<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="break">
<h2 class="p4">CHAPTER XXI</h2>
<p class="pch">UNDER COVER OF NIGHT</p>
<p class="drop-cap07"><span class="beg">SHE STOOD</span> there gasping for breath, and unable
to speak; and to both the others in the
cabin it was evident that something startling
had occurred. Dick Bracknell found his
tongue first.</p>
<p>“What is the matter, Miss La Farge? What has
happened?”</p>
<p>Babette found her breath and cried pantingly,</p>
<p>“Some one tried to kill me?”</p>
<p>“To kill you!” her listeners cried together incredulously.</p>
<p>“Yes. I was walking down the creek, wondering
where Jim and our dogs were gone to, when I
heard a sharp sound, just like the twang of a bowstring
and looked round. I could see nothing, and
the woods on the banks were quite still and silent,
nothing moving anywhere. I was still looking,
and convincing myself that I had imagined the
sound when it occurred again, and a second later
an arrow struck a tree close by me, and remained
there, quivering. I did not remain to see any more,
or to try and learn who had sent it. I turned in my
tracks and ran back here, and once as I ran an
arrow passed clean through my parka, and buried
itself in the snow beyond.”</p>
<p>Dick Bracknell broke out, suddenly, “Confound<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</SPAN></span>
it,” he cried, “this is intolerable. That Indian Joe
must have gone mad!”</p>
<p>“You think it is your man?” asked Joy quickly.</p>
<p>“I am sure of it! Who else can it be in this
God-forsaken wilderness? It must be he, but I will
soon find out!”</p>
<p>He moved towards the door and throwing down
the bar, opened it. There was nothing visible but
the snow, and the dark woods. He took a step
forward, and as he did so something came swishing
through the air and struck the door post. He knew
what it was before he saw it, and cried out.</p>
<p>“Joe, you confounded fool, what——”</p>
<p>The sharp crack of a rifle broke in on the words,
and a bullet cut the fur off his coat at the top of
the shoulder. He turned quickly round, and
tumbled backward into the cabin, kicking the door
to behind him. Joy ran forward, and dropped the
bar in place, then looked at him.</p>
<p>“You are hurt?” she cried anxiously.</p>
<p>“No,” he answered, as he picked himself up.</p>
<p>“Only knocked over with surprise.”</p>
<p>“But that was a rifle, wasn’t it? Some one fired
at you?”</p>
<p>“Yes, some one certainly did!” He gave a
wheezy laugh as he lifted a hand to his shoulder.</p>
<p>“And he almost got me. He made the fur fly,
and if it had struck an inch or two lower down I
should have been out of action for a while at any
rate. He must be a rotten shot, for out there on
the snow I must have been a perfect mark!”</p>
<p>“But what on earth can your man be——”</p>
<p>“It is not Joe,” broke in Bracknell with conviction.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</SPAN></span>
“Even if he has gone clean into lunacy he’d
never do a thing like that to me. Besides, Joe had
no gun with him. Our guns are there in the corner,
and as we’ve run out of ammunition they are no use.
It simply can’t be Joe.”</p>
<p>“Then who can it be? And why should he want
to do a thing like that?”</p>
<p>“It may be your other man—Jim, didn’t you call
him? He may have returned, and thinking you
were prisoners here, may have tried to get me in
the hope of releasing you.”</p>
<p>“But you forget the attack on Babette! Some
one shot arrows at her and——”</p>
<p>“By Jove! I had forgotten something! Stand
away from the door. I’m going to open it.
There’s something I want to get.”</p>
<p>“Oh, be careful!” cried Joy.</p>
<p>He swung around and looked at her whimsically,
then he said quietly, “I’ll be careful for your sake,
not my own. I’ve got to get you safely out of this.
That much I owe you at any rate.”</p>
<p>He turned again to the door and cautiously opening
it a little way, peeped out. There was nothing
visible, and quickly he opened the door wider and
thrusting out an arm, gripped the arrow which was
sticking in the post, and hastily flung the door in
place once more. Even as he did so, something
crashed into the wood, and the sound of a shot
reverberated through the stillness outside.</p>
<p>The two girls looked at him, their faces were
white and they were much alarmed. Bracknell
looked at the door and laughed shortly.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“It seems that we are to stand a regular siege,”
he said. “That man of yours is of the persevering
sort.”</p>
<p>Neither Joy nor her foster-sister replied, and
moving towards the stove Bracknell threw on a
spruce log, and as it caught and flamed up he
stopped, and by its light he examined the arrow in
his hand. Quarter of a minute later he stood up.</p>
<p>“This settles it,” he said. “This arrow is not
Joe’s. It is too finely made, with an ivory barb
on which somebody has spent time. Joe’s bow and
arrows were makeshifts, and his barbs were of
moose bone!”</p>
<p>“Then who can it be?” asked Joy. “Jim would
have no arrows at all, and he certainly would not
have fired them at Babette if he had.”</p>
<p>Dick Bracknell shook his head. “I cannot think.
