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diff --git a/42016.txt b/42016.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a93ddd9..0000000 --- a/42016.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5476 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purple Flame, by Roy J. Snell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Purple Flame - A Mystery Story for Girls - -Author: Roy J. Snell - -Release Date: February 4, 2013 [EBook #42016] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURPLE FLAME *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - _Adventure Stories for Girls_ - - - - - The Purple Flame - - - _By_ - ROY J. SNELL - - - The Reilly & Lee Co. - Chicago - - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - _Copyright, 1924_ - by - The Reilly & Lee Co. - _All Rights Reserved_ - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I The Mystery of the Old Dredge 7 - II Patsy From Kentucky 21 - III Marian Faces a Problem 35 - IV The Range Robber 46 - V Planning a Perilous Journey 55 - VI A Journey Well Begun 60 - VII The Enchanted Mountain 65 - VIII Trouble for Patsy 71 - IX Patsy Solves a Problem 81 - X A Startling Discovery 87 - XI The Girl of the Purple Flame 95 - XII Ancient Treasure 104 - XIII The Long Trail 112 - XIV Mysterious Music 117 - XV An Old Man of the North 125 - XVI The Barrier 131 - XVII Age Serves Youth 139 - XVIII The Trail of Blood 146 - XIX Passing the Rapids 153 - XX A Message From the Air 165 - XXI Fading Hopes 172 - XXII A Fruitless Journey 177 - XXIII Planning the Long Drive 186 - XXIV Camp Followers 196 - XXV The Mirage 209 - XXVI The Mysterious Deliverer 223 - XXVII The End of the Trail 237 - - - - - The Purple Flame - - - - - CHAPTER I - THE MYSTERY OF THE OLD DREDGE - - -Marian Norton started, took one step backward, then stood staring. -Startled by this sudden action, the spotted reindeer behind her lunged -backward to blunder into the brown one that followed him, and this one -was in turn thrown against a white one that followed the two. This set -all three of them into such a general mix-up that it was a full minute -before the girl could get them quieted and could again allow her eyes to -seek the object of her alarm. - -As she stood there her pulse quickened, her cheeks flushed and she felt -an all but irresistible desire to turn and flee. Yet she held her ground. -Had she seen a flash of purple flame? She had thought so. It had appeared -to shoot out from the side of the dark bulk that lay just before her. - -"Might have been my nerves," she told herself. "Perhaps my eyes are -seeing things. T'wouldn't be strange. I came a long way to-day." - -She _had_ come a long way over the Arctic tundra that day. Starting but -two mornings before from her reindeer herd, close to a hundred miles from -Nome, Alaska, she had covered fully two-thirds of that distance in two -days. - -Her way had lead over low hills, across streams whose waters ran clear -and cold toward the sea, down broad stretches of tundra whose soft mosses -had oozed moisture at her every step. Here a young widgeon duck, ready to -begin his southward flight--for this was the Arctic's autumn time--had -stretched his long neck to stare at her. Here a mother white fox had -yap-yaped at her, insolently and unafraid. Here she had paused to pick a -handful of pink salmon berries or to admire a particularly brilliant -array of wild flowers, which, but for her passing, might have been "Born -to blush unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air." Yet always -with the three reindeers at her heels, she had pressed onward toward -Nome, the port and metropolis of all that vast north country. - -The black bulk that loomed out of the darkness before her was a deserted -dredging scow, grounded on a sand bar of the Sinrock River. At least she -had thought the scow deserted. Until now she had believed and hoped that -here she might spend the night, completing her journey on the morrow. - -"But now," she breathed. "Yes! Yes! There can be no mistake. There it is -again." - -Sinking wearily down upon the damp grass, she buried her face in her -hands. She was so tired she could cry, yet she must "mush" on through the -dark, over the soft, oozing tundra, for fifteen more weary miles. Fifteen -miles further down the river was the Sinrock Mission. Here she might hope -to find a corral for her deer, and food and rest for herself. - -Marian did not cry. Born and bred in the Arctic, she was made of such -stern stuff as the Arctic wilderness and the Arctic blizzard alone can -mould. - -She did not mean to take chances with the occupants of the old dredge. -There was something mysterious and uncanny about that purple flame which -she now saw shoot straight out, a full two feet, to instantly disappear. -She had seen nothing like it before in the Arctic. As she studied the -outlines of the dredge, she realized that the light was within it; that -it flashed across a small square window in the side of the old scow. - -"No," she reasoned, "I can't afford to take chances with them. I must go -on down the river. I can make Sinrock." - -Speaking to her reindeer, she tugged at their lead straps. One at a time -they started forward until at last they again took up the weary -swish-swish across the tundra. - -Once Marian turned to look back. Again she caught the flash of a purple -flame. - -Had she known how this purple flame was to be mixed up with her own -destiny, she might have paused to look longer. As it was, she gave -herself over to wondering what sort of people would take up their -habitation in that half tumbled-down dredge, and what their weird light -might signify. - -She had heard of the strange rites performed by those interesting -child-people, the Eskimos, in the worship of the spirits of dead animals. -For one of these, the "Bladder Festival," they saved all the bladders of -polar bears, walrus and seals which they had killed, and at last, after -four days of ceremony, committed them again to the waters of the ocean. - -"They burn wild parsnip stalks in that festival," Marian mused, "but that -purple flame was not made by burning weeds. It was the brilliant flame of -a blue-hot furnace flaring up, or something like that. Probably wasn't -Eskimo at all. Probably--well, it may be some Orientals who have stolen -away up here to worship their idols by burning strange fires." - -She thought of all the foreign people who had crossed the Pacific to take -up their homes in the far north city of Nome, which was just forty miles -away. - -"Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Russians, and members of nameless tribes," -she whispered to herself, as if half afraid they might hear her. "Might -be any of these. Might--" - -Suddenly she broke off her thinking and stopped short. Just before her a -form loomed out of the dark. Another and yet another appeared. - -For a moment she stood there rigid, scarcely breathing. Then she threw -back her head and laughed. - -"Reindeer," she exclaimed. "I was frightened by some reindeer. Oh, well," -she said, after a moment's reflection, "I might excuse myself for that. -I'm tired out with marching over this soggy tundra. Besides, I guess that -purple flame got on my nerves. All the same," she avowed stoutly, "I'll -solve that mystery yet. See if I don't." - -There for the time the subject was dismissed. The presence of these few -reindeer before her told of more not far away, a whole herd of them. -Where there were reindeer there would be herders, and herders lived in -tents. Here there would be a warm, dry place to rest and sleep. - -"Must be the Sinrock herd," she concluded. - -In this she was right. Soon, off in the distance, she caught the yellow -glow of candlelight shining through a tent wall. Fifteen minutes later -she was seated upon a rolled-up sleeping bag, chatting gayly with two -black-eyed Eskimo girls who were keeping their brothers' tents while -those worthies were out looking for some stray fauns. - -After her three reindeers had been relieved of their packs and set free -to graze, Marian had dined on hardtack and juicy reindeer chops. Then she -crawled deep down into her soft reindeer skin sleeping bag, to snatch a -few hours of rest before resuming her journey to Nome. - -Before her eyelids closed in sleep her tireless brain went over the -problem before her and the purpose of her fatiguing journey. She had come -all this way to meet a relative whom she had never seen--a cousin, Patsy -Martin, from Louisville, Kentucky. - -"Kentucky," she whispered the word for the hundredth time. "Way down -south. Imagine a girl who was brought up down there coming here for a -winter to endure our cold, snow, and blizzards. She's probably slim, -willowy, and tender as a baby; dresses in thin silks, and all that. Why -did father send her up here? Looks like it was bad enough to have four -hundred reindeer to herd, without having a sixteen year old cousin from -Ken-tuck-ie to look after." - -She yawned sleepily, yet her mind went on thinking of her reindeer herd -and her problems. Though she had lived all but one year of her life in -the far north, she had never, until two months before, spent a single -night in a reindeer herder's camp. But it was no longer a novel -experience. - -Until recently her father had been a prosperous merchant in Nome. -Financial reverses had come and he had been obliged to sell his store. -The reindeer herd, which he had taken as payment for a debt, was the only -wealth he had saved from the crash. Following this, his doctor had -ordered him to leave the rigorous climate of the North and to seek -renewed health in the States. Much as he regretted it, he had been -obliged to ask his daughter to give up her studies and to take charge of -the herd until a favorable opportunity came for selling it. - -"And that won't be soon, I guess," Marian sighed. "Reindeer herds are a -drug on the market. Trouble is, it's too hard to dispose of the meat. And -if you can't sell reindeer meat you can't make any money. Now, added to -this, comes this cousin, Patsy Martin." - -Her father had written that Patsy was given to over-study, and that Mr. -Martin, her uncle, thinking that a year in the northern wilds would do -her good, had asked permission to send her up to be with Marian. Marian's -father had consented, and Patsy was due on the next boat. - -"She'll be company for you," her father had written. - -"I do wonder if she will?" Marian sighed again. "Oh, well, no use to be a -pessimist," and at that she turned over and fell asleep. - -It was a surprised Marian who three days later found herself caught in -the firm embrace of her cousin, Patsy. Patsy was two years younger than -Marian. There could be no missing the fact that she was much slimmer and -more graceful, and that there was strength in her slender arms was -testified to by her warm embrace. - -When at last Marian got a look at Patsy's face, she found it almost as -brown as her own. And as for freckles, there could scarcely have been a -greater number on one person's face. Her mouth, too, had lines that -Marian liked. It was a firm, determined little mouth that said: "When I -have a hill to climb I _run_ up it." - -Never had Marian beheld such a wealth of color as was displayed in -Patsy's winter wardrobe. Orange and red sweaters; great, broad scarfs of -mixed grays; gay tams; short plaid skirts; heavy brown corduroy knickers; -these and many other garments of exquisite workmanship and design were -spread out before her. - -"And the fun of it all is," giggled Patsy, "we're going to play we're -twins and wear one another's clothes. You've got a spotted fawnskin -parka, I know you have. I'm going to wear that, right away--this -afternoon. Going to have my picture taken in it and send it back to my -school friends." - -"All right," agreed Marian. "You can have anything I own. I'm heavier -than you are, but arctic clothing doesn't fit very tight, so I guess it -will be all right." - -As if to clinch the bargain, she wound an orange colored scarf about her -neck and went strutting across the room. - -A half hour later, while Patsy was out having her picture taken, Marian -walked slowly up and down the room. She was thinking, and her thoughts -were long, long thoughts. - -"I like her," she said at last. "I'm going to like her more and more. But -it's going to be hard for her sometimes, fearfully hard. When the -blizzards sweep in from the north and we're all shut in; when no one -comes and no one goes, and the nights are twenty hours long; when the -dogs howl their lonesome song--it's going to be hard for her then. But -I'll do the best I can for her. Her father was right--it will do her a -world of good. It will teach her the slow and steady patience of those -who live in the North, and that's a good thing to know." - -Three weeks later the two girls, toiling wearily along after two reindeer -sleds, approached the black bulk of the old scow in the river, the one in -which Marian had seen the mysterious purple flame. Again it was night. -They were on their way north to the reindeer herd. Traveling over the -first soft snow of winter, they had made twenty miles that day. For the -last hour Patsy had not uttered a single word. She had tramped doggedly -after the sled. Only her drooping shoulders told how weary she was. -Marian had hoped against hope that they would this time find the old -dredge deserted. - -"It would make a nice dry place to camp," she said to herself, as she -brought her reindeer to a halt and stood studying the dark bulk. Patsy -dropped wearily down upon a loaded sled. - -Just as Marian was about to give the word to go forward, there flashed -across the square window a jet of purple flame. - -"Oh!" exclaimed Marian. - -"What is it?" asked Patsy. - -"The purple flame!" - -"The purple flame? What's that?" - -"You know as much as I do; only I know it's there in that old dredge. And -since it's there, we can't stop here for the night. We must go on." - -"Oh, but--but I can't!" Patsy half sobbed. "You don't know, you can't -know how tired I am." - -"Yes, I know," said Marian softly. "I've been just that way; but we dare -not stop here. The people in the old scow might have dogs and they would -attack our reindeer. We must go on; five miles more." - -"And then--" - -"Camp beneath the stars." - -"All right," said Patsy, with a burst of determination. "Let's get it -over quick." - -Again they moved slowly forward, but neither of them forgot the purple -flame. Three times they saw it flash across the window. - -"That place must be haunted," Marian sighed as she turned to give her -full attention to the lagging reindeer. - - - - - CHAPTER II - PATSY FROM KENTUCKY - - -Some five miles from the old dredge Marian stopped her reindeer, gazed -about her for a moment, then said quietly: - -"We'll camp here." - -"Here?" cried Patsy. "Won't we freeze?" - -"Freeze? No, we'll be safe as a bug in a rug. Just you sit down on a sled -until I unpack this one. After that I'll picket out the reindeer and get -supper." - -From the sled Marian dragged a sheet iron affair which she called a Yukon -stove. With dry moss, dug from beneath the snow, and wood brought on the -sled, she kindled a fire. They had no shelter, but the glow of the fire -cheered Patsy immeasurably. When the smell of frying bacon and warming -red beans reached her she was ready to execute a little dance of joy. - -Supper over, Marian took a small trench shovel, salvaged by a friend from -the great war, and scraped away the snow from above the soft, dry tundra -moss. Over this cleared space she spread a square of canvas. Then, -untying a thong about a deerskin sleeping bag, she allowed the bag to -slowly unroll itself along the canvas. - -"There," she announced, "the bed is made. No need to pull down the -shades. We'll get off our outer garments and hop right in." - -Patsy looked at her in astonishment. Then, seeing her take off first her -mackinaw, then her sweater, she followed suit. - -"Now," said Marian as they reached the proper stage of disrobing, "you do -it like this." - -Sitting down upon the canvas, she thrust her feet into the sleeping bag, -then began to work her way into it. - -"Come on," she directed, "we can do it best together. It's just big -enough for two. I had it made that way on purpose." - -Patsy dropped to the place beside her. Then together they burrowed their -way into the depths of the bag until only their eyes and noses were -uncovered. - -"How soft!" murmured Patsy as she wound an arm about her cousin's neck, -then lay staring up at the stars. - -"How warm!" she whispered again five minutes later. - -"Yes," Marian whispered, as though they were sleeping at home and might -disturb the household by speaking aloud. "You see, this bag is made of -the long haired winter skins of reindeer. The hair is a solid mat more -than an inch thick. The skin keeps out the wind. With the foot and the -sides of it sewed up tight, you can't possibly get cold, even if you -sleep on the frozen ground." - -"How wonderful!" exclaimed Patsy. "It wouldn't be a bit of use writing -that to my friends. They simply wouldn't believe it." - -"No, they wouldn't." - -For a little time, with arms twined about one another, the cousins lay -there in silence. Each, busy with her own thoughts, was not at all -conscious of the bonds of human affection which the vast silence of the -white wilderness was even now weaving about them. Bonds far stronger than -their arms about one another's neck, these were to carry them together -through many a wild and mysterious adventure. - -As if in anticipation of all this, Patsy snuggled a bit closer to Marian -and said: - -"I think this is going to be great!" - -"Let's hope so," Marian answered. - -"And will we really herd the reindeer?" - -"No," laughed Marian, "at least not any more than we wish to. You see, we -have three Eskimo herders with us, and Attatak, a girl who cooks for -them. They do most of the work. All we have to do is to finance the herd -and sort of supervise it. - -"You see, the Eskimo people are really child-people. They have had many -strange customs in the past that don't fit now. In their old village life -of hunting and fishing, it was an unwritten law that if one man had food -and another had none, it must be shared. That won't work now. - -"There is only one time of year that we can get food into this herding -ground; that is summer. We freight it up the river and store it for -winter's use. That gives us a big supply of provisions in the fall. There -are two Eskimo villages thirty miles away. If there were no white people -about, our good-hearted herders would share our supplies with the -villagers as often as they came around. Before the winter was half -through they would be out of supplies. They would then have to live on -reindeer meat, and that would be hard on our herd. In fact, we would soon -have no herd. So that is the reason we are going to spend a winter on the -tundra." - -"And will we live like this?" asked Patsy. - -"Oh, no!" laughed Marian. "We have tents for this time of year. In a -month we will move into the most interesting houses you ever saw. We'll -reserve that as a surprise for you." - -"Oh! Oh!" sighed Patsy, as she suddenly became conscious of the aches in -her legs. "I think it's going to be grand, if only I get so I can stand -the travel as you do. Do you think I ever will?" - -"Of course you will--in less than a week." - -"You know," said Patsy thoughtfully, "down where I came from we think we -exercise an awful lot. We swim and row, ride horseback, play tennis and -basket-ball, and go on hikes. But, after all, that was just play--sort of -skipping 'round. This--this is the real thing!" - -Giving her cousin an energetic good-night hug, she closed her eyes and -was soon fast asleep. - -Marian did not fall asleep at once. Her mind was working over the mystery -of the purple flame. What was it? What had caused it? Who were the -persons back there in the old dredge, and why had they come there? Such -were some of the problems that crowded her mind. - -The old dredge had been there for years. It was but one of the many -monuments to men's folly in their greedy search for gold. These -monuments--dredges, derricks, sluice-boxes, crushers, smelters, and who -knows what others--lined the beaches and rivers about Nome. The bed of -the Sinrock River was known to run fairly rich in gold. Someone had -imagined that he might become rich by dredging the mud at the bottom of -the river and washing it for gold. The scheme had failed. Doubtless the -owner of the dredge had gone into bankruptcy. At any rate, here was the -old dredge with its long beams and gaping iron bucket still dangling in -air, rotting to decay. And here within this tomblike wreck had appeared -the purple flame. - -It had not been like anything Marian had seen before. "Almost like -lightning," she mused, sleepily. - -Being a healthy girl with a clean mind, she did not long puzzle her brain -about the uncanny mystery of the weird light, but busied her mind with -more practical problems. If these makers of the purple flame were to -remain long at the dredge, how were they to live? Too often in the past, -the answer to such a question had been, "By secretly preying upon the -nearest herd." - -The Sinrock herd had been moved some distance away. Marian's own herd was -now the nearest one to the old dredge. "And when we move into winter -quarters it will be five miles nearer. Oh, well!" she sighed, "there's no -use borrowing trouble. It's probably some miners going up the river to do -assessment work." - -"But then," her busy mind questioned, "what about the purple flame? Why -have they already stayed there three weeks? Why--" - -At this juncture she fell asleep, to awake when the first streaks of dawn -were casting fingers of light across the snowy tundra. - -She crept softly from her sleeping bag, jumped into her clothes, and was -in the act of lighting the fire when a faint sound of heavy breathing -caused her to turn her head. To her surprise she saw Patsy, clothed only -in those garments that had served as her sleeping gown, doing a strange, -whirling, bare-footed fling of calisthenics, with the sleeping bag as her -mat. - -"You appear to have quite recovered," Marian laughed. - -"Just seeing if I was all here," Patsy laughed in turn, as she dropped -down upon the bag and began drawing on her stockings. - -"Whew!" she puffed. "That's invigorating; good as a cold plunge in the -sea. What do we have for breakfast?" - -"Sour-dough flapjacks and maple syrup." - -"Um-um! Make me ten," exclaimed Patsy, redoubling her efforts to get -herself dressed. - -That night Marian made a discovery that set her nerves a-tremble to the -very roots of her hair and, in spite of the Arctic chill, brought beads -of perspiration out on the tip of her nose. - -As on the previous night, they had camped out upon the open tundra. This -night, however, they had found a sheltered spot beside a clump of willows -that lined a stream. The stream ran between low, rolling hills. Over -those hills they had been passing when darkness fell. Now, as Marian -crept into the sleeping bag, she saw the nearer hills rising like -cathedral domes above her. She heard the ceaseless rustle of willow -leaves that, caught by an early frost, still clung to their branches. -This rustle, together with the faint breeze that fanned her cheeks, had -all but lulled her to sleep. Suddenly she sat upright. - -"It couldn't be!" she exclaimed. Then, a moment later, she added: - -"But, yes--there it is again. Who would believe it? Lightning in the -Arctic, and on such a night as this. Twenty below zero and clear as a -bell! Not a cloud in sight." - -Rubbing her brow to clear her mind from the cobweb of dreams that had -been forming there, she stared again at the crest of the hill. - -Then, swiftly, silently, that she might not waken her cousin, she crept -from the sleeping bag. Donning her fur parka and drawing on knickers and -deerskin boots, she hurried away from camp and up the hill, thinking as -she did so: - -"That's not lightning. I don't know what it is, but in the name of all -that's good, I'm going to come nearer solving that mystery than ever I -did before." - -Half way up the hill she found a snow blown gully, and up this she crept, -half hidden by the shadows. Nearing the crest, a half mile from her camp, -she dropped on hands and knees and crawled forward a hundred yards. Then, -like some hunter who has stolen upon his game, she propped herself on her -elbows and stared straight ahead. - -In spite of her expectations, she gasped at what she saw. A purple flame, -now six inches in length, now a foot, now two feet, darted out of space, -then receded, then flared up again. Three feet above the surface of the -snow, it appeared to hang in midair like some ghost fire. - -Marian's heart beat wildly. Her nerves tingled, her knees trembled, and -open-mouthed, without the power to move, she stared at this strange -apparition. - -This spell lasted for a moment. Then, with a half audible exclamation of -disgust, she dropped limply to the snow. - -"Inside a tent," she said. "Tent was so like the snow and the sky that I -couldn't see it at first." - -As her eyes became accustomed to this version of her discovery she was -able to make out the outlines of the tent and even to recognize a dog -sleeping beside it. - -Suddenly the shadow of a person began dancing on the wall of the tent. So -rapid were the flashes of the purple flame, so flickering and distorted -was this image, that it seemed more the shadow of a ghost than of a human -being. A second shadow joined the first. The two of them appeared to do -some wild dance. Then, of a sudden, all was dark. The purple flame had -vanished. - -A moment later a yellow light flared up. Then a steady light gleamed. - -"Lighted a candle," was Marian's comment. "It's on this side of them, for -now they cast no shadows. Are they all men? Or, are there some women? How -many are there? Two, or more than two? They are following us. I'd swear -to that. I wonder why?" - -Again she thought of the stories she had heard of ne'er-do-wells who -dogged the tracks of reindeer herds like camp followers, and lived upon -the deer that had strayed too far from the main herd. - -"Perhaps," Marian mused, "they have heard that father's herd is to be run -this winter by two inexperienced girls. Perhaps they think we will be -easy. Perhaps--" she set her lips tight, "perhaps we will, and perhaps -not. We shall see." - -Then she went stealing back to her camp and crept shivering into the -sleeping bag. - -She slept very little that night. The camp of the mysterious strangers -was too close; the perplexing problems that lay before her too serious to -permit of that. She was glad enough when she caught the first faint flush -of dawn in the east and knew that a new day was dawning. - -"This day," she told herself, "we make our own camp. There is comfort in -that. Let the future take care of itself." - -She cast one glance toward the hill, but seeing no movement there, she -began to search the ground for dry moss for kindling a fire. - -Soon she had a little yellow flame glowing in her Yukon stove. The feeble -flame soon grew to a bright red, and in a little while the coffee pot was -singing its song of merry defiance to the Arctic chill. - - - - - CHAPTER III - MARIAN FACES A PROBLEM - - -Marian buried her hand in the thick warm coat of the spotted reindeer -that stood by her side and, shading her eyes, gazed away at the distant -hills. A brown spot had appeared at the crest of the third hill to her -right. - -"There's another and another," she said. "Reindeer or caribou? I wonder. -If it's caribou, perhaps Terogloona can get one of them with his rifle. -It would help out our food supply. But if it's reindeer--" her brow -wrinkled at the thought, "reindeer might mean trouble." - -At that instant something happened that brought her hand to her side. -Quickly unstrapping her field glasses, she put them to her eyes. - -A fourth object had appeared on the crest. Even with the naked eye one -might tell that this one was not like the other three. He was lighter in -color and lacked the lace-like suggestion against the sky which meant -broad spreading antlers. - -"Reindeer!" she groaned. "All of them reindeer, and the last one's a sled -deer. His antlers have been cut off so he'll travel better. And that -means--" - -She pursed her lips in deep thought as the furrows in her brow deepened. - -"Oh, well!" she exclaimed at last. "Perhaps it doesn't mean anything -after all. Perhaps they're just a bunch of strays. Who knows? But a sled -reindeer?" she argued with herself. "They don't often stray away." - -For a moment she stood staring at the distant hillcrest. Then, seizing -her drive line, she spoke to her deer. As he bounded away she leaped -nimbly upon the sled and went skimming along after him. - -"We'll see about that," she said. "They're not our deer, that's sure. -Whose are they? That's what we're about to find out. A circle across that -long valley, then a stiff climb up a gully, will