<h2 id="c25"><span class="small">CHAPTER XXV</span> <br/>THE WILD STAMPEDE</h2>
<p>At no time in Curlie Carson’s adventurous
life had he experienced such strangely mingled
emotions as he did while riding astride the white
reindeer in the midst of the wild stampede. A
sea of tossing antlers was all about him. Behind
him was the red glare of a mountain of
flame. What the next moment would bring
forth he could not even guess. Now the mass
of struggling life was crowded into a narrow
runway between banks of a river and now they
spread out over an open flat. Now his legs
were pinched and bruised by antlers pressed
against them, and now he rode almost alone.
But always his white steed plunged on into the
night made light as day by the great conflagration.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</div>
<p>“Our hope is in the open tundra, open, treeless
tundra,” he told himself over and over.</p>
<p>The great horde of creatures, seeming to
know this by instinct, headed straight for it.
Now he could see the tundra’s broad, white expanse
gleaming before them. Would they make
it? The fire was gaining upon them. He felt
the hot breath of flame upon his cheek. The
crowding from behind became all but unbearable.
Beside him, mouth open, panting, raced a
monstrous caribou. Before him crashed a
spotted reindeer.</p>
<p>Would they make it? Now they were a half
mile from safety, now a quarter. The smell of
burning hair came stiflingly from the rear.</p>
<p>And now the foremost of the pack reached
the open tundra. Then, like a swollen stream
which has suddenly broken through its barriers,
they spread out, racing still, over the silent
glistening expanse of white prairie-like tundra.
“A few of the weaker ones have perished. The
great mass of this wild life is saved,” was
Curlie’s mental comment.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</div>
<p>A mile from the flames Curlie dropped stiffly
from his place on the reindeer’s back and, patting
his head in grateful appreciation, tied him
with a loose rope to a willow bush.</p>
<p>“There,” he murmured, “feed up a bit.”</p>
<p>The reindeer began digging in the snow for
moss, while Curlie climbed a near-by knoll to
have a look at the strange spectacle.</p>
<p>As each wild creature pursued his own course,
Curlie looked on with interest. The wolves
were the first to slink away. The bear, a huge
barren-ground grizzly, climbed a distant hill,
there to suck his sore paws and nurse his grievances.</p>
<p>The caribou began passing to right and left
like some army ordered to deploy and, in an
astonishingly brief space of time, had all disappeared.</p>
<p>Only the reindeer, five hundred to a thousand
in number, remained to feed peacefully upon the
moss of the tundra.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</div>
<p>“Well,” Curlie said to himself, “it seems
I’ve come into possession of a reindeer herd!
Don’t see’s they have any masters. No men in
sight.”</p>
<p>Just then a dog barked. It was answered by
a second one.</p>
<p>“Dogs!” he exclaimed. “Two of them.
That’s interesting. Wonder what kind.”</p>
<p>Putting two fingers to his lips, he sent out a
shrill whistle. A moment later two beautiful
collies came racing up to him.</p>
<p>“Collies!” he cried in great joy, “reindeer
collies. Why, here I am all set up in business,
with a herd of reindeer and collies to help herd
them.”</p>
<p>He sat down to think. This was undoubtedly
the herd which had been held by the Indians.
Had the fire caught them unawares and had
they been burned alive? Or had they set the
fire in the hope of concealing their theft of
the reindeer?</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</div>
<p>“If they’re still alive and did not set the
fire,” he told himself, “they’ll be along after the
fire dies down and there’ll be more trouble. On
the other hand, if I could take some of these
deer out upon the ice floe to meet Joe and the
explorers, it would be a great boon to them.
Plenty of meat, the right kind too. It might
save their lives.</p>
<p>“But there’s the outlaw!” he exclaimed suddenly.
“Got to settle him first. He can’t—why
he can’t be more than eight or ten miles
from the food depot on Flaxman Island. A
brisk morning’s walk, that’s all.”</p>
<p>After careful deliberation he decided to
mount his reindeer and ride directly for the
shore of the island. The island would be solidly
connected to the shore by the ocean ice. He
would search out the depot and ride boldly up
to it.</p>
<p>“Surely,” he told himself, “no man who
plots mischief is going to be afraid of an unarmed
boy riding a reindeer. Hope I can
catch him unawares and steal a march on him.”</p>
<p>Having put his plan into action, his faithful
reindeer and he soon went racing away over
the tundra. Coming to the shore of the island,
in order to reach the north shore where the
food depot was placed he began skirting it.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</div>
<p>The ice was everywhere smooth as a floor and
covered with just enough snow to give the reindeer
good footing.</p>
<p>“Would be a regular lark if it wasn’t so
dangerous. This marching right up to a man
you have followed for thousands of miles is not
what it’s cracked up to be.”</p>
<p>A high cut-bank hid the food depot, a long,
low building, from his sight until he was all
but upon it.</p>
<p>As he rounded the point of the cut-bank he
saw a man, whose back was turned to him, disappear
around the northwest corner of the
building.</p>
<p>“Did he see me?” he breathed. “I’ll play
he didn’t.”</p>
<p>Hastily wheeling his reindeer about, he retreated
to the shelter of the cut-bank.</p>
<p>Here after a moment’s thought he tied the
reindeer to an out-cropping willow root, then,
on hands and knees, crept back to the corner.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</div>
<p>Peeping around the point, he stood at strained
attention. He saw no one, heard no one. “And
yet he might be spying at me,” he whispered.
“Got to risk it, though.”</p>
<p>At that he leaped to his feet and dashed full
speed toward the cabin. The distance was two
hundred yards. His heart beat madly. Would
he be shot down before he reached that shelter?</p>
<p>Now he had covered half the distance, now
two-thirds, now three-quarters. That his footsteps
might not be heard, he was now running
on tiptoes. With his breath coming in short
gasps, he leaped to a corner of the cabin, threw
himself upon the snow close to the wall and
was for the moment safe.</p>
<p>“So much, so good,” he breathed. “Now if
only he doesn’t see me first.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</div>
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