Part 17 (2/2)

”No, it isn't that,” replied Philip, laughing a little uneasily. ”I'm glad you got away with Falkner, and so far as I am concerned no one will ever know what has happened. It's I who want to place a little confidence in you now. I am positively at my wits' end, and all over a situation which seems to place you and me in a cla.s.s by ourselves--sort of brothers in trouble, you know,” and he told McGill, briefly, of Isobel, and his search for her.

”I lost them between Lac Bain and Fort Churchill,” he finished. ”The two sledges separated, one continuing to Churchill, and the other turning into the South. I followed the Churchill sledge--and was wrong. When I came back the snow had covered the other trail.”

The little professor stopped suddenly, and squared himself directly in Philip's path.

”You don't say!” he gasped. There was a look of amazement on his face.

”What a wonderfully little world this is, Phil,” he added, smiling in a curious way. ”What a wonderfully, wonderfully little world it is! It's only a playground, after all, and the funny part of it is that it is not even large enough to play a game of hide-and-seek in, successfully. I've proved that beyond question. And here--you--”

”What?” demanded Philip, puzzled by the other's att.i.tude.

”Well, you see, I went first to Nelson House,” said McGill, ”and from there up to the Hudson's Bay Company's post in the Cochrane River, hunting for Falkner and this girl--a man and a woman. And at the Cochrane Post a Frenchman told me that there was a strange man and woman up at Lac Bain, and I set off for there. That must have been just about the time you were starting for Churchill, for on the third day up I met a sledge that turned me off the Lac Bain trail to take up the nearer trail to Chippewayan. With this sledge were the two who had been at Lac Bain, Colonel Becker and his daughter.”

For a moment Philip could not speak. He caught the other's hand excitedly.

”You--you found where they were going?” he asked, when McGill did not continue.

”Yes. We ate dinner together, and the colonel said they were bound for Nelson House, and that they would probably go from there to Winnipeg. I didn't ask which way they would go.”

”From Nelson House it would be by the Saskatchewan and Le Pas trail,”

cried Philip. He was looking straight over the little doctor's head. ”If it wasn't for this d.a.m.nable DeBar--whom I ought to go after again--”

”Drop DeBar,” interrupted McGill quietly. ”He's got too big a start of you anyway--so what's the use? Drop 'im. I dropped a whole lot of things when I came up here.”

”But the law--”

”d.a.m.n the law!” exploded the doctor with unexpected vehemence.

”Sometimes I think the world would be just as happy without it.”

Their eyes met, sharp and understanding.

”You're a professor in a college,” chuckled Philip, his voice trembling again with hope and eagerness. ”You ought to know more than I do. What would you do if you were in my place?”

”I'd hustle for a pair of wings and fly,” replied the little professor promptly. ”Good Lord, Phil--if it was my wife--and I hadn't got her yet--I wouldn't let up until I'd chased her from one end of the earth to the other. What's a little matter of duty compared to that girl hustling toward Winnipeg? Next to my own little girl at home she's the prettiest thing I ever laid my eyes on.”

Philip laughed aloud.

”Thanks, McGill. By Heaven, I'll go! When do you start?”

”The dogs are ready, and so is Mrs. William Falkner.”

Philip turned about quickly.

”I'll go over and say good-by to the detachment, and get my pack,” he said over his shoulder. ”I'll be back inside of half an hour.”

It was a slow trip down. The snow was beginning to soften in the warmth of the first spring suns by the time they arrived at Lac la Crosse. Two days before they reached the post at Montreal Lake, Philip began to feel the first discomfort of a strange sickness, of which he said nothing.

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