just about bring us to -their position." - -Fifteen minutes later she found herself atop the first elevation. For the -time, out of sight of the strange reindeer, she had an opportunity to -glance back down the valley where her own herd was peacefully feeding. -Her eyes lighted up as she looked. It was indeed a beautiful sight. -Winter had come, for she and Patsy Martin had now been following the herd -for three months. Winter, having buried deep beneath the snow every trace -of the browns and greens of summer, had left only deep purple shadows and -pale yellow lights over mountain, hill and tundra. In the midst of these -lights and shadows, such as are not seen save upon a sun-scorched desert -or the winter-charmed Arctic, her little herd of some four hundred deer -stood out as if painted on a canvas or done in bas-relief with wood or -stone. - -"It's not like anything in the world," said Marian, "and I love it. Oh, -how I do love it! How I wish I could paint it as it really is!" - -As she rode on up the valley her mind went over the months that had -passed and the problems she and Patsy now faced. - -Great as was her love for the Arctic, fond as she was of its wild, free -life, her father had made other plans for her; plans that could not be -carried out so long as they were in possession of the herd. This seemed -to make the sale of the herd an urgent necessity. Every letter from her -father that came to her over hundreds of miles of dog-sled and reindeer -trail, suggested some possible means of disposing of the herd. - -"We _must_ sell by spring," his last letter had said. "Not that I am in -immediate need of money, but you must get back to school. One year out -there in the wilderness, with Patsy for your companion, will do no harm, -but it must not go on. The doctor says I cannot return to the North for -four or five years at the least. So, somehow, we must sell." - -"Sell! Sell!" Marian repeated, almost savagely. It seemed to her that -there could be no selling the herd. There was only a limited market for -reindeer meat. Miners here and there bought it. The mining cities bought -it, but of late the increase to one hundred thousand reindeer in Alaska -had overloaded the market. A little meat could be shipped to the States, -there to be served at great club luncheons and in palatial hotels, but -the demand was not large. - -"Sell?" she questioned, "how can we sell?" - -Little she knew how soon a possible answer to that question would come. -Not knowing, she visioned herself following the herd year after year, -while all those beautiful, wonderful months she had had a taste of, and -now dreamed of by day and night, faded from her thoughts. - -She had spent one year under the shadows of a great university. Marvelous -new thoughts had come to her that year. Friendships had been made, such -friendships as she in her northern wilds had never dreamed of. The -stately towers of the university even now appeared to loom before her, -and again she seemed to hear the melodious chimes of the bells. - -"Oh!" she cried, "I must go back. I must! I must!" - -And yet Marian was not unhappy. For the present she would not be any -other place than where she was. It was a charming life, this wandering -life of the reindeer herder. During the short summer, and even into the -frosts of fall and winter, they lived in tents, and like nomads of the -desert, wandered from place to place, always seeking the freshest water, -the greenest grass, the tallest willow bushes. But when winter truly came -swooping down upon them, they went to a spot chosen months before, the -center of rich feeding grounds where the ground beneath the snow was -green-white with "reindeer moss." Here they made a more permanent camp. -After that there remained but the task of defending the herd from wolves -and other marauders, and of driving the herd to camp each day, that they -might not wander too far away. - -As for Patsy, she had fairly revelled in it all. Reared in a city -apartment where a chirping sparrow gave the only touch of nature, she had -come to this wilderness with a great thirst for knowledge of the -out-of-doors. Each day brought some new revelation to her. The snow -buntings, ptarmigans and ravens; the foxes, caribou and reindeer; even -the occasional prowling wolves, all were her teachers. From them she -learned many secrets of wild nature. - -Of course there had been long, shut-in days, when the wind swept the -tundra, and the snow, appearing to rest nowhere, whirled on and on. Such -days were lonely ones. Letters were weeks in coming and arrived but -seldom. All these things gave the energetic city lass some blue days, but -even then she never complained. - -Her health was greatly improved. Gone was the nervous twitch of eyelids -that told of too many hours spent pouring over books. The summer freckles -had been replaced by ruddy brown, such as only Arctic winds and an -occasional freeze can impart. As for her muscles, they were like iron -bands. Never in the longest day's tramp did she complain of weariness. -With the quick adaptability of a bright and cheerful girl, she had become -a part of the wild world which surrounded her. The expression of her -lips, too, was somehow changed. Firmness and determination were still -written there, but certain lines had been added; lines of patience that -said louder than words: "I have learned one great lesson; that one may -run uphill, but that mountains must be climbed slowly, patiently, circle -by circle, till the summit is reached." - -They were in winter camp now. As Marian thought of it she smiled. At no -other spot in all Alaska was there another such camp as hers. Marian, as -you know if you have read our other book, "The Blue Envelope," had, some -two years before, spent the short summer months of the Arctic in Siberia, -across from Alaska. Much against her own wishes, she had spent a part of -the winter there. Someone has said "there is no great loss without some -small gain"; and while Marian had endured hardships and known moments of -peril in Siberia, from the strange and interesting tribes there she had -learned some lessons of real value regarding winter camps in the Arctic. -Upon making her own camp she had put this knowledge into practice. - -They were now in winter camp. As Marian thought of this, then thought of -the four strange reindeer on the ridge above, her brow again showed -wrinkles of anxiety. - -"If it's Bill Scarberry's herd," she said fiercely, clenching her fists, -"if it is!" In her words there was a world of feeling. - -In the early stages of the reindeer industry in Alaska, the problem of -feed grounds for the deer had been exceedingly simple. There were the -broad stretches of tundra, a hundred square miles for every reindeer. -Help yourself. Every mile of it was matted deep with rich moss; every -stream lined in summer with tender willow leaves. If you chanced to sight -another small herd in your wandering, you went to right or left, and so -avoided them. There was room for all. - -Now things were vastly changed. One hundred thousand deer ranged the -tundra. Reindeer moss, eaten away in a single season, requires four or -five years to grow again in abundance. Back, back, farther and farther -back from shore and river the herds had been pushed, until now it was -difficult indeed to transport food to the herders. - -With these conditions arising, the rivalry between owners for good -feeding ground grew intense. Many and bitter were the feuds that had -arisen between owners. There was not the best of feeling between Bill -Scarberry, another owner, and her father; Marian knew that all too well. - -"And now maybe his herd is coming into our feeding ground," she sighed. - -It was true that the Government Agent attempted to allot feeding grounds. -The valley her deer were feeding upon had been written down in his book -as her winter range; but when one is many days' travel from even the -fringe of civilization, when one is the herder of but four hundred deer, -and only a girl at that, when an overriding owner of ten thousand deer -comes driving in his vast herd to lick up one's little pasture in a week -or two, what is there to do? - -These were the bitter thoughts that ran through the girl's mind as she -rode up the valley. - -The pasture to the right and left of them, and to the north, had been -alloted for so many miles that it was out of the question to think of -breaking winter camp and freighting supplies to some new range. - -"No," she said firmly, "we are here, and here we stay!" - -Had she known the strange circumstances that would cause her to alter -this decision, she might have been startled at the grim humor of it. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - THE RANGE ROBBER - - -Just as Marian finished thinking these things through, her reindeer gave -a final leap which brought him squarely upon the crest of the highest -ridge. From this point, so it seemed to her, she could view the whole -world. - -As her eyes automatically sought the spot where the four reindeer had -first appeared, a stifled cry escaped her lips. The valley at the foot of -that slope was a moving sea of brown and white. - -"The great herd!" she exclaimed. "Scarberry's herd!" - -The presence of this great herd at that spot meant almost certain -disaster to her own little herd. Even if the herds were kept apart--which -seemed extremely unlikely--her pasture would be ruined, and she had no -other place to go. If the herds did mix, it would take weeks of patient -toil to separate them--toil on the part of all. Knowing Scarberry as she -did, she felt certain that little of the work would be done by either his -herders or himself. All up and down the coast and far back into the -interior, Scarberry was known for the selfishness, the brutality and -injustice of his actions. - -"Such men should not be allowed upon the Alaskan range," she hissed -through tightly set teeth. "But here he is. Alaska is young. It's a new -and thrilling little world all of itself. He who comes here must take his -chance. Some day, the dishonest men will be controlled or driven out. For -the present it's a fight. And we must fight. Girls though we are, we -_must_ fight. And we will! We will!" she stamped the snow savagely. "Bill -Scarberry shall not have our pasture without a struggle." - -Had she been a heroine in a modern novel of the North, she would have -leaped upon her saddle-deer, put the spurs to his side, and gone racing -to the camp of the savage Bill Scarberry, then and there to tell him -exactly what her rights were and to dare him to trespass against them. -Since, so far as we know, there are no saddle-deer in Alaska, and no -deer-saddles to be purchased anywhere; and since Marian was an ordinary -American girl, with a good degree of common sense and caution, and not a -heroine at all in the vulgar sense of the word, she stood exactly where -she was and proceeded to examine the herd through her field glass. - -If she had hoped against hope that this was not Scarberry's herd at all, -but some other herd that was passing to winter quarters, this hope was -soon dispelled. The four deer upon the ridge, having strayed some -distance from the main herd, were now only a few hundred yards away. She -at once made out their markings. Two notches, one circular and one -triangular, had been cut from the gristly portion of the right ear of -each deer. This brutal manner of marking, so common a few years earlier, -had been kept up by Scarberry, who had as little thought for the -suffering of his deer as he had for the rights of others. The deer owned -by the Government, and Marian's own deer, were marked by aluminum tags -attached to their ears. - -"They're Scarberry's all right," Marian concluded. "It's his herd, and he -brought them here. If they had strayed away by accident and his herders -had come after them, they would be driving them back. Now they're just -wandering along the edge of the herd, keeping them together. There comes -one of them after the four strays. No good seeing him now. It wouldn't -accomplish anything, and I might say too much. I'll wait and think." - -Turning her deer, for a time she drove along the crest of the ridge. - -"I shouldn't wonder," she said to herself, "if he's already taken up -quarters in the old miner's cabin down there in the willows on the bank -of the Little Soquina River. Yes," she added, "there's the smoke of his -fire. - -"To think," she stormed, enraged at the cool complacency of the thing, -"to think that any man could be so mean. He has thousands of deer, and a -broad, rich range. He's afraid the range may be scant in the spring and -his deer become poor for the spring shipping market, so he saves it by -driving his herd over here for a month or two, that it may eat all the -moss we have and leave us to make a perilous or even fatal drive to -distant pastures. That, or to see our deer starve before our very eyes. -It's unfair! It's brutally inhuman! - -"And yet," she sighed a moment later, "I suppose the men up here are not -all to blame. Seems like there is something about the cold and darkness, -the terrible lonesomeness of it all, that makes men like wolves that -prowl in the scrub forests--fierce, bloodthirsty and savage. But that -will do for sentiment. Scarberry must not have his way. He must not feed -down our pasture if there is a way to prevent it. And I think there is! -I'm almost sure. I must talk to Patsy about it. It would mean something -rather hard for her, but she's a brave little soul, God bless her!" - -Then she spoke to her reindeer and went racing away down the slope toward -the camp. - -It was a strange looking camp that awaited Marian's coming. Two dome -shaped affairs of canvas were all but hidden in a clump of willows, -surrounded by deer sleds and a small canvas tent for supplies--surely a -strange camp for Alaskan reindeer herders. - -But how comfortable were those dome shaped igloos! Marian had learned to -make them during that eventful journey with the reindeer Chukches in -Siberia. - -Winter skins of reindeer are cheap, very cheap in Alaska. Being light, -portable and warm, Marian had used many of them in the construction of -this winter camp. Her heart warmed with the prospect of perfect comfort, -and drawing the harness from her reindeer, she turned it loose to graze. -Then she parted the flap to the igloo which she and Patsy shared. - -Something of the suppressed excitement which came to her from the -discovery of the rival herd must still have shown in her face, for as -Patsy turned from her work of preparing a meal to look at Marian she -noticed the look on her face and exclaimed: - -"Oh! Did you see it, too?" - -"I'm not sure that I know what you mean," said Marian, puzzled by her -question. Where had Patsy been? Surely the herd could not be seen from -the camp, and she had not said she was going far from it; in fact, she -had been left to watch camp. - -"I've seen enough," continued Marian, "to make me dreadfully angry. -Something's got to be done about it. Right away, too. As soon as we have -a bite to eat we'll talk it over." - -"I knew you'd feel that way about it," said Patsy. "I think it's a shame -that they should hang about this way." - -"See here, Patsy," exclaimed Marian, seizing her by the shoulder and -turning her about, "what are we--what are _you_ talking about?" - -"Why, I--you--" Patsy stammered, mystified, "you just come out here and -I'll show you." - -Dragging her cousin out of the igloo and around the end of the willows, -she pointed toward a hillcrest. - -There, atop the hill, stood a newly erected tent, and at that very moment -its interior was lighted by a strange purple light. - -"The purple flame!" exclaimed Marian. "More trouble. Or is it all one? Is -it Bill Scarberry who lights that mysterious flame? Does he think that by -doing that he can frighten us from our range?" - -"Bill Scarberry?" questioned Patsy, "who is he, and what has he to do -with it?" - -"Come on into the igloo and I'll tell you," said Marian, shivering as a -gust of wind swept down from the hill. - -As they turned to go back Patsy said: - -"Terogloona came in a few minutes ago. He said to tell you that another -deer was gone. This time it is a spotted two-year-old." - -"That makes seven that have disappeared in the last six weeks. If that -keeps up we won't need to sell our herd; it will vanish like snow in the -spring. It can't be wolves. They leave the bones behind. You can always -tell when they're about. I wonder if those strange people of the purple -flame are living off our deer? I've a good mind to go right up there and -accuse them of it. But no, I can't now; there are other more important -things before us." - -"What could be more important?" asked Patsy in astonishment. - -"Wait, I'll tell you," said Marian, as she parted the flap of the igloo -and disappeared within. - -A half hour later they were munching biscuits and drinking steaming -coffee. Marian had said not a single word about the problems and -adventures that lay just before them. Patsy asked no questions. She knew -that the great moment of confiding came when they were snugly tucked in -beneath blankets and deerskins in the strangest little sleeping room in -all the world. Knowing this, she was content to wait until night for -Marian to tell her all about this important matter. - - - - - CHAPTER V - PLANNING A PERILOUS JOURNEY - - -The house in which the girls lived was a cunningly built affair. Eight -long poles, brought from the distant river, had been lashed together at -one end. Then they had all been raised to an upright position and spread -apart like the pole of an Indian's tepee. Canvas was spread over this -circle of poles. That there might be more room in the tent, curved willow -branches were lashed to the poles. These held the canvas away in a -circle. After this had been accomplished the whole inside was lined with -deerskins. Only an opening at the top was left for the passing of smoke -from the Yukon stove. The stove stood in the front center of the house. -Back of it was a platform six by eight feet. This platform was surrounded -on all four sides and above by a second lining of deerskin. This platform -formed the floor and the deerskins the walls of a little room within the -skin house. This was the sleeping room of Marian and Patsy. - -A more cozy place could scarcely be imagined. Even with the thermometer -at forty below, and the wind howling about the igloo, this room was warm -as toast. With the sleeping bag for a bed, and with a heavy deerskin rug -and blankets piled upon them, the girls could sleep in perfect comfort. - -In this cozy spot, with one arm thrown loosely about her cousin's neck, -Marian lay that night for a full five minutes in perfect silent repose. - -"Patsy," she said, as her arm suddenly tightened about her cousin's neck -in an affectionate hug, "would you be terribly afraid to stay here all by -yourself with the Eskimos?" - -"How--how long?" Patsy faltered. - -"I don't know exactly. Perhaps a week, perhaps three. In the Arctic one -never knows. Things happen. There are blizzards; rivers can not be -crossed; there is no food to be had; who knows what may happen?" - -"Why, no," said Patsy slowly, "with Attatak here I think I shouldn't -mind." - -"I think," said Marian with evident reluctance, "that I should take -Attatak with me. I'd like to take old Terogloona. He'd be more help; but -at a time like this he can't leave the herd. He's absolutely -faithful--would give his life for us. Father once saved him from drowning -when a skin boat was run down by a motor launch. An Eskimo never -forgets." - -"How strangely you talk," said Patsy suddenly. "Is--is the purple flame -as serious an affair as that?" - -"Oh, no!" answered Marian. "That may become serious. They may be killing -our deer, but we haven't caught them at it. That, for the present, is -just an interesting mystery." - -"But what are you--where are you going?" - -"Listen, Patsy," said Marian thoughtfully; "do you remember the radio -message we picked up three days ago--the one from the Government Agent, -sent from Nome to Fairbanks?" - -Patsy did remember. She had spent many interesting hours listening in on -the compact but powerful radio set her father had presented to her as a -parting gift. - -"Yes," she said, "I remember." - -"When did he say he was leaving Nome?" - -"The 5th." - -"That means he'll be at the Siman's trading station on about the 12th. -And Siman's is the spot on the Nome-Fairbanks trail that is nearest to -us. By fast driving and good luck I can get there before him." - -"But why should you?" persisted Patsy. - -Then Marian confided to her cousin the new trouble they were facing, the -almost certain loss of their range, with all the calamities that would -follow. - -"If only I can see the Agent before he passes on to Fairbanks I am sure -he would deputize someone to come over here and compel Scarberry to take -his herd from our range. If I can't do that, then I don't see that we -have a single chance. We might as well--as well--" there was a catch in -her voice--"as well make Scarberry a present of our herd and go on our -way back to Nome. We'd be flat broke; not a penny in the world! And -father--father would not have a single chance for a fresh start. But we -will be ruined soon enough if we try to put up a fight all by ourselves, -for Scarberry's too strong; he's got three herders to our one. The Agent -is our only chance." - -For a long time after this speech all was silence, and Marian was -beginning to think that Patsy had gone to sleep. Then she felt her soft -warm hand steal into hers as she whispered: - -"No, I'm not afraid. I--I'll stay, and I'll do all I can to keep that -thief and his deer off our range until you get back. I'll do it, too! See -if I don't!" - -Patsy's southern fighting blood was up. At such a time she felt equal to -anything. - -"All right, old dear; only be careful." Marian gave her a rousing hug, -then whispered as she drew the deerskins about her: - -"Go to sleep now. I must be away before dawn." - - - - - CHAPTER VI - A JOURNEY WELL BEGUN - - -Two hours before the tardy dawn, Marian and Attatak were away. With three -tried and trusted reindeer--Spot, Whitie, and Brownie--they were to -attempt a journey of some hundreds of miles. Across trackless wilderness -they must lay their course by the stars until the Little Kalikumf River -was reached. After this it was a straight course down a well marked trail -to the trading station, providing the river was fully frozen over. - -This river was one of the many problems they must face. There were -others. Stray dogs might attack their deer; they might cross the track of -a mother wolf and her hungry pack of half grown cubs; a blizzard might -overtake them and, lacking the guiding light of the stars, they might -become lost and wander aimlessly on the tundra until cold and hunger -claimed them for their own. But of all these, Marian thought most of the -river. Would it be frozen over, or would they be forced to turn back -after covering all those weary miles and enduring the hardships? - -"Attatak," she said to the native girl, "they say the Little Kalikumf -River has rapids in it by the end of a glacier and that no man dares -shoot those rapids. Is that true?" - -"_Eh-eh_," (yes) answered Attatak. "Spirit of water angry at ice cut away -far below. Want to shoot rapids; boats and man run beneath that ice. Soon -smashed boat, killed man. That's all." - -It was quite enough, Marian thought; but somehow they must pass these -rapids whether they were frozen over or not. - -"Ah, well," she sighed, "that's still far away. First comes the fight -with tundra, hills and sweeping winds." - -Patting her reindeer on the side, she sent him flying up the valley while -she raced along beside him. - -These reindeer were wonderful steeds. No food need be carried for them. -They found their own food beneath the snow when day was done. A hundred -miles in a day, over a smooth trail, was not too much for them. Soft -snow--the wind-blown, blizzard-sifted snow that was like granulated -sugar--did not trouble them. They trotted straight on. There was no need -to search out a water hole that they might slake their thirst; they -scooped up mouthfuls of snow as they raced along. - -"Wonderful old friends," murmured Marian as she reached out a hand to -touch her spotted leader. "There are those who say a dog team is better. -Bill Scarberry, they say, never drives reindeer; always drives dogs. But -on a long journey, a great marathon race, reindeer would win, I do -believe they would. I--" - -She was suddenly startled from her reflections by the appearance of a -brown-hooded head not twenty rods away. Their course had led them closer -to Scarberry's camp than she thought. As she came out upon the ridge she -saw an Eskimo scout disappearing into the willows from which a camp smoke -was rising. - -Marian was greatly disturbed by the thought that Scarberry's camp would -soon know of her departure. She had hoped that they might not learn of -her errand, that they might not miss her from the camp. For Patsy's sake -she was tempted to turn back, but after a moment's indecision, she -determined to push forward. There was no other way to win, and win she -must! - -An hour later she halted the deer at a fork in the trail. Directly before -her stood a bold range of mountains, and their peaks seemed to be smoking -with drifting snow. Blizzards were there, the perpetual blizzards of -Arctic peaks. She had never crossed those mountains, perhaps no person -ever had. She had intended skirting them to the north. This would require -at least one added day of travel. As she thought of the perils that -awaited Patsy while alone with the herd, and as she thought of the great -necessity of making every hour count, she was tempted to try the mountain -pass. Here was a time for decision; when all might be gained by a bold -stroke. - -Rising suddenly on tip-toe, as if thus to emphasize a great resolve, she -pointed away to the mountains and said with all the dignity of a Jean -d'Arc: - -"Attatak, we go that way." - -Wide-eyed with amazement, Attatak stared at Marian for a full minute; -then with the cheerful smile of a born explorer--which any member of her -race always is--she said: - -"_Na-goo-va-ruk-tuck._" (That will be very good.) - - - - - CHAPTER VII - THE ENCHANTED MOUNTAIN - - -Since the time she had been able to remember anything, these mountains of -the far north, standing away in bleak triangles of lights and shadows, -smoking with the eternally drifting snows, had always held an all but -irresistible lure for Marian. Even as a child of six, listening to the -weird folk-stories of the Eskimo, she had peopled those treeless, wind -swept mountains with all manner of strange folks. Now they were fairies, -white and drifting as the snow itself; now they were strange black -goblins with round faces and red noses; and now an Eskimo people who -lived in enchanted caves that never were cold, no matter how bitterly the -wind and cold assailed the fortresses of rocks that offered them -protection. - -"All my life," she murmured as she tightened the rawhide thong that -served as a belt to bind her parka close about her waist, "I have wanted -to go to the crest of that range, and now I am to attempt it." - -She shivered a little at thought of the perils that awaited her. Many -were the strange, wild tales she had heard told round the glowing stove -at the back of her father's store; tales of privation, freezing, -starvation and death; tales told by grizzled old prospectors who had lost -their pals in a bold struggle with the elements. She thought of these -stories and again she shivered, but she did not turn back. - -Once only, after an hour of travel up steep ravines and steeper -foothills, she paused to unstrap her field glasses and look back over the -way they had come. Then she threw back her head and laughed. It was the -wild, free laugh of a daring soul that defies failure. - -Attatak showed all her splendid white teeth in a grin. - -"Who is afraid?" Marian laughed. "Snow, cold, wind--who cares?" - -Marian spoke to her reindeer, and again they were away. - -As they left the foothills and began to circle one of the lesser peaks--a -slow, gradually rising spiral circle that brought them higher and -higher--Marian felt the old charm of the mountains come back to her. -Again they were peopled by strange fairies and goblins. So real was the -illusion that at times it seemed to her that if worst came to worst and -they found themselves lost in a storm at the mountain top, they might -call upon these phantom people for shelter. - -The mountain was not exactly as she had expected to find it. She had -supposed that it was one vast cone of gleaming snow. In the main this was -true, yet here and there some rocky promontory, towering higher than its -fellows, reared itself above the surface, a pier of granite standing out -black against the whiteness about it, mute monument to all those daring -climbers who have lost their lives on mountain peaks. - -Once, too, off some distance to her right and farther up, she fancied she -saw the yawning mouth of a cavern. - -"Doesn't seem possible," she told herself. And yet, it did seem so real -that she found herself expecting some strange Rip Van Winkle-like people -to come swarming out of the cavern. - -She shook herself as a rude blast of wind swept up from below, all but -freezing her cheek at a single wild whirl. - -"I must stop dreaming," she told herself stoutly. "Night is falling. We -are on the mountain, nearing the crest. A storm is rising. It is colder -here than in any place I have ever been. Perhaps we have been foolhardy, -but now we must go on!" - -Even as she thought this through, Attatak pointed to her cheek and -exclaimed: - -"Froze-tuck." - -"My cheek frozen!" Marian cried in consternation. - -"_Eh-eh_" (yes.) - -"And we have an hour's climb to reach the top. Perhaps more. Somehow we -must have shelter. Attatak, can you build a snow house?" - -"Not very good. Not build them any more, my people." - -"Then--then," said Marian slowly, as she rubbed snow on the white, frozen -spots of her cheek, "then we must go on." - -Five times in the next twenty minutes Attatak told her her cheeks were -frozen. Twice Attatak had been obliged to rub the frost from her own -cheeks. Each time the intervals between freezings were shorter. - -"Attatak," Marian asked, "can we make it?" - -"_Canok-ti-ma-na_" (I don't know.) The Eskimo girl's face was very grave. - -As Marian turned about she realized that the storm from below was -increasing. Snow, stopping nowhere, raced past them to go smoking out -over the mountain peak. - -She was about to start forward when again she caught sight of a dark spot -on the mountain side above. It looked like the mouth of a cavern. - -"If only it were," she said wistfully, "we would camp there for the night -and wait for the worst of the storm to pass." - -"Attatak," she said suddenly, "you wait here. I am going to try to climb -up there." She pointed to the dark spot on the hillside. - -"All right," said Attatak. "Be careful. Foot slip, start to slide; never -stop." She looked first up the hill, then down the dizzy white slope that -extended for a half mile to unknown depths below. - -As Marian's gaze followed Attatak's she saw herself gliding down the -slope, gaining speed, shooting down faster and faster to some awful, -unknown end; a dash against a projecting rock; a burial beneath a hundred -feet of snow. Little wonder that her knees trembled as she turned to go. -Yet she did not falter. - -With a cheerful "All right, I'll be careful," she gripped her staff and -began to climb. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - TROUBLE FOR PATSY - - -Hardly had Marian left camp when troubles began to pile up for Patsy. -Dawn had not yet come when she heard a strange ki-yi-ing that certainly -did not come from the herd collies, and she looked out and saw -approaching the most disreputable group of Eskimos she had ever seen. -Dressed in ragged parkas of rabbit skins, and driving the gauntest, most -vicious looking pack of wolf dogs, these people appeared to come from a -new and more savage world than hers. A rapid count told her there were -seven adults and five children. - -"Enough of them to eat us out of everything, even to skin boots and -rawhide harness," she groaned. "If they are determined to camp here, -who's to prevent them?" - -For a moment she stood there staring; then with a sudden resolve that she -must meet the situation, she exclaimed: - -"I must send them on. Some way, I must. I can't let them starve. They -must have food, but they must be sent on to some spot where they have -relatives who are able to feed them. The safety of the herd depends upon -that. With food gone we cannot hold our herders. With no herders we -cannot hold the deer. Marian explained that to me yesterday." - -Walking with all the dignity her sixteen years would permit, she -approached the spot where the strangers had halted their dogs and were -talking to old Terogloona. The dogs were acting strangely. Sawing at the -strong rawhide bonds that held them to the sleds, they reared up on their -haunches, ki-yi-ing for all they were worth. - -"They smell our deer," Patsy said to herself. "It's a good thing our herd -is at the upper end of the range!" She remembered hearing Marian tell how -a whole herd of five thousand deer had been hopelessly stampeded by the -lusty ki-yi-ing of one wolf dog. - -"The reindeer is their natural food," Marian had explained. "If even one -of them gets loose when there is a reindeer about he will rush straight -at him and leap for his throat." - -"That's one more reason why I must get these people to move on at once," -Patsy whispered to herself. - -To Terogloona she said: "What do they want?" - -Terogloona turned to them with a simple: "_Suna-go-pezuk-peet?_" he -asked, "What do you want?" - -With many guttural expressions and much waving of hands, the leader -explained their wishes. - -"He say," smiled Terogloona, "that in the hills about here are many -foxes, black fox, red fox, white, blue and cross fox. He say, that one, -want to camp here; want to set traps; want to catch foxes." - -"But what will they eat?" asked Patsy. - -Terogloona, having interpreted the question, smiled again at their -answer: - -"They will eat foxes," he answered quietly and modestly. - -For a moment Patsy looked into their staring, hungry, questioning eyes. -They were lying, and she knew it, but remembering a bit of advice of her -father's: "Never quarrel with a hungry person--feed him," she smiled as -she said to Terogloona: - -"You tell them that this morning they shall eat breakfast with me; that -we will have pancakes and reindeer steak, and tea with plenty of sugar in -it." - -"_Capseta! Ali-ne-ca! Capseta!_" exclaimed one of the strangers who had -understood the word sugar and was passing it on in the native word, -_Capseta_, to his companions. - -It was a busy morning for Patsy. There seemed no end to the appetites of -these half starved natives. Even Terogloona grumbled at the amount they -ate, but Patsy silenced him with the words: - -"First they must be fed, then we will talk to them." - -Troubles seldom come singly. Hardly had the last pancake been devoured, -than Terogloona, looking up from his labors, uttered an exclamation of -surprise. A half mile up from the camp the tundra was brown with feeding -reindeer. - -"Scarberry's herd," he hissed. - -"Oh!" exclaimed Patsy. "They dare to do that? They dare to drive their -deer on our nearest and best pasture? And what can we do to stop them? -Must Marian's mission be in vain? Must she go all that way for nothing? -If they remain, the range will be stripped long before she can return!" - -Pressing her hands to her temples, she sat down unsteadily upon one of -the sleds of the strangers. - -She was struggling in a wild endeavor to think of some way out. Then, of -a sudden, a wolfdog jumped up at her very feet and began to ki-yi in a -most distressing fashion. - -Looking up, she saw that three of Scarberry's deer, having strayed nearer -the camp than the others, had attracted the dog's attention. Like a -flash, a possible solution to her problem popped into Patsy's head. - -With a cry of delight she sprang to her feet. The next instant she was -her usual, calm self. - -"Terogloona," she said steadily, "come into the tent for a moment. I have -something I wish to ask you." - - -The task which Marian had set for herself, the scaling of the mountain to -the dark spot in its side, was no easy one. Packed by the beating blast -of a thousand gales, the snow was like white flint. It rang like steel to -the touch of her iron shod staff. It was impossible to make an impression -in its surface with the soft heel of her deerskin boots. The only way she -could make progress was by the aid of her staff. One slip of that staff, -one false step, and she would go gliding, faster, faster, ever faster, to -a terrible death far below. - -Yet to falter now meant that death of another sort waited her; death in -the form of increasing cold and gathering storm. - -Yet she made progress in spite of the cold that numbed her hands and -feet; in spite of her wildly beating heart; regardless of the terror that -gripped her. Now she had covered half the distance; now two-thirds; now -she could be scarcely a hundred yards away. And now she saw clearly. She -had not been mistaken. That black spot in the wall of snow was a yawning -hole in the side of the mountain, a refuge in the time of storm. Could -she but reach it, all would be well. - -Could she do it? From her position the way up appeared steeper. She -thought of going back for the reindeer. Their knife-like hoofs, cutting -into the flinty snow, would carry them safely upward. She now regretted -that she had not driven one before her. Vain regret. To descend now was -more perilous than to go forward. - -So, gripping her staff firmly, pressing her breast to still the wild -beating of her heart, and setting her eyes upon the goal lest they stray -to the depths below, she again began to climb. - -Now she began going first to right, then to left. This zig-zag course, -though longer, was less steep. Up--up--up she struggled, until at last, -with an exultant cry of joy, she threw herself over a broad parapet of -snow and the next instant found herself looking down at a world which but -the moment before had appeared to be reaching up white menacing hands at -her. Then she turned to peer into the dark depths of the cave. She -shivered as she looked. Her old fancies of fairies and goblins, of -strange, wild people inhabiting these mountains, came sweeping back and -quite unnerved her. - -The next moment she was herself again, and turning she called down to -Attatak: - -"Who-hoo! Who-hoo! Bring the reindeer up. Here is shelter for the night." - -An inaudible answer came floating back to her. Then she saw the reindeer -turn about and begin the long, zig-zag course that in time would bring -them to the mouth of the newly discovered cave. - -"And then," Marian said softly to herself. - -She was no longer afraid of the dark shadows behind her. In the place of -fear had come a great curiosity. The same questions which have come to -all people throughout all time upon discovering a strange cave in the -mountains, had come to her. "Am I," she asked herself, "the first person -whose footsteps have echoed in those mysterious corridors of nature, or -have there been others? If there have been others, who were they? What -were they like? What did they leave behind that will tell the story of -their visit here?" - -Marian tried to shake herself free from these questions. It was extremely -unlikely that any one, in all the hurrying centuries, had ever passed -this way. They were on the side of a mountain. She had never known of a -person crossing the range before. So she reasoned, but in the end found -herself hoping that this cave might yield to her adventure loving soul -some new and hitherto inexperienced thrill. - -In the meantime she heard the labored breathing of the reindeer as they -toiled up the mountainside. They would soon be here. Then she and Attatak -would make camp, and safe from the cold and storm, they would sleep in -peace. - -A great wave of thankfulness swept over her, and with the fervent -reverence of a child, she lifted her eyes to the stars and uttered a -prayer of thanksgiving. - -When the wave of emotion had passed, curiosity again gripped her. She -wished to enter the cave, yet shrank from it. Like a child afraid of the -dark, she feared to go forward alone. So, drawing her parka hood close -about her face to protect it from the cold, she waited for Attatak's -arrival. - -Even as she waited there crept into her mind a disturbing question: - -"I wonder," she said aloud, "I do wonder how Patsy is getting along with -the herd?" - - - - - CHAPTER IX - PATSY SOLVES A PROBLEM - - -Turning from the group of strange natives, Patsy lead Terogloona into the -igloo and drawing his grandfatherly head down close to hers, she -whispered: - -"Terogloona, are reindeer much afraid of native wolf dogs?" - -"_Eh-eh!_" Terogloona nodded his head. - -"Very, very, very much afraid of them?" Patsy insisted. - -Terogloona's head nodded vigorously. - -"Then," said Patsy, with a twinkle in her eye, "if we let one wolfdog -loose, and he went toward Bill Scarberry's herd, would they run away?" - -"_Eh-eh._ Mebby. Want kill reindeer, that dog. Mebby kill one, two, -three--many. Sometimes that way, wolfdogs." - -Terogloona's horror of the thing she had proposed, shone in his eyes. -Many years he had been a herder of reindeer. Many a dog had he killed to -save a reindeer. His love for dogs was strong. His love for reindeer was -stronger. To deliberately turn a wolfdog loose to prey upon a herd of -reindeer, even an enemy's herd, was unthinkable. - -Patsy, having read his thoughts, threw back her head and laughed. - -"We won't do that," she said soberly, "but, Terogloona, if each one of -those strange Eskimo people should take a dog by his draw rope, and then -they all should walk toward that old cheat's herd, what would happen?" - -A sudden gleam stole into the aged herder's eyes. He was beginning to -catch her meaning. The deer were upon forbidden ground. She was finding a -way to drive them back to the place where they belonged. - -"They would go away very fast," he said quickly. - -"And would these Eskimos do that; would they do it for two sacks of -flour; two cans of baking-powder; two slabs of bacon and some sugar?" -asked Patsy breathlessly. - -"For all that," said Terogloona, staring at her, "they would do anything; -anything you say." - -"Go tell them they shall have it," said Patsy. "Tell them they must drive -Scarberry's herd back to the Come-saw River valley where they belong, and -that they may take their flour, sugar and other things along." - -The Eskimos crowded about Terogloona, listened to him in silence until he -had finished, then burst into a chorus of "_Eh-eh! Ke! Ke Kullemuk, -Ke-Ke_," which Patsy rightfully interpreted as meaning that they were -ready for the enterprise and that Terogloona was to bring on the reward. - -It was a strange line of march that formed soon after. Seven Eskimos, -each holding to a strap, at the other end of which a native dog reared -and ki-yi'ed, spread out in a broad line, and followed by a sled drawn by -the four remaining dogs, they started toward Scarberry's herd. - -As they came closer to the herd, the leaders of the antlered throng -tossed their heads and whistled. As they came still closer there sounded -the rattle of antler upon antler as the herd backed in upon itself. - -The solitary herder, who had been left to watch the herd, looked at the -on-coming members of his own race and then shouted at them angrily. - -The Eskimos with the dogs marched straight ahead, appearing not to hear -the shouts of the angry herder. In less time than it takes to tell it the -herd was in full stampede. In vain were the shouts of Scarberry's -herders. In vain their herd dogs sought to stem the flight. The reindeer -had scented their ancient foe; they had heard his loud ki-yi. They were -headed for their home range, and would not pause until they had reached -it. Marian's hills and tundra were not for them. - -As for Scarberry's herders, they might remain where they were or follow. -They chose to follow. An hour later, with a sigh of satisfaction, Patsy -saw them driving their sled deer over the broad trail of the herd that -had vanished. - -"Will they come back?" she asked Terogloona. - -"Mebby yes; mebby no," said Terogloona. "Can't tell." - -For a moment he was silent; then with a queer look on his face he said: - -"One thing I am much afraid of." - -"What is that?" asked Patsy. - -"Mebby not come," said Terogloona, looking as if he was sorry he had -spoken. - -That was all he would say and Patsy felt a bit uneasy over his remark. -Nevertheless, she could not help having a feeling of pride in her first -day's work as manager of the herd. Two serious problems had arisen and -she had matched them against each other with the result that both had -vanished. She had succeeded in getting rid of the unwelcome visitors and -Bill Scarberry's great herd. She had a right to feel a bit proud. - -"10 - 10 = 0," she marked on the floor with a bit of charcoal. "We are -minus a few eatables but we can spare them all right. Besides, it's real -satisfying to know that you've given several hungry people an opportunity -to earn a week's provisions." - -Had she known the full and final effect of that week's provisions, she -might have experienced some moments of uncomfortable thinking. Lacking -that knowledge, she smiled as she busied herself with preparing a belated -breakfast for Terogloona and herself. - - - - - CHAPTER X - A STARTLING DISCOVERY - - -To Attatak, whose mind was filled with the weird tales of the spirit -world, to enter a cave away on this unknown mountain side was a far -greater trial than it was to Marian. Cold, blizzards, the wild beasts of -timberlands--these she could face; but the possible dwelling place of the -spirits of dead polar bears and walruses, to say nothing of old women who -had died because they had disregarded the incantations of witch doctors, -"Ugh!"--this was very bad indeed. - -Marian felt the native girl tremble as she took her arm and led her -gently forward into the dark depths of the cave. - -The entrance was not wide, perhaps twelve feet across, but it was fully -as high as it was broad. - -"Our deer can come in, too," whispered Marian, "if it goes back far -enough." - -"If there are no wolves," said Attatak with a shudder. - -"Wolves?" Marian had not thought of that. "You wait here," she whispered. -"I'll go for the rifle." - -"No! No!" Attatak gripped her arm until it hurt. "I will go, too." - -So back out of the cave they felt their way, now tripping over rocks that -rolled away with a hollow sound like distant thunder, now brushing the -wall, till they came at last to the open air. - -Marian hated all this delay. Famished with hunger, chilled to the very -marrow, and weary enough to drop, she longed for the warmth of the fire -she hoped they might light, for the food they would warm over it, and the -comforting rest that would follow. Yet she realized that the utmost -caution must be taken. Wolves, once driven from a cave, might stampede -their reindeer and lose them forever in the mountains. Without reindeer -they should have great trouble in getting back to camp; the Agent would -go on his way ignorant of their dilemma; their pasture land would be -lost, and perhaps their herd with it. - -The rifle securely gripped in the hands of Attatak, who was the surer -shot of the two, they again started into the cave. Strange to say, once -the rifle was in her grasp, Attatak became the bravest of the brave. - -Marian carried a candle in one hand, and in the other a block of safety -matches. The candle was not lighted. So drafty was the entrance that no -candle would stay lighted. Each step she hoped would bring them to a -place where the draft would not extinguish her candle. But in this she -was disappointed. - -"It's a windy cavern," she said. "Must be an entrance at each end." - -Calling on Attatak to pause, Marian struck a match. It flared up, then -went out. A second one did the same. The third lighted the candle. There -was just time for a hasty glance about. Gloomy brown walls lay to right -and left of them, and the awful gloom of the cave was most alarming. - -Glancing down at her feet, Marian uttered a low exclamation of surprise. -Then, with such a definite and direct puff of wind as might come from -human lips, the candle was snuffed out. - -"Wha--what was it?" Attatak whispered. She was shaking so that Marian -feared she would let the rifle go clattering to the rocky floor. - -"Nothing," Marian answered. "Really nothing at all. The ashes of a -camp-fire, and I thought--thought," she gulped, "thought I saw bones in -the ashes!" - -"Bones?" This time the rifle did clatter to the floor. - -"Attatak," Marian scolded; "Attatak. This is absurd!" - -Groping in the dark for the rifle, she grasped a handful of ashes, then -something hard and cold that was not the rifle. - -"Ugh!" she groaned, struggling with all her might to keep from running -away. - -Again she tried for the rifle, this time successfully. She gave it to -Attatak, with the admonition: - -"_Ca-ca!_" (Do take care!) - -"_Eh-eh_," Attatak whispered. - -Stepping gingerly out of the ashes of the mysterious camp-fire, they -again started forward. - -The current of air now became less and less strong, and finally when -Marian again tried the candle it burned with a flickering blaze. - -A glance about told them they were now between narrow dark walls, that -the ceiling was very high, and there was nothing beneath their feet but -rock. - -The yellow glow of light cheered them. If there were wolves they had made -no sound; the gleam of their eyes had not been seen. If the spirits of -the men who had built that long extinguished fire still haunted the -place, the light would drive them away. Attatak assured Marian of that. - -With one candle securely set in a rocky recess, and with another close at -hand, Attatak was even willing to remain in the cave while Marian brought -the reindeer in a little way and carried the articles necessary for a -meal to the back of the cave. - -"There is no moss on this barren mountain," Marian sighed. "Our reindeer -must go hungry to-night, but once we are off the mountain they shall have -a grand feast." - -By the time they had made a small fire on the floor of the cave and had -finished their supper, night had closed in upon their mountain world. -Darkness came quickly, deepened tenfold by the wild storm that appeared -to redouble its fury at every fresh blast. The darkness without vied with -the bleakness of the cave until both were one. Such a storm as it was! -Born and reared on the coast of Alaska, Marian had never before -experienced anything that approached it in its shrieking violence. She -did not wonder now that the mountains appeared to smoke with sweeping -snow. She shivered as she thought what it would have meant had they not -found the cave. - -"Why," she said to Attatak, "we should have been caught up by the wind -like two bits of snow and hurled over the mountain peak." - -The two girls walked to the mouth of the cave and for a moment stood -peering into the night. The whistle and howl of the wind was deafening. -"Whew--whoo--whoo--whe-w--w-o--," how it did howl! The very rock ribbed -mountain seemed to shake from the violence of it. - -"_Eleet-pon-a-muck_," (too bad), said Attatak as she turned her back to -the storm. - -For Marian, however, the spectacle held a strange fascination. Had the -thing been possible, she should have liked nothing better than leaping -out into it. To battle with it; to answer its roar with a wild scream of -her own; to whirl away with it; to become a part of it; to revel in its -madness--this, it seemed to her, would be the height of ecstatic joy. -Such was the call of unbridled nature to her joyous, triumphant youth. - -It was with reluctance that she at last turned back into the depths of -the cave and helped Attatak unroll the bedding roll and prepare for the -night. - -"To-morrow," she whispered to Attatak before she closed her eyes in -sleep, "if the storm has not passed, and we dare not venture out, we will -explore the cave." - -"_Eh-eh_," Attatak answered drowsily. - -The next moment the roaring storm had no auditors. The girls were fast -asleep. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - THE GIRL OF THE PURPLE FLAME - - -There is something in the sharp tang of the Arctic air, in the honest -weariness of a long day of tramping, in the invigorating freshness of -everything about one, that makes for perfect repose. In spite of the -problems that faced them, regardless of the mystery that haunted this -chamber of nature, hour after hour, to the very tune of the whirling -storm, the girls slept the calm and peaceful sleep of those who bear ill -will toward no one. - -When at last Marian pried her eyes open to look at her watch, she was -surprised to learn that eight hours had passed. She did not look to see -the gleam of dawn at the mouth of the cave. Dawn in this strange Arctic -land was still four hours away. - -She knew that the storm was still raging. There came the roar and boom of -the wind. Now and again, as if the demons of storm were determined upon -pulling them from their retreat, a steady sucking breath of it came -sweeping down through the cave. Marian listened, and then she quoted: - - "'Blow high, blow low, - Not all your snow - Can quench our hearth-fire's - Ruddy glow.'" - -She smiled to herself. Their tiny fire had gone out long ago, but another -might easily be kindled. - -She was about to turn over in her bed for another ten winks, when she -suddenly remembered the mysterious discovery of the night before--the -ashes and the bones, and at once she found herself eager for an -exploration of the place. To discover if possible what sort of people had -been here before her; to guess how long ago that had been; to search for -any relics they may have left behind--all these exerted upon her mind an -irresistible appeal. - -She had risen and was drawing on her knickers when Attatak awakened. - -"Come on," Marian cried, "it is morning. The storm is still tearing away -at the mountain side. We can't go on our way. We--" - -"_Eleet-pon-a-muck!_" (too bad), broke in Attatak. "Now Bill Scarberry -will get our pasture. The Agent will pass before we arrive. We shall have -no one to defend our herd." - -At this Marian plumped down upon her sleeping bag. What Attatak said was -true. Should they be unable to leave the cave this day, the gain they had -hoped to make was lost. - -"Well," she laughed bravely, "we have reindeer, and they are swift. We -will win yet." - -"Anyway," she said, springing to her feet, "no use crying over spilled -milk. Until we can leave the cave our time's our own. Come on. Get -dressed. We'll see what wealth lies hidden in this old home in the -mountain side." - - -In the meantime Patsy was having a full share of strange adventure. Late -in the afternoon, feeling herself quite free from the annoying presence -of the visiting band of Eskimos and of Scarberry's herd, she harnessed -her favorite spotted reindeer and went for a drive up the valley. The two -young Eskimos who worked under Terogloona had been sent into the hills to -round up their herd and bring them into camp. This was one of the daily -tasks of the herders. If this was done every day the herd would never -stray too far. Patsy liked to mount a hill with her sled deer and then, -like a general reviewing his troops, watch the broad procession of brown -and white deer as they marched down the valley. - -This day she was a little late. The herd began passing before she had -climbed half way up the ridge. She paused to watch them pass. Then, -undecided whether to climb on up the slope or turn back to camp, she -stood there until the uncertain light of the low Arctic sun had faded and -night had come. Just as she had decided to turn her deer toward home, she -caught a purple gleam on the hill directly above her. - -"The purple flame!" she exclaimed. "And not a quarter of a mile above me. -I could climb up there in fifteen minutes." - -For a moment she stood undecided. Then, seized by a sudden touch of -daring, she whirled her deer about, tethered him to his sled, and went -scouting up a gully toward the spot where the mysterious flame had -flashed for a moment, then had gone out. - -"I'll see something, anyway," she told herself as she strove in vain to -still the painful fluttering of her heart. - -She had worked her way to a position on the side of the hill where the -outlines of a tent, with its extension of stovepipe standing out black -above it, was outlined against the sky. Then, to her consternation, she -saw the flaps of the tent move. - -"Someone is coming out," she whispered to herself. "Perhaps they have -been watching me through a hole in the tent. Perhaps--" - -Her heart stopped beating at thought of the dangers that might be -threatening. Should she turn and flee, or should she flatten herself -against the snow and hope that she might not be seen? Suddenly -remembering that her parka, made of white fawnskin, would blend perfectly -with the snow, she decided on the latter course. - -There was not a second to lose. Hardly had she melted into the background -of snow when a person appeared at the entrance of the tent. - -Then it was that Patsy received a thrilling shock. She had been prepared -to see a bearded miner, an Eskimo, most any type of man. But the person -she saw was not a man, but _a woman_; scarcely that--little more than a -girl. - -It was with the utmost difficulty that Patsy suppressed an audible -exclamation. Closing her lips tight, she took one startled look at the -strange girl. - -Carefully dressed in short plaid skirt, bright checkered mackinaw, and a -blue knit hood; the girl stood perfectly silhouetted against the sky. Her -eyes and hair were brown; Patsy was sure of that. Her features were fine. -There was a deep shade of healthy pink in her cheeks. - -"She's not a native Alaskan," Patsy told herself. "Like me, she has not -been long in Alaska." - -How she knew this she could not exactly tell, but she was as sure of it -as she was of anything in life. Suddenly she was puzzled by a question: -"What had brought the girl from the warmth of the tent into the cold?" - -Patsy saw her glance up toward the sky. There was a rapt look on her face -as she gazed fixedly at the first evening stars. - -"It's as if she were saying a prayer or a Psalm," Patsy murmured. "'The -heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork.'" - -For a full moment the strange girl stood thus; then, turning slowly, she -stepped back into the tent. That the tent had at least one other -occupant, Patsy knew at once by a shadow that flitted across the wall as -the girl entered. - -"Well," mused Patsy. "Well, now, I wonder?" - -She was more puzzled than ever, but suddenly remembering that she had -barely escaped being caught spying on these strangers, she rose and went -gliding down the hill. - -When she reached her reindeer she loosed him and turned him toward home, -nor did she allow him to pause until he stood beside her igloo. - -Once inside her lodge, with the candle gleaming brightly and a fire of -dry willows snapping in the sheet-iron stove, Patsy took a good long time -for thinking things through. - -Somewhat to her surprise, she found herself experiencing a new feeling of -safety. It was true she had not been much afraid since Marian had left -her alone with the herders, for it was but a step from her igloo to -Terogloona's tent. This old herder, who treated her as if she were his -grandchild, would gladly give his life in defending her from danger. -Nevertheless, a little feeling of fear lingered in her mind whenever she -thought of the tent of the purple flame. As she thought of it now she -realized that she had lost that fear when she had discovered that there -was a girl living in that tent. - -"And yet," she told herself, "there are bad women in Alaska just as there -are everywhere. She might be bad, but somehow she didn't look bad. She -looked educated and sort of refined and--and--she looked a bit lonely as -she stood there gazing at the stars. I wanted to walk right up to her and -say 'Hello!' just like that, nice and chummy. Perhaps I will, too, some -day. - -"And perhaps I won't," she thoughtfully added a moment later. Something -of the old dread of the purple flame still haunted her mind. Then, too, -there were two puzzling questions: Why were these people here at all; and -how did they live, if not off Marian's deer? - -Not many days later Patsy was to make a startling discovery that, to all -appearances, was an answer to this last question. