GREEN EYES IN THE DARKNESS
So their flight continued all day, with brief rests for "changing
horses," as it were. About twelve o'clock they were very hungry, and
Nell decreed a short spell for dinner. They seemed to have the whole
world to themselves. There was more brushwood and undergrowth in the
woods now, not only fir trees, but many other sorts. More hiding ground
for wild animals, too--but that was not a serious danger till the night
should make them bold.
Nell unstrapped the little axe and looked about for a dead sapling of a
birch tree; when she found it she bent it over double and split the bend
with a sharp blow of the axe. Inside was white pith dry as powder; with
this and dead sticks they made a small, round, red-hot fire, as the
Indians do, first scraping a place bare on the edge of the bank where it
was reasonably flat. Then they boiled tea in the billy-can, weak, but
hot, putting a little molasses sugar into it to take off the bitterness.
Some of this they gave to Robin when it was cooler--he was very fond of
tea. For food they ate some pemmican and a bit of Nell's bread. They
had brought what they could carry--which was not much, of course--then
they would rely chiefly on soaked beans.
"We'll have bacon for supper," said Nell in a comforting voice. It went
to her heart, rather, to see David eating the dried meat without a word
of complaint; it was not very tempting, because, though nourishing, it
was rather tasteless.
Robin had dried fish. That is the main food of dogs in the winter. Of
course, when a deer is shot, or rabbits and hares are trapped--or even a
fox--they get meat, but you cannot depend on it in the snow time: these
creatures get scarce, because the hunting animals destroy them.
Next time they camped it was late afternoon, when the dusk was beginning
to shadow the silent forest. They were very tired. Not so tired as an
inexperienced pair would have been, but certainly very tired and
stiff--the muscles of the legs suffered from these long hours of
snowshoe work. But neither of them said a word. David would not have
admitted it for the world, and Nell was too thankful for the successful
day's journey to complain about aches.
The night camp was a more serious affair than the "dinner" one. First
they scraped out a wide place on the bank just below a high pitch of
rock. There was a good deal of rock about in places which would mean
rapids and waterfalls presently, all sorts of inconveniences to stop the
pace of their journey. But in this position they were glad of it,
because it seemed to wall them off from the lonely woods, also it made a
shelter from the chill wind that moaned through the spaces.
Then they gathered dead wood. At least, David did that while Nell
unlashed the load and got out the sleeping bags, the bacon and
frying-pan, and big, thick stockings to change into in case their feet
were damp--which always was the case, and might mean frost-bite or, at
least, serious chill, unless attended to.
They regularly walled themselves in from the forest. On one side was
the rock wall, on the other the sled turned up on its side, and so
making rather a good barrier in between the snow scraped up into a high
fence, while the fourth side was open to the river--their icy,
snow-covered road. Not every part of the banks was convertible in this
practical way. You could go for long stretches and pass only masses of
brushwood and rocks overhanging the course of the stream, but this place
Nell's careful eye singled out as just right for a night camp.
First, after this barricading, came the fire and collection of a fine
heap of dead wood for the night. Then supper--fried bacon, bread, and
tea; then the changing of foot-gear, and finally the two crawled into
their fur-lined bags, feet foremost, and drew them up over their heads.
That is the only way to keep warm, because otherwise the cold air is
bound to creep in somewhere. If you cover your head as well, you may
feel a bit stuffy, but you are not cold.
Robin, who had no bushy tail to curl round over his nose and toes as the
husky dogs do, came and made his bed between their two bags. And then
there was silence in the strange, lonely camp, miles away from a human
habitation. The boughs overhead and the over-reaching rock protected
them from falling snow, but every now and then a flake sizzled on to the
fire. The light of the burning wood cast a pink glow on the snow wall of
their barrier, and with all the loneliness and cold there was a sense of
comfort and even security.
Nell had arranged the pile of fresh wood close to her head so as to be
within reach for replenishing the fire. For a time she could not
sleep--in spite of the terribly long day just passed and the sleepless
night of work before that. She could not throw off the feeling of
responsibility, or that liveliness of mind that made her obliged to keep
on following the doings of Jan Stenson in her imagination. Had they
escaped him or would he follow?
Twice she rose on her elbow and reached out of her bag to throw handfuls
of wood on the fire, both times Robin raised his head to watch her
doings, and she saw the shine of the flame light on his deep-set eyes.
David was sound asleep, jerking a little and making grunts and
distressful noises, as his hardworked muscles reminded him of the day's
labour.
Then the girl fell asleep, too, deeply asleep; and the camp was quite
still but for the faint crackle of wood as the fire died down.
It was about midnight when Nell was roused by a low growling from the
hound. It must have gone on for some time before the girl realised it,
because she was aware of it in her dreams after a fashion. But she was
so deeply asleep that waking herself was like coming up out of a well,
by slow stages.
Then she put her nose cautiously out of her furry nest and gazed round.
