CHAPTER XXIV
For an hour after Joanne had gone into her tent Aldous sat silent andwatchful. From where he had concealed himself he could see over a part ofthe moonlit basin, and guard the open space between the camp and the clumpof timber that lay in the direction of the nearest mountain. After Joannehad blown out her candle the silence of the night seemed to grow deeperabout him. The hobbled horses had wandered several hundred yards away, andonly now and then could he hear the thud of a hoof, or the clank of a steelshoe on rock. He believed that it was impossible for any one to approachwithout ears and eyes giving him warning, and he felt a distinct shock whenDonald MacDonald suddenly appeared in the moonlight not twenty paces fromhim. With an ejaculation of amazement he jumped to his feet and went tohim.
"How the deuce did you get here?" he demanded.
"Were you asleep, Johnny?"
"I was awake--and watching!"
The old hunter chuckled.
"It was so still when I come to those trees back there that I thought mebbysomething had 'appened," he said.
"So, I sneaked up, Johnny."
"Did you see anything over the range?" asked Aldous anxiously.
"I found footprints in the snow, an' when I got to the top I smelled smoke,but couldn't see a fire. It was dark then." MacDonald nodded toward thetepee. "Is she asleep, Johnny?"
"I think so. She must be very tired."
They drew back into the shadow of the spruce. It was a simultaneousmovement of caution, and both, without speaking their thoughts, realizedthe significance of it. Until now they had had no opportunity of beingalone since last night.
MacDonald spoke in a low, muffled voice:
"Quade an' Culver Rann are goin' the limit, Johnny," he said. "They leftmen on the job at Tete Jaune, and they've got others watching us.Consequently, I've hit on a scheme--a sort of simple and unreasonablescheme, mebby, but an awful good scheme at times."
"What is it?"
"Whenever you see anything that ain't a bear, or a goat, or a sheep, don'twait to change the time o' day--but shoot!" said MacDonald.
Aldous smiled grimly.
"If I had any ideas of chivalry, or what I call fair play, they were takenout of me last night, Mac," he said. "I'm ready to shoot on sight!"
MacDonald grunted his satisfaction.
"They can't beat us if we do that, Johnny. They ain't even ordinarycut-throats--they're sneaks in the bargain; an' if they could walk in ourcamp, smilin' an' friendly, and brain us when our backs was turned, they'ddo it. We don't know who's with them, and if a stranger heaves in sightmeet him with a chunk o' lead. They're the only ones in these mountains,an' we won't make any mistake. See that bunch of spruce over there?"
The old hunter pointed to a clump fifty yards beyond the tepee toward thelittle lake. Aldous nodded.
"I'll take my blankets over there," continued MacDonald. "You roll yourselfup here, and the tepee'll be between us. You see the system, Johnny? Ifthey make us a visit during the night we've got 'em between us, andthere'll be some real burying to do in the morning!"
Back under the low-hanging boughs of the dwarf spruce Aldous spread out hisblanket a few minutes later. He had made up his mind not to sleep, and forhours he lay watchful and waiting, smoking occasionally, with his faceclose to the ground so that the odour of tobacco would cling to the earth.The moon rose until it was straight overhead, flooding the valley in agolden splendour that he wished Joanne might have seen. Then it begansinking into the west; slowly at first, and then more swiftly, its radiancediminished. He looked at his watch before the yellow orb effaced itselfbehind the towering peak of a distant mountain. It was a quarter of two.
With deepening darkness, his eyes grew heavier. He closed them for a fewmoments at a time; and each time the interval was longer, and it tookgreater effort to force himself into wakefulness. Finally he slept. But hewas still subconsciously on guard, and an hour later that consciousness wasbeating and pounding within him, urging him to awake. He sat up with astart and gripped his rifle. An owl was hooting--softly, very softly. Therewere four notes. He answered, and a little later MacDonald came like ashadow out of the gloom. Aldous advanced to meet him, and he noticed thatover the eastern mountains there was a break of gray.
"It's after three, Johnny," MacDonald greeted him. "Build a fire and getbreakfast. Tell Joanne I'm out after another sheep. Until it's good an'light I'm going to watch from that clump of timber up there. In half anhour it'll be dawn."
He moved toward the timber, and Aldous set about building a fire. He wascareful not to awaken Joanne. The fire was crackling cheerily when he wentto the lake for water. Returning he saw the faint glow of candlelight inJoanne's tepee. Five minutes later she appeared, and all thought of danger,and the discomfort of his sleepless night, passed from him at sight of her.Her eyes were still a little misty with sleep when he took her in his armsand kissed her, but she was deliciously alive, and glad, and happy. In onehand she had brought a brush and in the other a comb.
