ANXIOUS HOURS
The situation of the captives was desperate. They were in the power of a
white man as savage, or more so, as any of the Indians. To add to this,
he was enraged at his failure to discover the gold, to obtain which he
had risked so much. What he might do to compel them to reveal the hiding
place they could only guess.
For a while after being thrust into the tent there was silence among the
three. They had been roughly handled, the exertion to escape had been
hard, and they were utterly discouraged. It looked as though they had
failed almost in the moment of success.
"Do you think Holfax will bring any aid?" asked Fred after a long pause.
"I think he will try," replied Mr. Baxter. "Whether he can bring enough
of his friends to drive away this band of rascals is another matter. He
ought to come along pretty soon, if he had good luck in reaching a camp
and can persuade enough to come back with him."
"I wish I could loosen some of these knots," remarked Jerry. "I'm tied
so tightly that I can't move, and I'm getting cold."
It was very cold, even in the shelter of the tent, and wrapped as they
were in thick fur garments, for they were tied so tightly that their
blood could not circulate freely.
"Let's see if we can't loosen some of our bonds," suggested Fred. "The
exertion will make us warmer even if we can't. And if we get loose we
may be able to escape."
"No, don't try that part of it," advised Mr. Baxter.
"Why not?"
"Because, angry as he now is over not finding the gold, Callack would
probably order us shot at once. If we wish to save our lives we will
have to go slow. Try to loosen the thongs, by all means. That, as Fred
says, will warm us up. But even if we get loose it will be advisable to
stay in the tent. For, if we should manage to get out, we could not go
far without dogs and sleds, and it would be impossible to harness the
animals unobserved. No, boys, we'll have to stay here awhile and take
our chances."
The Indians had been in such a hurry to tie their captives so that a
search might be made for the gold that the knots were not very secure.
It did not take a great deal of exertion to undo them, and the three
were able to stand up and stamp about, thereby warming themselves.
"I feel better," announced Fred. "Now if they'd bring us in something to
eat we wouldn't be so badly off."
"I wonder how it goes with poor Johnson," said Mr. Baxter. "That was a
cruel blow he received. Callack shall pay for that some day."
"He's a brute!" exclaimed Fred. "I wish I was big enough to fight him."
"I fancy if Johnson ever got at him in a fair fight Callack would wish
he had never tried any of his tricks," observed Jerry.
Anxious hours passed. The captives, looking from the tent, saw Callack
and several Indians grouped about the supplies they had taken from the
sleds of the prisoners. They were appropriating to their own use such of
the articles as they fancied, while Callack, unwilling to believe the
gold was not there, was minutely examining every robe and garment,
hoping to find part of the treasure concealed in the folds, or sewed up
in them.
It was getting lighter with the approach of morning, though the days
were successively getting shorter and shorter as the winter season
advanced.
At last Callack became convinced that there was no trace of the gold to
be found in the baggage of his prisoners. He gave up the search, and,
calling to some of the Indians, ordered them to replenish the campfires,
which had died down in the excitement over the attempted escape.
"I hope he thinks to send us some breakfast," remarked Fred, as from the
tent the captives saw the Indians preparing a repast.
"He's not very likely to, unless he thinks that by getting us in good
humor we will tell him where the gold is," said Mr. Baxter.
"Will you tell him?"
"Never! And I hope you boys will remain firm, no matter what he does."
"I'll not," declared Fred. The search for the gold had been too hard,
and the possession of it meant too much to him to make him willing, even
under stress of dire threats, to tell where it was hidden.
"He'll have to threaten me good and hard before I'll tell him where it
is," said Jerry.
"Perhaps he may find it himself," suggested Fred.
"I don't think so," observed Mr. Baxter. "We hid it very carefully, and
it will take some digging, even if he thinks to try that method, before
he'll come upon it. By that time Holfax and his men may arrive."
That it was not Callack's plan to starve his captives was shown a little
later, when a couple of Indians came in with some hot tea and some
meat. There was also some cold tallow, an article of diet much esteemed
by the Alaskans in the winter, and the treasure finders had learned to
eat it. For fats are very heating, and some such food as that is much
needed in the Arctic region.
"He's up to some move," said Fred, as, looking from the tent-flap, he
saw a lot of the Indians beginning to break camp.
"Maybe they're going to leave us here and go back to the cave where we
found the gold, thinking that we left it hidden there," suggested Jerry.
"No, they know we brought the gold away," said his father. "Their spy
was there for that purpose."
"They certainly are moving the camp," went on Fred.
Moving it they were, but for no great distance. The tents and supplies,
including those of the prisoners, their sleds and dogs, were taken
toward the place where the ice fort had been built around the base of
the great hummock.
"He's going back to our old camp!" exclaimed Fred.
"I thought he would," added Mr. Baxter. "He's going to have a try for
the gold there. Well, I hope he doesn't find it."
A little later Callack approached the tent where the three captives
were.
"We're going to shift a bit," he said gruffly. "Going to where you had
your camp. I'll dig up the gold there, and then I'll see what I'll do
with you."
If he hoped to provoke a response by this he was disappointed, for
neither Mr. Baxter nor the boys answered. Callack did not appear
surprised to see that his prisoners were no longer bound. Perhaps he
thought the Indians who had brought them the breakfast had loosed the
thongs.
Closely guarded on all sides by the dusky Alaskans, Mr. Baxter and the
two boys were made to march back to where the ice fort was. The tent was
struck, and the old camp abandoned. Johnson, who had somewhat recovered
from the cruel blow, staggered along, with an Indian on either side of
him.
Callack lost no time in seeking the gold once he had reached the place
where the first skirmish had taken place. He ordered his men to erect
the tents, and then, taking several of the Indians, including Zank, with
him, each one with a pick and shovel, he began to dig around the big
hummock of ice.
"He'll hunt a good while before he finds anything there," remarked Fred.
As soon as the tents were up more Indians were set at digging. They
demolished the fort, but this hindered rather than helped them, for the
floor inside beneath which the treasure was buried was covered deeper
than ever with a layer of ice. Callack excavated a little there, but the
place seemed frozen so solidly because of the water Mr. Baxter had
poured over it that it did not look as if it had been disturbed in a
hundred years. So he did not go deep enough.
All day long the Indians, urged on by the white man, dug and searched
for the treasure, but without success. As night came on Callack seemed
to give it up.
Throwing down his pick, he walked over to where Mr. Baxter and the boys
were kept under guard in a tent.
"Come on out here!" he called to them. "I've got something to say to
you."
He gave an order to the guards, and they stood aside. Wondering what the
new move of the scoundrel might be, Mr. Baxter, followed by his son and
Fred, went out. A bitter cold wind was blowing, and it looked as if
there was going to be a big snowstorm.