RED-SCAR GOES TO SLEEP—ALF AND BERT ESCAPE WITH THE PONY.
STEPAN would not suffer Alf and Bert to ask any questions; but they
felt that he had a definite purpose and plan, and hope began to rise
again in their poor little hearts. Quietly they lay in bed, watching
him. They saw him put fresh wood on the fire, and water to boil. They
saw him get the canister of coffee and measure out a liberal quantity.
And then they saw something else which set them wondering. Into a tiny
saucepan containing only a little water, he emptied a small paper
bag of faded-looking green things like round dried pods. He put a
cover on the saucepan and set it to boil. Then when he had made the
coffee, straining it through a bag, he poured through the bag also the
decoction he had prepared in the small saucepan and mixed it with the
coffee.
It was just ready, and the small saucepan rinsed out and put away, when
Gavril came in.
"Make haste now and get thy supper," said Stepan. "Thou art keeping
these children awake, and me too; thou hast forgotten that I must make
an early start."
Gavril grunted and took a long draught of coffee.
"This coffee of thine has a queer taste, Stepan," he said. "What hast
thou done to it?"
"What should I do?" replied the other coolly. "Perhaps it was made in
too much of a hurry. People who come in at midnight can hardly, in the
backwoods, expect a hotel supper served."
"Well, anyhow, it is hot, and it warms me," said Gavril.
"Yes, and there is condensed milk in it, so it is nourishing. Drink it
up and lie down, and I will put out the light."
Gavril said no more. He ate his bread and cheese, and two salted
cucumbers, and drank up the coffee to the last drop. Then, overcome
with weariness, apparently, he rolled himself up in his sheepskin, lay
down on the pile of straw in a corner, and was snoring loudly in a few
minutes.
Stepan remained quite quiet for about a quarter of an hour, glancing at
Gavril at intervals. At last, assured of his sound slumber, he went to
and fro in the hut, collecting the things that would be required for
the journey of the boys and himself. Bread, cheese, a small kettle and
tin of tea, and a few lumps of sugar, an axe, and his own revolver.
The food he divided into two portions, one for himself, one for the
children, all but the parcel of tea and sugar, which he gave to them
just as it was.
"You may get up now," he whispered to Alf and Bert, as his preparations
neared completion; "get up and put on your furs; and you," he added to
Alf, "see to the pony. No," he said, with a smile, as the lad's eyes
turned with fear to the snoring Gavril; "you need have no misgiving. He
will not wake for hours. I gave him a decoction of poppy-heads in his
coffee, on purpose to quiet him, so that we could get away."
"Then why should we not take our own sledge and horse as well as the
pony?" said Alf. "Gavril stole them from us; we shall but be taking
back our own."
"It is true, you are right," said Stepan.
"Look here, dear Stepan," said Alf, clasping the man's rough brown hand
in both of his. "Thou art so good to us, we cannot but love thee, and
father will love thee too when we tell him all. Take thou the horse
and sledge for thy journey, and then afterwards bring them back to the
factory; and we, in our father's name, promise thee a welcome, and that
all shall be forgotten save thy goodness to us. Sharik can easily carry
my brother and me; and so we shall run away both with horse and pony,
and Red-scar, if he chase us, must do it on his own splay feet. Say,
Stepan, shall it not be so?"
The man's brown eyes grew moist. He raised the boy's hand to his lips.
"Yes, little sir, if God please, it shall be even so," he said.
More loud than ever was Gavril's snoring when the sledge glided
noiselessly away over the snow through the wood, with Sharik trotting
nimbly behind, making nothing of his double burden.
Until they reached the edge of the forest, their way lay in the same
direction, but there the roads diverged.
"That is your route, my children," said Stepan, pointing across the
snowy landscape, "and this is mine. Good-bye. God be with you."
With these words he was turning away, when both boys called out, "Wait
one moment!"
And as he reined up, Alf guided the pony close to the sledge, and the
lads threw their arms round the man's neck and kissed him.
"Nay, Stepan," said Alf, as the poor fellow gave a great sob, "thou
must not weep. We shall (for God is so good) soon see thy face again.
Look forward to a welcome from us who love thee."
But Stepan could make no answer. The tears were running down his cheeks
as he drove away, looking back again and again, and waving his hand.
"And now, Sharik, I wonder if you have any sort of idea where our home
lies?" said Alf. "Sit quite still, Bert, and we will see if he chooses
any road for himself."
The boys sat motionless, having reined up the pony. Now Alf dropped the
reins and waited.
After a full minute Shank turned his head with a look of inquiry, and
Alf said very emphatically, "Home, Sharik! Find your way home, old boy!
Maybe you know it; we don't."
The wise little animal threw up his head and sniffed the air. Then he
snorted and struck off at a smart canter, along a road that led across
a frozen marsh for miles and miles. And the moon looked down upon the
little travellers, and the stars peeped at them. And the God and Father
Whom they trusted was far above moon and stars, yet very near to them
in His love and care.
"It can't be much more than twenty to twenty-five miles to the factory
from here," said Alf, half turning in the saddle; for Bert was sitting
behind him, both arms round his brother's waist, to keep himself on the
pony's back.
"No, it can't be so very far," assented Bert, "for we came in little
over two hours, when Red-scar drove us, and we did not run more than
eleven miles an hour, for all his slashing."
"Still, it is a long way for Sharik, and with two of us on his back,"
rejoined All, "though I must say he doesn't seem to mind it a scrap, so
far. But, of course, he may be tired after a while, and when he is, we
must get off and give him a rest and a feed. But we must move on now as
quickly as we can, for fear of pursuit."
"But," said Bert, "Red-scar has only his own legs on which to pursue
us, and Sharik is going bravely; no man walking or running could
possibly overtake him."
"No, and I felt pretty safe too, till just now," replied Alf. "But look
at that deep snow we're coming to! The pony will have to go slowly, for
he will sink in up to his knees."
"Well, yes, of course," rejoined Bert; "but then, if Red-scar came
after us, would he not do the same?"
"No, he wouldn't; that's just it! I never thought of it till just this
minute, but do you remember seeing two queer-looking things shaped like
something between a sledge and a boat, and with thongs to them? They
were hanging up in the corner of the log-house farthest away from the
stove."
"Yes," answered Bert; "I remember now you speak of them; what were
they?"
"Stepan told me they were snow-shoes, and when you have them on you
can slip over the snow almost as though you were skating on ice. You
don't sink in a scrap, and that's why the bear-hunters always use them.
Because—if Mr. Bruin wakes up very cross out of his winter sleep, and
a hunter happens to miss fire, and the bear chases him—he can get away
easily on his snow-shoes, while old Bruin sinks up to his haunches in
the drifts."
"But, Alf," said Bert, "you don't really believe that Red-scar could
overtake Sharik, and get possession of us again, do you? It would be
just too dreadful!"
"Yes, worse than anything I could think of," rejoined Alf. "But there,
Bert dear, we won't look forward to such a thing and make ourselves
miserable over it. After all, just think how We have been watched over
and protected, in spite of dangers. And I have the same feeling now
that I had when I rode to the town—that God is with us—close to us
both; and that if we put our whole trust in Him, and just take the way
that He opens up before us, all will be well."