CHAPTER III
Outwitting the Enemy
Among his neighbours at Seal Cove, 'Duke Radford counted one verypronounced enemy, and that was Oily Dave, master of one of thesealing boats, and keeper of the only whisky saloon within twentyor thirty miles of Roaring Water Portage. The cause of the enmitywas now nearly two years old, but like a good many other things ithad gained strength with age. Oily Dave had been supplying the redman with liquor, and this in defiance of the law which forbade suchsales; 'Duke Radford reported him, and Oily Dave was mulcted in afine so heavy that it consumed all the profits from his Indiantraffic, and a good many other and more legitimate profits also.Since then Oily Dave had hated the storekeeper with a zest andenergy which bade fair to become the ruling passion of his life;but except for a few minor disagreeables, that could hardly be saidto count, his ill will had thus far not gone beyond sneer andinvective.
Katherine was always afraid of him, and of what he might do to herfather if he had the chance; for his nature was small and mean, sosmall and so mean that, though he might not risk a reprisal whichwould bring him within the reach of the law, he would not hesitateat any small, mean act of spite which might injure his victim, yetwould not reflect on himself. Since knowing of her father'strouble, she had been more afraid of Oily Dave than ever, for therewas a sinister look about the man, and she feared she knew not what.
When the dogs, with their master in the sledge, and Katherinefollowing close behind, dashed up to the door of the store thatevening, Oily Dave was the first person to step forward to lend ahelping hand in getting 'Duke Radford housed and his hurtsexamined. There were six or seven men loafing about the store thatevening, and they all helped; so Katherine, when she had kicked offher snowshoes, was able to dart indoors to warn Mrs. Burton aboutwhat had happened.
"He ought to be put to bed at once, Nellie. Night school must gofor to-night, and if he has to keep his bed to-morrow, why, I mustteach in here, or even in the store," she said hurriedly, decidingeverything on the spot as was her wont, because Mrs. Burton alwaysfound it so difficult to make up her mind on any subject.
"Do you think that would be best, or shall we give him ourbedroom?--though that would be frightfully inconvenient, and Ishould be so worried to be obliged to put the children to bed inthat other room at night, so far away from us, after the store isclosed," sighed Mrs. Burton, who stood still in the middle of theroom, clasping and unclasping her hands in nervous distress, whileKatherine dragged off her encumbering wraps, tossing them in a heapon the floor.
"Come and help me to make the bed, Nellie," she said, turning awayand leaving Mrs. Burton's plaintive questions unanswered.
The elder sister at once did as the younger requested, sighing alittle as she went, yet relieved all the same because the matterhad been settled for her. By this time some of the men had brought'Duke Radford into the store, and, sitting him on the bench by thestove, were peeling off his outer wraps. Some of the others hadunharnessed the dogs, while Phil carried out their supper. Miles,meanwhile, was looking sharply after the store; for, although theseneighbours were so kind and helpful, some of them were not to betrusted farther than they could be seen, and would have helpedthemselves to sugar, beans, tobacco, or anything else which tooktheir fancy if the opportunity had been given them for doing so.
Whilst two of the men took 'Duke Radford's clothes off, and got himsafely into bed, another man approached Miles and asked for aparticular kind of tobacco. The boy sought for it in the placewhere it was usually kept, but, failing to find it, turned toKatherine, who stood in impatient misery by the stove, waiting togo to her father when the men had done with him.
"Katherine, where is the Black Crow tobacco kept now? It alwaysused to be on the shelf below the tea packets."
"We are out of it," she replied. "But we shall have plentyto-morrow. I had to cache most of the stores we were bringing; butthey are safe enough, for I turned the little sledge upside down onthe top of them, so I guess neither wolf nor wolverine will be ableto get at them to tear the packets to pieces."
"You won't be able to get them either, for with all this snow youwill never be able to find them," said the man in a disappointedtone, for he was a great smoker who cared for only one sort oftobacco.
"Oh! make your mind quite easy on that score," replied Katherine."I hung Father's broken snowshoe in a branch of the tree, to markthe place, and I shall go over quite early to-morrow to bring thegoods home."
Directly she had spoken she repented her words; for she saw,without appearing to see, a look full of meaning which passedbetween Oily Dave and the customer who had been disappointed. Itwas only a glance, and might stand for nothing, but she had seen itand was angry with herself for the indiscretion which had made herutter words which had better not have been spoken. The men cameout of the bedroom then, so she and Nellie were able to go in.
