CHAPTER XXII A FRUITLESS JOURNEY
It was night; such a night as only the Arctic knows. Cold stars, gleaminglike bits of burnished silver in the sky, shone down upon vast stretchesof glistening snow. Out of that whiteness one object loomed, black as inkagainst the whiteness of its background.
Weary with five days of constant travel, Marian found herself approachingthis black bulk. She pushed doggedly forward, expecting at every momentto catch a lightning-like zig-zag flash of purple flame shooting up theside of it.
The black bulk was the old dredge in Sinrock River. She had passed thatway twice before. Each time she had hoped to find there a haven of rest,and each time she had been frightened away by the flash of the purpleflame. Those mysterious people had left this spot at one time. Had theyreturned? Was the dredge now a place of danger, or a haven for wearytravellers? The answer to this question was only to be found by marchingboldly up to the dredge.
This called for courage. Born with a brave soul, Marian was equal to anyemergency. Sheer weariness and lack of sleep added to this a touch ofdaring.
Without pausing, she drove straight up to the door. Reassured by the snowbanked up against it, she hastily scooped away the bank with hersnow-shoe, and having shoved the door open, boldly entered.
It was a cheerless place, black and empty. The wind whistled through thecracks where the planks had rotted away. Yet it was a shelter. Passingthrough another door, she found herself in an inner room that housed theboiler of the engine that had furnished power to the dredge. The boiler,a great red drum of rust, stood directly in front of her.
"Here's where we camp," she said to Attatak. "We can build a fire in thefire-box of the boiler and broil some steak. That will be splendid!"
"_Eh-eh_," grinned Attatak.
"And Attatak, bring the deer through the outer door, then close it. Theywere fed two hours ago. That will do until morning."
She lighted a candle, gathered up some bits of wood that lay strewn aboutthe narrow room, and began to kindle a fire while Attatak went out afterthe deer.
For the moment, being alone, she began to think of the herd. How was theherd faring? What had happened to Patsy during those many days of herabsence? Were Bill Scarberry's deer rapidly destroying her herd ground.
"Well, if they are, we are powerless to prevent it," she told herselfwith a sigh.
As she looked back upon it now, she felt that her whole journey had beena colossal failure. They had discovered the mountain cave treasure, onlyto be obliged to leave the treasure behind. They had reached the Stationin time to talk with the Government Agent, but he had not been able tocome with her. Only twenty-four hours before they had reached the cabinof Ben Neighbor, only to find it dark and deserted. He had gonesomewhere, as people in the Arctic have a way of doing; and where thatmight be she could not even hazard a guess. At last, in despair, she hadheaded her deer toward her own camp. In thirty-six hours she would bethere.
"Well, at any rate," she sighed, "it will be a pleasure to see Patsy andto sleep the clock round in our own sweet little deerskin bedroom."
She was indeed to see Patsy, but the privilege of sleeping the clockround was not to be hers for many a day. She was destined to find theimmediate future far too stirring for that.
Twenty-four hours later saw Marian well on her way home. Ten hours more,she felt sure, would bring her to camp. And then what? She could not evenguess. Had she been able to even so much as suspect what was going on atcamp, she would have urged her reindeer to do their utmost.
Patsy was right in the middle of a peck of trouble. Because of the factthat for the last few days she had been living in a realm of excitingdreams, the troubles that had come down upon her seemed all the moregrievous. Since that most welcome radio message regarding the proposedpurchase of reindeer by the Canadian Government had come drifting in overthe air, she had, during every available moment, hovered over theradio-phone in the momentary expectation of receiving the confirmation ofthat rumor which might send the herd over mountains and tundra in a wildrace for a prize, a prize worth thousands of dollars to her uncle andcousin--the sale of the herd.
Perhaps it was because of her too close application to the radio-phonethat she failed to note the approach of Scarberry's herd as it returnedto ravish their feeding ground. Certain it was that the first of thedeer, with the entire herd close upon their heels, were already over thehills before she knew of their coming.
It was night when Terogloona brought this bit of disquieting news.
"And this time," Patsy wailed, "we have not so much as one hungry Eskimowith his dog to send against them."
As if in answer to the complaint, the aged herder plucked at her sleeve,then led her out beneath the open sky.
With an impressive gesture, he waved his arm toward the distant hillsthat lay in the opposite direction of Scarberry's herd. To her greatsurprise and mystification, she saw gleaming there the lights of twentyor more campfires.
"_U-bogok_," (see there) he said.
"What--what does it mean?" Patsy stammered, grasping at her dry throat.
"It is that I fear," said Terogloona. "They come. To-morrow they arehere. You gave food for a week for a few; flour, sugar, bacon. They likehim. Now come whole village of Sitne-zok. Want food. You gave them food.What you think? No food for herders, no herders. No herders, no herd.What you think?"
Patsy did not know what to think. Gone was all her little burst of prideover the way she had handled the other situation that had confronted her.Now she felt that she was but a girl, a very small girl, and very, verymuch alone. She wished Marian would come. Oh, how she did wish that shewould come!
"In the morning we will see what can be done," was all she could say tothe faithful old herder as she turned to re-enter the igloo.
That night she did not undress. She sat up for hours, trying to think ofsome way out. She sat long with the radio head-set over her ears. Sheentertained some wild notion of fleeing with the herd toward the Canadianborder, providing the message confirming the offer for the deer came. Butthe message did not come.
At last, in utter exhaustion, she threw herself among the deerskins andfell into a troubled sleep.
She was roused from this sleep by a loud: "Hello there!" followed by acheery: "Where are you? Are you asleep?"
It was Marian. The next moment poor, tired, worried Patsy threw herselfsobbing into her cousin's strong arms.
"There now," said Marian, soothingly, as Patsy's sobbing ceased, "sitdown and tell me all about it. You're safe; that's something. Yourexperiences can't have been worse than ours."
"The Eskimo! Bill Scarberry's herd!" burst out Patsy, "They're here. Allof them!"
"Tell me all about it," encouraged Marian.
"Wait till I get my head-set on," said Patsy, more hopefully. "It's beendue for days; may come at any time."
"What's due?" asked Marian, mystified.
"Wait! I'll tell you. One thing at a time. Let's get it all straight."
She began at the beginning and recited all that had transpired sinceMarian had left camp. When she came to tell of her discovery that one ofthe mysterious occupants of the tent of the purple flame was a girl,Marian's astonishment knew no bounds. When told of the bloody trail,Marian was up in arms. The camp of the purple flame must be raided atonce. They would put a stop to that sort of thing. They would take theirarmed herders and raid that camp this very night.
"But wait!" Patsy held up a warning finger, "I am not half through yet.There is more. Too much more!"
She was in the midst of recounting her experiences with the band ofwandering Eskimo and Scarberry's herd, when suddenly she clapped theradio receiver tightly to her ears and stopped talking. Then shemurmured:
"It's coming! At last, it is coming!"
"For goodness sake!" exclaimed Marian, out of all patience, "Will youkindly tell me what is coming?"
But Patsy only held the receiver to her ears and listened the morein
tently as she whispered:
"Shush! Wait!"