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - ANCIENT TREASURE - - -With a hand that trembled slightly, Marian held the candle that was to -light their way in the exploration of the mysterious mountain cavern. As -if drawn by a magnet, she led the way straight to the spot where but a -few hours before she had been so frightened by finding herself standing -in the burned out ashes and bones of an old camp-fire. - -She laughed now as she bent over to examine the spot. There could be no -question that there had once been a camp-fire here. There were a number -of bones strewn about, too. - -"That fire," she said slowly, "must have burned itself out years ago; -perhaps fifty years. Those bones are from the legs of a reindeer or -caribou. They're old, too. How gray and dry they are! They are about to -fall into dust." - -She studied the spot for some time. At last she straightened up. - -"Not much to it, after all," she sighed. "It's interesting enough to know -that some storm blown traveler who attempted the pass, as we did, once -spent the night here. But he left no relic of interest behind, -unless--why--what have you there?" She turned suddenly to her companion. - -Attatak was holding a slim, dull brown object in her hand. - -"Only the broken handle of an old cow-drill," she said slowly, still -studying the thing by the candle light. - -"It's ivory." - -"_Eh-eh._" - -"And quite old?" - -"Mebby twenty, mebby fifty years. Who knows?" - -"Why are you looking at it so sharply?" - -"Trying to read." - -"Read what?" - -"Well," smiled Attatak, as she placed the bit of ivory in Marian's hand, -"long ago, before the white man came, my people told stories by drawing -little pictures on ivory. They scratched the pictures on the ivory, then -rubbed smoke black in them so they would see them well. This cow-drill -handle is square. It has four sides. Each side tells a story. Three are -of hunting--walrus, polar bear and caribou. But the other side is -something else. I can't quite tell what it says." - -Marian studied it for a time in silence. - -"Mr. Cole would love that," she said at last, and her thoughts were far -away. For the moment her mind had carried her back to those thrilling -days aboard the pleasure yacht, _The O'Moo_. Since you have doubtless -read our other book, "The Cruise of _The O'Moo_," I need scarcely remind -you that Mr. Cole was the curator of a great museum, and knew all about -strange and ancient things. He had done much to aid Marian and her -friends in unravelling the mystery of the strange blue face. - -"Bring it along," Marian said, handing the piece back to Attatak. "It -tells us one thing--that the man who built that fire was an Eskimo. It is -worth keeping. I should like to take it with me to the Museum when I go -back. - -"Now," she said briskly, "let's go all over the cave. There may be things -that we have not yet discovered." - -And indeed there were. It was with the delicious sensation of research -and adventure that the girls wandered back and forth from wall to wall of -the gloomy cavern. - -Not until they had passed the spot where they had spent the night, and -were far back in the cave, did they make a discovery of any importance. -Then it was that Marian, with a little cry of joy, put out her hand and -took from a ledge of rock a strange looking little dish no larger than a -finger bowl. It was so incrusted with dirt and dust that she could not -tell whether it was really a rare find of some ancient pottery, or an -ordinary china dish left here by some white adventurer. However, -something within her seemed to whisper: "Here is wealth untold; here is a -prize that will cause your friend, the museum curator, to turn green with -envy." - -"_Sulee!_" (another), said Attatak, as she took down a larger object of -the same general shape. - -A few feet farther on was a ledge fairly covered with curious objects; -strange shaped dishes; bits of ivory, black as coal; pieces of copper, -dulled with age. Such were the treasures of the past that lay before -them. - -"Someone's pantry of long ago," mused Marian. - -"Very, very old," said Attatak, holding up a bit of black ivory. "Mebby -two hundred, mebby five hundred years. Ivory turn black slow; very, very -slow. By and by, after long, long time, look like that." - -As Attatak uttered these words Marian could have hugged her for sheer -joy. She knew now that they had made a very rare find. The objects had -not been left there by a white man, but by some native. Broken bits of -ancient Eskimo pottery had been found in mounds on the Arctic coast. -Those had been treasured. But here were perfect specimens, such as any -museum in the world would covet. - -And yet, had she but known it, the rareness and value of some of these -were to exceed her fondest dreams. But this discovery was to come later. - -Drawing off her calico parka, Marian tied it at the top, and using it as -a sack, carefully packed all the articles. - -"Let's go back," she said in an awed whisper. - -"_Eh-eh_," Attatak answered. - -There was a strange spookiness about the place that made them half afraid -to remain any longer. - -They had turned to go, when Marian, chancing to glance down, saw the bit -of ivory they had found by the outer camp-fire. At first she was tempted -to let it remain where it lay. It seemed an insignificant thing after the -discovery of these rarer treasures. But finally she picked it up and -thrust it into her bag. - -Well for her that she did. Later it was to prove the key to a mystery, an -entirely new mystery which had as yet not appeared above their horizon, -but was, in a way, associated with the mystery of the purple flame. - -"Listen!" said Marian, as they came nearer to the mouth of the cave, "I -do believe the storm is passing. Perhaps we can get off the mountain -to-day. Oh, Attatak! We'll win yet! Won't that be glorious?" - -It was true; the storm was passing. Attatak was dispatched to -investigate, and soon came hurrying back with the report that they could -be on their way as soon as they had eaten breakfast and packed. - -Marian was possessed with a wild desire to inspect her newly discovered -treasure--to wash, scrub and scrape it and try to discover how it was -made and what it was made of. Yet she realized that any delay for such a -cause would be all but criminal folly. So, after a hasty breakfast, she -rubbed as much dust as she could from the strange treasures and packed -them carefully in the folds of the sleeping bags. - -Soon the girls found themselves beside their deer, picking their way -cautiously forward over the remaining distance to the divide; then quite -as cautiously they started down the other side. - -During the day they halted for a cold lunch while their reindeer fed on a -broad plateau, a protected place where they were safe from the wild -blizzards of the peaks that loomed far above them. - -"From now on," said Marian, "there will be little rest for us. Our bold -stroke has saved us nothing. It is now a question of whether reindeer are -trustworthy steeds in the Arctic; also whether girls are capable of -solving problems, and of enduring many hardships. As for me," she shook -her fist in the general direction of Scarberry's herd, "I'll say they -are. We'll win! See if we don't!" - -To this declaration Attatak uttered an "_Eh-eh_," which to Marian sounded -like a fervent "Amen!" - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - THE LONG TRAIL - - -At nightfall of the following day, worn from the constant travel, and -walking as if in their sleep, the two girls came to the junction of the -two forks of a modest sized river. The frozen stream, coated as it was by -a hard crust of snow, had given them a perfect trail over the last ten -miles of travel. Before that they had crossed endless tiers of low-lying -hills whose hard packed and treacherously slippery sides had brought -grief to them and to their reindeer. Twice an overturned sled had dragged -a reindeer off his feet, and reindeer, sled and driver had gone rolling -and tumbling down the hill to be piled in a heap in the gully below. - -Those had been trying hours; but now they were looking forward to many -miles of smooth going between the banks of this river. - -First, however, there must be rest and food for them and for their deer. -They were watching the shelving bank for some likely place to camp, where -there was shelter from the biting wind and driftwood lodged along the -bank for a fire. Then, with a little cry of surprise, Marian pointed at a -bend in the river. - -"At this point," she said, "the river runs southwest." - -Attatak looked straight down the river and at the low sweeping banks -beyond, then uttered a low: "_Eh-eh_," in agreement. - -"That means that we cannot follow the river," said Marian. "Our course -runs northwest. Every mile travelled on the river takes us off our course -and lessens our chance of reaching our goal in time." - -"What shall we do?" asked Attatak, in perplexity. - -"Let me think," said Marian. "There is time enough to decide. We must -camp here. The deer must have food and rest. So must we. There is not -much danger of wolves. If any come prowling around, the deer will let us -know soon enough. We will sleep on our sleds and if anything goes wrong, -the deer, tethered to the sleds, will tumble us out of our beds. Anyway, -they will waken us." - -Soon supper was over. The deer, having had their fill of moss dug from -beneath the snow, had lain down to rest. The girls spread their sleeping -bags out upon the sleds and prepared for a few hours of much needed rest. -Attatak, with the carefree unconcern that is characteristic of her race, -had scarcely buried her face in an improvised pillow when she was fast -asleep. - -Sleep did not come so quickly to Marian. Many matters of interest -lingered in her mind. It was as if her mind were a room all littered up -with the odds and ends of a day's work. She must put it to rights before -she could sleep. - -She thought once more of the strange treasures they had brought from the -cave. Tired as she was, she was tempted to get out those articles and -look at them, and to brush them up a bit and see what they were like. - -"I know it's foolish," she told herself, "but it's exactly as if I had -hung up my stocking on Christmas Eve, and then when Christmas morning -came, had been obliged to seize my stocking without so much as a glance -inside, and forced to start at once on a long journey which would offer -me no opportunity to examine my stocking until the journey was at an end. -But I won't look; not now. It's too cold. Brr-r," she shivered. - -As she drew herself farther down into the furry depths of her sleeping -bag, she was reminded of the time she and Patsy had slept together -beneath the stars. She could not help wishing that Patsy was with her -now, sharing her sleeping bag, and looking up at the gleaming Milky Way. - -She wondered vaguely how Patsy was getting on with the herd, but the -thought did not greatly disturb her. She was about to drift off to the -land of dreams, when a thought popped into her mind that brought her up -wide awake again. Their morning's course was not yet laid. What should it -be? - -She closed her eyes and tried to think. Then, like a flash, it came to -her. - -"It's the hard way," she whispered to herself. "Seems as if it were -always the hard way that is safe and sure." - -The thought that had come to her was this: In order to reach their -destination, they must still travel several miles north. The river they -were following flowed southwest. To go south was to go out of their way. -Were they to strike due north, across country, they might in the course -of a day's travel come to another stream which did not angle toward the -south. That would mean infinitely hard travel over snow that was soft and -yielding, and across tundra whose frozen caribou bogs were as rough as a -cordwood road. - -"It's the long, hard way," she sighed, "but we may win. If we follow this -river we never can." - -Then, with all her problems put in order, she fell asleep. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - MYSTERIOUS MUSIC - - -Two days later Marian and Attatak found themselves tramping slowly along -behind their tired deer. It was night. Now and again the moon shot a -golden beam of light across their trail. For the most part that trail was -dark, overshadowed by great spruce and fir trees that stood out black -against the whiteness of the snow, each tree seeming a gown clad -monk--silent witnesses of their passing. - -There was now a definitely marked trail. An ax cut here and there on a -tree told them this trail had been made by men, and not by moose and -caribou. They had seen no traces of man. No human habitation had sent its -gleam of light across their trail to bid them welcome. Scarcely knowing -whether she wished to see the light of a cabin, Marian tramped doggedly -on. It was long past camping time, yet she feared to make camp. Several -times she had caught the long drawn howl of a wolf, faint and indistinct -in the distance. - -With a burst of joy and hope she thought of the progress they had made. -The tramp across open tundra had been fearfully hard. They had, however, -reaped from it a rich reward; the river they had found was larger than -the other and its surface had offered an almost perfect trail. It flowed -north by west instead of southwest. It took them directly on their way. -Even now Marian was wondering if this were not the very river at whose -junction with the great Yukon was located the station they sought to -reach before the Government Agent had passed. - -"If it is," she murmured, "what can hinder us from making the station in -time?" - -It seemed that there could be but one answer to this; yet in the Arctic -there is no expression that is so invariably true as this one: "You never -can tell." - -Then, suddenly, Marian's thoughts were drawn to another subject. A -peculiar gleam of moonlight among the trees reminded her of the purple -flame. At once she began wondering what could be the source of that -peculiar and powerful light; who possessed it, and what their purpose was -in living on the tundra. - -"And Patsy?" she questioned herself, "I wonder if they are troubling her. -Wonder if they are really living off our deer. I wish I had not been -obliged to leave our camp. Seems that there were problems enough without -this. I wish--" - -Suddenly she put out one hand and stopped her deer, while with the other -she gave Attatak a mute signal for silence. - -Breaking gently through the hushed stillness of the forest, like a spring -zephyr over a meadow, there came to her ears a sound of wonderful -sweetness. - -"Music," she breathed, "and such music! The very music of Heaven!" - -Moments passed, and still with slightly bowed heads, as if listening to -the Angelus, they stood there, still as statues, listening to the strange -music. - -"The woods were God's first temples," Marian whispered. - -For the moment she lived as in a trance. A great lover of music, she felt -the thrill of perfect melody breaking over her soul like bright waves -upon golden sand. She fancied that this melody had no human origin, that -it was a spontaneous outburst from the very heart of the forest; God -himself speaking through the mute life of earth. - -When this illusion had passed she still stood there wondering. - -"Attatak, what day of the week is this?" - -For a moment Attatak did not answer. She was counting on her fingers. - -"Sunday," she said at last. - -"Sunday," Marian repeated. "And that is a pipe organ. How wonderful! How -perfectly beautiful! A pipe organ in the midst of the forest!" - -"And yet," she hesitated, scarcely daring to believe her senses, "how -could a pipe organ be brought way up here?" - -"But it is!" she affirmed a few seconds later. "Attatak, you watch the -deer while I go ahead and find out what sort of place it is, and whether -there are dangerous dogs about." - -Her wonder grew with every step that she took in the direction of the -mysterious musician. As she came closer, and the tones became more -distinct, she knew that she could not be mistaken. - -"It's a pipe organ," she told herself with conviction, "and a splendid -one at that! Who in all the world would bring such a wonderful instrument -away up here? Strange I have never heard of this settlement. It must be a -rather large village or they could not afford such an organ for their -church." - -As she thought of these things, and as the rise and fall of the music -still came sweeping through the trees, a strange spell fell upon her. It -was as if she were resting upon the soft, cushioned seat of some splendid -church. With the service appealing to her sense of the artistic and the -beautiful, and to her instinct of reverence; with the soft lights -pervading all, she was again in the chapel of her own university. - -"Oh!" she cried, "I do hope it's a real church and that we're not too -late for the service." - -One thought troubled her as she hurried forward. If this was a large -village, where were the tracks of dog teams that must surely be -travelling up the river; trappers going out over their lines of traps; -hunters seeking caribou; prospectors starting away over the trail for a -fresh search for the ever illusive yellow gold? Surely all these would -have left a well beaten trail. Yet since the last snow there had not been -a single team passing that way. - -"It's like a village of the dead," she mused, and shivered at the -thought. - -When at last she rounded a turn and came within full sight of the place -from which the enchanting tones issued, the sight that met her eyes -caused her to start back and stare with surprise and amazement. - -She had expected to find a cluster of log cabins; a store, a church and a -school. Instead, she saw a yawning hole in a bank of snow; a hole that -was doubtless an entrance to some sort of structure. Whether the -structure was built of sod, logs, or merely of snow, she could not guess. -Some thirty feet from this entrance, and higher, apparently perched on -the crust of snow, were two such cupola affairs as Marian had seen on -certain types of sailing vessels and gasoline schooners. From these there -streamed a pale yellow light. - -"Well!" she exclaimed. "Well, of all things!" - -For a moment, undecided whether to flee from that strange place, she -stood stock still. - -The organ, for the moment, was stilled. The woods were silent. Such a -hush as she had never experienced in all her life lay over all. Then, -faint, indistinct, came a single note of music. Someone had touched a -key. The next instant the world seemed filled with the most wonderful -melody. - -"_Handel's Largo_," she whispered as she stood there enchanted. Of all -pipe organ music, she loved Handel's Largo best. Throughout the rendering -of the entire selection, she stood as one enchanted. - -"It is enough," she said when the sound of the last note had died away in -the tree tops. "It's all very mysterious, but any person who can play -_Handel's Largo_ like that is not going to be unkind to two girls who are -far from home. I'm going in." - -With unfaltering footsteps she started forward. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - AN OLD MAN OF THE NORTH - - -Having walked resolutely to the black hole in the snow bank, Marian -looked within. There was no door; merely an opening here. A dim lamp in -the distance sent an uncertain and ghostly light down the corridor. By -this light she made out numerous posts and saw that a narrow passage-way -ran between them. - -There was something so mysterious about the place that she hesitated on -the threshold. At that moment a thought flashed through her mind, a -startling and disheartening thought. - -"Radio," she murmured, "nothing but radio." - -She was convinced in an instant that her solution of the origin of the -wonderful music was correct. - -The persons who lived in this strange dwelling, which reminded her of -pictures she had seen of the dens and caves of robbers and brigands, had -somehow come into possession of a powerful radio receiving set. Somewhere -in Nome, or Fairbanks, or perhaps even in Seattle--a noted musician was -giving an organ recital. This radio set with its loud speaker had picked -up the music and had faithfully reproduced it. That was all there was to -the mystery. There was no pipe organ, no skillful musician out here in -the forest wilderness. It had been stupid of her to think there might be. - -This revelation, for revelation it surely seemed to be, was both -disappointing and disturbing. Disappointing, because in her -adventure-loving soul she had hoped to discover here in the wilderness a -thing that to all appearances could not be--a modern miracle. Disturbing -it was, too, for since a mere instrument, a radio-phone, has no soul, the -character of the person who operated it might be anything at all. She -could not conceive of the person who actually touched the keys and caused -that divine music to pour forth as a villain. Any sort of person, -however, might snap on the switch that sends such music vibrating from -the horn of the loud speaker of a radiophone. - -For a full five minutes she wavered between two courses of action; to go -on inside this den, or to go back to Attatak and attempt to pass it -unobserved. - -Perhaps it was the touch of a finger on what she supposed to be a far off -key--the resuming of the music; perhaps it was her own utter weariness -that decided her at last. Whatever it was, she set a resolute foot inside -the entrance, and the next instant found herself carefully picking her -way down the dark passage toward the dim lamp. - -To her surprise, when she at last reached the lamp that hung over a door, -she found not an oil lamp, but a small electric light bulb. - -"Will marvels never cease?" she whispered. - -For a second she hesitated. Should she knock? She hated spying; yet the -door stood invitingly ajar. If the persons within did not appear to be -the sort of persons a girl might trust; if she could see them and remain -unobserved, there was still opportunity for flight. - -Acting upon this impulse, she peered through the crack in the door. - -Imagine her surprise upon seeing at the far end of a long, -high-ceilinged, heavily timbered room, not a radio horn, but a pipe -organ. - -"So," she breathed, "my first thought was right. That enchanting music -_was_ produced on the spot. And by such a musician!" - -Seated with his side toward her, was the bent figure of an old man. His -long, flowing white beard, his snowy locks, the dreamy look upon his face -as his fingers drifted back and forth across the keys, reminded her of -pictures she had seen of ancient bards playing upon golden harps. - -"'Harp of the North that mouldering long has hung,'" she recited in a low -voice. - -The fingers on the keys suddenly ceased their drifting, the dreamy look -faded from the musician's face. A smile lighted his eyes as, turning -about, he spoke in a cheery voice: - -"Come in. I have been waiting for you. You are welcome to an old man's -lonely house; doubly welcome, coming as you do in time for Sunday -vespers." - -This strange, almost uncanny proceeding so startled the girl that for a -second she was tempted to turn and flee. The next second she had complete -control of herself. Pushing the door open, as if entering the chamber of -the king of fairies, she made a little bow and said: - -"Thank you." - -Then, realizing how perfectly absurd her action had been, she broke into -a hearty laugh and in this laugh the old man joined. - -So, with the ice broken, they became friends at once. - -To her vast relief she found that the old man, though he had undoubtedly -been expecting them or someone else, did not know all about them. He -asked if they travelled with dog team or reindeer. Upon being told that -they drove reindeer, he smiled and said: - -"Good. It's lucky I have feed for your deer. Reindeer people seldom come -this way. Once I was caught unprepared to entertain them, so last autumn -I put in a good stock of moss and willow leaves. Your deer shall be -safely housed and richly fed, and so shall you. Go bring them at once. Or -shall I go with you?" - -"Oh no; that is not necessary," Marian hastened to assure him. - -"Very well then, while you go I will put the birds on to broil. You are -doubtless very hungry." - -Ten minutes later Marian was chattering to Attatak: - -"The queerest place you ever saw; and the strangest old gentleman. But -really, I think he is a dear." - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - THE BARRIER - - -The curiosity of the two girls knew no bounds as they neared the strange -abode. Who was this man? Why did he live here all by himself? How had he -brought his pipe organ to this remote spot? Whence had come those -peculiar skylights through which the yellow light gleamed? Whence came -the power for those electric lights? How had this strange man known of -their coming? Or had he known? Had he been expecting someone else and had -he, as a perfect host, pretended it was Marian he had known to be at the -door? These, and many other questions, flashed through Marian's alert -mind as she guided her deer over the remaining distance and up to the -entrance to the cave-like structure. - -Lights flashed on here and there as they passed inside. A long corridor, -walled on either side by hewn logs, led to a stall-like room where was -food in abundance for their reindeer, and, what was better still, perfect -protection from any night prowler. - -Marian was wondering what sort of meal was being prepared for them when -they were at last led into the large room. Here, on the side opposite the -pipe organ, great logs crackled merrily in a fireplace half as wide as -the room itself. - -After taking their fur parkas, the host motioned them to seats beside the -fire. There, charmed by the drowsy warmth, Marian experienced great -difficulty in keeping awake. Strange fancies floated through her mind. -She fancied she was aboard a ship at sea; the walls about her were the -walls of her state-room; the huge beams above, the ship's beams; the -strange cupola affairs above, the lights to her cabin. - -As she shook herself free from this fancy, she realized that aside from -the fireplace, the inside of the room was very like a cabin of a high -class schooner. - -"It must all come from some vessel," she reasoned. "Even the lighting -fixtures look as if they had been taken from a ship. I wonder what ship, -and why?" - -She thought of stories she had read of beach combers who wrecked ships by -displaying fake shore lights on stormy nights that they might gather the -wreckage from the beach. For a moment she fancied this bearded patriarch -playing such a role. Finding this too absurd even for fancy, she shook -herself free from it. - -"Food," she murmured to herself, "I'm ravenously hungry. He spoke of -putting on the birds. I wonder what he could have meant?" - -She did not have long to wait. A moment later there came to her nostrils -the delicious aroma of perfectly brewed coffee. Mingled with it were -various savory odors which gave promise of a rich meal. - -"You are not yet fully warmed," said their host, "so you may eat by the -fire." - -He was pushing before him a tea-wagon of wonderful design and -craftsmanship. This was fairly creaking under its load of chinaware of -exquisite design, and silver which did not require a second look to tell -that it was sterling. Marian barely avoided a gasp at sight of it. - -If the service was perfect, the food was no less so. Four ptarmigan, -those wonderful "quail of the Arctic," broiled to a delicious turn, were -flanked with potatoes, gravy, peas and apple sauce. The desert was -blueberries preserved in wild honey. - -"Only idleness or indifference," smiled their host as he caught their -looks of appreciation, "can hinder one from securing appetizing foods in -any land." - -"And now," he said as they finished, "there are questions you may wish to -ask; information that you may wish to impart." - -"Why--we--" Marian began in some confusion. - -He interrupted her with a wave of the hand. "It will all keep until -morning. This habit young people have, of sitting up talking all hours of -the night because life seems too exciting for sleep, is all wrong. You -are in need of rest. 