'Duke Radford was considerably battered. He had a broken collarbone; one shoulder was bruised so badly that it looked as if it hadbeen beaten with a hammer; and one side of his face had a deepflesh wound. Mrs. Burton was a capital nurse: she and Katherinebetween them soon had the sufferer as comfortable as it waspossible to make him; then they fed him with strong hot broth,after which Mrs. Burton remembered that Katherine had had nosupper, and hustled her off to the other room in search of food.Katherine noticed as she went back through the store that Oily Davehad gone, also the man who had wanted to buy the Black Crow tobacco.
"Miles, can you leave Phil to look after things, and come with mefor five minutes?" she said, with a thrill of anxiety in her tone.She was faint and spent with hunger and fatigue, the prospectbefore her seemed too dreadful to be faced, yet deep down in herheart was the stern determination not to be outwitted if she couldhelp it. But she must first of all get rid of this stupidtrembling, which made her feel as if her limbs were not strongenough to bear the weight of her body; so sitting down at the tableshe prepared to get a good square meal as the first step towardsthe successful accomplishment of what was to come after. Miles wasa minute later in coming, because he had been attending to acustomer. "What is the matter; is Father very bad?" he asked, witha quaver of fear in his tone. Accidents, or sickness of any kind,always seemed so much worse in winter, and then death and disasterhad already worked havoc in the family.
"Poor Father is bad enough, but I dare say he will do very wellwith care, and Nellie is a famous one for looking after sickfolks," Katherine answered, as cheerfully as she could, quick tounderstand what was in the mind of Miles, and feeling genuinelysorry for him. Then she said briskly: "But I have gone and done afearfully stupid thing to-night, and I want to know if you feelbrave enough to help me out of a very big muddle?"
Miles bristled up in an offended fashion. "I suppose I've got asmuch pluck as most people; anyhow I'm not quite a coward."
"Of course you are not, or I should not have dreamed of asking youto help me to-night," Katherine said, with a nervous laugh; then ina jerky tone she went on: "I want you to get the store shut up assoon as possible, then, directly the people have cleared off, wehave got to go and bring those stores home that I had to cache."
"But we can't go at night, and in a snowstorm!" expostulated Miles;but his eyes glowed and his nostrils dilated, as if the verythought of such an expedition sent thrills of delight all throughhim.
"It is not snowing so badly now, and luckily the moon will help us.Moreover, if we don't go tonight it will not be of much use to goat all; for if we wait until the morning I fancy we shall find thatmost of the stores have disappeared, especially the Black Crowtobacco," Katherine replied, then told him of the look she had seenpass between the man who wanted the tobacco and Oily Dave, aftershe had been so foolishly frank in explaining where the stores wereto be found.
"I'll go and shut up sharp, then we'll start as soon as possible,"Miles said, with a jump of irrepressible joyfulness, for nothingappealed to him like adventure.
"Don't let anyone even guess what we are going to do!" crie
dKatherine, who felt that enough indiscretion had been committedthat night to last them for a long time to come.
"Trust me for that!" replied Miles. "I shall pull a face as long asa fiddle, and yawn my head half off while I'm clearing up. Oh, itwill be rich to out-wit that precious pair! I had been wonderingwhy Stee Jenkin should go off so quiet and early with Oily Dave,but I should never have guessed at the reason. I shall be throughwith the shutting-up in about twenty minutes, and I've had mysupper, so there won't be anything to wait for."
Katherine felt better when she had eaten her supper; the thought ofwhat was before her was less of an ordeal, and she was more thanever determined that Oily Dave and the other man must be outwitted,cost what it might. There was to be no night school that night, so,directly the door of the store was shut and barred, Miles andKatherine were able to set out. The twins were in bed, and fastasleep. Mrs. Burton was still busy in her father's room, so therewas only Phil to look after things.
"Tell Nellie when she comes out of Father's room that Miles and Ihave got some work to do outside which may take us an hour ormore," Katherine said to her youngest brother. "Meanwhile you mustjust make yourself as useful as possible--clear away supper, washthe cups and plates, take care of the fire, and look after thingsgenerally. You will have a school holiday to-morrow, so no lessonsneed be learned to-night. We shall have to do the store work whileFather is ill, so you and Miles will have to be satisfied withnight school with the men instead of having lessons in the day."
"Hooray!" chirruped Phil, who had no love of learning, but alwaysyearned for action. Then he asked anxiously: "Couldn't you stay inand look after things to-night, while I go and help Miles with theoutside work?"
Katherine laughed and shook her head. "No, no, the outside workwould be too heavy for you to-night; you might even get your nosefrozen. But you must stay up until we come back, because Nelliemay need you to help her."
"I'll stay," replied the boy, but he manifested so much curiosityabout the nature of the outside work that had to be done thatKatherine had finally to command him to stay inside the house.
