CHAPTER VIII
A TRAPPER'S TREACHERY
When Will, watching at the camp, found that Tommy and Sandy haddisappeared, he had no idea that they would remain more than anhour or so.
The long night passed, however, and the boys did not return. Whendaylight came, Will built up a roaring fire and began preparingbreakfast.
It was his idea at that time that the boys had come together in theforest about the time the snow began falling, and had sought insome deserted shack temporary protection from the storm.
"They'll be back here in a short time, hungry as bears!" he thought.
Presently he heard some one advancing through the snow-coveredthicket, and turned in that direction with an expectant smile.
Instead of his chums he saw a half-breed in leather jacket andleggins and a fur cap approaching. When the fellow reached thecamp he made a quick and rather impertinent inspection of the tentsbefore approaching the spot where the boy stood awaiting him.
"Good morning!" Will said, not without a challenge in his voice.
"Where are the boys?" asked the visitor.
"Who are you?" demanded Will.
"Pierre!" was the short reply.
"Why do you ask about the boys?"
Pierre explained in broken English that one of the boys whoevidently belonged to the camp had coaxed his companion away.
"Who is your companion?" asked Will, "and why do you come herelooking for him? Who was it that visited your cabin?"
Pierre laboriously explained what had taken place on the previousevening, and Will listened with an anxious face.
"And you left them there together, and when you returned they haddisappeared? Is that what you mean to say?"
Pierre nodded.
"He coax my boy away," he said sullenly.
"Is this boy you speak of your son?" asked Will.
"Chicago boy!" was the reply.
"Why don't you go on and tell me all about the boy and aboutyourself?" inquired Will. "What's the use of standing theregrunting and trying to make me understand nods and scowls?"
Pierre explained that he had been in Chicago to see the sights, hadfallen in with Thede, and agreed to bring him into the forest withhim. His explanation was not very clear as he talked more mongrelFrench than English, so Will was not very well informed at the endof the recital. Pierre looked suspicious as well as disappointed.
"Well," Will explained to the half-breed after a moment'sdeliberation, "I suppose you'll turn in now and help me find theboys!"
Pierre nodded and pointed toward the campfire.
"Build him big!" he said. "Boys come cold."
Accepting the hint, Will piled great logs on the fire while thehalf-breed looked sullenly on. The boy then dressed himself in hiswarmest clothing and the two set out together.
"Have you any idea which way to go?" asked the boy.
Pierre pointed away to the south.
"Wind blow that way," he said. "They follow the wind."
Numerous times, as the two tramped through the snow together, Willcaught the half-breed looking in his direction with eyes of hate.
After proceeding some distance, he fell in behind Pierre, and sothe two traveled through the wilderness, each suspicious andwatchful of the other. After walking an hour or more they came toa place where Tommy and Sandy had built their fire on the previousnight.
There the half-breed read the story written upon the snow like abook. Pointing here and there, he explained to Will that two boyshad been caught in the storm and had built a fire. He showed, too,that a third boy had come plunging through the snow, nearly circledthe camp, and came back toward the fire from the north. Then heshowed the tracks of three heading off to the south.
"Do you think one of those boys was your companion?" asked Will.
The half-breed answered that he was sure of it.
"Then that leaves one of the boys still unaccounted for," Willmused. "It looks to me," he went on, "as if your friend and Georgestarted away together and got lost. Then your boy came back andfound Tommy and Sandy and started away with them toward the placewhere he had left George. Is that the way you look at it?"
The half-breed grunted some sullen reply, and the two walked ontogether following the trail which led toward the range of hills.
Instead of directly following the trail left by the boys, however,Pierre turned frequently to left and right, explaining that ifenemies were about it was a trail which would be watched.
They came to the cavern at last, and stood by the dying embers ofthe fire. There was no one in sight. Will examined the slopingsurface of snow in front and found no tracks leading outward.
"They must be in here somewhere!" he exclaimed.
Pierre nodded his fur cap vigorously, and the two began a carefulexamination of the underground place.
They found many little caves opening from the larger one, but notrace of the boys. After a time a shout from Pierre drew Will tohis side. The fellow was peering into a crevice, in the rocky wallwhich seemed to lead for some distance under the hill.
"Do you think they are hidden in there?" asked the boy.
Pierre explained in his barely understandable dialect that hethought the boys might have escaped into the inner cavern andstarted to make their way out in another direction.
"Then I'll go in after them," Will decided.
Before entering he called shrilly into the cavern, but only theechoes came back to him. By considerable squeezing, he managed tomake his way through the opening. He then found himself in apassage-like place, sloping upward. As he threw his light aboutthe interior, he heard a chuckle in the outer chamber where he hadleft Pierre.
He turned in time to see the half-breed rolling great stonesagainst the mouth of the narrow opening by means of which he hadentered.
"Hah!" sneered Pierre. "You bring me trouble!"
"What are you doing that for?" demanded Will.
The half-breed peered into the opening with eyes that resembledthose of a snake, so full of malice and hatred were they.
"You steal my boy!" he said.
"So this is a trap, is it?" Will demanded.
The half-breed answered by a chuckle of laughter."
"If you don't take those stones away," Will threatened, "I'll fillyou full of lead when I do get out!"
The half-breed patted his gun stock significantly, but made noreply.
The boy heard him rolling rocks along the cavern floor and againstthe opening, and turned away hoping to find some other means ofegress.
It was clear to him that the half-breed thoroughly understood thesituation in the hills. He had no doubt that he had planned tobring him there for the purpose which had developed. Heunderstood, too, that if there were other openings to the cavern,Pierre knew where they were, and would block them as soon as he hadeffectually blocked the one by which entrance had been effected.
It was cold and damp in that underground place, but theperspiration actually broke out on the boy's brow as he consideredthe fate which might await him in that dreary place of detention.
He had, of course, no means of knowing the whereabouts of any ofhis chums. In fact, it seemed to him possible that they, too, hadbeen inveigled into a trap similar to the one which had been setfor himself.
The motive for this brutal action on the part of the half-breedwas, of course, entirely unknown to the boy. It will be rememberedthat he knew nothing whatever of Thede's suspicions that Pierreactually had the Little Brass God in his possession.
It was black as ink in the passage, but the boy's flashlight hadrecently been supplied with a new battery, and he knew that itwould not fail for many hours, so he walked along with confidence.
In perhaps a quarter of an hour the boy came to a blank wall.There appeared to be no way in which the journey could be extendedunder the hills. The nearest lateral passage was some distanceback.
Realizing that no time should be lost, the lad hastened thither andadvanced to the south end o
f the cross passage. Here, too, he cameupon a blank wall. While he stood listening a heavy, rumblingvoice came to his ears. There were either crevices in that rockybulkhead or the wall was very thin.
Presently the heavy voice ceased speaking, and then a lighter tonewas heard. At first Will could not distinguish the words used, butdirectly his heart almost bounded into his throat as he listened toTommy's voice saying:
"I'll break your crust, you old stiff, if you come near me!"
So the boys were still in a position to defend themselves! Willbeat frantically on the wall and threw his light hither and yon insearch of some opening through which his voice might be heard.
Directly there came an answering sound from the other side.