"You slept like a log," he cried happily. "It can't be that you had verybad dreams, little wife?"
"I had a beautiful dream, John," she laughed softly, and the colour floodedup into her face.
She unplaited the thick silken strands of her braid and began brushing herhair in the firelight, while Aldous sliced the bacon. Some of the sliceswere thick, and some were thin, for he could not keep his eyes from her asshe stood there like a goddess, buried almost to her knees in that wondrousmantle. He found himself whistling with a very light heart as she braidedher hair, and afterward plunged her face in a bath of cold water he hadbrought from the lake. From that bath she emerged like a glowing Naiad.Her eyes sparkled. Her cheeks were pink and her lips full and red. Damplittle tendrils of hair clung adorably about her face and neck. For anotherfull minute Aldous paused in his labours, and he wondered if MacDonald waswatching them from the clump of timber. The bacon was sputtering whenJoanne ran to it and rescued it from burning.
Dawn followed quickly after that first break of day in the east, but notuntil one could see a full rifle-shot away did MacDonald return to thecamp. Breakfast was waiting, and as soon as he had finished the old hunterwent after the horses. It was five o'clock, and bars of the sun wereshooting over the tops of the mountains when once more they were in thesaddle and on their way.
Most of this day Aldous headed the outfit up the valley. On the pretext ofsearching for game MacDonald rode so far in advance that only twice duringthe forenoon was he in sight. When they stopped to camp for the night hishorse was almost exhausted, and MacDonald himself showed signs oftremendous physical effort. Aldous could not question him before Joanne. Hewaited. And MacDonald was strangely silent.
The proof of MacDonald's prediction concerning Joanne was in evidence thissecond night. Every bone in her body ached, and she was so tired that shemade no objection to going to her bed as soon as it was dark.
"It always happens like this," consoled old Donald, as she bade himgood-night. "To-morrow you'll begin gettin' broke in, an' the next day youwon't have any lameness at all."
She limped to the tepee with John's arm snugly about her slim waist.MacDonald waited patiently until he returned. He motioned Aldous to seathimself close at his side. Both men lighted their pipes before themountaineer spoke.
"We can't both sleep at once to-night, Johnny," he said. "We've got to taketurns keeping watch."
"You've discovered something to-day?"
"No. It's what I haven't discovered that counts. There weren't no tracks inthis valley, Johnny, from mount'in to mount'in. They haven't travelledthrough this range, an' that leaves just two things for us to figger on.They're behind us--or DeBar is hitting another trail into the north. Thereisn't no danger ahead right now, because we're gettin' into the biggestranges between here an' the Yukon. If Quade and Rann are in the next valleythey can't get over the mount'ins to get at us. Quade, with all his flesh,couldn't climb over that range to the west of us inside o' three days, ifhe could get over it at al
l. They're hikin' straight for the gold overanother trail, or they're behind us, an' mebby both."
"How--both?" asked Aldous.
"Two parties," explained MacDonald, puffing hard at his pipe. "If there'san outfit behind us they were hid in the timber on the other side of thesnow-ridge, and they're pretty close this minute. Culver Rann--or FitzHugh,as you call him--is hustling straight on with DeBar. Mebby Quade is withhim, an' mebby he ain't. Anyway, there's a big chance of a bunch behind uswith special instructions from Quade to cut our throats and keep Joanne."
That day Aldous had been turning a question over in his own mind. He askedit now.
"Mac, are you sure you can go to the valley of gold without DeBar?"
For a long half minute MacDonald looked at him, and then his voice rumbledin a low, exultant laugh in his beard.
"Johnny," he said, with a strange quiver in his voice, "I can go to it nowstraighter an' quicker than DeBar! I know why I never found it. DeBarhelped me that much. The trail is mapped right out in my brain now, Johnny.Five years ago I was within ten miles of the cavern--an' didn't know it!"
"And we can get there ahead of them?"
"We could--if it wasn't for Joanne. We're makin' twenty miles a day. Wecould make thirty."
"If we could beat them to it!" exclaimed Aldous, clenching his hands. "Ifwe only could, Donald--the rest would be easy!"
MacDonald laid a heavy hand on his knee.
"You remember what you told me, Johnny, that you'd play the game fair, andgive 'em a first chance? You ain't figgerin' on that now, be you?"
"No, I'm with you now, Donald. It's----"
"Shoot on sight!"
"Yes."
Aldous rose from his seat as he spoke.
"You turn in, Mac," he said. "You're about bushed after the work you'vedone to-day. I'll keep first watch. I'll conceal myself fifty or sixtyyards from camp, and if we have visitors before midnight the fun will allbe mine."