It may be a roving band of Indians from the far
North. This arrow tells its own story. It is like
those made by the Indian Esquimaux in the North
Behring. I’ve been up there and I’ve seen arrows
like it before.”</p>
<p>“But at least one of our attackers has a rifle,”
said Miss La Farge.</p>
<p>“Yes,” answered Bracknell thoughtfully.</p>
<p>“And why should they attack us at all?” asked
Joy.</p>
<p>“They may be out for plunder. Most of these
fellows have a weakness for the possessions of white
men. I’ve seen one of them risk his life for a woodman’s
axe, and they’ll give their heads for a sheath
knife. They will have seen the cabin and may think
that there are things worth having here, but in any<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</SPAN></span>
case they will find out the mistake in a very few
days.”</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“Because we haven’t more than two or three days’
stock of food,” replied Bracknell grimly. “There’s
only a small stock of coffee, a few beans and some
frozen moose meat. That’s why I suspected Joe of
trying to get your outfit. But I’ve changed my
mind now. I think that those fellows outside may
have killed your man—and Joe also, if we only
knew!”</p>
<p>“Then our position is rather desperate?”</p>
<p>Bracknell nodded. “If those beggars really mean
business, we’re in a pretty tight corner. They may
rush the cabin or they may wait. In either case
they will get us!”</p>
<p>“There is one possibility that you have not
thought of yet,” said Babette slowly.</p>
<p>“What is that?”</p>
<p>“It is that this attack may not have been made by
any roving tribe at all.”</p>
<p>“But who——”</p>
<p>“Adrian Rayner!”</p>
<p>“God in heaven!” as the exclamation broke from
his lips Dick Bracknell looked at her in amazed conviction.
“Of course, I never thought of him!”</p>
<p>“He is the one man who has cause to do such a
thing. He knows that Joy and I suspect him of
shooting you at North Star. He wanted to marry
her, and he knows that that is now out of the question
altogether. But he is Joy’s cousin, and Joy, as
you know, is immensely wealthy. If she died up
here——”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“Heavens! yes! And I would stake my life that
he’s the man Roger is after, the man who caused
your father’s death. He——”</p>
<p>“You did not tell me!” cried Joy. “How did my
father die?”</p>
<p>“Some one blew up the ice on the river, the ice
which he was bound to pass over in the morning.
Of course the river froze over again in the night,
but it was not strong enough to carry a man, let
alone a man and a heavy sled team. He went
through—and died, but if Roger is right he was
diabolically murdered.”</p>
<p>Joy did not move. She looked at him with horror
in her eyes. Then her face grew hard. “I believe,
your cousin Roger is right. Adrian Rayner was
abroad about the time when my father must have
died. And he wanted to marry me after you had
been shot at North Star, though he could not have
been sure of your death.... It was my money he
was after, and——”</p>
<p>“He’s after it yet!” cried Bracknell with conviction,
“Miss La Farge is right. If you died up
here—but have you made a will?”</p>
<p>Joy shook her head. “It was never suggested to
me!”</p>
<p>“No—for a very good reason. As your next of
kin Rayner and his father would step in if you died.
The fellow has been working to that end all the time—he’s
working now! And he’s cunning—most
damnably cunning. The way he arranged your
father’s death proves that, and if Miss La Farge
here is right, and Adrian Rayner is the man behind<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</SPAN></span>
the gun, then we’re in a hole. The fellow will show
us no mercy. He——”</p>
<p>“S-s-s-h-h!”</p>
<p>As she gave the warning, Miss La Farge lifted a
hand, in signal for silence, and bent forward in a
listening attitude. The other two listened also, but
heard nothing save the splutter and hiss of the logs
on the fire.</p>
<p>“What is it?” whispered Bracknell.</p>
<p>“Some one walked round the cabin. I heard him
quite plainly. Ah—again.”</p>
<p>They listened. Crunch! crunch! came the sound
of footsteps in the frozen snow outside. All round
the cabin the steps passed, slowly, as if some one
were making an inspection, and whilst they still sat
listening, the steps receded and passed out of earshot.
