CHAPTER XXXV
SNOW-BLIND
West grinned up at the officer, his yellow canines showing liketusks. His matted face was an unlovely sight. In it stark, naked fearstruggled with craftiness and cruelty.
"Good you came back--good for you. I ain't blind. I been foolin' youall along. Wanted, to try you out. Now we'll mush. Straight for thebig lake. North by west like we been going. Un'erstand, Stomak-o-sox?I'll not beat yore head off this time, but if you ever try any monkeytricks with Bully West again--" He let the threat die out in a soundof grinding teeth.
Beresford spoke. His voice was gentle. Vile though this murdererwas, there was something pitiable in his condition. One cannot see aColossus of strength and energy stricken to helplessness without somesense of compassion.
"It's not Stomak-o-sox. We're two of the North-West Mounted. You'reunder arrest for breaking prison and for killing Tim Kelly."
The information stunned West. He stared up out of sightless eyes. Sofar as he had known, no member of the Mounted was within five hundredmiles of him. Yet the law had stretched out its long arm to snatchhim back from this Arctic waste after he had traveled nearly fifteenhundred miles. It was incredible that there could exist such a policeforce on earth.
"Got me, did you?" he growled. He added the boast that he could notkeep back. "Well, you'd never 'a' got me if I hadn't gone blind--neverin this world. There ain't any two of yore damned spies could landBully West when he's at himself."
"Had breakfast?"
He broke into a string of curses. "No, our grub's runnin' low. Thatwood Cree slipped away with all we had. Wish I'd killed him last weekwhen I skinned him with the dog-whip."
"How long have you been blind?"
"It's been comin' on two-three days. This damned burnin' glare fromthe snow. Yesterday they give out completely. I tied myself by a lineto the Injun. Knew I couldn't trust him. After all I done for himtoo."
"Did you know he was traveling south with you--had been sinceyesterday afternoon?"
"No, was he?" Again West fell into his natural speech of invective."When I meet up with him, I'll sure enough fill him full o' slugs," heconcluded savagely.
"You're not likely to meet him again. We've come to take you back toprison."
Morse brought the train up and the hungry man was fed. They treatedhis eyes with the simple remedies the North knows and bound them witha handkerchief to keep out the fierce light reflected from the snow.
Afterward, they attached him by a line to the driver. He stumbledalong behind. Sometimes he caught his foot or slipped and plunged downinto the snow. Nobody had ever called him a patient man. Whenever anymishap occurred, he polluted the air with his vile speech.
They made slow progress, for the pace had to be regulated to suit theprisoner.
Day succeeded day, each with its routine much the same as the onebefore. They made breakfast, broke camp, packed, and mushed. The swishof the runners sounded from morning till night fell. Food began to runscarce. Once they left the blind man at the camp while theyhunted wood buffalo. It was a long, hard business. They came backempty-handed after a two-day chase, but less than a mile from campthey sighted a half-grown polar bear and dropped it before the animalhad a chance to move.
One happy hour they got through the Land of Little Sticks and struckthe forests again.
They had a blazing fire again for the first time in six weeks. Brushand sticks and logs went into it till it roared furiously.
Morse turned from replenishing it to notice that West had removed thebandage from his eyes.
"Better keep it on," the young man advised.
"I was changin' it. Too tight. Gives me a headache," the convictanswered sulkily.
"Can you see anything at all yet?"
"Not a thing. Looks to me like I never would."
Tom turned his head for him, so that he faced the blaze squarely. "Nolight at all?"
"Nope. Don't reckon I ever will see."
"Maybe you will. I've known' cases of snow-blindness where theycouldn't see for a month an' came out all right."
"Hurts like blazes," growled the big fellow.
"I know. But not as bad as it did, does it? That salve has helpedsome."
The two young fellows took care of the man as though he had been abrother. They bathed his eyes, fed him, guided him, encouraged him. Hewas a bad lot--the worst that either of them had known. But he wasin trouble and filled with self-pity. Never ill before, a giant ofstrength and energy, his condition now apparently filled him withdespair.
He would sit hunched down before the fire, head bowed in his hands, amountain of dole and woe. Sometimes he talked, and he blamed every onebut himself for his condition. He never had had a square deal. Everyone was against him. It was a rotten world. Then he would fall tocursing God and man.
In some ways he was less trouble than if he had been able to see. Hewas helpless and had to trust to them. His safety depended on theirsafety. He could not strike at them without injuring himself. Nomatter how much he cringed at the thought of being dragged back topunishment, he shrank still more from the prospect of death in thesnow wastes. The situation galled him. Every decent word he gave themcame grudgingly, and he still snarled and complained and occasionallybullied as though he had the whip hand.
"A nice specimen of _ursus horribilis_," Beresford murmured to hiscompanion one day. "Thought he was game, anyhow, but he's a yellowquitter. Acts as though we were to blame for his blindness and forwhat's waiting for him at the end of the journey. I like a man tostand the gaff when it's prodding him."
Morse nodded. "Look out for him. I've got a notion in the back o' myhead that he's beginning to see again. He'd kill us in a holy minuteif he dared. Only his blindness keeps him from it. What do you say?Shall we handcuff him nights?"
"Not necessary," the constable said. "He can't see a thing. Watch himgroping for that stick."
"All his brains run to cunning. Don't forget that. Why should he haveto feel so long for that stick? He laid it down himself a minute ago.Tryin' to slip one over on us maybe."
The Canadian looked at the lean, brown face of his friend and grinned."I've a notion our imaginations too are getting a bit jumpy. We've hadone bully time on this trip--with the reverse English. It's all in theday's work to buck blizzards and starve and freeze, though I wouldn'tbe surprised if our systems were pretty well fed up with grief beforewe caught Mr. Bully West. Since then--well, you couldn't call him acheerful traveling companion, could you? A dozen times a day I want torip loose and tell him how much I don't think of him."
"Still--"
"We'll keep an eye on him. If necessary, it'll be the bracelets forhim. I'd hate to have the Inspector send in a report to headquarters,'Constable Beresford missing in the line of duty.' I've a prejudiceagainst being shot in the back."
"That's one of the reasons I'm here--to see you're not if I can helpit."
Beresford's boyish face lit up. He understood what his friend meant."Say, Faraway isn't New York or London or even Toronto. But how'd youlike to be sitting down to one of Jessie McRae's suppers? A bit ofbroiled venison done to a juicy turn, potatoes, turnips, hot biscuitsspread with raspberry jam. By jove, it makes the mouth water."
"And a slice of plum puddin' to top off with," suggested Morse,bringing his own memory into play. "Don't ask me how I'd like it.That's a justifiable excuse for murder. Get busy on that rubaboo. Ourguest's howlin' for his dinner."
The faint suspicions of Morse made the officers more wary. Theywatched their prisoner a little closer. Neither of them quite believedthat he was recovering his sight. It was merely a possibility to beguarded against.
But the guess of Morse had been true. It had been a week since flashesof light had first come to West faintly. He began to distinguishobjects in a hazy way. Every day he could see better. Now he couldtell Morse from Beresford, one dog from another. Give him a few moredays and he would have as good vision as before he had gone blind.
All this he hid cunningly, as a mi
ser does his gold. For his warped,cruel brain was planning death to these two men. After that, anotherplunge into the North for life and freedom.