He knew that MacDonald was asleep within fifteen minutes after he hadstationed himself at his post. In spite of the fact that he had had almostno sleep the preceding night, he was more than usually wakeful. He wasfilled with a curious feeling that events were impending. Yet the hourspassed, the moon flooded the valley again, the horses grazed without alarm,and nothing happened. He had planned not to awaken old Donald at midnight,but MacDonald roused himself, and came to take his place a little beforetwelve. From that hour until four Aldous slept like the dead. He wastremendously refreshed when he arose, to find that the candle was alight inJoanne's tepee, and that MacDonald had built a fire. He waited for Joanne,and went with her to the tiny creek near the camp, where both bathed theirfaces in the snow-cold water from the mountain tops. Joanne had sleptsoundly for eight hours, and she was as fresh and as happy as a bird. Herlameness was almost gone, and she was eager for the day's journey.
As they filed again up the valley that morning, with the early suntransfiguring the great snow-topped ranges about them into a paradise ofcolour and warmth, Aldous found himself mentally wondering if it werereally possible that a serious danger menaced them. He did not tellMacDonald what was in his mind. He did not confess that he was about readyto believe that the man on the snow-ridge had been a hunter or a prospectorreturning to his camp in the other valley, and that the attack in TeteJaune was the one and only effort Quade would make to secure possession ofJoanne. While a few hours before he had almost expected an immediateattack, he was now becoming more and more convinced that Quade, to a largeextent, had dropped out of the situation. He might be with MortimerFitzHugh, and probably was--a dangerous and formidable enemy to beaccounted for when the final settlement came.
But as an immediate menace to Joanne, Aldous was beginning to fear him lessas the hours passed. Joanne, and the day itself, were sufficient to disarmhim of his former apprehension. In places they could see for miles aheadand behind them. And Joanne, each time that he looked at her, was a greaterjoy to him. Constantly she was pointing out the wonders of the mountains tohim and MacDonald. Each new rise or fall in the valley held fresh anddelightful surprises for her; in the craggy peaks she pointed outcastlements, and towers, and battlemented strongholds of ancient princesand kings. Her mind was a wild and beautiful riot of imagination, ofwonder, and of happiness, and in spite of the grimness of the mission theywere on even MacDonald found himself rejoicing in her spirit, and helaughed and talked with them as they rode into the North.
They were entering now into a hunter's paradise. For the first time Joannesaw white, moving dots far up on a mountain-side, which MacDonald told herwere goats. In the afternoon they saw mountain sheep feeding on a slidehalf a mile away, and for ten breathless minutes Joanne watched themthrough the telescope. Twice caribou sped over the opens ahead of them. Butit was not until the sun was settling toward the west again that Joanne sawwhat she had been vainly searching the sides of the mountains to find.MacDonald had stopped suddenly in the trail, motioning them to advance.When they rode up to him he pointed to a green slope two hundred yardsahead.
"There's yo'r grizzly, Joanne," he said.
A huge, tawny beast was ambling slowly along the crest of the slope, and atsight of him Joanne gave a little cry of excitement.
"He's hunting for gophers," explained MacDonald.
"That's why he don't seem in a hurry. He don't see us because a b'ar's eyesare near-sighted, but he could smell us half a mile away if the wind wasright."
He was unslinging his long rifle as he spoke. Joanne was near enough tocatch his arm.
"Don't shoot--please don't shoot!" she begged. "I've seen lions, and I'veseen tigers--and they're treacherous and I don't like them. But there'ssomething about bears that I love, like dogs. And the lion isn't a kingamong beasts compared with him. Please don't shoot!"
"I ain't a-goin' to," chuckled old Donald. "I'm just getting ready to give'im the proper sort of a handshake if he should happen to come this way,Joanne. You know a grizzly ain't pertic'lar afraid of anything on earth asI know of, an' they're worse 'n a dynamite explosion when they comehead-on. There--he's goin' over the slope!"
"Got our wind," said Aldous.
They went on, a colour in Joanne's face like the vivid sunset. They campedtwo hours before dusk, and MacDonald figured they had made better thantwenty miles that day. The same precautions were observed in guarding thecamp as the night before, and the long hours of vigil were equallyuneventful. The next day added still more to Aldous' peace of mindregarding possible attack from Quade, and on the night of this day, theirfourth in the mountains, he spoke his mind to MacDonald.
For a few moments afterward the old hunter smoked quietly at his pipe. Thenhe said:
"I don't know but you're right, Johnny. If they were behind us they'd mostlikely have tried something before this. But it ain't in the law of themount'ins to be careless. We've got to watch."
"I agree with you there, Mac," replied Aldous. "We cannot afford to loseour caution for a minute. But I'm feeling a deuced sight better over thesituation just the same. If we can only get there ahead of them!"
