga, who was ahead of me, turned about and
shot the other in the breast. It was terrible! And then he drove on as
coolly as though nothing had happened."
"I'm curious to know how he used the bear's feet," exclaimed Rod.
"They were huge pads into which he slipped his feet, moccasins and
all," explained Minnetaki. "He told me that the dogs would go on to
Kenegami House, and that if pursuers followed us they would follow the
sledge trail and never give a thought to the bear tracks."
Mukoki chuckled deep down in his throat.
"He no fool Rod," he said. "Nobody fool Rod!"
"Especially when he's on Minnetaki's trail," laughed Wabi happily.
"Wasn't it Rod who discovered the secret of the lost gold, after you
had given up all hope?" retorted Minnetaki.
The lost gold!
How those three words, falling clearly from the girl's lips, thrilled
the hearts of Mukoki and the young adventurers. Night had closed in,
and only the fitful flashes of the fire illumined the interior of the
old cabin. The four had finished eating, and as they drew themselves
close about the fire there fell a strange silence among them. The lost
gold. Rod gazed across at Wabigoon, whose bronzed face was half hid in
the dancing shadows, and then at Mukoki, whose wrinkled visage shone
like dull copper as he stared like some watchful animal into the flame
glow. But it was Minnetaki who sent the blood in a swift rush of joy
and pride through his veins. He caught her eyes upon him, shining like
stars from out of the gloom, and he knew that she was looking at him
in that way because he was her hero.
For many minutes no one broke the stillness. The fire burned down, and
with its slow dying away the gloom in the corners of the old cabin
thickened, and the faces became more and more like ghostly shadows,
until they reminded Rod of his first vision of the ancient skeletons
in that other old cabin many miles away. Then came Wabigoon's voice,
as he stirred the coals and added fresh fuel.
"Yes, it was Rod. This is the map he found, Minnetaki."
He kneeled close beside his sister and drew forth his copy of the
precious secret which the skeletons had guarded. With a little cry
of excitement the girl took the map in her hands, and step by step,
adventure by adventure, was gone over the thrilling story of the Wolf
Hunters, until the late hours of night had changed into the first of
morning. Twice did Minnetaki insist on having repeated to her the
story of Rod's wild adventure in the mysterious chasm, and when he
came to the terrors of that black night and its strange sounds Rod
felt a timid little hand come close to him, and as Wabigoon continued
the narration, and told of the map in the skeleton hand, and of the
tale of murder and tragedy it revealed, Minnetaki's breath came in
quick, tense eagerness.
"And you are going back in the spring?" she asked.
"In the spring," replied Rod.
Again Wabigoon urged Rod, as he had done at the Post, to send down to
civilization for his mother instead of going for her himself. Time
would be saved, he argued. They could set out on their search for the
gold within a few weeks. But Rod was firm.
"It would not be fair to mother," he declared. "I must go home first,
even if I have to arrange for a special sledge at Kenegami House to
take me down to civilization."
But even while he was stoutly declaring what it was his intention to
do, fate was stealthily at work weaving another of her webs of destiny
for Roderick Drew, and his friends' anxious eyes saw the first signs
of it when they bade him good night. For fever had laid its hand on
the white youth, the fever that foreshadows death unless a surgeon
is near, the fever of a wound going bad. Even Mukoki, graduated by
Nature, taught by half a century's battle with life in this great
desolation of the North, knew that his own powers were now of no
avail.
So Roderick was bundled in blankets, and the race for life to Kenegami
House was begun. It was a race of which Rod could only guess the
import, for he did not know that Death was running a fierce pursuit
behind. Many days and nights of delirium followed. One morning he
seemed to awaken from a terrible dream, in which he was constantly
burning and roasting, and when he opened his eyes he knew for the
first time that it was Minnetaki who sat close beside him, and that it
was her hand that was gently stroking his forehead. From that day on
he gained strength rapidly, but it was a month before he could sit up,
and another two weeks before he could stand. And so it happened that
it was full two months after he had made his assertion in the old
cabin before Rod was in good health again.
One day Minnetaki had a tremendous surprise in store for him. Rod had
never seen her look quite so pretty, or quite so timid, as she did on
this particular morning.
"Will you forgive me for--for--keeping something from you, Rod?" she
asked. She did not wait for the boy's reply, but went on. "When you
were so sick, and we thought you might die, I wrote to your mother and
we sent the letter down by a special sledge. And--and--oh, Rod, I just
can't keep it in any longer, no matter if you do scold me! Your mother
has come--and she is at Wabinosh House now!"
For a moment Rod stood like one struck dumb. Then he found his voice
in a series of war-whoops which quickly brought Wabi in, only to see
his friend dancing around Minnetaki like one gone crazy.
"Forgive you!" he shouted again and again. "Minnetaki, you're a
brick--you certainly are a brick!"
As soon as Wabi was made acquainted with the cause of Roderick's
excitement he also joined in the other's wild rejoicing, and their
antics startled half the house of Kenegami. Mukoki shared their joy,
and Wabi hugged and kissed his sister until her pretty face was like a
wild rose.
"Hurrah!" shouted Wabi for the twentieth time. "That means we start on
our hunt for the lost gold-mine within a fortnight!"
"It means--" began Roderick.
"It means--" interrupted Minnetaki, "it means that you're all happy
but me--and I'm glad for Rod's sake, and I want to know his mother.
But you're all going--and I'm to be left behind!"
There was no laughter in her voice, and Rod and Wabigoon became
suddenly quiet as she turned away.
"I'm sorry," said Wabi. "But--we can't help it."
Mukoki broke the tension.
"How bright the sun shine!" he exclaimed. "Snow an' ice go.
Spring--heem here!"