by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XIII THE ANSWERED CHALLENGE
Had one chanced to have been passing over that vast white expanse overwhich the three, Johnny, Faye and Gordon Duncan, traveled next day; hadhis eye caught sight of the dark figure that, ever pressing forward inthe fog, continually dogged their footsteps, he must have paused inamazement. A stranger creature could scarcely be imagined.
Stooping low, lurching forward, moving in little jerks, perhaps on fourlegs, perhaps on two, his form at times seemed grotesquely human. Atothers it seemed that the impossible had happened, that some huge gorillafrom tropical wilds had found his way to this land of ice and snow.
Had curiosity led one to inspect his footprints in the snow, hisamazement must have grown. Measuring full twenty inches from toe to heel,they resembled nothing quite so much as the footprints of a fair sizedpolar bear. Yet as everyone knows, the polar bear lives upon the ice ofthe ocean. Seldom does he wander more than a dozen miles inland. To lookfor him here some hundreds of miles inland was to give credence to thatwhich has never been.
This fearsome creature it was that uttered a challenge to the wolves whowere rapidly getting the upper hand in the battle with Johnny and hisfriends.
What was it that had turned them away? Was this challenge but a calltelling of the past? Did the memory of other bloody frays spur the wolveson? Or did they see in this lone figure an easy victory and a toothsomefeast?
Whatever their hopes, they were soon enough dashed to earth, for hardlyhad they arrayed themselves in a grinning circle than one after anotherof their number began biting, clawing, snapping and yip-yipping in mortalpain. When, in mad desperation they charged, it was no better. Two oftheir number, being seized by their bushy tails, had their brainsspeedily dashed out against a rock. A third was thrust through, and afourth trampled into pulp. Whereupon those few who remained found safetyin flight.
After tramping about for some little time in what appeared to be wildfury, the strange and terrible creature had seized five dead wolves bytheir tails and, turning sharply to the right, climbed the hill.
Before entering the dark fringe of scrub forest, he had paused to standblinking at the campfire some distance away. Dropping the wolves, he hadtaken a dozen steps toward the fire. Then, appearing to take othercounsel, he had returned to his dead wolves, had given them a viciouskick, had seized them again by the tails, then disappeared into the darkdepth of the evergreen thicket.
As for the trio by the fire, they had realized that some strange creaturewas afoot; but being once more in possession of strong bows and plenty ofarrows, with bright flames dispelling the darkness about them, they hadfelt quite at ease and secure from any manner of sudden attack. Howlittle they really knew of the ways of the wild in this strangewilderness!
Next evening, as they lay before a roaring campfire, chins propped onelbows, watching, dreaming, half asleep, the two of them, the boy andgirl, they heard the old man stirring in his sleep. Of a sudden he satup. By his staring eyes they knew that he spoke as one in a dream.
"I told him the things were copper." His voice was pitched and strained."But Timmie said 'No, they are green gold.' And he must have been right,for he had worked with a silversmith and had helped make alloys.
"He said they were copper, gold and silver, melted together.
"I said the natives had melted them together.
"He said 'No, they're too ignorant for that. God and nature made thealloy. Somewhere in a great caldron of a volcano, long ago when the earthwas new, gold, silver and copper were melted together and poured away ina stream of green gold. And somewhere in the hills there is a placer mineof green gold. We'll find it.'
"Timmie said that, and he's back there behind the hills waiting still,and he knows where the mine is. I've dreamed that many times, and it'strue."
Johnny's lips were open for a question, but the girl held up a hand forsilence.
"The day has been hard," she whispered. "He is half asleep. Don't excitehim."
A moment later the old man had dropped to his place deep among theblankets and save for the crackling of the fire silence lay upon hillsand tundra.