'Everything in its good time' is my motto. -Fortunately my guest room is warm. The fire is not yet burned out. Last -night I had the honor of furnishing a night's lodging to the Agent of our -Government." - -"The Agent?" Marian asked in surprise. - -"Yes. He came up here to ask me about the lay of the land above here. I -think," there was a merry twinkle in his eye, "that I may lay claim to -being the oldest resident of this town. No doubt I was able to give him -some valuable information." - -"And he is--is gone?" Marian gasped. - -"Left this morning. Why? Did you wish to see him? Surely--yes, you would. -Being connected with the reindeer business, you would. Unfortunate that -you did not reach here a few hours earlier. He left on foot. The trail -around the rapids is rough. He did not try to bring his dogs and sleds -through. Left them with his driver at the foot of the rapids. Well enough -that he did. Couldn't have made it." - -Upon realizing that she had missed the man she had come so far to see, -Marian could have burst into tears. - -"You may find him at the Station, though," her host assured her. "I -believe he means to stay there a day or two. His dogs are footsore from -travelling over crusted snow." - -Marian's heart gave a leap of joy. But what was this about the trail and -the rapids? - -"Did--did you say that one could not pass over the trail with a sled?" -she asked in the calmest tone she could command. "Are the rapids not yet -frozen over?" - -"Frozen?" he stared at her incredulously. "Have you not heard them? Ah, -then, you came from up stream. The forest shuts out the sound. Slip on -your parka and come with me, and you shall hear. It is grand music, that -ceaseless rush and roar, that beating of waters and tumbling of ice." - -It may have seemed glorious to the old man, but to Marian, who listened -to the wild tumult of waters, it was frightening and disheartening. - -"Can a boat run the rapids?" she asked, though she knew the question was -foolish and that no boat could run them. - -"None ever has." - -"Can--can a sled pass over the trail above?" - -"None has. None can. The way is too rough; the trees too closely crowded -together. Dogs, reindeer, men, yes; but sleds, no." - -"How far is it to the station?" Marian faltered. - -"Three days journey." - -"Are there any houses on the way?" - -"None." - -"Then, without our sleds, we would not dare undertake the journey." - -"No. It would not do. You would starve or freeze." - -It required all Marian's power of will to remain standing as she -faltering said; "Then we are defeated. We--we must turn back. We--" She -could not go on. - -The aged man studied her face for a moment. Then quietly he asked: - -"Is it very important that you get to the station; that you see the -Agent?" - -"Oh, very, very important! We--" - -Again he motioned for silence. "Do not tell me now. I think it can be -arranged that your sleds may pass the rapids. It _shall_ be arranged. I -promise it. Come, you are worn out. It is time you should sleep." - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - AGE SERVES YOUTH - - -The two girls had carried no suit-case, satchel or duffel bag on this -trip. Their spare clothing was stowed away in their sleeping bags. When -their host had lighted their way to the room that was to be theirs for -the night, and had retired to his large room, they tip-toed back to their -sleds, unlashed their sleeping bags and carried them as they were to -their room. - -For some hours Marian had not thought of the ancient treasure found in -the cave, but once she began unrolling her sleeping bag she was reminded -of it. A piece of old ivory went clattering to the floor. With a cry of -surprise she picked it up, then carefully removed the other pieces of -ivory, copper and ancient pottery and stood them in a row against the -wall. - -Again there came the temptation to give them a thorough examination. -Events transpired later that caused her to wish that she had done so. But -weary and troubled by the turn affairs had taken, she again put off this -inviting task. She slipped at once into her sleeping gown and plunged -beneath the covers of the most delightful bed she had ever known. Attatak -followed her a few seconds later. - -They found themselves lying upon a bed of springy moss mixed with the -fragrant tips of balsam. Over this had been thrown wolfskin robes. With -one of these beneath them, and two above, they snuggled down until only -their noses were showing. - -They did not sleep at once. Left to himself, the mysterious old man had -seated himself at his organ, and now sent forth such wild, pealing tones -as Marian had never heard before. He was doing Dvorjak's wildest -symphony, and making it wilder and more weird than even the composer -himself could have dreamed it might be made. - -Throughout its rendition, Marian lay tense as a bow-string. As it ended -with a wild, racing crash, she settled back with a shiver, wondering what -could throw such a spell over an old man as would cause him to play in -that manner. - -Had she known the reason she would have done little sleeping that night. -The aged host was tuning his soul to such a key as would nerve him for a -Herculean task. - -Since Marian did not know, she puzzled for a time over the trail they -must travel in the morning; wondered vaguely how her host was to keep his -promise of bringing their sleds safely past the rapids; then fell asleep. - -As for their host, fifteen minutes after the last note of his wild -symphony had died away, he tip-toed down the silent corridor which led to -the door of the room in which the girls were sleeping. Having convinced -himself by a moment of listening that they were asleep, he made his way -to the spot where their two sleds had been left. These he examined -carefully. After straightening up, he murmured: - -"Took their sleeping-bags. That's bad. Didn't need 'em. Can't disturb 'em -now. Guess it can be managed." - -After delivering himself of this monologue, he proceeded to wrap the -contents of each sled in a water-proof blanket, then dragged them out -into the moonlight. - -Having strapped an axe, a pick and a shovel on one sled, he tied the -other sled to it and began pulling them over the smooth downhill trail -that led toward the falls. - -For a full mile he plodded stolidly on. Then he halted, separated the -sleds, and with the foremost sled gliding on before him, plunged down a -steep bank to the right. Presently he came toiling back up the hill for -the other sled. - -At the bottom once more, he stood for a moment staring into the foaming -depths of a roaring torrent. - -"Pretty bad," he muttered. "Never did it before at this time of year. -Might fail. Might--" - -Suddenly he broke off and began humming, "Tum--te--tum--tum--tum." He was -going over and over that mad symphony. It appeared to give him strength -and courage, and seizing the pick, he began hacking away at some object -that lay half buried in the snow. - -Fifteen minutes later he had exhumed a short, square raft. - -"Built you for other purposes, but you'll do for this," he muttered. -"Other logs where you came from." - -He set both sleds carefully upon the raft; then with yards upon yards of -rawhide rope, lashed them solidly to it. - -This done, he began running out a heavier rope. This he carried up the -bank to a spot where there was a mass of jagged rock covered here and -there by hard packed snow. - -More than once he slipped, but always he struggled upward until at last -he stood upon the topmost pinnacle. A heroic figure silhouetted in the -moonlight, he stood for a full five minutes staring down at the racing -waters below. Dancing in the moonlight, they appeared to reach out black -hands to grasp and drag him down. - -Before him, on the opposite side, gleamed a high white bank. A sheer -precipice of ice fifty feet high, this was the end of a glacier that -every now and again sent a thousand tons of ice thundering into the deep -pool at its foot. - -Beneath this ice barrier the water had worn a channel. A boat drifting -down on the rushing waters would certainly be sucked down beneath this -ice and be crushed like an eggshell. - -What the old man intended to do was evident enough. He meant to set the -raft, laden with the sleds and trappings so precious to his young guests, -afloat in those turbulent waters and then to attempt by means of the rope -to hold it from being drawn beneath the ice, and to guide it a half mile -down the river to quieter waters below. There was no path for him to -follow. Jagged rocks and ice-like snow, slippery as glass, awaited him; -yet he dared to try it. - -Here was a task fit for the youngest and the strongest; yet there he -stood, the spirit of a hero flowing in his veins--age serving youth. The -gallantry of a great and perfect gentleman bowing to fair ladies and -daring all. How Marian would have thrilled at sight of this daring act. - -With a swift turn he tightened the rope, then with the "de--de--dum" of -his symphony upon his lips, strained every muscle until he felt the rope -slack, then eased away as he saw the raft tilt for the glide. Then he -relaxed his muscles and stood there watching. - -With a slow graceful movement the small raft glided out upon the water. -An eddy seized it and whirled it about. Three times it turned, then the -current caught it, and whirled it away. The rope was tight now, and every -muscle of the grand old man was tense. A battle had begun which was to -decide whether or not the two girls were to reach the station and fulfill -their mission. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - THE TRAIL OF BLOOD - - -That same evening Patsy made her second startling discovery. An hour -before night was to set in, she had harnessed a sled deer and struck out -into the hills in search of a brown yearling that had been missing for -two days. - -"Strange where they all go," she murmured as she climbed a hill for a -better view of the surrounding country. "Marian was right; unless we -discover the cause of these disappearances and put an end to them, soon -there will be no herd. It's a shame! How I wish I could make the -discovery all by myself and surprise Marian with the good news when she -gets home." - -As she scanned the horizon away across to the west, she saw a single dark -figure on the crest of a hill. - -"Old Omnap-puk," she said, taking in with admiration the full sweep of -his splendid antlers. "It's the first time I've seen him for a long -while. We can't lose you, can we? And we can't catch you," she said, -speaking to the lone figure. - -Old Omnap-puk was neither reindeer nor caribou; at least this was what -Marian had said about it. She believed that he was a cross-breed--half -reindeer and half caribou. He was large like a caribou, larger than the -largest deer in the herd. He had something of the dark brown coat of the -caribou, but a bright white spot on his left side told of the reindeer -blood that flowed in his veins. - -But he was very wild. Haunting the edge of the herd, he never came close -enough to be lassoed or driven into a brush corral. Many a wild chase had -he lead the herders, but always he had shown them his sleek brown heels. - -Many times the girls had debated the question of allowing the herders to -kill him for food and for his splendid coat; yet they had hesitated. They -were not sure that he was not a full-blooded reindeer; that he was not -marked and did not belong to someone. If he was a stray reindeer, they -had no right to kill him. Besides this, it seemed a pity to kill such a -wonderful creature. So the matter stood. And here he was on their feeding -ground. - -As Patsy stood there gazing at this splendid creature, she slowly -realized that the Arctic sun had flamed down below the far horizon and -long shadows raced out of the West. A full orbed moon stood just atop the -trees that lined the eastern rim of hills. Turning reluctantly to leave, -her eyes caught sight of a dark spot in the snow. She bent over to -examine it, and a moment later straightened up with a startled -exclamation. - -"Blood! It is a trail of blood. I wonder which way it goes?" - -Unable to answer this question, she decided to circle until she could -find some sign that would tell her whether or not she was back-tracking. -Satisfied at last of the direction, she pushed on, and there in the eerie -moonlight, through the ghostly silence of an Arctic night, she silently -followed the trail of blood. - -Suddenly she stopped and stood still. Just before her was a large -discoloration of the snow. And, though the snow was so wind packed that -she walked on it without snowshoes, her keen eyes detected spots where it -had been broken and scratched by some hard, heavy object. - -Dropping on her knees, she began examining every detail of the markings. -When she arose she spoke with a quiet tone of conviction: - -"This is the track of a man. He has killed one of our deer and had been -carrying it on his shoulder. Blood dropped from the still warm carcass. -That explains the trail of blood. The load has become too heavy for him. -At this spot he has laid his burden down. In places the antlers have -scratched the snow. After a time he has gone on. But which way did he -go?" - -Once more she bent over. On the hard packed snow, the sole of a skin boot -makes no tracks. After a moment's study she again straightened up. - -"There's a long scratch, as if he had dragged the carcass to his shoulder -as he started on, and an antler had dragged for two or three feet. That -would indicate that he went the way I have been going. Question is, shall -I go farther, or shall I go for the herders with their rifles?" She -decided to go on. - -The blood spots grew less and less as she advanced. She was beginning to -despair of being able to follow much farther, when, with a startled -gesture, she came to a sudden halt. - -"The purple flame!" she said in an awed whisper. - -It was true. As she stared down at a little willow lined valley, she saw -the outline of a tent. From the very center of it there appeared to burst -that weird purple light. - -"Well," she concluded, "I am at least sure that they've killed one of our -deer; killed several, probably. No doubt they have been living off our -herd." - -For a moment she stood there undecided; then, with reluctant feet, she -turned back. It was the only wise thing to do. She was alone and unarmed. -To follow that trail further would be dangerous and foolhardy. - -But what should she do, once she had reached her own camp? She was -convinced in her own mind that the slain creature was one of their deer; -yet she could not prove it. Should she lead her armed herders to the -stranger's tent and demand an explanation? Oh, how she did wish that -Marian was here! - -As she walked homeward she felt terribly depressed. There was a girl in -that tent of the purple flame. She had seen her. She had hoped that -sometime, in the not too distant future, they might be friends. Such a -friend in this lonely land, especially since Marian and Attatak were -gone, would be a boon indeed. Now she felt that such a thing could never -be. It was as if a great gulf had suddenly yawned between them. - -After reaching her camp and sipping a cup of tea and munching at some -hard crackers, she sat for hours thinking things through. Her final -decision was that for the present she could do nothing. Marian might -return any day now. In such matters her judgment would be best and Patsy -did not feel warranted in starting what might prove to be a dangerous -feud. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - PASSING THE RAPIDS - - -As the raft, which had been dragged from the bank of the river by the -hermit of the mysterious lodge, swung out into the ice strewn current, it -shot directly for the glacier's end as if drawn by a magnet. - -Taking a quick turn of the rope about a point of rock, the aged man -braced himself for the shock which must come when the raft, with its load -of sleds and other trappings, had taken up the slack. - -All too soon it came. Bracing himself as best he could, he held his -ground. The strain increased. It seemed that the rope must snap; that the -old man's iron grip must yield. Should the raft reach the glacier it -would be lost forever. The muscles in the man's arms played like bands of -steel. Blood vessels stood out on his temples like whipcords, yet he held -his ground. - -Ten seconds passed, twenty, thirty, then with a whirl like some wild -animal yielding to its captor, the raft swung about and shot away down -stream. - -Plunging forward, leaping rocks, gliding over glassy surfaces of snow, -puffing, perspiring, the old man followed. - -Now he was down; the cause seemed lost. But in a flash he was up again, -clutching at a jagged rock that tore his hand. For a second time he -stayed the mad rush of the raft. Then he was on again. - -Bobbing from reef to reef, plunging through foam, leaping high above the -torrents, the raft went careering on. Twice it all but turned over, and -but for the skill of its master would have been crushed by great grinding -cakes of ice. - -For thirty long minutes the battle lasted; minutes that seemed hours to -the aged man. Then with a sigh he guided the raft into a safe eddy of -water. - -Sinking down upon a hard packed bank of snow, he lay there as if dead. -For a long time he lay there, then rising stiffly, made his way down the -ledge to drag the raft ashore and unlash the sleds. After this he drew -the sleds up the hill one at a time and set them across the blazed trail. - -"There!" he sighed. "A good night's work done, and a neat one. I could -not have done it better twenty years ago. 'Grow old along with me,'" he -threw back his hair as if in defiance of raging torrents, "'The best is -yet to be. The last of life, for which the first was made--'" - -Having delivered this bit of poetical oration to the tune of the booming -rapids, he turned to pick his way back over the uncertain trail that led -to his strange abode. - -Eight hours after she had crept into the luxurious bed in the guest room -of the strange lodge, Marian stirred, then half awake, felt the drowsy -warmth of wolf-skin rugs. For a moment she lay there and inhaled the -drug-like perfume of balsam and listened to the steady breathing of the -Eskimo girl beside her. She was about to turn over for another sleep, -when, from some cell of her brain where it had been stowed the night -before, there came the urge that told her she must make haste. - -"Haste! Haste! Haste!" came beating in upon her drowsy senses. It was as -if her brain were a radio, and the message was coming from the air. - -Suddenly she sat bolt upright. At the same instant she found herself wide -awake, fully alert and conscious of the problems she must face that -day--the passing of the rapids and covering a long span of that trail -which still lay between them and their goal. - -She did not waken Attatak. That might not be necessary for another hour. -She sprang out upon the heavy bear skin rug, and there went through a set -of wild, whirling gestures that limbered every muscle in her body and -sent the red blood racing through her veins. After that she quickly -slipped into her blouse, knickers, stockings and deerskin boots, to at -last go tiptoeing down the corridor toward the large living-room where -she heard the roar of the open fire as it raced up the chimney. - -She found her host sitting by the fire. In the uncertain light he -appeared haggard and worn, as if quite done in from some great exertion. -Of course Marian could not so much as guess how he had spent the night. -She had slept through it all. - -With a smile of greeting the old man motioned her to a seat beside him. - -"You'll not begrudge an old man a half hour's company?" he said. - -"Indeed not." - -"You'll wish to ask me things. Everyone who passes this way wants to. -Mostly they ask and I don't tell. A fair lady, though," there was -something of ancient gallantry in his tone, "fair ladies usually ask what -they will and get it, too." - -For a moment he sat staring silently into the fire. - -"This house," he said at last, "is a bit unusual. That pipe organ, for -instance--you wouldn't expect it here. It came here as if by accident; -Providence, I call it. A rich young man had more things than he knew what -to do with. The Creator sent some of them to me. - -"As for me, I came here voluntarily. You have probably taken me for a -prospector. I have never bought pick nor pan. There are things that lure -me, but gold is not one of them. - -"I had troubles before I came here. Troubles are the heritage of the -aged. I sometimes think that it is not well to live too long. - -"And yet," he shook himself free of the mood; his face lighting up as he -exclaimed, "And yet, life is very wonderful! Wonderful, even up here in -the frozen north. I might almost say, _especially_ here in the north. - -"I came here to be alone. I brought in food with a dog team. I built a -cabin of logs, and here I lived for a year. - -"One day a young man came up the river in a wonderful pleasure yacht and -anchored at the foot of the rapids. Being a lover of music, he had built -a pipe organ into his yacht; the one you heard last night." - -"And did--did he die?" Marian asked, a little break coming in her voice. - -"No," the old man smiled, "he tarried too long. Being a lover of -nature--a hunter and an expert angler--and having found the most ideal -spot in the world as long as summer lasted, he stayed on after the frosts -and the first snow. I was away at the time, else I would have warned him. -I returned the day after it happened. There had been a heavy freeze far -up the river, then a storm came that broke the ice away. The ice came -racing down over the rapids like mad and wrecked his wonderful yacht -beyond all repair. - -"We did as much as we could about getting the parts on shore; saved -almost all but the hull. He stayed with me for a few days; then, becoming -restless, traded me all there was left of his boat for my dog team. - -"That winter, with the help of three Indians and their dogs, I brought -the wreckage up here. Gradually, little by little, I have arranged it -into the form of a home that is as much like a boat as a house. The organ -was unimpaired, and here it sings to me every day of the great white -winter." - -He ceased speaking and for a long time was silent. When he spoke again -his tones were mellow with kindness and a strange joy. - -"I am seldom lonely now. The woods and waters are full of interesting -secrets. Travellers, like you, come this way now and again. I try to be -prepared to serve them; to be their friend." - -"May--may I ask one question?" Marian suggested timidly. - -"As many as you like." - -"How did you know I was at the door last night when you were playing? You -did not see me. You couldn't have heard me." - -"That," he smiled, "is a question I should like to ask someone myself; -someone much wiser than I am. I knew you were there. I had been feeling -your presence for more than an hour before you came. I knew I had an -audience. I was playing for them. How did I know? I cannot tell. It has -often been so before. Perhaps all human presence can be felt by some -specially endowed persons. It may be that in the throngs of great cities -the message of soul to soul is lost, just as a radio message is lost in a -jumble of many messages sent at once. - -"But then," he laughed, "why speculate? Life's too short. Some things we -must accept as they are. What's more important to you is that your sleds -are beyond the rapids. When breakfast is over, you can strap your -sleeping bags on your deer and I will guide you over the trail around the -rapids to the point where I left your sleds." - -A look of consternation flashed over Marian's face. She was thinking of -the ancient dishes and how fragile they were. "I have some fragile -articles in the sleeping bags," she said. "They--they might break!" - -"Break?" He wore a puzzled look. - -For a second she hesitated; then, reassured by the kindly face of the -gentle old man, decided to tell him the story of their adventure in the -cave. Then she launched into the story with all the eagerness of a -discoverer. - -"I see," he said, when she had finished the story. "I know just how you -feel. However, there is now only one safe thing to do. Leave these -treasures with me. If the rapids are frozen over when the time comes for -the return trip, you can pass here and get them. You'll always be -welcome. Better leave an address to which they may be sent in case you -should not pass this way. The rapids freeze over every winter. I will -surely be able to get them off on the first river boat. They can be sent -to any spot in the world. To attempt to pack them over on your deer would -mean certain destruction." - -Reluctant as Marian was to leave the treasure behind, she saw the wisdom -of his advice. So, feeling a perfect confidence in him, she decided to -leave her treasure in his care. Then she gave him her address at Nome, -with instructions for shipping should she fail to return this way. - -"One thing more I wanted to ask you," she said. "How many men are there -at the Station?" - -"One man; the trader. He stays there the year 'round." - -"One man!" she exclaimed. - -"One is all. Time was when there were twenty. Prospectors, traders, -Indians, trappers. Two years ago forest fires destroyed the timber. The -game sought other feeding grounds and the trappers, traders and Indians -went with them. Gold doesn't seem to exist in the streams hereabouts, so -the prospectors have left, too. Now one man keeps the post; sort of -holding on, I guess, just to see if the old days won't return." - -"Do you suppose he could--could leave for a week or two?" Marian -faltered. - -"Guess not. Company wouldn't permit it." - -"Then--then--" Marian set her lips tight. She would not worry this kind -old man with her troubles. The fact remained, however, that if there was -but one man at the Station, and he could not leave, there was no one who -could be delegated by the Government Agent to go back with her to help -fight her battles against Scarberry. - -Suddenly, as she thought of the weary miles they had travelled, of the -hardships they had endured, and of the probability that they would, after -all, fail in fulfilling their mission, she felt very weak and as one who -has suddenly grown old. - - - - - CHAPTER XX - A MESSAGE FROM THE AIR - - -A cup of perfect coffee, followed by a dash into the bracing Arctic -morning, completely revived Marian's spirits. Casting one longing look -backward at the mysterious treasure of ancient dishes and old ivory, -throwing doubt and discouragement to the winds, with energy and courage -she set herself to face the problems of the day. - -The passing of the rapids by the overland trail was all that their host -had promised. Struggling over rocky, snow-packed slopes; slipping, -sliding, buffeted by strong winds, beaten back by