They looked at one another and Bracknell
was the first to break the silence.</p>
<p>“A pretty cool customer, whoever he is! He was
spying out the land.”</p>
<p>“Yes!” answered Miss La Farge in a half
whisper.</p>
<p>“I wonder what he will do?” said Joy.</p>
<p>“Nothing, if he is wise,” answered Bracknell
slowly. “Having walked round he’ll have made the
discovery that we keep our wood at the rear of the
cabin, and he’ll easily guess that we have no great
stock inside. He has only to wait until the necessity
for replenishing the stock arrives, and then he can
get one of us at any rate.... He’ll know we have
no dogs, and that we are tied to the cabin——”</p>
<p>“But are we?” interjected Joy.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>“Well, the open trail without dogs is a risk that
few men would care to undertake. I’ve been at it
on one or two occasions, carrying my own stores,
and it’s not a course to be recommended. The
trail——”</p>
<p>“But we’ve very few stores to pack!” said Joy
obstinately, “and if we stay here we shall be driven
out by hunger. Do you know of any tribe of Indians
in the neighborhood?”</p>
<p>Bracknell nodded. “There’s an encampment
thirty or forty miles to the North on the Wolverine.
Joe was talking to me about them the other day, and
we considered once over whether we’d pay them a
call or not. In the end we decided against it.”</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“Well,” was the reply, “they’re rather a pagan
lot, and not over scrupulous. Joe was telling me
that in times of scarcity they sometimes offer sacrifices——”</p>
<p>“Sacrifices! What kind of sacrifices?”’</p>
<p>“Well, the most barbaric sort—human. There
are some queer things done North of the Barrens,
I can tell you. The world up here is still a primitive
world, and the police patrol up the Mackenzie to
Herschell Island can’t possibly take note of anything
that doesn’t come right under its nose.”</p>
<p>“But the Indians cannot possibly be worse than
Adrian Rayner!”</p>
<p>“No!” Bracknell laughed hoarsely. “He’s a
tiger, for certain. Though I will own he didn’t look
it when he was here the other day.” He was silent
for a moment, then he said slowly, “Of course if we<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</SPAN></span>
decide to leave the cabin and if we go North, we may
stumble on my Cousin Roger. It’s only a chance,
but——” He broke off again, and looked at Joy as
if wondering how she would take the suggestion,
then added, “Well, we might take it, if we can manage
to get away from here. What do you think?”</p>
<p>Joy hesitated. Her face flushed a little, then she
said quietly, “I put myself in your hands.”</p>
<p>“Thank you. I am——”</p>
<p>A fit of coughing broke in on his speech, and when
it had passed he did not attempt to complete his
sentence, but as his eyes from time to time fell on
her there was a soft glow in them, which revealed an
unspoken gratitude.</p>
<p>They sat for a long time discussing the desperate
situation, and late in the afternoon prepared for
departure. Such food as the cabin held was made
up in three packs, and when that was done, and all
was ready, they rested, waiting for the hour of
departure, Joy reflecting on the strange irony of
circumstances which now made her dependent for
help on the man who had so wronged her, and
of whom she had lived in fear.</p>
<p>All was quiet outside and Babette was offering
a tentative suggestion that perhaps after all the
enemy outside had withdrawn, then again they
caught the crunch! crunch! of cautious feet on the
frozen snow, and as all three grew alert, they heard
the steps pause by the door, and the next moment
there was a rustling sound on the rough woodwork.</p>
<p>“Somebody feeling for the latch-string,” whispered
Bracknell, then he hailed the intruder, as the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</SPAN></span>
latter having found the string thrust a heavy
shoulder against the barred door. “Hallo! Who
goes there?”</p>
<p>To this challenge there was no reply, but a second
or two later they again heard the steps receding
across the snow.</p>
<p>“Came to make sure we were still here,” commented
Bracknell in a low voice, “and whoever he
was he has made a bee line from the door. That
means that the camp they’re sitting in is somewhere
in front; and in all probability they’ve forgotten
the window at the back, or as it’s blocked with snow
haven’t noticed it. We shall be able to quit that
way.”</p>
<p>They waited a little time longer, and then removed
the moose hide from the window and very
cautiously began to cut away the snow with which
it had been blocked. That done they listened. No
sound whatever was to be heard. Bracknell put out
his head and peered into the darkness. There was
nothing visible save the foreground of snow and the
shadowy background of the forest. He climbed
out, and very cautiously crept to the corner of the
cabin to reconnoitre. In the shadow of the trees on
the other side of the creek he caught the glow of a
fire and discerned three men sitting round it. At
that sight he crept back, and, whispering to the
two girls to be very careful, assisted them out of the
narrow window. Then without pausing they stole
quietly across to the shadow of the sheltering
woods.</p>
<hr class="chap" /></div>
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