CHAPTER XI.
AT THE MERCY OF THE PEST.
"Sorry ye'r not in receivin' costume, but that won't make no difference.We got off down to the mouth of the creek when the steamer went down andstarted to walk up when we met these Siwash comin' down with the boat, andconcluded it was just what we needed. We held 'em up, and finallypersuaded them to pole us back up. They wouldn't talk much at first, butfinally told us what ye were doin' up here. We intended to git here atnight and su'prise ye a little, but when we stopped at the bend just belowwe saw the other fellers pushin' up stream, and concluded to come right onand su'prise ye this afternoon. Rae, you and Monkey herd them Injuns intothat shack over there, and let Monkey stand watch on them. Then you comeback here and we'll take care of these young Scouts."
"What are you doing up here?" asked Rand. "What do you want of us?"
"Well, we're after part of the outfit you brought in here, for we're goin'on down the Yukon prospectin'. Then I think there's some of that machineryyou brought in that Colonel Snow would pay pretty heavy to git back, andwe'll annex some of that."
"Yes," snarled Rae, who had returned, "and first thing we'll put you twowhere you won't bother for a while. I'll git some rope," and so saying, heturned toward the tent and soon returned with some cord.
"Look here, Dublin," cried Jack. "Whatever you intend to do let us get onsome clothing, for these mosquitos and black flies are torturing us."
"Haw, haw," yelled Rae, "that won't do you any harm. Let's tie 'em up justas they are and let the bugs chew on 'em."
"Why, man," protested Rand, "they would torture us to death in a fewhours. Do you want to murder us?"
"Oh, I ain't so pertikler," sneered Rae. "You fellers have made us troubleenough around Creston, and ye'll have to take yer chances."
"Here, cut that out, Rae," said Dublin, in whom, despite his criminalinstincts, there were still many elements of decency. "We're not here tomurder anybody. Git them some clothes."
With a growl, Rae limped away to the tent again, returning with two pairsof pajamas, and despite the boys' complaint that these would prove butlittle protection, they were compelled to don them. Their hands were thenbound, and they were then taken a short distance back into the woods,where they were fastened to trees. Then the desperadoes went back andbegan to ransack the stores. Ripping open boxes and bags they piled up avaried quantity of provisions, and even helped themselves to a quantity ofclothing and blankets which the expedition had brought up to be left incache for the following winter. They also tore open the canvas coveringsof the sawmill and a dynamo which accompanied it, which was intended tosupply electric light for night work to supplement the short days ofwinter. From both of these they selected a dozen of the smaller parts ofthe greatest importance and made one canvas bundle of them, thus disablingthe machinery completely.
Having gathered their loot together they went to the shack and compelledthree of the Indians to come out and carry these things and place themaboard the boat. They had worked nearly two hours, and now cursing theSiwashes, they urged them to hurry with the plunder, fearing the return ofthe other members of Swiftwater's party.
Meantime, the boys had been suffering tortures. The woodland pests of allkinds swarmed about them, stinging through the thin clothing and coveringtheir heads and faces, which had now begun to swell to an extent thatthreatened total blindness in time. Fortunately, the gang had not gaggedthem, and they were able to comfort one another with the hope that theircomrades would find no fishing and return that night. They made desperateeffort to release themselves, but with no result except to chafe wristsand ankles to a painful condition. The place where they had been fastenedwas further up stream than the camp, which was partly concealed from them,but commanded a view of a mile or more up the creek. As time went by theyscanned this stretch of water eagerly for some signs of their friends, butin vain. At last, Jack, who had tried to bear up bravely as became a goodScout, spoke up in rather a tremulous voice:
"Rand, do you suppose they will go away and leave us tied up like this allnight? These mosquitos will come in clouds after dark, and we can't lastlong then. One of my eyes is about gone now."
"Rae and Monkey might do it, but I am sure Dublin will see that we are cutloose," replied Rand.
Suddenly, Rand, who had been straining his eyes up the stream, exclaimedexcitedly:
"Jack, Jack! There's some one coming down the creek on the shore."
Jack turned eagerly to the shore above. Sure enough. Three figures onhorseback had just emerged from the forest, but a hundred rods above them,and rode slowly down the bank.
"They don't see us yet," said Rand. "Wait until they get about half wayhere, and then yell for help with all your might."
The horsemen rode slowly toward them, and as they reached a point a fewyards distant both Rand and Jack let a high boyish scream with all theirstrength:
"Robbers! Thieves! Help! This way."
THEY RODE STRAIGHT FOR THE BOYS.]
At the same moment the three strangers caught sight of the two queerfigures tied to the trees and pulled up a moment. With the first yell, Raeand Dublin came running around the sod house with their guns leveled,cursing the boys and commanding silence. At the same moment they caughtsight of the strange horsemen. They turned at once and ran back for theshack just as the horsemen seemed to comprehend the situation. There was asharp bugle call, and the three put spur to their horses, and withcarbines in rest came on at a hard gallop. They had to come round a littlebend in the creek which delayed them a little, then they rode straight forthe boys.
"Don't mind us," cried Rand, "get that gang before they get away. They'vebeen raiding the camp."
Two of the men turned and rode around the sod house while the other with aspring from his mount and with a couple of slashes of a big wood knife cuttheir bonds, and remounting, followed his comrades without asking aquestion.
