BACK FROM THE DEAD.
Lieutenant Boyd was silent for an instant, and I saw that he was a
little staggered by the bold daring of the accusation. Then, looking
Ruthven straight in the eyes, he said, in a curt and significant tone of
voice:
"I am glad to have found some one who can give information concerning
Cuthbert Mackenzie, and I will remember you when certain investigations
now pending are taken up by the Hudson Bay Company. Shall I make my
meaning clearer?"
"As you please," muttered Ruthven, with an air of forced calmness.
"It is needless; I think we understand each other," the lieutenant
continued. "As for the prisoner, and the charge you have made against
him, I won't enter into that matter at present. Did you arrest him with
a warrant?"
"No."
"Then you can't hold him. Set him at liberty, and I will guarantee that
you will find him at Fort Garry when you are ready to serve the proper
papers on him."
"It's likely I'll believe that," sneered Ruthven. "I tell you the man is
guilty. I have witnesses--proofs of the murder."
"I don't care what you have," cried the lieutenant. "I want the man at
once--I've parleyed with you far too long. If you don't produce him I'll
search the house."
Ruthven sat glowering like a tiger at bay. He scanned our resolute
little party, and looked helplessly at the sullen, scowling faces of his
own men. "I yield to force of arms," he said hoarsely; "but I protest
against this unjustifiable outrage. Lagarde, bring the fellow out!"
The storekeeper had meanwhile returned to the room, and now, at
Ruthven's bidding, he entered an apartment in the rear and partly closed
the door behind him. For a brief interval we waited in silence, hearing
only an indistinct murmur of voices. Then Lagarde reappeared, followed
by the prisoner.
At sight of the man my heart gave a wild throb, and a cry of amazement
was forced to my lips, for there before me, as dashing-looking as ever,
but with cheeks slightly sunken and blanched from illness, stood Captain
Myles Rudstone.
"You!" I gasped. "Back from the dead!"
"It's the captain, sure enough!" shouted Carteret.
I half expected to see him vanish in thin air, but my doubts were
dispelled when he came quickly forward and clasped my hand.
"Don't stare at me as though I was a ghost," he said laughingly. "You
see I am real flesh and blood, my dear Carew. I have turned up again,
like a bad penny."
"I never dreamed that the prisoner could be you!" I exclaimed. "We
believed you dead--buried under the snow."
"It was a natural supposition," the captain replied, as he shook hands
with Carteret and Lieutenant Boyd.
"My good fellows, I am greatly indebted to you for this service--for
your timely rescue. I was awake when you arrived, and overheard the
little discussion, but as I was both gagged and bound, I could do
nothing in my own behalf."
With that his face darkened, and striding to the table, he struck it a
blow with his fist that set the bottles and cups rattling, and caused
Ruthven and his evil crew to shrink back in their seats.
"You and I will have a reckoning at a later time," he cried, addressing
Ruthven. "Be assured that it will come!"
"A word with you, Captain Rudstone," said Boyd. "I must warn you that
you are charged with a grave crime, and that I have given a pledge for
your safe keeping at Fort Garry."
"What is the accusation?"
"The murder of Cuthbert Mackenzie!" Ruthven blurted out savagely.
The captain shrugged his shoulders, laughed insolently, and gave me a
meaning and reassuring glance.
"I reserve my defense," he said. "I will say nothing at present as to
the truth or falsity of this charge. Certainly I have done nothing that
I would willingly undo--quite the contrary."
"I am sure of that," I said warmly.
"As for your pledge Lieutenant Boyd," the captain continued. "I give you
my word I shall wait Mr. Ruthven's pleasure at Port Garry, and I defy
him to bring his witnesses before a competent tribunal. Indeed, I court
and desire a full investigation of the act with which I stand charged."
As he spoke he glared at Ruthven, and the latter's eyes fell.
"Well said!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "I perceive you have grasped the
delicate nature of this affair, Captain Rudstone. By the way, I
understand you are the bearer of dispatches. Do you still retain them?"
"That is a misapprehension, sir," was the reply. "I have no dispatches;
nor did I stop at any of the company's forts on my journey from the
north. I am bound for Fort Garry on a private and personal matter."
"You shall accompany us there at once," said Boyd. "I think we have
finished here." Turning to Ruthven, he added: "We are going now, sir.
Let me warn you to keep your men under control--to see that no shots are
fired treacherously."
"When we want to shoot it will not be behind your backs," Ruthven
replied significantly, and in a voice that trembled with suppressed
passion. "You will be sorry for this night's work!"
Without further words we left the house, gathered up our men outside,
and crossed the clearing to the woods. We pushed on more rapidly to the
horses, and one of the men gave his steed to Captain Rudstone and
mounted behind a companion. As we rode on a trot toward the fort, the
captain, who was in front, between Boyd and myself, related to us in
confidence the thrilling story of his adventures. He spoke in low tones,
for it was not advisable that the rest should hear a narrative which
ought properly to have come to the factor's ear first.
"I shall spin the yarn briefly and without going into details," he
began. "My disappearance on that night when we encamped near Fort
Charter was a very simple thing. I was on duty, you will remember, and I
either heard--or imagined I heard--the report of a musket within half a
mile. Hoping to learn what it meant, I ventured too far from camp. The
result was that I lost my bearings, and for several hours wandered about
in the blinding storm. I shouted at intervals, and fired a couple of
shots. At, last, when I was nearly exhausted I came across a recess
under a mass of rocks. I crawled into it--it was warm and tight--and
there I slept as I have never slept in my life before. I wakened to find
that I was snowed up--many hours must have passed--and with tremendous
toil I dug myself out of the huge drift. It was then late in the
afternoon of the next day. I had no idea of my bearings, and after
tramping aimlessly until twilight I stumbled upon a small camp in the
wilderness, and found myself Cuthbert Mackenzie's prisoner."
"And did you really kill the scoundrel?" I asked.
"Wait; I am coming to that," replied the captain. "Mackenzie had half a
dozen Indians with him, and was on the way south. He knew me, of course,
and he swore that he would shoot me at daybreak. We held some
conversation, during which he virtually admitted that he had instigated
and led the attack on Fort Royal. He meant to kill me--I saw that
clearly--and I felt pretty blue when I was bound fast to a tree."
"You worked your bonds loose, I suppose?" inquired Boyd.
"No; I was saved in another way," said the captain--"by your old friend
Gray Moose, Carew. It seems that he and a dozen redskins had been
following Mackenzie up on account of some old grudge--some act of false
dealing--and that night they surprised and attacked the camp. They cut
me loose first, seeing that I was a prisoner, and I took part in the
scrimmage. I grappled with Mackenzie and overpowered him, and to save my
own life I had to stab him to the heart--"
"He deserved it," said I. "It was a just retribution. And how did the
fight turn out?"
"Two of Mackenzie's party escaped, and the rest were killed," Captain
Rudstone answered. "I knew little of it at the time, for I was shot
through the shoulder and fainted from loss of blood. Gray Moose and his
braves carried me to an Indian village some miles to the west, tended me
until I was recovered, and then supplied me with a sledge and food for
the long journey South. And it ended, as you know, in my falling into
the hands of those Northwest Company ruffians a few miles from my
destination."
"But how do you suppose Ruthven knew of the affair?" asked Boyd.
"From the two Indians who escaped," replied the captain; "they must have
pushed right on down country. I'll tell you more of my story at another
time. Yonder, if I am not mistaken, are the lights of Fort Garry."