<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="break">
<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER II</h2>
<p class="pch">A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE</p>
<p class="drop-cap05"><span class="beg">FEELING</span> like a man in a dream, the corporal
took his seat at the table, and when the soup
was served by an Indian youth, he was too
much amazed to attempt conversation. Miss Gargrave
looked at him and casually asked, “You have
never been to North Star before, Mr. Bracknell?”</p>
<p>“No,” he answered, shaking his head. “I am
new to this district. I was transferred from Edmonton
four months ago.”</p>
<p>“Then you did not know of our existence?”</p>
<p>The corporal smiled. “I had heard something
of it; but the truth is I had forgotten all about it.”</p>
<p>The girl nodded. “I can understand that. We
are so far out of the track of things that it is easy
for the world to forget us.”</p>
<p>Bracknell would have liked to ask why such as
she should continue to live in the wilderness; but he
repressed his curiosity, and looking round smiled
again.</p>
<p>“Your solitude is not without its amenities. I
did not think there was such a room as this anywhere
in the north. It reminds one of home!”</p>
<p>“You are English, of course?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Yes,” he answered. “I come from Kendal, in
Westmorland.”</p>
<p>“Kendal?” There was an accent of surprise
in her voice.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“You know Kendal?” he inquired quickly.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she answered. “I have stayed in the
neighbourhood. Are you any relation of Sir James
Bracknell of Harrowfell?”</p>
<p>“My uncle and guardian,” he smilingly replied.</p>
<p>Joy Gargrave looked at him thoughtfully. “I
have met your uncle,” she said slowly. “I should
scarcely have looked for his nephew in the Mounted
Police.”</p>
<p>“Why not?” he demanded, with a laugh. “The
Force is a packet of surprises. My sergeant at Edmonton
was the heir to an Irish peerage, and I
know a trooper down at Alberta who is the second
son of a marquis.”</p>
<p>“But Sir James!” she murmured. “He did not
seem to me the sort of man who would approve—”</p>
<p>“He does not know,” interrupted the corporal.</p>
<p>“It is very likely that he would not approve if he
did. But that does not greatly matter; as before
I came out here we quarrelled, and the relations between
us are likely to continue strained.”</p>
<p>“Is it permissible to ask the cause of this quarrel?”
inquired the man on the other side of the
table, whose name the corporal had not yet learned.</p>
<p>Bracknell frowned at the directness of the question
and was about to administer a snub, when he
caught Miss Gargrave’s eyes fixed upon him expectantly.
He laughed shortly as he replied, “Well,
Mr.—ar—”</p>
<p>“Rayner is my name,” said the other. “I forgot
I had not introduced myself.”</p>
<p>The corporal nodded. “I was about to say, Mr.
Rayner, that it is a private matter; but there can<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</SPAN></span>
be no harm in saying that my uncle had a matrimonial
scheme for me of which I did not approve,
so here I am.”</p>
<p>He laughed to hide his embarrassment of which
he was conscious, and looked at Miss Gargrave to
whom the explanation had really been offered.
There was a thoughtful look upon her face.</p>
<p>“Sir James is rather dictatorial,” she said, and
then turned the conversation. “Do you like the
service?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” was the reply, given wholeheartedly. “It
is a man’s work, and the open-air life, with all the
many hazards of the North, is infinitely preferable
to stewing in chambers waiting for briefs; or devilling
the K.C. who wants to keep all the crumbs on
his own table.”</p>
<p>The girl nodded. “I can understand that,” she
commented, and for a moment she sat there crumbling
her bread.</p>
<p>The thoughtful look on her face was accentuated.
Remembering what he had seen there when she
had passed him in the road, the corporal found
himself wondering if there was any connection between
the two. Then Miss Gargrave spoke again.</p>
<p>“I suppose you are in this neighbourhood on professional
business?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” he answered readily enough. “I have
been following a man for a month and have trailed
him something like four hundred miles.”</p>
<p>“That is a long journey in winter,” said the girl
a trifle absently.</p>
<p>Corporal Bracknell smiled. “Nothing to boast
of. There have been many longer trails in the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</SPAN></span>
Territory by our men. Did you ever hear how
Constable Pedley took the lunatic missionary from
Fort Chipewayn to Saskatchewan down the Athabasca
River in the very depth of winter?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” answered the girl. “That was an epic.
