The Purple Flame Part 18

"No good. Gone long way. Bill Scarberry's camp. No come back, say that one."

"What!" exclaimed Marian in consternation. "Gone? Deserted us?"

"_Eh-eh_," Terogloona nodded his head. "Say Bill Scarberry pay more money; more deer; say that one Oatinna, that one Azazruk. No good, that one Bill Scarberry, me think." He shook his head solemnly. "Not listen that one Oatinna, that one Azazruk. Say wanna go. Go, that's all."

"Then we can't start the herd," murmured Marian, sinking down upon a rolled up sleeping-bag. "Yes, we will!" she exclaimed resolutely.

"Terogloona, where are the rifles?"

"Gone," he repeated like a parrot. "Mebby you forget. That one rifle b'long herder boys."

"And your rifle?" questioned Marian, "where is your rifle?"

"Broke-tuk. Hammer not want come down hard. Not want shoot, that one rifle, mine."

Marian was stunned with surprise and chagrin. She and Patsy returned silently to their igloo.

"Oh, that treacherous Bill Scarberry!" she exploded. "He has known this was coming. He knew our herders were energetic and capable. He thought if they remained with us, we might beat him to the prize; so he sent some spy over here to buy them away from us with promises of more pay."

"And now?" asked Patsy.

"Now he will drive his herd to Fort Jarvis and sell it, and our grand chance is gone forever."

"No!" exclaimed Patsy, "He won't! He shall not! We will beat him yet. We are strong. Terogloona and Attatak are faithful. We have our three collies. We can do it. We will beat him yet. Our herd is better than his.

It will travel faster. Oh, Marian! Somehow, _somehow_ we must do it. It's your chance! Your one big, wonderful opportunity."

"Yes," exclaimed Marian, suddenly fired by her cousin's hot blooded southern enthusiasm, "we will do it or perish in the attempt. It's to be a race," she exclaimed, "a race for a wonderful prize, a race between two large herds of reindeer over five hundred miles of hills, tundra and forest. There may be wolves in the forests. In Alaska dangers lurk at every turn; rivers too rapid to freeze over and blizzards and wild beasts. We will be terribly handicapped from the very start. But for father's sake we must try it."

"For your father's and for your own sake," murmured Patsy. "And, Marian, I have always believed that our great Creator was on the side of those who are kind and just. Bill Scarberry played us a mean trick. Perhaps G.o.d will somehow even the score."

An hour was spent in consultation with old Terogloona. His face became very sober at the situation, but in the end, with the blood of youth coursing eternally in his veins, he sprang to his feet and exclaimed:

"_Eh-eh!_" (Yes-yes) "We will go. Before it is day we will be away. You go sleep. You must be very strong. In the morning Terogloona will have reindeer and sleds ready. We will call to the dogs. We will be away before the sun. We will shout '_Kul-le-a-muck, Kul-le-a-muck_' (Hurry!

Hurry!) to dogs and reindeer. We will beat that one Bill yet.

"You know what?" he exclaimed, his face darkening like a thundercloud, "You know that mean man, that one Bill Scarberry. Want my boy, So-queena, work for him. Want pay him reindeer. Give him bad rifle, very bad rifle.

Want shoot, my boy So-queena. Shot at carabou, So-queena. Rifle go flash.

Crooch! Just like that. Shoot back powder, that rifle. Came in So-queena's eyes, that powder. Can't see, that one. Almost lost to freeze, that one, So-queena. Bye'm bye find camp. Stay camp mebby five days. Can see, not very good. Bill, he say: 'Go herd reindeer,'

So-queena, he say: 'Can't see. Mebby get lost. Mebby freeze'.

"He say Bill very mad. 'Get out! No good, you! Go freeze. Who cares?'

"So-queena come my house-long way. Plenty starve. Plenty freeze. No give reindeer that one So-queena, that one Bill. Bad one, that Bill. So me think; beat Bill. Sell reindeer herd white man. Think very good. Work hard. Mebby beat that one Bill Scarberry."

There came a look of determination to Patsy's face such as Marian had never seen there.

"If that's the kind of man he is; if he would send an Eskimo boy, half-blinded by his own worthless rifle, out into the snow and the cold, then we must beat him. We must! We must!" said Patsy vehemently.

"That's exactly the kind of man he is," said Marian soberly. "We must beat him if we can. But it will be a long, hard journey."

They had hardly crept between their deerskins when Patsy was fast asleep.

Not so Marian. The full responsibility of this perilous journey rested upon her shoulders. She knew too well the hards.h.i.+ps and dangers they must face. They must pa.s.s through broad stretches of forest where food for the deer was scarce, and where lurking wolves, worn down to mere skeletons by the scarcity of food, might attack and scatter their herd beyond recovery.

They must cross high hills, from whose summits the snow at times poured like smoke from volcanoes in circling sweeps hundreds of feet in extent.

Here there would be danger of losing their deer in some wild blizzard, or having them buried beneath the snows of some thundering avalanche.

"It's not for myself alone that I'm afraid," she told herself. "It's for Patsy, Patsy from Kentucky. Who would have thought a girl from the sunny south could be so brave, such a good sport."

As she thought of the courageous, carefree manner in which Patsy had insisted on the journey, a lump rose in her throat, and she brushed a hand hastily over her eyes.

"And yet," she asked herself, "ought I to allow her to do it? She's younger than I, and not so strong. Can she stand the strain?"

Again her mind took up the thought of the perils they must face.

There were wandering tribes of Indians in the territory they must cross; the skulking and oft-times treacherous Indians of the Little Sticks. What if they were to cross the path of these? What if a great band of caribou should come pouring down some mountain pa.s.s and, having swallowed up their little herd, go sweeping on, leaving them in the midst of a great wilderness with only their sled-deer to stand between them and starvation.

As if dreaming of Marian's thoughts, Patsy suddenly turned over with a little sobbing cry, and wound her arms about Marian.

"What is it?" Marian whispered.

Patsy did not answer. She was still asleep. The dream soon pa.s.sed, her muscles relaxed, and with a deep sigh she sank back into her place.

This little drama left Marian in an exceedingly troubled state of mind.

"We ought not to go," she told herself. "We will not." Then, from sheer exhaustion, she too, fell asleep.

Three hours before the tardy Arctic sunrise, she heard Terogloona pounding at their door. She found that sleep had banished fear, and that every muscle in her body and every cell of her brain was ready for action, eager to be away.

As for Patsy, she could not dress half fast enough, so great was her desire for the wonderful adventure.

CHAPTER XXIV CAMP FOLLOWERS

It was just as Marian was tightening the ropes to the pack on her sled that, happening to glance away at a distant hill, she was reminded of Patsy's latest story of the purple flame. From the crest of that hill there came a purple flare of light. Quickly as it had come, just so quickly it vanished, leaving the hill a faint outline against the sky.

"The purple flame," she breathed. "I wonder if we can leave those mysterious camp-followers of ours behind?"

On the instant a disturbing thought flashed through her mind. It caused an indignant flash of color to rise to her cheek.

"I wonder," she said slowly, "if those mysterious people are spies set by Bill Scarberry to dog our tracks?"

"They may start with us," she smiled to herself, as she at last dismissed the subject from her mind, "but unless they really are Bill Scarberry's spies and set to watch us, they'll never finish with us. Camp-followers don't follow over five hundred miles of wild trail. They're not that fond of hard marching."

In this conclusion she was partly wrong.

Just as the sun was painting the distant mountain peaks with a gleam of gold, the collies began to bark and the broad herd of reindeer moved slowly forward. Marian and Patsy touched their deer gently with the reins, and they were away.