Part 2 (2/2)
”Could he give any motive for the deed?”
”No So far as he knew, Johnny had never seen Charley Seguis before”
”Well, boys, I' after hiht in right away He also wants to knohat I have done with all the furs that he clai the last year” Donald's tone was contemptuous
”I didn't know any had disappeared,” said Buller, in aone crazy in hees old age,”
added Cardepie, with a snort
”Well, whatever it is, he claims the Company has lost twenty thousand pounds, and that I' wrong here, Mac,” remarked Duller, decisively
”This isn't all accident, and, if you say so, I'll go with you to-ood of you, John, but I think I'll tackle it alone”
And McTavish wearily rose froain took the trail, but this tiht moose-webbed snowshoes; from head to heel, he was clad in white caribou such as the Indian hunters affect, and on his _capote_ he bore the branching antlers that were left there as a decoy for the wary ani whip in one hand and his rifle held easily in the other, he strode beside the straining dog-train In the east, the frost- In the south, the sun, which barely showed itself above the horizon each day, was corave faint tree shadows on the snow The as purplish gray, but the north was unrelenting iron There was no beaten path to guide him now, and sometimes the trees were so closely set as barely to pere On the ne could be seen the dainty tracks of ermine, and beside them the cleanly indented marks of a fox There were triplicate clusters of i where the hare had passed, and occasionally the huge, splayed ih the life of the wild creatures was teeues of forest, except the sharp crack of soe
Late in the afternoon the traveler found the cabin of a white trapper for which he had started that uis is?” he asked
”Went north, toward Beaver Lake, three days ago,” replied the other, shortly ”He stopped here on his way up, and said he was looking for better grounds”
”Going to set out a new line of traps then, was he?”
”Yes, Mr McTavish,” assented the trapper
”Thanks,” said McTavish, gathering up the whip ”I ht? Better stay and bunk with me”
”Can't do it, friend” And a few ain
He knew that Charley Seguis had three days' start of hient half-breed, and would travel well out of the district before allowing hi hihted on his way by the brilliant stars and the silent, flaunting banners of the northern lights, he plodded doggedly on until s, and prepared food for hihs, his feet to the fla with bitter cold, and heaping logs upon the fire for the , Mistisi, his leader, plunged into the traces for the long day'svital, sentient, alive, which opposed hi allies of the one great enemy; and, to make matters worse, the very underbrush and trees theainst this one ions of death
But Donald McTavish was not thinking of these things as he toiled north His uis, the Indian, the man who must be conquered There lay his duty; hazardous, fatal, perhaps; but still his duty It was the first law of the co its servants, and right triumphant
Donald crossed the tracks of two hunters that , but saw no one By this time, he ell into the Beaver Lake district
Seventy-five miles north were the low, desolate shores of Hudson Bay, and as ht, a short spaset that the lonely post contained the world for hireat cities were as nothing to him now Only the vast wild, and this one wonderful creature of the wild, Jean Fitzpatrick, spoke to hiue recollections of operas and theaters and dances, and all the colorful life of Montreal and Winnipeg; but they only stirred within hiht and die alone in the deep woods than to live all one's life as a jellyfish,” was the concise fashi+on in which he summed the matter up
At two o'clock that afternoon McTavish consulted a map he had made of the district near Fort dickey, and laid his course for the trapping shanty of an Indian called Whiskey Bill It was on the bank of a little beaver stream that debouched into Beaver River
The stream was frozen to a thickness of three feet, and Donald drove his dog teae for the first time in many hours But he finally arrived at Whiskey Bill's shanty only to find the place deserted, and the little building slowly disintegrating under the investigations of animals