The constable lost his own reason in the end, didn’t
he?”</p>
<p>Bracknell nodded. “Yes, but he’s better again
now; though naturally that experience has set its
mark on him. And if I had got my man my return
journey would have been much harder than
the journey up, as I should have had to look after
him; and sleep with one eye open all the time.”</p>
<p>“You speak as if you had lost your man,” said
Rayner. “Is that so?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I have lost him finally,” answered the corporal
slowly.</p>
<p>“Who was he? What had he done? Was he
a very desperate character?” inquired Miss Gargrave,
and to the corporal as he turned to her it
seemed as if there was a look of troubled expectancy
in her face.</p>
<p>“He was an Englishman,” answered Bracknell
quietly, his eyes fixed on the beautiful face. “I do
not know that he was a particularly desperate character,
but he certainly was not scrupulous, and he
was suspected of selling whiskey to the Indians in
the reservation, which is a serious offence in the
Territory.”</p>
<p>“What name?” asked Miss La Farge.</p>
<p>“His proper name I do not know, but he has
been known through the North as Koona Dick!”</p>
<p>As he gave the name he saw Joy Gargrave’s face<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span>
grow white, and the trouble in her eyes was plain.
Also, with the tail of his eye, he saw Mr. Rayner
start violently, and guessed that both he and his
hostess were not unacquainted with the man who
lay out there in the snow under the shadow of the
pines. For a moment after his reply there was a
strained uneasy silence. The corporal removed his
eyes from his hostess’s face and glanced round the
table. Mr. Rayner was fingering the stem of a
wine-glass nervously, whilst Miss La Farge was
looking from him to Miss Gargrave with puzzled
eyes. Evidently she was conscious that something
unusual was taking place, but the corporal was
sure that to her the name he had just spoken was
without any special significance. That it was
known to the other two people present he was certain,
and he waited to see what would follow. The
sense of strain grew more pronounced, then Mr.
Rayner shuffled uneasily and broke the silence.</p>
<p>“I notice, Corporal Bracknell, that you speak of
this—er—fellow in the past tense, and you say
that he has escaped you finally. Do you mean to
say that he is—a—dead?”</p>
<p>“He is lying in the snow in a path cut through
the trees off the main road to the Lodge,” answered
the corporal steadily, “and he has been shot, I
think.”</p>
<p>“Good God!” ejaculated Mr. Rayner, in a voice
that, whilst it expressed astonishment, seemed to
the corporal to be a little flat. “And we have been
sitting here, gassing, whilst—” He broke off abruptly.
“Joy,” he cried addressing Miss Gargrave,
“you are ill. The shock of this story—”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“It is nothing,” interrupted the girl in a shaking
voice. “I—I—feel a little faint. If you will
excuse me—” She rose to her feet, staggered
a little, and then, as Miss La Farge ran to her,
fainted outright. For a moment Corporal Bracknell
did not speak, though a look of utmost concern
came upon his face. The situation seemed to him
to be thronged with dreadful possibilities. Remembering
the look on the girl’s face when he had
encountered her in the forest road, and the rifle in
her hand, he found in this faint further support
for the suspicion which had occurred to him when
he had stood by the supine body of Koona Dick.
Living in the wilds, it was scarcely likely that the
news of a dead man would affect her thus, if that
news were without special significance for her.
Death in the Northland—death sharp and sudden
was not so uncommon as all that. Moving accidents
by flood and field, by wild beasts and wild men,
were part of the general circumstances of wilderness
life; why, therefore, should the girl be thus affected
by the news that he had uttered? Whilst Mr. Rayner
assisted Miss La Farge to carry their hostess
out of the room, he stood there, his mind occupied
by this momentous question. The answer was one
which took the form of a further question and which
filled him with concern. Had she killed Koona
Dick, with whom, as he was sure, she was acquainted?</p>
<p>Again he saw the beautiful face, the picture of
terror and the eyes in their unseeing stare of horror,
and wondered what was the meaning of it all. Had
the girl seen the body of Koona Dick lying there<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</SPAN></span>
in the shadow of the pines with his blood staining
the snow, and was she merely frightened; or was
her knowledge of a more intimate and guilty
character? He could not decide, and whilst he
was still wondering, the door of the room opened
and Rayner entered. His face now was mask-like,
and his voice was suave and even as he addressed
the officer.</p>
<p>“I am afraid your story has been a shock to
Miss Gargarve, who has not been very well all day.