The boys followed as rapidly as possible, and when they came into view ofthe camp a curious and lively scene met their gaze. Dublin and Rae hadgotten the Indians out of the shack and at the point of their guns hadherded them toward the boat into which they were tumbling as fast as theycould. The horsemen were riding toward the struggling crowd crying out tothem to halt. As they rode near, Dublin and Rae turned and deliberatelyfired at the men, whose carbines at once cracked in reply. The last of theIndians who had not yet gotten into the boat pitched forward on the bank,and jumping over him, Dublin and Rae gave the boat a push out into themiddle of the stream, sprang aboard and dropped into the bottom of thecraft, which at once began to drift down with the current. As nothing wasin sight above the gunwale except the Indians the horsemen did not fireagain. As the batteau drifted around the point, Monkey Rae, who had beenthe first to get aboard and conceal himself, rose, and putting his fingersto his nose, shouted back some insulting epithets.
Having dismounted, the three strangers turned to meet the boys, who atonce recognized in their khaki uniforms, blue flannel shirts andbroad-brimmed hats, three of the members of Major McClintock's patrol ofRoyal Northwest Mounted Police, whom they had met in White Horse.
They saluted the boys, who returned the recognition, and then shook handswith their rescuers.
"Faith, it seems we were just in time," said O'Hara, the sergeant, "butI'm sorry we didn't get that crowd. If I'm not mistaken, it's one theMajor has been looking for that came up on the same boat from Seattle withyou."
Rand assured him that the desperadoes were the same that had been referredto, and he continued:
"I'm sure I don't know how they got by our post at White Horse, but theymust have made a circuit. However, our men'll get thim somewhere. How areye yerselves? Begorra ye have foine lookin' faces on ye. Wait till Idocther ye up a bit. We all get lukin' worse than that sometimes on thispatrol duty."
He produced from the haversack or his "war bag," as he called it, at therear of his saddle, a couple of bottles, one of which contained water ofammonia and another glycerine and vaseline mixed. The app
lication soonrelieved the pain and reduced the swellings. As he did so the otherpolicemen walked down to the landing, where they were attracted by groansat the foot of the bank, and there found the Indian who had pitchedforward when they had fired, and whom they supposed had been dragged intothe boat. Instead he had rolled down the bank and partially into thewater.
They picked him up and carried him up onto the grass, where the boys atonce recognized him as the Siwash chief who had deserted at the head oftheir Indians a few days before.
An examination showed that one of the police bullets had gone through histhigh, but had not made a dangerous wound. Rand at once dressed this, atthe same time having some talk with him in "pigeon." The chief could addbut little in his jargon to what Dublin had already stated--that they hadbeen met at the conjunction of the Gold and the Lewes by the desperadoes,and under cover of the rifles been compelled to return up stream. Of thenarwhal's horn he refused to talk, and his wound having been dressed hewas placed on the balsam boughs in the shack.
Rand and Jack at once extended the hospitalities of the camp to themounted police, who gladly accepted the offer of the empty sod house tostable their mounts, and thus kept them from the attacks of the insectpests. They also showed extreme satisfaction at a rather elaborate campdinner gotten up by the boys in their honor as a relief from the ratherlimited army rations that constituted their portion when riding over thelong trails of the "beat" which they covered four times a year.
The evening was spent around the camp fire; the boys giving an account ofthe work that they had done since they left White Horse, and the troopersrelating many wild and hazardous adventures of the lands above Winnipeg,including the forests, the posts of the Hudson Bay Company, the "land ofLittle Sticks," and the "Great Barrens" that stretch north to Hudson'sBay, and known as the "Silent Places" over to the west, where the Yukonbegins and joins itself to Alaska. To these were added many tales of theSoudan and Indian by O'Hara, who had served in the British army.
When they retired that night the troopers refused to accept the share ofthe tent offered them, but taking the hammocks which they carried, fromtheir saddlegear, fastened it to trees, and with their ponchos andmosquito nettings over them, calmly retired for the night.
It was noon the next day when Swiftwater and the Scouts with him slippedslowly down the river in their barge, and tied up to the bank. He greetedthe Northwest Mounted Police with pleasure, but showed considerableperturbation when the story of the attack on the camp was related. He atonce investigated the extent of the raid on the stores, and was evidentlymuch pleased to find that although the robbers had taken considerable lootwith them they had not had time to load up the parts of the machinerywhich they sorted out.
On Sunday afternoon the troopers took their departure, saying that theywould cover the creek on their way down, and try to find out where thegang and their Indians had gone to. Swiftwater promised to follow down thecreek in a few days and up the Lewes and file a formal complaint at WhiteHorse. The "green stuff" and trout which the expedition had brought backmade a most acceptable Sunday dinner, and after it was over Swiftwatergave the boys a small talk.
"I propose," said he, "to get to work to-morrow morning and erect the lastand most important building of our little city in the wilderness here, andthat is the cache. I'm going to hang onto this Injun we have here,although he won't be of any use to us, and take him before theCommissioner in White Horse and find out the reason for his leaving all ofa sudden. If there's anything important in that ivory horn he's got I'mgoing to find it out for you boys and see if he can be of any use to you.We can leave this camp shipshape in two days. We'll simply drift down theGold, and wait at the entrance to the Lewes for the steamer up from Dawsonto White Horse."
On the following Monday morning the Scouts went heartily to work, and bynight had erected a rough house of planks without windows, and raised fromthe ground about a dozen feet on spars built in bridgework shape. Intothis was conveyed all the remaining stores and the machinery, the wholebeing covered with heavy tarpaulins and tightly tied.
The cache was raised from the ground to prevent bears and other maraudersfrom reaching the provisions it contained, and the shelter was sufficientfor all the stuff left behind.
On Wednesday morning the tent was pulled down, the provisions necessaryfor their few days' journey placed aboard, the wounded chief helped intothe craft, and as the boat drifted out into the stream the Creston Patrolof Scouts stood at attention, and with their bugle sounded a salute totheir first camp in the wilderness.