The Gold Hunters / A Story of Life and Adventure in the Hudson Bay Wilds

have expressed it if Wabi had been with him. For a brief spell he was stunned by the succession of surprises which he had encountered, and he felt that now, if ever in his life, he needed control of

netaki was asso

in width, choked by huge masses of rock thrown there in some mighty upheaval of past ages. It was very soon apparent to Rod that the mysterious person whom he was pursuing was perfectly at home in the lonely chasm. As straight as a drawn whip-lash his trail led from one break in the rocky chaos to another. Never did he err. Once the tracks seemed to end squarely against a broad face of rock, but

ictim in his arms! Minnetaki was injured! Perhaps she was dead. The fear gripped at his heart until he looked again at the i

Wabi's sister. He was determined to take advantage of the Woonga fighting code and fire upon his enemy from ambush if the opportunity offered, but at the same time he had no dread at the thought of engaging in a closer struggle if this should be necessary. He looked well to

blotch in the snow. Then the youth thought of the footprints that were leading on Mukoki and Wabigoon, and despite his desperate situation he could not repress a smile. He had been right. The Woongas had taken off one of Mi

e. The chasm grew wilder. At times it appeared impassable, but always the trail of the fugitives led straight to some

or a wolf, perhaps, set a stone rolling down one of the precipitous walls of the chasm? He went on slowly, listening, watching. A few paces more and he stopped again. There was a fain

f him. More than that, i

dor of smoke came to him more plainly; over his head he saw thin films of it floating lazily up the chasm. It came from beyond another of those walls of rock which seemed to bar his way, creeping up over it as though the fire were just on the other side. With hi

a ghostly spiral up the side of the chasm wall; from it there came no sound. Rod's index finger quivered on the trigger of his rifle. Should he wait-until the outlaw came forth? Half a minute he stood there, a minute, two minutes, and still he heard nothing, saw nothing. He advanced

air tumbling in disheveled masses over her shoulders and into her lap, her face, as whi

lash he saw the huge form of an Indian, a terrible face, the gleam of an uplifted knife. In such a crisis one's actions are involuntary, machine-like, as if life itself, hovering by a thread, protects itself in its own manner without thought or reasoning on the part of the human creature it anima

ve the savage's breast. But the Woonga was as quick. Like a flash he struck up with one of his powerful arms and the force of the blow that was descending upon him fell to the earth floor. In another inst

blow both of their fighting hands must be freed. In the first instant of that freedom, the savage, with his arm already extended, could deliver a blow sooner than his antagonist, who would have to raise his arm as well as strike. In other words, by the time Rod's knife was poised his

n, turning his head a trifle sidewise, he saw Minnetaki. The girl had risen to her feet, and Rod saw that her hands were bound behind her. She, too, realized the

k!" she cried. "

he hilt in his breast, and the blow fell with a sickening thud under Rod's arm. With a sharp cry the young hunter staggered to his feet, and t

ng, and he knew, too, that a pair of arms was about him, and that from what seemed to be a great, great distanc

e door, which was still open, and through which he caught the w

od

with gladness, with relief. Rod smiled. Weakly he lift

e you-Minnetaki

put a cup of cold

g. "It isn't a very bad wound, and I've dressed it nicely.

ou don't know how disappointed I was to find you gone when we re

-h-

ced her hand

rious I am to know how you are here? But you must not

ad been spread over a huddled heap in the middle of the floor. He shuddered, and feeling the sudden tremor

ispered. In her voice

nga, and h

inosh, and whose murderous hand had hovered for years like a threatening cloud over the heads of the factor and his wife and children, w

glad,

rumbling step to the door, and in another momen