You will have to excuse her for this evening; but
that is no reason why you should not finish your
dinner, after which we might go out and look at
this dead man. I suppose he will have to have
sepulchre?”</p>
<p>“Even the worst of us should have that,” answered
the corporal quietly, then added, “Miss
Gargrave—she is better?”</p>
<p>“Yes, it was only a faint. I expect she found
it rather shocking to think that whilst we were sat
here, that man was lying dead in the snow outside.”</p>
<p>“I can understand that,” answered the other in
a non-committal voice.</p>
<p>Mr. Rayner nodded. “Feminine nerves are
unstable things.” A second later he asked, “Did
I understand you to say that this man whom you
were following was shot?”</p>
<p>“That is only a guess of mine,” was the reply.
“I found him lying there in the snow, and only a
few minutes before I distinctly heard a rifle fire
twice.”</p>
<p>“But,” objected Mr. Rayner, “it does not follow
that the shots you heard were directed against<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</SPAN></span>
this man Koona Dick? I myself fired at a timber-wolf
on the outskirts of the homestead just a little
while before your arrival.”</p>
<p>“Did you fire twice?” asked Corporal Bracknell
quickly.</p>
<p>“N—no! Once!”</p>
<p>There was a little hesitation before the reply
was given. It was but the fraction of a second,
but the policeman marked it, and suspected that the
other had been a little uncertain as to what he
ought to answer.</p>
<p>“But I heard two shots—one on the heels of the
other,” answered Bracknell.</p>
<p>“One may have been the echo,” suggested Rayner.
“Up here when it is still, sounds are easily
duplicated.”</p>
<p>“No, it was not an echo,” asserted the corporal.
“I am quite sure of that. I have lived in the wilds
too long to be deceived in a small matter of that
sort. The second shot was as real as the first.
And there is another thing I ought to tell you, Mr.
Raynor. Immediately after the second shot I
heard a woman cry out.”</p>
<p>Mr. Rayner looked interested. “Are you quite
sure it was a woman?” he asked. “It may have
been the death-cry of this man—er—Koona Dick,
which you heard.”</p>
<p>“That is just possible,” agreed the corporal.
“Yet it seemed to me like the cry of a woman in
terror.”</p>
<p>“It is easy even for trained ears to be mistaken
up here,” said the other suavely. “Since I came
here I have heard a hare scream like a child in agony.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</SPAN></span>
The cry you heard may have been no more
than that of some small creature falling a victim to
the law of the wild, which is that the strongest takes
the prey.”</p>
<p>“Maybe!” said Bracknell laconically. In his
heart he did not accept the explanation, plausible
though it was.</p>
<p>“I am sure of it,” answered the other, as if determined
to convince him. “In the silence of these
northern forests, as I have noticed often of late,
sounds seem to take strange qualities. The loneliness
accentuates them, and if one has any reason
for suspecting the presence of other humans besides
one’s self, then every sound one hears seems to have
some bearing on the unseen presences.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps,” replied the policeman, wondering
why the other should be so persistent in the matter;
“but you forget one thing which is rather fatal to
your argument.”</p>
<p>“And what is that?” inquired Rayner quickly.</p>
<p>“Well, I was not expecting to find a woman up
in this wilderness; indeed, it was the last thought
in my mind. That fact makes your argument fail,
at any rate as applied to the cry I heard.”</p>
<p>To this Mr. Rayner made no reply. He pushed
a wine decanter towards the other, and rising from
the table crossed the room to a cabinet, from which
he took out a box of cigars.</p>
<p>“We will have a smoke, before going to look at
this dead man.”</p>
<p>Corporal Bracknell accepted the cigar, which was
of choice brand, and when he had lit it he looked
at the other—and said thoughtfully. “I have been<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</SPAN></span>
wondering why Miss Gargrave lives up here in the
wilds?”</p>
<p>Rayner laughed a little. “I am not surprised at
that. Everybody wonders. But the fact is that
she has no real choice in the matter. As I dare say
you will have heard, Rolf Gargrave was immensely
rich, and he made his daughter his heiress, but on
the condition that for three years after his death
she should live at North Star Lodge. That is the
explanation!”</p>
<p>“But why on earth should he make a condition
of that sort—- for a girl?”</p>
<p>“He was a crank!” replied Rayner contemptuously.