"If Quade is in the bunch we've got a chance of beating them," saidMacDonald thoughtfully. "He's heavy, Johnny--that sort of heaviness thatdon't stand up well in the mount'ins; whisky-flesh, I call it. Culver Ranndon't weigh much more'n half as much, but he's like iron. Quade may be adrag. An' Joanne, Lord bless her!--she's facing the music like an' 'ero,Johnny!"
"And the journey is almost half over."
"This is the fourth day. I figger we can make it in ten at most, mebbynine," said old Donald. "You see we're in that part of the Rockies wherethere's real mount'ins, an' the ranges ain't broke up much. We've gotfairly good travel to the end."
On this night Aldous slept from eight until twelve. The next, their fifth,his watch was from midnight until morning. As the sixth and the seventhdays and nights passed uneventfully the belief that there were no enemiesbehind them became a certainty. Yet neither Aldous nor MacDonald relaxedtheir vigilance.
The eighth day d
awned, and now a new excitement took possession of DonaldMacDonald. Joanne and Aldous saw his efforts to suppress it, but it did notescape their eyes. They were nearing the tragic scenes of long ago, and oldDonald was about to reap the reward of a search that had gone faithfullyand untiringly through the winters and summers of forty years. He spokeseldom that day. There were strange lights in his eyes. And once his voicewas husky and strained when he said to Aldous:
"I guess we'll make it to-morrow, Johnny--jus' about as the sun's goingdown."
They camped early, and Aldous rolled himself in his blanket when Joanneextinguished the candle in her tent. He found that he could not sleep, andhe relieved MacDonald at eleven o'clock.
"Get all the rest you can, Mac," he urged. "There may be doingsto-morrow--at about sundown."
There was but little moonlight now, but the stars were clear. He lightedhis pipe, and with his rifle in the crook of his arm he walked slowly upand down over a hundred-yard stretch of the narrow plain in which they hadcamped. That night they had built their fire beside a fallen log, which wasnow a glowing mass without flame. Finally he sat down with his back to arock fifty paces from Joanne's tepee. It was a splendid night. The air wascool and sweet. He leaned back until his head rested against the rock, andthere fell upon him the fatal temptation to close his eyes and snatch a fewminutes of the slumber which had not come to him during the early hours ofthe night. He was in a doze, oblivious to movement and the softer sounds ofthe night, when a cry pierced the struggling consciousness of his brainlike the sting of a dart. In an instant he was on his feet.
In the red glow of the log stood Joanne in her long white night robe. Sheseemed to be swaying when he first saw her. Her hands were clutched at herbosom, and she was staring--staring out into the night beyond the burninglog, and in her face was a look of terror. He sprang toward her, and out ofthe gloom beyond her rushed Donald MacDonald. With a cry she turned toAldous and flung herself shivering and half-sobbing into his arms.Gray-faced, his eyes burning like the smouldering coals in the fire, DonaldMacDonald stood a step behind them, his long rifle in his hands.
"What is it?" cried Aldous. "What has frightened you, Joanne?"
She was shuddering against his breast.
"It--it must have been a dream," she said. "It--it frightened me. But itwas so terrible, and I'm--I'm sorry, John. I didn't know what I was doing."
"What was it, dear?" insisted Aldous.
MacDonald had drawn very close.
Joanne raised her head.
"Please let me go back to bed, John. It was only a dream, and I'll tell itto you in the morning, when there's sunshine--and day."
Something in MacDonald's tense, listening attitude caught Aldous' eyes.
"What was the dream?" he urged.
She looked from him to old Donald, and shivered.
"The flap of my tepee was open," she said slowly. "I thought I was awake. Ithought I could see the glow of the fire. But it was a dream--a _dream_,only it was horrible! For as I looked I saw a face out there in the light,a white, searching face--and it was his face!"
"Whose face?"
"Mortimer FitzHugh's," she shuddered.
Tenderly Aldous led her back to the tent.
"Yes, it was surely an unpleasant dream, dear," he comforted her. "Try andsleep again. You must get all the rest you can."
He closed the flap after her, and turned back toward MacDonald. The oldhunter had disappeared. It was ten minutes before he came in from out ofthe darkness. He went straight to Aldous.
"Johnny, you was asleep!"
"I'm afraid I was, Mac--just for a minute."
MacDonald's fingers gripped his arm.
"Jus' for a minute, Johnny--an' in that minute you lost the chance of yourlife!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean"--and old Donald's voice was filled with a low, choking tremblethat Aldous had never heard in it before--"I mean that it weren't no dream,Johnny! Mortimer FitzHugh was in this camp to-night!"
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