It was dark, except for the faint paleness of the snow, for of course
the rock barricade made a blackness, and the trees were fairly thick
above. Of the fire remained only a scatter of red sparks and white
ashes.
Nell raised herself to a sitting posture, bag and all, and stayed
absolutely quiet, looking about to realise what the trouble was, if any.
She did not attempt to put wood on the fire even. She hardly breathed.
From somewhere close, but not on the ground, came a very slight crack,
the crack of dead wood. This was nothing, because the weight of snow
would break a twig any time, apart from the movings of grey squirrels,
chipmunks or other furry things that made shelters in the hollows of
trunks. She was not afraid. Indeed, she firmly believed that there was
only one event that could shake her peace of mind seriously, and that
was the knowledge that the trapper was really on their trail.
She was just going to lie down again when something made her look up at
the top of the rock that shielded them on the side they had made their
beds. It might have been ten or twelve feet--hardly more--and
perpendicular, but a broken surface mostly grown over with the coarse
grey tinted moss that deer eat in winter.
At the top, directly above the sleeping-place, shone two pale green
lights. They were close together, and terribly bright and evil. They
glared out of pitch darkness on the rock top, and Nell felt a shock as
she met fully the utter malevolence of the stare. Like the eyes in a
picture that seem to follow the person who looks at them, these eyes
appeared to meet Nell's horrified gaze, but a moment after she realised
that they were most likely watching something else. Then she saw the
something else, and that startled her almost as much as the eyes.
Attracted perhaps by the smell of food and the warmth of the glowing
embers, another creature of the forest was peering cautiously round the
end of the upturned sled. Probably it had been creeping about the
silent camp for some time, and hearing no sound ventured to inspect
farther.
When Nell had moved to sit up, she had done so with the ease and swift
silence of any other woodland dweller. Now she remained as still as
sleeping David, except that she shifted one hand very, very gently on to
Robin's head--as a check; by the twitch of his forehead she _felt_ his
eyes watching. So they stayed, frozen as it were, while the searcher
came round the end of the sled and stood still.
It looked very big against the snow, but the girl knew how to allow for
the dimness and the uncertain jumps of light from the wood sparks. She
was not sure if it was an opossum, a fox, or a big wild cat. Either of
the two last would be likely to be hunting at night. Then she saw as it
drew nearer that it was carrying some animal in its jaws. It had been
hunting in the river bank close by and caught a rabbit, or perhaps a
musk-rat, and the warmth had attracted it into the circle of the little
camp. It was a cat. A wild cat, of course, one of the great strong
specimens that the trappers called catamounts, and quite possibly mate
to the one that had bitten Andrew Lindsay. It carried its prey with
head held rather high, as a household cat carries a mouse, and it
stepped with the same wonderfully cautious delicacy, the big bushy tail
drooping. Body close to the ground it crawled forward, and presently
crouched, growling over its catch, as a cat growls.
Robin's growl had ceased when Nell touched him. He simply watched in
silence, having no desire at all to tackle a wild cat in fair fight!
Unless he disabled the enemy at the first onslaught he would get the
worst of the battle most likely, and in any case might lose his sight
and be torn in rags. He knew all about wild cats and left them, and a
few other unpleasant forest people, severely alone.
The girl was not afraid, for she had always heard that a wild cat will
never attack first unless it is shut into a confined space or is caught
in a trap. Out in the woods it will run--as a rule.
Crouching down, it began to eat the rabbit, stopping every second and
staring round with ferocious menace for any enemy. Then it saw the
green eyes on the top of the rock, and shrank into itself with a sort of
spitting shriek. Robin shifted his position and pressed close to his
mistress--the shriek was horrible, undoubtedly.
Nell became uneasy. She did not like those terrible eyes on the rock
top, but reasoned in her own mind that the other animal--whatever it
was--was interested in the catamount, and neither would interfere with
her. Nevertheless, her hand stole to her pistol pocket and she got out
the weapon, to be ready.
Now the beast on the rock was hungry, as forest creatures mostly are in
the winter. It had been attracted to the camp by the smell of bacon,
and probably been sitting up there for hours with the intent patience of
a wild thing. The appearance of the cat had changed the attraction.
Here was a rabbit, in plain view, and the sight of the other beast
eating was too great a provocation.
The pale green eyes seemed to send out flames of rage, and a snarl came
from the rock top that was every bit as fiendish as the cat's shriek.
Nell knew pretty well that she had only to throw a handful of sticks on
to the smouldering embers to drive both wild beasts into hiding. But
with curiosity was mixed a good deal of excitement. She wanted to see
what they would do. They were taken up with one another, anyhow, and
when you live in the woods, the doings of the creatures become as
interesting as very exciting books. Never had it come her way to see a
catamount defend its supper--or early breakfast--from a lynx; she fully
believed the watcher on the rock top to be that, most savage, perhaps,
of all the cat tribe.