Neither she nor Miles wished anyone to know what they were going todo: there were so many reasons for keeping their errand secret.Mrs. Burton would have wept and wailed at the mere thought of sucha journey at night, while Phil simply could not keep a secret.
The dogs were tired and sleepy, very unwilling to be turned out andharnessed again, but directly they were fairly out of their shedthe cold seemed to rouse them, and they set off at a great pace.Katherine and Miles were riding in the empty sledge now, with theirsnowshoes tucked in beside them. The snow-storm had spent itself;the moon shone out of a cloudless sky, while myriads of stars lenttheir aid to the illumination of the night. Even the cold was lessnoticeable than in the afternoon, when the damp wind blew off thewater and the snow was falling so fast.
"It was worth while your being indiscreet for once, seeing that ithas brought us out on a night like this," Miles said, as hecrouched low in the sledge, holding on with both thickly mittenedhands, for Katherine was driving, and the dogs were going withleaps and bounds, which made the sledge bounce and sway in a veryerratic fashion.
"You won't say the indiscretion was worth while if it turns outthat we are the second arrivals and not the first," Katherineanswered. But her tone was buoyant and hopeful; for she had littledoubt about getting to the scene of her father's accident beforeOily Dave and Stee Jenkin had succeeded in locating the spot.
"Wolves! listen to them!" exclaimed Miles, as a hideous yapping andhowling sounded across the snowy waste.
"They are a good way off though, and I brought a pair of Father'srevolvers in case of accident," Katherine replied, her heartbeating a little quicker, although in reality she would much ratherhave met two or three wolves just then than have encountered OilyDave and the man who had wanted to buy the Black Crow tobacco.
"I'm glad you thought to bring them," said Miles. "Nick Jones toldme the wolves are uncommonly hungry for so early in the year, andthey are in great numbers too. He trapped twenty last week."
"That means twenty less to bother us to-night, which is a greatcomfort," she answered, laughing nervously, for the yapping andhowling seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. Then, recognizing alandmark, she cried out joyfully: "Oh, here is the place, and therehangs the broken snowshoe!"
"What is that?" cried Miles sharply, as a shadowy something slidaway out of sight among the trees, a something that was so muchlike its surroundings as to be hardly distinct from them.
"A wolf. Look at the dogs. Mind what you are about, Miles, orthey'll bolt!" she called quickly. They were both on the groundnow, and the boy was trying to hold in the dogs, which werebarking, raging, howling, and whining, making a violent uproar, andall striving to get free in order to rush at that something whichhad slid out of sight among the trees a minute before.
"We must tie them up. I can't hold the brutes. They pull as ifthey were mad," said Miles breathlessly, while the dogs struggledand fought, nearly dragging him off his feet, as he tried to keepthem from dashing away in pursuit of what they deemed a legitimatequarry.
Katherine swung a rope with a running noose over the head andshoulders of the leader, a huge white dog with a black patch on itsback like a saddle.
"There, my fine fellow; now perhaps you will understand that thisis not playtime, but a working day extending into the night," shesaid, as she patted the great beast in an affectionate manner toshow that it was repression, not punishment, which was intended bythe tightening of the rope.
The dog whined, licking her mitten, but left off struggling, as ifit realized the uselessness of such a course. The other dogs werefastened in like manner, for they had all been trained to huntwolves, and might bolt at an unexpected moment, wrecking the sledgeand scattering the things which were loaded upon it. Then came tenminutes of hard work clearing away the snow and getting at thepackages which Katherine had been obliged to cache a few hoursbefore. One package had been torn open, and its contentsscattered, which showed that the wolf had already started thievingoperations; so that even if Oily Dave and his companion hadcontemplated no raid on the cache, there would not have been muchleft later which was worth carrying away.
"I don't like you having to draw that sledge. Suppose it overrunsyou, and you get hurt, like Father did this afternoon," Miles saidin a troubled tone, as Katherine prepared to go forward with thehand sledge, while he followed behind with the dogs.
"I don't intend to let it overrun me, so there is no need to worry.In fact there is much more danger for you if the dogs hear thewolves and try to bolt. But let us get along as fast as we can, orNellie will be in a fine state of anxiety about us," Katherinereplied. Then, gathering the lines of the sledge round her arms,as her father had taught her, she set out at a good pace, followedby Miles and the dogs.
For a time little was to be heard save the creaking of the babichelacing of the snowshoes, for the dogs were running silently, andMiles, saving his breath for the work of getting along, wascontrolling them merely by dumb show, flourishing the whip to holdthem back when they took on a spurt, or beckoning them along whenthey showed signs of lagging. They were less than a mile fromhome, and going well, when suddenly a hideous uproar broke out nearat hand--the long-drawn howling of wolves, human shouts and cries,and the crack of a revolver.