“He was not an admirer of what is called
modern civilization—indeed, he detested it most
heartily and whilst he sent his daughter to England
to be educated, he desired to protect her against
society influences; and he believed that a few years
in the North here, in touch with primitive life,
would give her a distaste for the shams and artificialities
of great cities. Also—I believe he was a
little afraid of fortune-hunters and wanted Joy’s
mind to mature before she met the breed.”</p>
<p>Bracknell nodded his understanding of the situation,
and then remarked. “The place is not without
its points—but to my thinking it has grave dangers
also. When Miss Gargrave returns to civilization,
the reaction from the hard life and the
solitude of the North is likely to be so great that
in the whirl she may be carried off her feet.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Rolf Gargrave does not appear to have
thought of that. But there are others who have
it in mind.” The corporal looked thoughtfully at<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</SPAN></span>
his companion, and wondered what relation he stood
to their hostess. It was a question that could not
be asked openly, but remembering how once or
twice the girl’s Christian name had slipped into
Rayner’s speech he guessed that whatever the
relationship was, it was a fairly intimate one. He
was still wondering when his companion rose.</p>
<p>“If you are ready, Corporal Bracknell, we will
go and look at—a—Koona Dick.”</p>
<p>The corporal rose with alacrity, and five minutes
later, clad in outdoor furs, they were moving briskly
down the road cut between the pines. As they
walked, the policeman looked about him with keen
eyes, and when they reached the point where the
narrower path that he had followed branched off,
noticed what had escaped him before, namely that
the path was evidently continued on the other side
of the road also. Rayner did not hesitate between
the two. He made a straight line for the path
which led to the place where Koona Dick had fallen.
As they turned into it, the thought that he might be
wrong appeared to strike him, and he halted
abruptly.</p>
<p>“This path, wasn’t it? The left going towards
the house, I think you said, didn’t you?”</p>
<p>“Yes, the left!” answered Corporal Bracknell
quietly, but as he walked by the other’s side the
question leaped in his mind. “Did I mention the
left?” He could not remember. He doubted, and
his doubts were strengthened by the fact that till
a moment before he had not known that the path
was continued across the main road. Thinking
there was only one path, there was no reason why<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</SPAN></span>
he should have mentioned the position of it. Yet
the man by his side had known which path to take!
As he walked on, he gave no sign, but a question
leaped up in his mind. “How did Rayner know?”</p>
<p>Then simultaneously he and his companion came
to an abrupt halt. At their feet in the snow was
a dark blot. The corporal looked hastily round,
then felt for his matches and struck one. As the
wood caught, he stooped and examined the ground
near the dark blot, where was the impress of a heavy
body in the snow, and footmarks all round it. He
stared at the trampled snow in amazement, then
he examined the snow in the shadow of the trees.
Its surface in the immediate neighbourhood was
unbroken, save by the print of a single pair of
moccasined feet, and those footmarks moved towards
the place where Koona Dick had lain, and
not away from it. He looked among the underwood
in the neighbourhood of the path. The
search in the darkness revealed nothing, nowhere
was there any sign of the man whom they had come
to look for.</p>
<p>“What is it?” asked Rayner in an odd voice.
“What has happened?”</p>
<p>“A strange thing has happened,” said the corporal
laconically. “The body we came to look for
has disappeared.”</p>
<hr class="chap" /></div>
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