The Gold Hunters | Page 9

fire; his rifle lying across his
knees. His imagination had painted a thousand pictures in that time.
Never for an instant had his mind ceased to work. Somewhere in that
great wilderness there was another camp-fire that night, and in that
camp Minnetaki was a captive. Some indefinable sensation seemed to
creep into him, telling him that she was awake, and that she was
thinking of her friends. Was it a touch of sleep, or that wonderful thing
called mental telepathy, that wrought the next picture in his brain? It
came with startling vividness. He saw the girl beside a fire. Her
beautiful hair, glistening black in the firelight, hung in a heavy braid
over her shoulder; her eyes were staring wildly into the flames, as if she
were about to leap into them, and back of her so close that he might
have touched her, was a figure that sent a chill of horror through him. It
was Woonga, the outlaw chief! He was talking, his red face was
fiendish, he stretched out a hand!
With a cry that startled the dogs Rod sprang to his feet. He was
shivering as if in a chill. Had he dreamed? Or was it something more
than a dream? He thought of the vision that had come to him weeks
before in the mysterious chasm, the vision of the dancing skeletons,
and which had revealed the secret of the old cabin and the lost gold. In
vain he tried to shake off his nervousness and his fear. Why had
Woonga reached out his hands for Minnetaki? He worked to free
himself of the weight that had fallen on him, stirred the fire until clouds
of sparks shot high up into the gloom of the trees, and added new fuel.
Then he sat down again, and for the twentieth time since leaving
Wabinosh House drew from his pocket the map that was to have led
them on their search for gold when he returned with his mother. It was
a vision that had guided him to the discovery of this precious map, and

the knowledge of it made him more uneasy now. A few moments
before he had seen Minnetaki as plainly as though she had been with
him there beside the fire; he fancied that he might almost have sent a
bullet through the Indian's chief face as he reached out his long arms
toward the girl.
He stirred the fire again, awakened one of the dogs to keep him
company, and then went in to lie down between Mukoki and Wabigoon
in an attempt at slumber. During the hours that followed he secured
only short snatches of sleep. He dreamed, dreamed constantly of
Minnetaki whenever he lost consciousness. Now he saw her before the
fire, as he had seen her in his vision; again, she was struggling in the
Woonga's powerful grasp. At one time the strife between the two--the
young girl and the powerful savage--became terrible for him to behold,
and at last he saw the Indian catch her in his arms and disappear into
the blackness of the forest.
This time when he wakened Rod made no further effort to sleep. It was
only a little past midnight. His companions had obtained four hours of
rest. In another hour he would arouse them. Quietly he began making
preparations for breakfast, and fed the dogs. At half-past one o'clock he
shook Wabigoon by the shoulder.
"Get up!" he cried, as the Indian youth sat erect. "It's time to go!"
He tried to suppress his nervousness when Mukoki and Wabi joined
him beside the fire. He determined not to let them know of his visions,
for there was gloom enough among them as it was. But he would hurry.
He was the first to get through with breakfast, the first to set to work
among the dogs, and when Mukoki started out at the head of the team
through the forest he was close beside him, urging him to greater speed
by his own endeavors.
"How far are we from the camp, Mukoki?" he asked.
"Four hour--twent' mile," replied the old pathfinder.
"Twenty miles. We ought to make it by dawn."

Mukoki made no answer, but quickened his pace as the cedar and
balsam forest gave place to an open plain which stretched for a mile or
two ahead of them. For an hour longer the moon continued to light up
the wilderness; then, with its descent lower and lower into the west, the
gloom began to thicken, until only the stars were left to guide the
pursuers. Even these were beginning to fade when Mukoki halted the
panting team on the summit of a mountainous ridge, and pointed into
the north.
"The plains!"
For several minutes the three stood silent, gazing out