swinging overhanging -branches of ancient spruce and firs, they made their way pantingly -forward until at last, with a little cry of joy, Marian saw their own -sleds in the trail ahead. - -"That's over," she breathed. "How thankful I am that we did not attempt -to make it with the sleds, or with our treasure on the backs of the deer. -There would not have been left a fragment of our dishes as big as a dime. -As for the sleds, well it simply couldn't be done." - -"_No-me_," sighed Attatak. - -"I wonder how he could have brought them by the rapids?" Marian mused as -she examined the sleds. There were flakes of ice frozen to the runners. -She could only guess at the method he had used, only dimly picture the -struggle it must have taken. Even as she attempted to picture the night -battle, a great wave of admiration and trust swept over her. - -"The treasure is safer in his hands than in ours," she told herself. - -"But, after it has left his hands?" questioned her doubting self. - -"Oh well," she sighed at last, "what must be, will be. The important -thing after all is to reach the station before the Agent has started on -his way." - -Again her brow clouded. What if there was no one to go back with her? - -To dispel this doubt, she hastened to hitch her deer to her sled. Soon -they were racing away over the trail, causing the last miles of their -long journey to melt away like ice in the river before a spring thaw. - - -In the meantime a third startling revelation had come to Patsy. First she -had discovered that at least one of the persons connected with the -strange purple flame was a girl. Next she had found the red trail of -blood that apparently was made by one of Marian's slain deer, and which -led to the door of their tent. The third discovery had nothing to do with -the first two, nor with the purple flame. It was of a totally different -nature, and was most encouraging. - -"If only Marian were here!" she said to herself as she paced the floor -after receiving the important message. - -This message came to her over the radiophone. It was not meant -particularly for her, nor for Marian. It was just news; not much more -than a rumor, at that. Yet such news as it was, if only it were true! - -Faint and far away, it came drifting in upon the air from some powerful -sending station. Perhaps that station was Fairbanks, Dawson or Nome. She -missed that part of the message. - -Only this much came to her that night as she sat at their compact, -powerful receiving set, beguiling the lonesome hours by catching snatches -of messages from near and far: - -"Rumor has it that the Canadian Government plans the purchase of reindeer -to be given to her Eskimo people on the north coast of the Arctic. Five -or six hundred will be purchased as an experiment, if the plan carries. -It seems probable that the deer purchased will be procured in Alaska. It -is thought possible to drive herds across the intervening space and over -the line from Alaska, and that in this way they may be purchased by the -Canadian Agent on Canadian soil. A call for such herds may be issued -later over the radio, as it is well known that many owners of herds have -their camps equipped with radio-phones." - -There the message ended. It had left Patsy in a fever of excitement. -Marian and her father wished to sell the herd. It was absolutely -necessary to sell it if Marian's hopes of continuing her education were -not to be blasted. There was no market now for a herd in Alaska. In the -future, as pastures grew scarcer, and as herds increased in numbers, -there would be still less opportunity for a sale. - -"What a wonderful opportunity!" Patsy exclaimed. "To sell the whole herd -to a Government that would pay fair prices and cash! And what a glorious -adventure! To drive a reindeer herd over hundreds of miles of rivers, -forests, tundra, hills and mountains; to camp each night in some spot -where perhaps no man has been before; surely that would be wonderful! -Wonderful!" - -Just at that moment there entered her mind a startling thought. -Scarberry's camp, too, was equipped with a radio-phone. Probably he, too, -at this very moment, was smiling at the prospect of selling six hundred -of his deer. He wanted to sell. Of course he did. Everyone did. He would -make the drive. Certainly he would. - -"And then," she breathed, pressing her hands to her fluttering heart, -"then it will be a race; a race between two reindeer herd; a race over -hundreds of miles of wilderness for a grand prize. What a glorious -adventure!" - -"If only Marian were here," she sighed again. "The message announcing the -plans may come while she is gone. Then--" - -She sat in a study for a long time. Finally she whispered to herself: - -"If the message comes while she is gone; if the opportunity is sure to be -lost unless the herd starts as soon as the message comes, I wonder if I'd -dare to start on the race with the herd, with Terogloona and without -Marian and Attatak. I wonder if I would?" - -For a long time she sat staring at the fire. Perhaps she was attempting -to read the answer in the flames. - -At last, with cheeks a trifle flushed, she sprang to her feet, did three -or four leaps across the floor, and throwing off her clothing, crept -between the deer-skins in the strange little sleeping compartment. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - FADING HOPES - - -Just at dawn of a wonderfully crisp morning, Marian found herself -following her reindeer over a trail that had recently been travelled by a -dog team. She was just approaching the Trading Station where the -questions that haunted her tired brain would be answered. - -Since leaving the cabin in the forest above the rapids, she and Attatak -had travelled almost day and night. A half hour for a hasty lunch here -and there, an hour or two for sleep and for permitting the deer to feed; -that was all they had allowed themselves. - -An hour earlier, Marian had felt that she could not travel another mile. -Then they had come upon the trail of the dog team, and realizing that -they were nearing their goal, her blood had quickened like a marathon -racer's at the end of his long race. No longer feeling fatigue, she urged -her weary reindeer forward. Contrary to her usually cautious nature, she -even cast discretion to the winds and drove her deer straight toward the -settlement. That there were dogs which might attack her deer she knew -right well. That they were not of the species that attacked deer, or that -they were chained, was her hope. - -So, with her heart throbbing, she rounded a sudden turn to find herself -within sight of a group of low-lying cabins that at one time had been a -small town. - -Now, as her aged host had said, it was a town in name only. She knew this -at a glance. One look at the chimneys told her the place was all but -deserted. - -"No smoke," she murmured. - -"Yes, one smoke," Attatak said, pointing. - -It was true. From one long cabin there curled a white wreath of smoke. - -For a moment Marian hesitated. No dogs had come out to bark, yet they -might be there. - -"You stay with the deer," she said to Attatak. "Tether them strongly to -the sleds. If dogs come, beat them off." - -She was away like an arrow. Straight to that cabin of the one smoke she -hurried. She caught her breath as she saw a splendid team of dogs -standing at the door. Someone was going on a trip. The sled was loaded -for the journey. Was it the Agent's sled? Had she arrived in time? - -She did not have long to wait before knowing. She had come within ten -feet of the cabin when a tall, deep-chested man opened the door and -stepped out. She caught her breath. Instantly she knew him. It was the -Agent. - -He, in turn, recognized her, and with cap in hand and astonishment -showing in his eyes, he advanced to meet her. - -"You here!" he exclaimed. "Why Marian Norton, you belong in Nome." - -"Once I did," she smiled, "but now I belong on the tundra with our herd. -It is the herd that has brought me here. May I speak to you about it?" - -"Certainly you may. But you look tired and hungry. The Trader has a -piping Mulligan stew on the stove. It will do you good. Come inside." - -An Indian boy, who made his home with the Trader, was dispatched to -relieve Attatak of her watch, and Marian sat down to enjoy a delicious -repast. - -There are some disappointments that come to us so gradually that, though -the matters they effect are of the utmost importance, we are not greatly -shocked when at last their full meaning is unfolded to us. It was so with -Marian. She had dared and endured much to reach this spot. She had -arrived at the critical moment. An hour later the Agent would have been -gone. The Agent was her friend. Ready to do anything he could to help -her, he would gladly have gone back with her to assist in defending her -rights. But duty called him over another trail. He had no one, absolutely -no one to send from this post to execute his orders. - -"Of course," he said after hearing her story, "I can give you a note to -that outlaw, Scarberry, but he'd pay no attention to it." - -"He'd tear it up and throw it in my face," asserted Marian stoutly. - -"I'll tell you what I'll do," said the Agent, rising and walking the -floor. "There is Ben Neighbor over at the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain. -His cabin is only three days travel from your camp. He's a good man, and -a brave one. He is a Deputy Marshal. If I give you a note to him, he will -serve you as well as I could." - -"Would we need take a different trail home?" - -"Why? Which way did you come?" - -Marian described their course. The Agent whistled. "It's a wonder you -didn't perish!" - -"Here," he said, "is a rough map of the country. I will mark out the -course to Ben's cabin. You'll find it a much safer way." - -"Oh, all right," she said slowly. "Thanks. That's surely the best way." - -She was thinking of the treasure left at the cabin. She had hoped to -return by that route and claim it. Now that hope was gone. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - A FRUITLESS JOURNEY - - -It was night; such a night as only the Arctic knows. Cold stars, gleaming -like bits of burnished silver in the sky, shone down upon vast stretches -of glistening snow. Out of that whiteness one object loomed, black as ink -against the whiteness of its background. - -Weary with five days of constant travel, Marian found herself approaching -this black bulk. She pushed doggedly forward, expecting at every moment -to catch a lightning-like zig-zag flash of purple flame shooting up the -side of it. - -The black bulk was the old dredge in Sinrock River. She had passed that -way twice before. Each time she had hoped to find there a haven of rest, -and each time she had been frightened away by the flash of the purple -flame. Those mysterious people had left this spot at one time. Had they -returned? Was the dredge now a place of danger, or a haven for weary -travellers? The answer to this question was only to be found by marching -boldly up to the dredge. - -This called for courage. Born with a brave soul, Marian was equal to any -emergency. Sheer weariness and lack of sleep added to this a touch of -daring. - -Without pausing, she drove straight up to the door. Reassured by the snow -banked up against it, she hastily scooped away the bank with her -snow-shoe, and having shoved the door open, boldly entered. - -It was a cheerless place, black and empty. The wind whistled through the -cracks where the planks had rotted away. Yet it was a shelter. Passing -through another door, she found herself in an inner room that housed the -boiler of the engine that had furnished power to the dredge. The boiler, -a great red drum of rust, stood directly in front of her. - -"Here's where we camp," she said to Attatak. "We can build a fire in the -fire-box of the boiler and broil some steak. That will be splendid!" - -"_Eh-eh_," grinned Attatak. - -"And Attatak, bring the deer through the outer door, then close it. They -were fed two hours ago. That will do until morning." - -She lighted a candle, gathered up some bits of wood that lay strewn about -the narrow room, and began to kindle a fire while Attatak went out after -the deer. - -For the moment, being alone, she began to think of the herd. How was the -herd faring? What had happened to Patsy during those many days of her -absence? Were Bill Scarberry's deer rapidly destroying her herd ground. - -"Well, if they are, we are powerless to prevent it," she told herself -with a sigh. - -As she looked back upon it now, she felt that her whole journey had been -a colossal failure. They had discovered the mountain cave treasure, only -to be obliged to leave the treasure behind. They had reached the Station -in time to talk with the Government Agent, but he had not been able to -come with her. Only twenty-four hours before they had reached the cabin -of Ben Neighbor, only to find it dark and deserted. He had gone -somewhere, as people in the Arctic have a way of doing; and where that -might be she could not even hazard a guess. At last, in despair, she had -headed her deer toward her own camp. In thirty-six hours she would be -there. - -"Well, at any rate," she sighed, "it will be a pleasure to see Patsy and -to sleep the clock round in our own sweet little deerskin bedroom." - -She was indeed to see Patsy, but the privilege of sleeping the clock -round was not to be hers for many a day. She was destined to find the -immediate future far too stirring for that. - -Twenty-four hours later saw Marian well on her way home. Ten hours more, -she felt sure, would bring her to camp. And then what? She could not even -guess. Had she been able to even so much as suspect what was going on at -camp, she would have urged her reindeer to do their utmost. - - -Patsy was right in the middle of a peck of trouble. Because of the fact -that for the last few days she had been living in a realm of exciting -dreams, the troubles that had come down upon her seemed all the more -grievous. Since that most welcome radio message regarding the proposed -purchase of reindeer by the Canadian Government had come drifting in over -the air, she had, during every available moment, hovered over the -radio-phone in the momentary expectation of receiving the confirmation of -that rumor which might send the herd over mountains and tundra in a wild -race for a prize, a prize worth thousands of dollars to her uncle and -cousin--the sale of the herd. - -Perhaps it was because of her too close application to the radio-phone -that she failed to note the approach of Scarberry's herd as it returned -to ravish their feeding ground. Certain it was that the first of the -deer, with the entire herd close upon their heels, were already over the -hills before she knew of their coming. - -It was night when Terogloona brought this bit of disquieting news. - -"And this time," Patsy wailed, "we have not so much as one hungry Eskimo -with his dog to send against them." - -As if in answer to the complaint, the aged herder plucked at her sleeve, -then led her out beneath the open sky. - -With an impressive gesture, he waved his arm toward the distant hills -that lay in the opposite direction of Scarberry's herd. To her great -surprise and mystification, she saw gleaming there the lights of twenty -or more campfires. - -"_U-bogok_," (see there) he said. - -"What--what does it mean?" Patsy stammered, grasping at her dry throat. - -"It is that I fear," said Terogloona. "They come. To-morrow they are -here. You gave food for a week for a few; flour, sugar, bacon. They like -him. Now come whole village of Sitne-zok. Want food. You gave them food. -What you think? No food for herders, no herders. No herders, no herd. -What you think?" - -Patsy did not know what to think. Gone was all her little burst of pride -over the way she had handled the other situation that had confronted her. -Now she felt that she was but a girl, a very small girl, and very, very -much alone. She wished Marian would come. Oh, how she did wish that she -would come! - -"In the morning we will see what can be done," was all she could say to -the faithful old herder as she turned to re-enter the igloo. - -That night she did not undress. She sat up for hours, trying to think of -some way out. She sat long with the radio head-set over her ears. She -entertained some wild notion of fleeing with the herd toward the Canadian -border, providing the message confirming the offer for the deer came. But -the message did not come. - -At last, in utter exhaustion, she threw herself among the deerskins and -fell into a troubled sleep. - -She was roused from this sleep by a loud: "Hello there!" followed by a -cheery: "Where are you? Are you asleep?" - -It was Marian. The next moment poor, tired, worried Patsy threw herself -sobbing into her cousin's strong arms. - -"There now," said Marian, soothingly, as Patsy's sobbing ceased, "sit -down and tell me all about it. You're safe; that's something. Your -experiences can't have been worse than ours." - -"The Eskimo! Bill Scarberry's herd!" burst out Patsy, "They're here. All -of them!" - -"Tell me all about it," encouraged Marian. - -"Wait till I get my head-set on," said Patsy, more hopefully. "It's been -due for days; may come at any time." - -"What's due?" asked Marian, mystified. - -"Wait! I'll tell you. One thing at a time. Let's get it all straight." - -She began at the beginning and recited all that had transpired since -Marian had left camp. When she came to tell of her discovery that one of -the mysterious occupants of the tent of the purple flame was a girl, -Marian's astonishment knew no bounds. When told of the bloody trail, -Marian was up in arms. The camp of the purple flame must be raided at -once. They would put a stop to that sort of thing. They would take their -armed herders and raid that camp this very night. - -"But wait!" Patsy held up a warning finger, "I am not half through yet. -There is more. Too much more!" - -She was in the midst of recounting her experiences with the band of -wandering Eskimo and Scarberry's herd, when suddenly she clapped the -radio receiver tightly to her ears and stopped talking. Then she -murmured: - -"It's coming! At last, it is coming!" - -"For goodness sake!" exclaimed Marian, out of all patience, "Will you -kindly tell me what is coming?" - -But Patsy only held the receiver to her ears and listened the more -intently as she whispered: - -"Shush! Wait!" - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - PLANNING THE LONG DRIVE - - -The message that was holding Patsy's attention was one from the Canadian -Government. It was a bonafide offer from that Government to purchase the -first herd of from four to six hundred reindeer that should reach Fort -Jarvis. - -When Patsy had imparted the exciting news to her, Marian sat long in -silent thought. Fort Jarvis, as she well knew, lay some five hundred -miles away over hills and tundra. She had just returned from one such -wearisome journey. Should she start again? And would this second great -endeavor prove more successful than the first? Of all the herds in -Alaska, two were closest to Fort Jarvis; Scarberry's and her own. She had -not the slightest doubt that Scarberry would start driving a section of -his herd toward that goal. It would be a race; a race that would be won -by the bravest, strongest and most skillful. Marian believed in her -herders. She believed in herself and Patsy. She believed as strongly in -her herd, her sled-deer and her dogs. It was the grand opportunity; the -way out of all troubles. That the band of begging natives would not -follow, she knew right well. Nor would the mysterious persons of the -purple flame camp; at least, she hoped not. As for their little herd -range, if they sold their deer, Scarberry might have it, and welcome; if -they did not sell, they could doubtless find pasture in some far away -Canadian valley. - -"Yes," she said in a tone of decision, "we will go. We will waken the -herders at once. Come on, let's go." - -As they burst breathlessly into the cabin of their Eskimo herders, they -received something of a shock. Since all the work of the day had long -since been done, they had expected to find the entire group of four -assembled in the cabin, or asleep in their bunks. But here was only old -Terogloona and Attatak. - -"Where's Oatinna? Where's Azazruk?" demanded Marian. - -"Gone," said Terogloona solemnly. - -"Where? Go call them, quick!" - -Terogloona did not move. He merely shrugged his shoulders and mumbled: - -"No good. Gone long way. Bill Scarberry's camp. No come back, say that -one." - -"What!" exclaimed Marian in consternation. "Gone? Deserted us?" - -"_Eh-eh_," Terogloona nodded his head. "Say Bill Scarberry pay more -money; more deer; say that one Oatinna, that one Azazruk. No good, that -one Bill Scarberry, me think." He shook his head solemnly. "Not listen -that one Oatinna, that one Azazruk. Say wanna go. Go, that's all." - -"Then we can't start the herd," murmured Marian, sinking down upon a -rolled up sleeping-bag. "Yes, we will!" she exclaimed resolutely. -"Terogloona, where are the rifles?" - -"Gone," he repeated like a parrot. "Mebby you forget. That one rifle -b'long herder boys." - -"And your rifle?" questioned Marian, "where is your rifle?" - -"Broke-tuk. Hammer not want come down hard. Not want shoot, that one -rifle, mine." - -Marian was stunned with surprise and chagrin. She and Patsy returned -silently to their igloo. - -"Oh, that treacherous Bill Scarberry!" she exploded. "He has known this -was coming. He knew our herders were energetic and capable. He thought if -they remained with us, we might beat him to the prize; so he sent some -spy over here to buy them away from us with promises of more pay." - -"And now?" asked Patsy. - -"Now he will drive his herd to Fort Jarvis and sell it, and our grand -chance is gone forever." - -"No!" exclaimed Patsy, "He won't! He shall not! We will beat him yet. We -are strong. Terogloona and Attatak are faithful. We have our three -collies. We can do it. We will beat him yet. Our herd is better than his. -It will travel faster. Oh, Marian! Somehow, _somehow_ we must do it. It's -your chance! Your one big, wonderful opportunity." - -"Yes," exclaimed Marian, suddenly fired by her cousin's hot blooded -southern enthusiasm, "we will do it or perish in the attempt. It's to be -a race," she exclaimed, "a race for a wonderful prize, a race between two -large herds of reindeer over five hundred miles of hills, tundra and -forest. There may be wolves in the forests. In Alaska dangers lurk at -every turn; rivers too rapid to freeze over and blizzards and wild -beasts. We will be terribly handicapped from the very start. But for -father's sake we must try it." - -"For your father's and for your own sake," murmured Patsy. "And, Marian, -I have always believed that our great Creator was on the side of those -who are kind and just. Bill Scarberry played us a mean trick. Perhaps God -will somehow even the score." - -An hour was spent in consultation with old Terogloona. His face became -very sober at the situation, but in the end, with the blood of youth -coursing eternally in his veins, he sprang to his feet and exclaimed: - -"_Eh-eh!_" (Yes-yes) "We will go. Before it is day we will be away. You -go sleep. You must be very strong. In the morning Terogloona will have -reindeer and sleds ready. We will call to the dogs. We will be away -before the sun. We will shout '_Kul-le-a-muck, Kul-le-a-muck_' (Hurry! -Hurry!) to dogs and reindeer. We will beat that one Bill yet. - -"You know what?" he exclaimed, his face darkening like a thundercloud, -"You know that mean man, that one Bill Scarberry. Want my boy, So-queena, -work for him. Want pay him reindeer. Give him bad rifle, very bad rifle. -Want shoot, my boy So-queena. Shot at carabou, So-queena. Rifle go flash. -Crooch! Just like that. Shoot back powder, that rifle. Came in -So-queena's eyes, that powder. Can't see, that one. Almost lost to -freeze, that one, So-queena. Bye'm bye find camp. Stay camp mebby five -days. Can see, not very good. Bill, he say: 'Go herd reindeer,' -So-queena, he say: 'Can't see. Mebby get lost. Mebby freeze'. - -"He say Bill very mad. 'Get out! No good, you! Go freeze. Who cares?' - -"So-queena come my house--long way. Plenty starve. Plenty freeze. No give -reindeer that one So-queena, that one Bill. Bad one, that Bill. So me -think; beat Bill. Sell reindeer herd white man. Think very good. Work -hard. Mebby beat that one Bill Scarberry." - -There came a look of determination to Patsy's face such as Marian had -never seen there. - -"If that's the kind of man he is; if he would send an Eskimo boy, -half-blinded by his own worthless rifle, out into the snow and the cold, -then we must beat him. We must! We must!" said Patsy vehemently. - -"That's exactly the kind of man he is," said Marian soberly. "We must -beat him if we can. But it will be a long, hard journey." - -They had hardly crept between their deerskins when Patsy was fast asleep. -Not so Marian. The full responsibility of this perilous journey rested -upon her shoulders. She knew too well the hardships and dangers they must -face. They must pass through broad stretches of forest where food for the -deer was scarce, and where lurking wolves, worn down to mere skeletons by -the scarcity of food, might attack and scatter their herd beyond -recovery. - -They must cross high hills, from whose summits the snow at times poured -like smoke from volcanoes in circling sweeps hundreds of feet in extent. -Here there would be danger of losing their deer in some wild blizzard, or -having them buried beneath the snows of some thundering avalanche. - -"It's not for myself alone that I'm afraid," she told herself. "It's for -Patsy, Patsy from Kentucky. Who would have thought a girl from the sunny -south could be so brave, such a good sport." - -As she thought of the courageous, carefree manner in which Patsy had -insisted on the journey, a lump rose in her throat, and she brushed a -hand hastily over her eyes. - -"And yet," she asked herself, "ought I to allow her to do it? She's -younger than I, and not so strong. Can she stand the strain?" - -Again her mind took up the thought of the perils they must face. - -There were wandering tribes of Indians in the territory they must cross; -the skulking and oft-times treacherous Indians of the Little Sticks. What -if they were to cross the path of these? What if a great band of caribou -should come pouring down some mountain pass and, having swallowed up -their little herd, go sweeping on, leaving them in the midst of a great -wilderness with only their sled-deer to stand between them and -starvation. - -As if dreaming of Marian's thoughts, Patsy suddenly turned over with a -little sobbing cry, and wound her arms about Marian. - -"What is it?" Marian whispered. - -Patsy did not answer. She was still asleep. The dream soon passed, her -muscles relaxed, and with a deep sigh she sank back into her place. - -This little drama left Marian in an exceedingly troubled state of mind. - -"We ought not to go," she told herself. "We will not." Then, from sheer -exhaustion, she too, fell asleep. - -Three hours before the tardy Arctic sunrise, she heard Terogloona -pounding at their door. She found that sleep had banished fear, and that -every muscle in her body and every cell of her brain was ready for -action, eager to be away. - -As for Patsy, she could not dress half fast enough, so great was her -desire for the wonderful adventure. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - CAMP FOLLOWERS - - -It was just as Marian was tightening the ropes to the pack on her sled -that, happening to glance away at a distant hill, she was reminded of -Patsy's latest story of the purple flame. From the crest of that hill -there came a purple flare of light. Quickly as it had come, just so -quickly it vanished, leaving the hill a faint outline against the sky. - -"The purple flame," she breathed. "I wonder if we can leave those -mysterious camp-followers of ours behind?" - -On the instant a disturbing thought flashed through her mind. It caused -an indignant flash of color to rise to her cheek. - -"I wonder," she said slowly, "if those mysterious people are spies set by -Bill Scarberry to dog our tracks?" - -"They may start with us," she smiled to herself, as she at last dismissed -the subject from her mind, "but unless they really are Bill Scarberry's -spies and set to watch us, they'll never finish with us. Camp-followers -don't follow over five hundred miles of wild trail. They're not that fond -of hard marching." - -In this conclusion she was partly wrong. - -Just as the sun was painting the distant mountain peaks with a gleam of -gold, the collies began to bark and the broad herd of reindeer moved -slowly forward. Marian and Patsy touched their deer gently with the -reins, and they were away. - -It was with a distinct feeling of homesickness that Marian turned to look -back at the campsite. She had spent many happy hours there. Now she was -leaving it, perhaps forever. What was more, she was leaving the tundra; -the broad-stretching deer pastures of the Arctics. Should their -enterprise succeed, she would pass over one of the Canadian trails, -southward to the States and back to the University. Should they fail, she -might indeed return to the tundra, but she knew it could never be the -same to her. - -"We must not fail," she told herself, clenching her hands tight and -staring away at the magnificent panorama which lay before her. "We must -not! Must not fail!" - -As she saw the reindeer, a mass of brown and white moving down the slope, -a feeling of sadness swept over her. She had come to love these gentle -and half-wild creatures of the North. She was especially fond of the -sled-deer, her three; the spotted one, the brown one, and the white. Many -hundred miles had she driven them. Nowhere in the world, she was sure, -could there be deer who covered more miles in a day, who were quicker to -recognize the pull of rein, more willing to stomp the tiresome nights -away at the ends of their tethers. - -Dearest of all were the three collie dogs; Gold, Copper and Bronze, she -whimsically named them, for their coats were just what their names -indicated. Copper and Bronze were young dogs. Gold was the pick of the -three; an old, well-trained sheep dog. Accustomed to the sunny pastures -of California, he had been brought to this cold and barren land to herd -reindeer. With the sturdy devotion of his kind, he had endured the biting -cold without a whimper, and had gnawed his toes, cut by the crusted snow, -in silence. He had done the work assigned to him with a zeal and -thoroughness that might have shamed many a human master. - -"These, too, I must leave," she told herself. "Worse than that, I am -leading them out into wild desert. Within a week that beautiful herd may -be hopelessly scattered; our sled-deers killed by wolves; our dogs--well, -anyway, they will never desert us. Together we will fight it out to the -bitter end." - -A lump came into her throat. Then, realizing that she was the commander -of this expedition and that it was unbecoming of commanders to betray -emotion, she quickly conquered her feelings and gave herself over to the -work of assisting in keeping the herd moving steadily forward in a -compact mass. - -Five days later, with their herd still moving steadily on before them, -and with hopes rising high because of the continued success of their -march, they found themselves crossing a succession of low-lying, -grass-covered hills. As they reached the crest of the highest of these, -and arrived at a place where they could get an unrestricted view of the -tundra that lay beyond, an exclamation escaped Marian's lips. - -"A forest!" she exclaimed. - -"A real Arctic forest," echoed Patsy. "Won't it be wonderful!" - -"Wonderful and dangerous," Marian replied. "Unless I miss my guess, here -is where our troubles begin. It may not be so bad, though," she quickly -amended, as she saw the look of fear that came over her cousin's face. -"That forest is fully ten miles away. The sun is about to set. We'll -drive our herd down into the tundra where there is plenty of moss. We'll -camp there, and get up for an early start in the morning. The forest may -be only a narrow belt along a river." - -Marian did not feel very sure that her predictions would prove true, but -she was the sort of person who measures all perils carefully, then hopes -for the best. - -Two hours later they were eating a meal of reindeer stew and hot -biscuits, which had been cooked over a willow-wood fire in their Yukon -stove. Then as they chatted of the future, Marian held up a finger for -silence. - -"What was that?" she whispered. "A shot?" - -"I didn't--" - -"Yes, yes. There's another!" - -Marian was up and out of the tent in an instant. - -As her eyes swept the horizon they caught a gleam of light from the hills -above, the red and yellow light of a camp-fire. - -With one sweeping glance she took in the position of her herd. She had -just noted that a certain brown deer had strayed some distance up the -hill. She was about to suggest to Terogloona, who had also been called -from his tent by the shots, that he send a dog after the deer, when, to -her great astonishment, she caught a flash of light, heard a sharp -report, then saw the brown deer crumple up like an empty sack and drop to -the snow. - -For one instant she stood there as if in a trance, then with a quick turn -she said: - -"Patsy, you stay with Attatak. Terogloona, you come with me." - -Turning, she walked straight toward the spot where the reindeer had -fallen. The faithful Terogloona, in spite of his fear of the Indians of -the Little Sticks, followed at her heels. - -When they arrived at the spot, they found a man bending over the dead -deer. In his hand was the rifle that had sped the bullet. The soft-soled -"muck-lucks" that Marian and Terogloona wore made no sound on the snow. -The man's back was toward them and they came upon him unobserved. The -powerful Terogloona would have leaped upon his back and thrown him to the -snow, but Marian held him back. - -"Stranger," said the girl, in as steady a voice as she could, "why did -you kill our deer?" - -Like a flash the man gripped his rifle as he wheeled about. Then, seeing -it was a girl who spoke, he lowered his weapon. - -Marian's eyes took him in with one feeling glance. His face was haggard, -emaciated. His hands were mere skin and bones. He was an Indian. - -"Too hungry," he murmured, "No come caribou. No come ptarmigan. No fish -in the river; no rabbits on the tundra!" He spread out his bony hands in -a gesture of despair. - -"But you needn't have killed him. Had you come to us we would have given -you meat, all you could use." The girl's face was frank and fearless, yet -there was a certain huskiness in her voice that to the sensitive ears of -the Indian betokened kindness. - -"Yes," he said slowly, "maybe you would. Yesterday we saw other reindeer -herd, north mebby ten miles. Want deer; ask man, big man, much whiskers; -say want food. Man said: 'Get out!' Want'a kill me if I not go quick. Bad -man, that one. We go way. Then see your herd. Say, take one deer. You -want to fight, then fight. Better to die by bullet than by hunger." - -"The man you saw," said Marian, her heart sinking as she realized that he -must be a half day in the lead, "was Bill Scarberry. Yes, he is a mean -man. But see! Have you a cache? Some place where you can keep meat from -the wolves and wolverines?" - -"Yes, yes!" exclaimed the Indian eagerly. "Ten miles. Diesa River, a -cabin." - -"How many deer must you have to keep you until game comes?" - -"Mebby--mebby," the Indian stared at her in astonishment, "Mebby two, -mebby three." - -"All right," said Marian, "you have killed a fine doe. That was bad, but -I forgive you." She held our her hand to grasp the native's bony fingers. - -"Now," she said briskly, "since you have killed her, you may keep the -meat. Terogloona," she turned to the Eskimo, "point out two young bucks, -the best we have. Tell him he may kill them and that he and his friends -may take them to their cabin." - -"I--I--" the Indian attempted to speak. Failing utterly, he turned and -walked a few steps away, then turning, struck straight away toward the -spot where the red and yellow campfire gleamed. - -"That is his camp?" asked Marian. - -Terogloona nodded silently. - -"They will come for the meat, and will give us no further trouble?" - -"_Eh-eh_" smiled the Eskimo. "The daughter of my master has acted wisely. -The man who starves, he is different. These reindeer," he waved his arms -toward the herd, "they belong to my master and his daughter. When men are -not starving--yes. When men are starving--no. To the starving all things -belong. Bill Scarberry, he remember yet. Indians of Little Sticks, they -never forget." - -As Marian turned to retrace her steps to camp, she chanced to glance up -at the other camp where, but an hour before, she had seen the flash of -the purple flame. It was closer than she thought. The flash of flame was -gone, but she was sure she caught the outlines of a tent; surer still -that she saw a solitary figure atop a nearby knoll. Sitting as if on -watch, this solitary man held a rifle across his knees. - -"I wonder why he is there?" she said to herself, "I wonder why they are -following us?" - -"Oh," she breathed as she walked toward camp, "it's so tantalizing, that -purple flame and all! I have half a notion to take Terogloona, as I did -with that Indian, and march right up to them and demand the meaning of -their mysterious actions!" - -As if intending to turn this thought into action at once, she stopped and -turned about. To her surprise, as she looked toward the crest of the -hill, she saw the solitary watcher was gone. - -"Oh, well," she sighed, "we have no real reason for invading their camp. -We've no proof that they've ever done us any harm; except, perhaps the -time that Patsy saw the blood-trail and the antler marks in the snow. It -seems that it must have been our deer, but we never could prove it." - -Glancing away at a more distant hill-crest, she was surprised at the -picture revealed there. - -The moon, just rising from behind the hill, threw out in bold relief the -broad-spreading antlers of a magnificent creature of the wilderness. - -"Old Omnap-puk!" said Marian. "What do you think of that? We have -traveled five days, and yet we are still in the company of the mysterious -camp-followers of the purple flame and old Omnap-puk, the -caribou-reindeer who has haunted the outskirts of our camp so long. - -"I suppose," she said thoughtfully, "that I should tell Terogloona to -have the Indians kill Omnap-puk. That would save one of our reindeers, -and besides, if we let him live, who knows but that at some critical -moment he may rush in and assume the leadership of our herd and lead them -to disaster, or lose them to us forever. I have heard of that happening -with horses and cattle. Why not with reindeer? And yet," she sighed, "I -can't quite make up my mind to do it. He is such a wonderful fellow!" - -The time was to come, and that very soon, when she was to rejoice because -of this decision. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - THE MIRAGE - - -That night Marian lay awake for a long time. She had a vague feeling that -they were approaching a crisis. Many agencies were at work. Some appeared -to favor the success of their enterprise, and some were working directly -against them. Scarberry, with his herd, was some hours ahead of them. -That was bad. If he succeeded in retaining this lead, the race was lost. -However, less than half the distance had been covered, the easiest half. -Many a peril awaited each herd. Who could tell when prowling wolves, -large bands of Indians, a caribou herd, an impassable river, might bring -either to a halt? - -Marian could not answer all of the questions that troubled her. The -Indians? Would they be satisfied with her gift of food, or would they -continue to prey upon the herd? Would they go back to some large tribe -and lead them to the herd that they might drive them away, an easy -bounty? - -She had dealt with Eskimos; knew about what to expect from them. "But -Indians," she whispered to herself, "What are they like?" - -As if in answer to her perplexity, there came to her mind the words of a -great and good man: - -"Humanity is everywhere very much the same." - -This thought gave her comfort. She could not help but feel that the -Indian she had befriended would not betray her, but might even come to -her aid in some emergency. - -"But those of the purple flame?" she whispered to herself. "That silent -watcher on the hill--what did he mean by sitting there with a rifle -across his knee? Is he and his companions our friends or our enemies?" - -Here, indeed, was a problem. Until this day, she had felt that these -persons were to be distrusted and feared. However, there had been -something about that silent watcher that had given her a feeling of -safety in spite of her prejudice. - -"It was as if he were set there as a watch to see that the Indian did us -no harm," she told herself. "And yet, how could he?" - -It was in the midst of this perplexity that she fell asleep. - -Long before dawn the girls awoke to face a new day and a new, unknown -peril. The forest, stretching out black and somber against the white -foreground of snow, seemed a great menacing hand, reaching out to seize -their precious possession. They could not know what perils awaited them -in the forest. - -With breakfast over, the tents struck, sled-deer harnessed and hitched to -the sled, and everything in readiness for the continuing of the race to -Fort Jarvis, the girls climbed the nearest hill, hoping that they might -catch some glimpse of the country beyond the forest. - -Their hopes were vain. Far as eye could see, the forest stretched before -them. They could only guess the miles they must travel before coming -again to rolling hills and level tundra. They were traveling over a -region of the great Northland which had never really been explored. No -accurate maps showed where rivers ran or forests spread out over the -plains. - -Standing there, looking at the great forest, Patsy quoted: - - "'This the forest primeval; - The murmuring pines and the hemlocks - Stand like Druids of old - With beards that rest on their bosom.' - -"And, with two Eskimos for companions, we are to enter that forest. Only -wild people, and wilder caribou and wolves, have been there before us. -Oh, Marian! We are explorers! We really, truly are! Isn't it gran-n-d!" - -Marian did not answer. There was a puzzled look on her face as she stared -away toward the north. Out of the very clouds faint images appeared to be -marching. Yes, yes, now they became clearer. Reindeer--a whole herd of -them. What could it mean? Was this a vision? Was she "seeing things," or -was it possible that much higher hills lay over there and that the -reindeer were crossing them? - -"Look," she said to her cousin, pointing away to the clouds. - -Together, with bated breaths, they watched the panorama that moved before -them. Now they saw the herders and their dogs, saw them run this way and -that; saw the herd change its course, saw the herders again take up the -steady march. - -"Why," exclaimed Patsy, "Seems as if you could hear the crack-crack of -reindeer hoofs and the bark of the dogs!" - -"They must be miles away. It's the Scarberry herd," said Marian. - -"Look," whispered Patsy, "the deer are stopping." - -It was true. Having come to an abrupt halt, as if facing an -insurmountable barrier, the leaders compelled those that followed to pack -in a solid mass behind them or to spread out to right or left. In an -incredibly short time they stood out in a straight line, facing east. - -"It--it must be a river, a river that is still open, that cannot be -crossed," said Marian in tones of tense excitement. - -"And that means!" exclaimed Patsy. - -"That our rival has been stopped. Nature has brought them to a halt. We -may win yet. Let's hurry. We may find a crossing-place in the forest." - -"But look, look over there to the left!" cried Patsy. - -"What? Where?" - -"Why, they're gone!" exclaimed Patsy. "There were three men. Indians, -they looked like. They seemed to be watching the Scarberry herd from a -hilltop some distance away." - -"But look!" cried Marian. "It's gone!" - -To their great astonishment, the herd had vanished. As it had appeared to -march out of the clouds, so it seemed now to have receded again into -them. - -"Were we dreaming?" Patsy asked in an awed whisper. - -"No," said Marian thoughtfully, "It was a mirage, a mirage of the great -white wilderness. We have them here just as they do on the desert. By the -aid of this mirage, nature has shown us a great secret; that we still -have a splendid chance to win the race. Let's get down to camp and be -away." - -"But the three Indians?" questioned Patsy. "What were they about to do?" - -"Who knows?" said Marian. "We have little to do with the Scarberry herd. -Our task is that of getting to Fort Jarvis." - -Two hours were consumed in reaching the edge of the forest. After that, -for hours they passed through the wonder world of a northern forest in -winter. Deep and still, the snow lay like a great white blanket. Black as -ebonite against this whiteness stood the fir and spruce trees. There was -something strangely solemn about the place. The crack of reindeer's -hoofs, the bark of dogs, all seemed strangely out of place here. It was -as though they stood on holy ground. - -"It's like a church," Patsy said in an awed voice. - -"God's great cathedral," answered Marian. - -Fortunately the trees were not too close together. There was room for the -deer to pass between them. So, as before, the herd moved forward in a -fairly compact mass. - -"Going to be easy," was Patsy's comment after three hours had passed. - -"I don't know," Marian shook her head in doubt, "I hope so, but you know -an Alaskan who is used to barren hills and tundra, dreads a forest. I -belong to the tundra, so I dread it, too." - -In spite of her fears, just at nightfall Marian found herself passing -from beneath the last spruce tree and gazing away at rolling hills -beyond. - -She was just offering up a little prayer of thanksgiving, when some -movement of the forward herd leaders attracted her attention. - -"They're stopping," she said. "I wonder why?" - -Instantly the vision of the morning flashed through her mind. - -"The river!" she exclaimed in alarm. "If--if we can't cross it, we'll -have to camp at the edge of the forest. And that is bad, very bad. -Animals that are cowards, and slink away by day, become daring beasts of -prey at night." - -A hurried race forward confirmed her worst suspicions; there, at her feet -was a river, flanked on one side by willows and on the other by a steep -bank. It was not a broad stream--she could throw a stone across it--but -it did flow swiftly. Its powerful current had thus far defied the -winter's fiercest blasts. It was full to the brim with milky water and -crowding cakes of ice. No creature could brave that torrent, and live. - -"Blocked!" she cried. "And just when I was hoping for so much!" - -Sinking down upon the snow, she gave herself over for a moment to -hopeless despair. The next moment she was on her feet. With arms -outstretched toward the stars as if in appeal for aid, she spoke through -tight clenched teeth: - -"We must! We will! We will win!" - -As if in mockery of her high resolves, at that moment there came to her -ears the long-drawn howl of a timber wolf. - -The call of the wolf was answered by another, and yet another. At the -moment they seemed some distance away, but Marian trembled at the sound. - -"A wolf travels fast," she told herself as she turned to hurry back to -Patsy and her faithful Eskimo. - -"Listen!" she exclaimed, as she came near to her companions. "Sounds like -ten or twelve of them howling at once. Terogloona, do wolves travel in -packs?" - -"Mebby not," the Eskimo shrugged his shoulders, "but often they are many. -Then they call to one another. They come all to one place. Then there's -trouble. There will be trouble to-night, and we have no rifle. We--" - -He broke off abruptly to lean forward in a listening attitude. "That is -strange," he murmured, "They have found some prey back there where they -are, perhaps a caribou." - -As they stood at strained attention, it became evident to all that the -creature being pursued was coming down the wind toward them. The yap-yap -of the wolves, now in full pursuit, grew momentarily louder. At the -beginning they had seemed two miles away. Now they seemed but one mile; a -half mile. The girls fairly held their breaths as they watched and -waited. - -And now it seemed that the wolves must be all but upon them. Then, with a -sudden cry, Marian saw the great spreading antlers of old Omnap-puk, the -king of reindeer and caribou, rise above the ridge. - -"He's not alone. There are others," Patsy breathed. - -"Reindeer!" Marian murmured in astonishment. - -It was true. One by one at first, then by fives and tens, a drove of -deer, fifty or sixty in number, appeared on the crest of the hill and -came plunging down toward Marian's herd. - -The old Monarch had never before joined their herd, but this time, -without a second's hesitation, he plunged straight on until he came to -the edge of the herd. Then, with a peculiar whistled challenge, he -wheeled about and with antlers lowered for battle, pawed defiance at the -on-rushing band of wolves. - -Then a strange and interesting drama began to be enacted. There was a -shifting and turning of deer. Front ranks were quickly formed. When the -wolves, with lolling tongues and dripping jaws reached the spot, they -found themselves facing a solid row of bayonet-like antlers. - -Quick as they were to understand the situation, and to rush away in a -circle to execute a rear attack, the deer, under the monarch's -leadership, were quicker. Other lines were formed until a complete circle -of antlers confronted the beasts of prey. The weaker and younger deer -were in the center. - -Then it was that the girls discovered for the first time that they, too, -were in the center; that they were surrounded by the restless, snorting, -pawing herd of deer. In their interest at watching the progress of -events, they had not been aware of the fact that the deer, in swinging -about, had encircled them. - -That they were in peril, they knew all too well. They read this in the -look of concern on Terogloona's face. - -"Circle hold, all right," he said soberly. "Not hold, bad! Deer afraid. -Go mad. Want'a trample down all; want'a get away fast. Mebby knock down -my master's daughter, her friend, Terogloona, Attatak; knock down all; -mebby trampled. Mebby die. Mebby wolf kill." - -There was apparently nothing to do but wait. To the wolf pack new numbers -appeared to be added from time to time. The sound of their yap-yapping -came incessantly. The circle swayed now to this side and now to that as -some frightened deer appeared ready to break away. It was with the utmost -difficulty that the girls prevented themselves from being knocked down -and trampled under the sharp hoofs of the surging deer. - -"What will it be like if the circle breaks and they really stampede?" -groaned Patsy. For the first time in her Arctic experience she was truly -frightened. - -"I don't know," answered Marian. "We can only trust. I wish we were out -of this. I wish--" - -A sharp exclamation escaped Marian's lips. Over to the left a deer had -gone down. The wolves appeared to have cut the tendons to his forelegs. -There was terrible confusion. It seemed that the day was lost, that the -stampede was at hand. - -"Keep close to me," Marian whispered bravely. "Some way we will pull -through." - -Patsy gripped her arm for the final struggle. Then, to her astonishment, -she heard the sound of a shot, then another, and yet another. - -"Someone to our rescue," cried Marian. "Who can it be?" - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - THE MYSTERIOUS DELIVERER - - -Accustomed as they were to the presence of men, the reindeer, not at all -frightened by the shots, held their position in the impregnable circle. -The cowardly wolves began to slink away at the first shot. It seemed no -time at all until the only sound to be heard was the rattle of antlers as -the deer broke ranks and began to scatter again for feeding. - -Some moments before the girls could make their way out of the center of -the herd the firing ceased. - -"Who could it have been?" Patsy asked. - -"Don't know," said Marian. "Whoever it was, we must find them and thank -them." - -This task she found to be more difficult than she had supposed. There had -doubtless been tracks left by the strange deliverer, but these had -already been trampled by the deer. Search as they might, they could find -no trace of the person who had fired the shots. Mute testimony of his -skill as a marksman, two dead wolves lay on the snow close to the spot -where the defensive circle had been formed. - -"What did you make of that?" Marian asked at last in great bewilderment. -"Terogloona, where could they have gone?" - -"_Canok-ti-ma-na_" (I don't know), Terogloona shook his head soberly. - -One of Marian's sleds had been left at the edge of the forest. Upon -returning to this, they experienced another great surprise. Lying across -the sled was a rifle, and in a pile beside it were five boxes of -cartridges. - -"A rifle!" exclaimed Marian, seizing it and drawing it from his leather -sheath. "A beauty! And a new one!" - -The two girls sat down on the sled and stared at one another in -speechless silence. - -Terogloona and Attatak soon joined them. - -"It was the Indian, the one we saved from starving!" exclaimed Patsy at -last, "I just know it was." - -Terogloona shook his head. "Old rifle, mebby all right," he mumbled; "new -rifle, mebby Indian not give." - -The girls, not at all convinced that this conclusion was a correct one, -still clung to the belief that their protector had been the Indian. - -Since it was impossible to cross the river, it was decided that they -should make camp at the edge of the forest; that Terogloona, with the -rifle, was to keep watch over the herd the first part of the night; and -Marian, who was a good shot, the latter half. - -It was while Marian was packing away the dishes after supper that the -piece of old ivory with the ancient engraving on it, the newest piece -which they had found in the mountain cave, fell out of her sleeping bag. -Without knowing it, she had saved this, the least of their treasures. - -"Look!" she said to Terogloona, who sat cross-legged before the fire, "we -found this in a mountain cave. What does it say? Surely you can read it." - -For a long time Terogloona studied the crude picture in silence. When at -last he spoke, it was to inform her that the ivory had once belonged to -his great-uncle; that it told of a very successful hunt in which twenty -caribou had been driven into a trap and killed with bows and arrows; that -shortly after that they had come upon a white man with a long beard, -starving in a cabin beside a stream. They had given the man caribou meat. -He had grown strong, then had gone away. As pay for their kindness he had -offered them heavy yellow pebbles and dust from a moosehide sack. This -they had not taken because they did not know what it was good for. They -had asked two cups and a knife instead. - -As he explained this, the Eskimo showed each picture that told the part -of the story narrated. - -"It seems very real," said Marian. "How long ago could it have been?" - -"Mebby twenty years," said Terogloona. - -"The white man was a prospector." - -"And the yellow pebbles and dust must have been gold!" exclaimed Patsy. -"Oh, Marian! If we could find that place we'd be rich. Terogloona, could -you find the place?" - -Again the Eskimo studied the ancient picture-writing. - -"_Eh-eh_," he said at last. "Mebby could." - -"Oh, Marian! We'll go back," said Patsy, doing a wild dance on her -sleeping bag. "We'll go back for gold!" - -"For the present," said Marian, quietly, "we have work enough. We must -get our herd to Fort Jarvis. Looks as if that will be a difficult enough -task." - -"But tell me," she turned suddenly to Terogloona, "there were more than -fifty reindeer with old Omnap-puk, were there not?" - -"Yes." - -"Where did they come from?" - -"My master's herd." - -"They are the deer we have been missing all winter, the ones we thought -had been killed?" - -"Yes." - -"Why, then--" she leaped suddenly to her feet in her excitement, "then -those people can not have killed our deer at all!" - -"No. Not kill." - -"Then why did they follow us? Are they following us now? What was it they -killed that night, if not our deer? Oh! it's too perplexing for words." - -Terogloona looked at her and smiled a droll smile. "Many strange things -on hill and tundra. Some time mebby know; mebby not. Terogloona must go -watch; you sleep. To-morrow mebby very hard." Taking up the rifle, he -left the tent. - -Before creeping into her sleeping bag, Marian stepped out of the tent to -cool her heated brow in the crisp night air. Above her the stars gleamed -like tiny camp-fires; beyond her the dark forest loomed. From the -distance she caught the bump and grind of ice crowding the banks of the -river. - -Morning came, and with it the problem of crossing the river. They had -been traveling by compass. As far as Marian could tell, to go either up -or down the river would be to go out of their direct path. Terogloona -advised going north. Some signs unintelligible to the girls, but clear -enough to him, appeared to promise a crossing two or three miles above. - -For once the canny instincts of the Eskimo failed. He was no longer in -his own land of barren hills, tundra and sea; perhaps this caused him to -err. One thing was certain, as they traveled northward the hills that -lined the stream grew more rugged and rocky, and the river more -turbulent. - -"We won't find a crossing for miles," Marian said, with