"And yes, don't bother shaving. A bit of a beard might be as good a
disguise as any if you meet Chetzisky. He may still remember you."
"By the way, Jim, how did you manage to get government support for your
idea?"
"I didn't."
"You didn't," I said slowly, "Then how--"
"I'm using my assignment to track down the leakage of our troop
movements to the Orient as the apparent reason for my maneuvers. What
more likely than such a spy ring should have its headquarters on the
Pacific Coast and perhaps a transmitter deep in the mountains." He
grinned like a pleased cat.
"You mean none of the Canadian authorities knows you're really after
Chetzisky!" The man's gall flabbergasted me.
"That's right."
The bell-hop knocked on the door and entered with our drinks. I gulped
mine down and sagged back in a chair, hoping for my brain to clear
and find all this was happening only in a nightmare, the result of
overindulging in my favorite onion soup.
But it wasn't just a bad dream. "... above all you must creep up on
Chetzisky," I heard Armstrong saying.
"Seven days doesn't leave much time for creeping."
"I know." Armstrong was grim. "But the Indian should help."
"What Indian?" I exclaimed. The nightmare feeling deepened.
"I forgot, Arnold. When Chetzisky and MacRoberts disappeared into the
wilds, they took two Indians along that had been with MacRoberts on
previous trips. Fortunately there was a third Indian, a young boy, who
went out once before with MacRoberts. We're counting on him to guide
you to wherever the Doctor is."
I mulled over that while Armstrong got on the phone and booked us on
the next flight to the coast.
Fifteen hours we were in Vancouver conferring with Major Burley of
Canadian Military Intelligence, a precisely neat man who made me
painfully self-conscious of my unshaven face. I met Johnny Eagle for
the first time. He bore little resemblance to the lithe, stern-eyed Red
man of the movies. A dumpy boy of fifteen, dressed in baggy pants and
a pullover, he escaped the classification of nondescript only by his
eyes; they shone with a quiet luminosity, like lights through a mist.
They gave me a feeling of confidence in him.
According to Johnny Eagle, the place we wanted was north of Burns Lake.
He didn't know the exact spot, but he remembered two things nearby: a
rain-rotted cross on a mountain grave and two peaks that MacRoberts had
christened the Twins because of their identical appearance.
It wasn't much to go on, but it was something to keep alive our hopes
of getting Chetzisky before it was too late.
"Good luck," Major Burley said, "I hope it won't be a wild goose chase."
"It better not be," Armstrong said tersely. "You better get going,
Arnold. I'll keep in touch with you by radio from Burns Lake."
* * * * *
Outside the Major's office I almost collided with a code clerk hurrying
in with a message. I thought nothing of it till I was on the street
climbing into the car that would take me to the airport and a voice
called sharply after me.
"Sir, Major Burley wishes to see you in his office right away."
I went back upstairs, cold with foreboding, suddenly recalling the
excited look on the code clerk's face.
Armstrong was standing by the window, looking disconsolate, when I
entered. The Canadian said nothing but handed me a decoded message.
ATTENTION CANADIAN INTELLIGENCE: COLONEL ARMSTRONG SUSPENDED FROM
FURTHER DUTIES FOR OVERSTEPPING HIS AUTHORITY. WILL REPORT BACK TO
WASHINGTON AT ONCE TO FACE CHARGES.
"Now," explained Major Burley sternly, "you will understand why I must
cancel your plans, sir."