CHAPTER IV THE RANGE ROBBER
Just as Marian finished thinking these things through, her reindeer gavea final leap which brought him squarely upon the crest of the highestridge. From this point, so it seemed to her, she could view the wholeworld.
As her eyes automatically sought the spot where the four reindeer hadfirst appeared, a stifled cry escaped her lips. The valley at the foot ofthat 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 certaindisaster to her own little herd. Even if the herds were kept apart--whichseemed extremely unlikely--her pasture would be ruined, and she had noother place to go. If the herds did mix, it would take weeks of patienttoil to separate them--toil on the part of all. Knowing Scarberry as shedid, she felt certain that little of the work would be done by either hisherders or himself. All up and down the coast and far back into theinterior, Scarberry was known for the selfishness, the brutality andinjustice of his actions.
"Such men should not be allowed upon the Alaskan range," she hissedthrough tightly set teeth. "But here he is. Alaska is young. It's a newand thrilling little world all of itself. He who comes here must take hischance. Some day, the dishonest men will be controlled or driven out. Forthe 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. "BillScarberry shall not have our pasture without a struggle."
Had she been a heroine in a modern novel of the North, she would haveleaped upon her saddle-deer, put the spurs to his side, and gone racingto the camp of the savage Bill Scarberry, then and there to tell himexactly 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 nodeer-saddles to be purchased anywhere; and since Marian was an ordinaryAmerican girl, with a good degree of common sense and caution, and not aheroine at all in the vulgar sense of the word, she stood exactly whereshe 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 wassoon dispelled. The four deer upon the ridge, having strayed somedistance from the main herd, were now only a few hundred yards away. Sheat once made out their markings. Two notches, one circular and onetriangular, had been cut from the gristly portion of the right ear ofeach deer. This brutal manner of marking, so common a few years earlier,had been kept up by Scarberry, who had as little thought for thesuffering of his deer as he had for the rights of others. The deer ownedby the Government, and Marian's own deer, were marked by aluminum tagsattached to their ears.
"They're Scarberry's all right," Marian concluded. "It's his herd, and hebrought them here. If they had strayed away by accident and his herdershad come after them, they would be driving them back. Now they're justwandering along the edge of the herd, keeping them together. There comesone of them after the four strays. No good seeing him now. It wouldn'taccomplish 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 upquarters in the old miner's cabin down there in the willows on the bankof the Little Soquina River. Yes," she added, "there's the smoke of hisfire.
"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 abroad, rich range. He's afraid the range may be scant in the spring andhis deer become poor for the spring shipping market, so he saves it bydriving his herd over here for a month or two, that it may eat all themoss we have and leave us to make a perilous or even fatal drive todistant 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 notall to blame. Seems like there is something about the cold and darkness,the terrible lonesomeness of it all, that makes men like wolves thatprowl in the scrub forests--fierce, bloodthirsty and savage. But thatwill do for sentiment. Scarberry must not have his way. He must not feeddown 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 somethingrather 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 towardthe camp.
It was a strange looking camp that awaited Marian's coming. Two domeshaped affairs of canvas were all but hidden in a clump of willows,surrounded by deer sleds and a small canvas tent for supplies--surely astrange camp for Alaskan reindeer herders.
But how comfortable were those dome shaped igloos! Marian had learned tomake them during that eventful journey with the reindeer Chukches inSiberia.
Winter skins of reindeer are cheap, very cheap in Alaska. Being light,portable and warm, Marian had used many of them in the construction ofthis 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 thediscovery of the rival herd must still have shown in her face, for asPatsy turned from her work of preparing a meal to look at Marian shenoticed 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 herquestion. Where had Patsy been? Surely the herd could not be seen fromthe camp, and she had not said she was going far from it; in fact, shehad 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 havea bite to eat we'll talk it over."
"I knew you'd feel that way about it," said Patsy. "I think it's a shamethat they should hang about this way."
"See here, Patsy," exclaimed Marian, seizing her by the shoulder andturning her about, "what are we--what are _you_ talking about?"
"Why, I--you--" Patsy stammered, mystified, "you just come out here andI'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 momentits interior was lighted by a strange purple light.
"The purple flame!" exclaimed Marian. "More trouble. Or is it all one? Isit Bill Scarberry who lights that mysterious flame? Does he think that bydoing that he can frighten us from our range?"
"Bill Scarberry?" questioned Patsy, "who is he, and what has he to dowith it?"
"Come on into the igloo and I'll tell you," said Marian, shivering as agust 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 anotherdeer was gone. This time it is a spotted two-year-old."
"That makes seven that have disappeared in the last six weeks. If thatkeeps up we won't need to sell our herd; it will vanish like snow in thespring. It can't be wolves. They leave the bones behind. You can alwaystell when they're about. I wonder if those strange people of the purpleflame are living off our deer? I've a good mind to go right up there andaccuse them of it. But no, I can't now; there are other more importantthings 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 iglooand disappeared within.
A half hour later they were munching biscuits and drinking steamingcoffee. Marian had said not a single word about the problems andadventures that lay just before them. Patsy asked no questions. She knewthat the great moment of confiding came when they were snugly tucked inbeneath blankets and deerskins in the strangest little sleeping room inall the wo
rld. Knowing this, she was content to wait until night forMarian to tell her all about this important matter.