a tone of -conviction. - -Even Terogloona paused to ponder and scratch his head. - -It was just at the moment when despair appeared about to take possession -of them that Patsy, chancing to glance away at the hills that loomed -above the opposite banks, suddenly cried: - -"Look! A man!" - -All looked in the direction she had pointed. The man was standing -perfectly still, but his right hand was pointing. Like a wooden -signboard, it pointed downstream. Three times the arm dropped. Three -times it was raised to point again. - -"He is an Indian," said Terogloona, stoically. "It is his country. He -knows. We must go back. The crossing lies in that direction." - -As the man on the hill saw them turn their herd about and start back, he -began to travel slowly downstream. All that day, and even into the night, -he went before them, showing the way. - -"Like the pillar of fire," said Marian, with a little choke in her voice. - -There was no doubt in her mind that this benefactor was the Indian they -had befriended when he was starving. To her lips there came a line she -had long known, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat." - -Not wishing to camp again at the edge of the forest, they traveled -without rest or food for eight hours. At last, when they were so hungry -and weary that they felt they must drop in their tracks and fall asleep, -they came suddenly to a place where the troubled rush of waters ceased; -where the river spread out into a broad, quiet, icebound lake. - -"Thank God!" Marian murmured reverently as she dropped exhausted upon her -sled. - -After resting and eating a cold lunch of hardtack, frozen boiled beans, -and reindeer steak, they headed the herd across the lake. Having passed -through the narrow forest that skirted the lake, they came upon a series -of low-lying, barren hills. Here, in a little gully lined with willows -whose clinging dead leaves rustled incessantly in the breeze, the girls -made camp. - -Before going to sleep, Marian walked out into the night to view her herd. -The sky was clear. The golden moon made the night light as day. The herd -was resting peacefully. She wondered vaguely if other human beings might -be near. Their mysterious guide had left them at the shore of the lake. -At no time had he come close enough to be identified. She was wondering -about him, and as her gaze swept the horizon she saw the red and yellow -gleam of a camp-fire. - -Her feeling toward that camp-fire had changed. There had been a time when -it filled her with fear. Now, as she gazed steadily at it, it seemed a -star of hope, a protecting fire that was perhaps to go with them all -their long journey through. - -"The Indian's camp, I suppose. And yet," she asked herself, "is it? It -might be the tent of the purple flame, and if it is, do they mean us good -or ill?" - -Sleep that night was long and refreshing. They awoke next morning with -renewed courage. Before them lay great sweeping stretches of tundra. For -days, without a single new adventure, they pushed on toward Fort Jarvis. -Sometimes, beside a camp-fire of willows, Marian sat wondering how they -were coming on with their race. Were Scarberry and his herd nearer the -Fort than they? There was no way to tell. Traveling the trackless Arctic -wilderness is like sailing the boundless sea. As a thousand ships might -pass you by night or day, so a thousand herds, taking other courses, -might pass this one on its way to Fort Jarvis and no owner know of the -others passing. - -Sometimes, too, she thought of those mysterious camp followers--the -people of the purple flame. She no longer feared them; was curious about -them, that was all. No longer did she catch the gleam of their light by -night. Had they turned aside, gone back, or had they merely extinguished -their unusual light? - -The Indians, she thought, must have been left behind. They would not -travel far from their hunting ground. They had been served, and had -served in turn. Now they might safely be forgotten. - -Then there came a time that called for all the courage and endurance -their natures could command. One night they found themselves camped among -the foothills of a range of mountains. The mountains, a row of -alternating triangles of deep purple and light yellow, lay away to the -east and at their peaks the snow, tossed high in air by the incessant -gales that blew there, made each peak seem a smoking volcano. - -"To-morrow," said Terogloona, throwing out his hand in a sweeping -gesture, "we must cross." - -"Is there no other way?" asked Patsy. - -"Must do!" said Terogloona as he turned to the task of putting all in -readiness. - -Two o'clock in the afternoon of the following day found them engaged in a -terrific battle with the blizzard that ever raged up the mountain pass -which they must cross. - - "'Try not the pass, - The old man said, - The storm is lowering overhead,'" - -Patsy chanted bravely as, with snow encrusted head and with cheeks that -must be rubbed incessantly to prevent them from freezing, she struggled -forward. - -A moment later, as a fiercer shock seemed about to lift her from her feet -and hurl her down the mountain side, Marian heard her fairly shriek into -the teeth of the gale: - -"Excelsior! Excelsior!" - -Many hard battles had Marian fought out on the tundra, but nothing had -ever equalled this. The snow, seeming never to stop, shot past them, or -in a wild whirling eddy dashed into their faces. The wind tore at them. -Now it came in rude gusts, and now poured down some narrow pass with all -the force of the waterfall. Only by bending low and leaping into it could -they make progress. - -The herd plunged stumblingly forward in a broad line. The dogs, -incessantly at their heels, urged them forward. Terogloona, and even the -brave Attatak, did all in their power to keep the herd moving. - -"If they stop; oh, if they do!" panted Marian. "If they refuse to go on -we are lost! If only we reach the summit I am sure we will be safe. It -must be calm on the other side." - -Now Gold, the master collie, completely exhausted and blinded by the -snow, came slinking back to his mistress. Marian rubbed the snow from the -eyes of the faithful dog and, patting his side, bade him go back into the -fight. Tears came to her eyes as the dog bravely returned to his task. - -The time came at last when all three dogs seemed done in; when the deer -all but stopped; when it seemed impossible that they might be kept moving -another five minutes. Then it was that the indomitable Marian sank down -upon her sled in the depths of despair. - -"Look! Look!" cried Patsy, who had turned about to rub the frost from her -cheeks. "Wolves! A whole pack of them!" - -Marian wheeled about for one look; then, digging into her pack, drew -forth her rifle. - -"We'll die fighting!" she murmured as she took steady aim at the foremost -member of the pack that came tearing up the trail. - -She was about to press the trigger when Patsy gave her arm a sudden pull. - -"Wait!" she cried. "Wait! Those are not wolves. They're dogs; great big, -wonderful dogs!" - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - THE END OF THE TRAIL - - -Troops of conflicting hopes and fears waged battle in Marian's brain when -she realized that the pack approaching them on the run up the trail in -the teeth of the storm were not wolves, but dogs. There are two types of -dogs in Alaska; one, more wolf than dog, is the native wolf dog. This -type, once he is loosed, leaps at the throat of the first reindeer he -sees. A pack of these dogs, in such a crisis as the girls were now -facing, would not only destroy many of the feebly struggling, worn-out -and helpless younger deer, but beyond doubt would drive the remainder of -the herd into such a wild panic as would lose them to their owners -forever. - -Were the dogs of this or the other type--white men's dogs, who treat the -reindeer as they might cattle or sheep, and merely bark at them and drive -them forward? If they were white men's dogs they might save the day; for -the barking of such a pack, as fresh for the struggle they appeared to -be, would doubtless drive the exhausted deer to renewed efforts and carry -them on over the top. - -With bated breath and trembling heart Marian watched their approach. Once -hope fell as she thought she caught the sharp ki-yi of a wolf dog. In -this she must have been mistaken, for as they came closer she saw that -they were magnificent shaggy-coated fellows, with an unmistakable collie -strain in their blood. - -"Oh!" she cried, "'the chariots of the Lord, and the horsemen thereof.'" - -It was a strange expression, but fitted the occasion so well that Patsy -felt her heart give a great leap of joy. - -Indeed the steeds of the Arctic, if not the horsemen, had come to their -aid in a time of great need, and, passing them with a wild leap, the dogs -burst upon the deer with a rush and roar that sent them forward by leaps -and bounds. - -Staggering forward, the girls followed as best they could. Now they were -a thousand yards from the summit, now five hundred, now three, now two. -And now the first deer were disappearing over the top. Enheartened by -this, the others crowded forward until with one final rush they all -passed over the top and started down on the other side. - -Just as the girls reached the crest and were peering over the summit, a -shrill whistle smote their ears. It sounded again, and yet again. There -was a movement just before them. Then the snow-covered pack of dogs -rushed pel-mel past them on the back trail down hill. - -"Someone whistled to them. They are going back. How wonderfully they must -be trained!" exclaimed Patsy. - -"They were someone's team," Marian said slowly, as if for the first time -realizing they had not really been sent direct from Heaven to save them. -"They're somebody's team. He knew we were in trouble and turned the dogs -loose to help us. I wonder who he could have been?" - -For the present the question must remain unanswered. The herd had gone on -before them. It was all important that they join them. So, having -straightened out the draw-straps to their sleds, they began making their -way down the hard packed and uncertain descent. - -It was not long before they came upon the herd feeding on a little -mountain plateau. Terogloona was already busy making camp, and Attatak -thawing out food over a fire of tiny scrub fir trees. - -"Isn't it wonderful to think that the great struggle is over?" whispered -Marian, contentedly, as they lounged on their sleeping bags an hour -later. "This is really the worst of it, I hope. Fort Jarvis can't be more -than four days away now, over a smoother down trail." - -"If only we are in time!" sighed Patsy. - -"We must be. Oh, we must!" exclaimed Marian passionately. "Surely it -would be too much to struggle as we have, and then lose!" - -Before Marian fell asleep she set her mind to meet any outcome of their -adventure. She thought of the wonderful opportunities the sale of the -herd would bring to her father and herself. Near some splendid school -they must rent a bungalow. There she would keep house for him and go to -school. In her mind she saw the wonderful roses that bloomed around their -door-step, and pictured the glorious sunsets they would view from their -back door. - -"Perhaps, too," she told herself, "Patsy could live with us for a year or -two and attend my school." - -When she had pictured all this, she saw in her mind that the race had -been lost; that Scarberry had sold his herd to the Canadian officials; -that she was to turn the heads of her leading reindeer toward the home -tundra. - -With great difficulty at first, but with ever increasing enthusiasm, in -her imagination she drove the herd all the way back to enter once more -upon the wild, free, life of the herder. - -"It really does not matter," she told herself; "it's really only for -father. He is so lonely down there all by himself." - -In her heart of hearts she knew that it did matter, mattered a very great -deal indeed. Brave girl that she was, she only prepared her mind for the -shock that would come if the race were really lost. - -Four days later the two girls found themselves approaching a small -village of log cabins and long, low-lying buildings. This was Fort -Jarvis. They had made the remainder of the journey in safety. Leaving -their herd some ten miles from the Fort, where the deer would be safe, -they had tramped in on snowshoes. - -Marian found her heart fluttering painfully as her feet fell in the -hard-packed village path. Had Scarberry been there? Was the race lost? -Had the man of the purple flame been there? Had he anything to do with -the deal? - -Twice they asked directions of passing Indians. At last they knocked at a -door. The door swung open and they found themselves inside a long, low -room. At a table close to an open fire sat a man in uniform. He rose and -bowed as they came toward him. - -"You--you are the agent for the Canadian Government?" Marian faltered, -addressing the man in uniform. - -The man nodded his head and smiled a little welcome. - -"You wish to buy a reindeer herd?" Marian asked the question point-blank. - -"I believe," the man answered quietly, "that I have already agreed to -purchase one--" - -"You--you--" Marian sank to a chair. The shock was too much. - -"You see, the truth is," smiled the Major, as though there had been no -interruption, "I believe I have agreed to purchase your herd." - -"My herd!" exclaimed Marian, unable to believe her ears. "But how did you -know of my herd--how did you know I was on the way? Who told you--" - -"One question at a time, young lady," laughed the Major. "I think I have -a number of surprises for you. As to your first question, I will say that -I have never heard of your herd until two days ago. That day, two days -after the great storm, a half famished Indian reached Fort Jarvis, -driving a splendid team of white men's dogs. They had been hard driven. - -"After we had fed him, he jerkily told us the story of your race against -a man named Scarberry. He told us of the treatment you had given him; of -your kindnesses to his people. Then he told of Scarberry. Told how -Scarberry's herd had been delayed and held up along the trail, and how he -had tried to be of help to you. Then he told of your battle against the -storm, and how, once you were safely over the pass, he had driven night -and day to reach here. His hope was to get here ahead of any other herd -and intercede for you. Such loyalty is not to be denied. And I told him -that should your herd reach here in good shape, that I would give it -preference, even should Scarberry get here ahead of you. I believe that -answers one of your questions." - -"But how in the world did this Indian know that the Government had agreed -to purchase a herd?" asked Marian. - -"In the North," answered the Major, "rumor flies fast, even over -seemingly uninhabited places. And you may depend upon it that the Indian -will know what is going on; even if he does have but little to say. Now, -to business. I understand you have brought the herd with you?" - -"Yes," answered Marian, "they are at our camp about ten miles out." - -"Then we may consider the deal closed. There remains but to count the -deer; to weed out those that are too old or too weak for the final drive, -then to make out your order on our Government. We have Lapland herders -who will assist in the work. You may rest here with us until the count is -completed. After that I will see that you have guides and dog-teams for -the passage south to the rail head." - -"Oh! how wonderful!" exclaimed Patsy, impulsively leaping to her feet. -"But Bill Scarberry," she asked suddenly, "did he really win?" - -"No," smiled the Major, "he has not yet been heard from. So you won the -race after all." - -"Good!" exclaimed Patsy, "I could never have been happy again if we had -lost, even if Marian did sell her herd." - -After a night's rest at the post, Marian and Patsy felt like they had -come into a new life. They had lain awake long into the night, exchanging -excited whispers over their good luck. The next morning, as Marian was -passing down the street, she noticed a dog team. There was something -about the leader that looked familiar. One glance at the driver brought -an exclamation of surprise to her lips. He was none other than the Indian -she had saved from starvation, and who in turn had served as her guardian -angel. - -"That is the dog team that came to our rescue in the blizzard," was her -mental comment. - -While she had been told the rest of the story by the Major, she preferred -to have the story from the man's own lips. She found him very reluctant -to talk, but after his heart had been warmed by a splendid meal of boiled -reindeer meat and coffee, he told his story from the time she had given -him three of her reindeer until the present moment. Shortly after leaving -her, he had come in with some of his own people who were well fed and -prosperous. Knowing that the girls were headed straight for trouble, and -feeling very grateful to them, he had persuaded one of these, his -kinsmen, to go with him and to follow the reindeer herd with his team of -white men's dogs. It had been they who had driven the wolf-pack away and -had left a rifle and ammunition for the girls. It was their dog team that -had been released from the sled and had assisted in driving the reindeer -herd over the mountain. - -"But why did you do all this?" Marian asked. - -The man looked at her for a moment in silence, then he asked: "Why did -you give reindeer?" - -"Because you were in need." - -"And you," a faint smile played across his face, "you too were in need. -Indian all same white man." - -Then Marian understood, and her heart was filled with a new love for all -those strange people who inhabit the White Wilderness. - -The next day, Marian and Patsy, together with the Major and his Lapland -herders, went out to Marian's camp and there began the business of -sorting and counting the deer. This work continued for three days, and on -the evening of the third day, leaving the herd in charge of the Lapland -herders, Marian, Patsy and the Major, together with Terogloona and -Attatak, started for Fort Jarvis by way of deer sled. - -Topping a hill some two miles from Fort Jarvis, they suddenly came upon a -tent. Just before they reached it, the interior became suddenly lighted -with a strange purple flame. Marian halted her deer with an exclamation -of surprise. - -"The purple flame!" she gasped, and turning to the Major said: "I can -stand this mystery no longer. Do you know who is in that tent?" - -"Why yes, I think so," said the Major. "I think it is Mr. Montgomery, an -old prospector. He is well known throughout the North. Why do you ask?" - -"I want to meet him," said Marian. "Will you please come with me to his -tent?" - -A moment later a hearty old man came to the door of the tent in response -to their call, and with a cheery smile acknowledged the Major's -introduction of Marian and Patsy, at once inviting them in. - -Imagine Marian's surprise, when upon entering the tent she saw a young -girl of about her own age, seated at a radio sending set. And there, -under the deft fingers of the girl operator, a crackling purple flash -jumped back and forth across a wide spark gap. - -"The girl of the purple flame," gasped Patsy. - -At sound of her voice the girl turned around and smiled a welcome. Marian -turned to Mr. Montgomery: - -"So you are the people of the purple flame." - -"Are we, indeed!" laughed the old Prospector. - -"Yes," said Marian, "and I thought all the while, back there in Alaska, -that you were dogging our footsteps, and, to speak honestly, we feared -you." - -"Well, well," laughed the old gentleman. "So that was your reindeer camp. -We thought all the while that _you_ were dogging _our_ footsteps." - -Then the old prospector launched into a long story that cleared up the -entire mystery of the purple flame. - -It appeared that in his youth he had been a prospector in Alaska and had -found a very rich vein of gold. Ill health had overtaken him and he had -been forced to return to the States. Years passed, and fortune and wealth -had come to him, but the lure of searching for gold was still in his -veins, and in the end he had come again to Alaska, thinking to find his -mine. The years had somewhat dimmed his memory, and he had searched in -vein for the lost mine. Moving from day to day, he had been just as -surprised to note that Marian's camp moved with him as was Marian to -discover that his camp moved with hers. In time he had become suspicious, -fearing that they were dogging his footsteps. He knew that he had been -well known throughout the North in the past, and he feared that others -knew of his lost mine. - -"And that," concluded Mr. Montgomery, "is the reason I never called at -your camp." - -"And that radio set," said Marian, "with its flash of purple flame, is -the reason that I never called at your camp. There was something so -mysterious about it all." - -The old prospector smiled. "I suppose," he said, "that my having a -sending and receiving radio set is a bit strange and perhaps a little -mysterious. Certainly the set is a bit strange, for to my knowledge there -is not another set like it in the country. It is very compact and yet -most powerful. You see, my interests in the outside are very extensive, -and it is necessary for me to keep in touch with them. By the use of this -set, I can keep in touch with my agent in Nome, and he, in turn, can keep -in touch with the States by use of the cable. - -"It was the spark of my set, while sending, that made the purple colored -flash which kept you so mystified. You know, most mysterious things -become quite simple when you find out all about them. - -"This radio has made it possible for me to come back and look for my lost -mine. It's the lure of the thing that draws me, not the desire for the -gold." - -And then it was that Marian, remembering the treasures that she had found -in the cave on the enchanted mountain, and feeling that she had something -in common with this old prospector, told him her story. - -As she told of the carved ivory, the old man's eyes glowed with delight, -and in the end he insisted that he go into Fort Jarvis with them that he -might at least see the piece they had brought along and hear Terogloona's -story. - -At the post old Terogloona, in a halting way, read the pictured -inscription on the four sides. Other bits of information furnished by -Terogloona convinced the old prospector that Terogloona's great-uncle had -been his guide in the days when he was first prospecting and had found -the mine. Mr. Montgomery wanted to set out at once with Terogloona and -Attatak for the cave on the mountain. - -"Why," he exclaimed, "that's very near my lost mine, for I remember that -my old guide, Terogloona's great-uncle, spoke of the cave as a place -where we might winter in safety, should winter come down upon us before -we expected it." - -"How wonderful!" said Marian. "We have just completed the count and sale -of our deer. Patsy and I are going back to the States, and I am sure -Terogloona and Attatak will go with you. And you will be in good hands," -she added, giving both of the faithful servants a glowing smile. - -The sale of the deer was successfully completed. After a much needed -rest, the girls began the long journey to the "Outside." So far were they -from the strange cabin of the recluse musician, they were unable to -return for the treasure they had taken from the mountain cave. - -Many months passed, and then one day as the two girls returned from an -afternoon of shopping in Chicago, Marian found a registered package -awaiting her. From its bulk, and from the many post-marks upon it, she -knew at once that it contained the long awaited ancient treasure. - -Her fingers trembled as she undid the many wrappings. When at last she -came to the treasure she found each piece separately wrapped. The copper -instruments and the old ivory pieces were just as she had found them, -tarnished and blackened with age. - -"But what's this?" she held up before Patsy's astonished eyes a green -bowl which gleamed in the light like a crystal. - -"Why!" exclaimed Patsy, as she saw her cousin unpack another and another -and yet another, "he has thought your old dishes were useless and has -sent you some of his exquisite glassware instead." - -"How strange!" murmured Marian, ready to cry with disappointment. She had -so hoped to surprise Mr. Cole, the Curator of the Museum, with rare -pieces of ancient pottery such as had never before been brought from the -Arctic; and here were only four pieces of glassware. How they had ever -come to be here, she could not guess; but here they were. - -"Look!" cried Patsy, "What a strange appearance they have when you hold -them to the light! And see, two of them are blue and two are a tawny -green, like huge cat's eyes." - -"Wait!" said Marian, "here is a note from our aged friend." - -She unfolded it and read it aloud: - -"Please pardon an old man's fancy. I could not resist the temptation of -polishing these up a bit. The very sight of them makes me envious. They -are indeed a rare find. I have a guess as to what they are made of, but -your friend the Curator will know." - -"So," exclaimed Patsy, "they are the very dishes you found in the cave!" - -"How very, very strange! We must have Mr. Cole come over at once," said -Marian, half beside herself with curiosity. - -She raced to the telephone and a moment later had the Curator on the -wire. If you have read our other book, "The Cruise of the O'Moo" you will -remember that Marian, with her two friends, Lucile and Florence had once -made a rare find for the Museum, so you will not wonder that so great a -man should hurry right over in answer to their call. - -When he arrived, Marian placed one of the bowls in his hand with the -single comment: "From a cave in a mountain in Alaska." - -For three minutes he turned the bowl about before the light. - -"What do you want me to tell you about it?" There was a strange light in -his eye. - -"Almost everything!" exclaimed Marian. "What it's made of, who made it, -how long ago, how--" - -"Wait a bit. Not so fast!" the Curator held up a hand for silence. - -"You should know what it's made of," he smiled. "What was the Blue God -made of?" - -"Jade." - -"And this." - -"Is that jade, too?" - -"Blue and green jade." - -"Then--then the bowls should be valuable." - -"Quite decidedly. As for your other questions, much more information is -needed before we can know who made them and when. So far as I know, -nothing of this kind has ever before been discovered. Were there any -other pieces?" - -Marian held out a handful of ivory pieces. - -For ten minutes there was silence in the room, save for the click of -specimens as the Curator turned them over. Then, turning suddenly, Mr. -Cole put out his hands to the girls. - -"I want to congratulate you," he said, his eyes gleaming, "upon your good -fortune in discovering the finest collection of specimens ever brought -from Alaska. From its discoloration this ivory should be at least five -hundred years old. The bowls are doubtless of the same period. That makes -them priceless." - -On hearing these words Marian's joy knew no bounds. As for Patsy, her -unselfish pleasure in the success of her cousin was quite as great as if -it had been she who had made the find. - -It was arranged that Mr. Cole should take charge of the specimens, and -should advise Marian in regard to their disposal. - -Marian's dream came true. She and her father secured the bungalow, rose -bush and all, and owned it free from debt. There was money enough left -for her education. As for Patsy, she was glad enough to hurry back to -rejoin her classmates in Louisville, Kentucky. - -An unfortunate part of having plenty of money is that it is likely to -shut out from one's life the thrills that come with a struggle for an -existence. For the time being Marian's life lost most of its thrills. - -Not so, however, with her friend, Lucille Tucker. You will remember her -from reading "The Blue Envelope," "The Cruise of the O'Moo" and "The -Secret Mark." Life for her continued to have thrills a-plenty. Our next -book, "The Crimson Thread," will have to do with the adventures which -came to her during a Christmas vacation. If you think that two weeks' -time can contain but few adventures, this book will prove that you are -mistaken. - - - - - Transcriber's Notes - - ---Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text--this e-text - is public domain in the country of publication. - ---Silently corrected palpable typos, leaving a few amusing ones - unchanged. - - - Amusing Typo/Puns - - ---"searched in vein for the lost mine"--Shouldn't that be the other way - around? - ---"looking for some stray fauns"--a long way from Greece! - ---"hours spent pouring over books"--a bit more drastic than throwing cold - water on ideas... - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purple Flame, by Roy J. 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