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Updated: June 3, 2025
Rod joined him, and once more the excitement of treasure hunting stirred in his veins. When the pan was on securely Wabi left the fire to join his companions, and the three returned to the pool.
Then, from far up that dusky avenue of cedars, there came the sudden startled chatter of a moose-bird. It was a warning which years of experience had taught Wabi always to respect. Perhaps a roving fox had frightened it, perhaps the bird had taken to noisy flight at the near tread of a moose, a caribou, or a deer. But To Wabi the soft, quick notes of the moose-bird spelled man!
Wabigoon, coming nearer, put both arms around his lovely little sister and kissed her again and again. "Rod, you're a hero!" he cried softly, gripping his comrade's hand. "God bless you!" Rod blushed, and to restrain further effusions closed his eyes. During the next quarter of an hour Minnetaki prepared some coffee and meat, while both Mukoki and Wabi cared for the sledge-dogs outside.
Rod had produced a pencil from one of his pockets and was figuring on the smooth side of a chip. "The gold is a long way from here at the best, Wabi. I explored the chasm for ten miles. Say that we find the first fall within fifteen miles. Then, according to the map, the second fall would be about twenty miles from the first, and the third forty miles from the second.
Mukoki came out into the open, reloading his rifle. Quickly he moved across the wilderness playground, now crimson with blood, unsheathed his knife, and dropped upon his knees close to the throat of the slain animal. "I'll go down and give him a little help, Rod," said Wabi.
Did you see anything?" "Aren't you going to look in the pack?" Wabi turned and gazed at his companion with a half-curious hesitating smile. "Anything in it?" he asked suspiciously. "See here, boys," cried Rod, forgetting himself in his suppressed enthusiasm. "I said there was a treasure in that chasm, and there was. I found it. You are welcome to look into that pack if you wish!"
Five seconds more and they were sending a terrific fusillade of shots into the edge of the cedars ten in all and by the time he had reloaded his own gun Rod could see nothing to shoot at. "That will hold them for a while," spoke Wabi. "Most of them came in too big a hurry, and without their snow-shoes, Muky. We'll beat them to the chasm easy!"
He glanced at Wabi, but the Indian youth was as bewildered as himself. In his eyes, too, there was the gleam of a fear which he could not have named. Mukoki was beside the charred remains of the fire. He had buried his hand deep among them, and when he rose be made a sign toward Rod's watch. "Eight o'clock, Mukoki." "Woonga here las' night," declared the old Indian slowly.
Quickly, as if he feared interruption, he hurried around the old cabin, his eyes close to the earth. When Rod and Wabi returned to the door he was at the edge of the fall, crouching low among the rocks like an animal seeking a trail. Wabi pulled his companion back. "Look!" The old warrior rose, suddenly erect, and turned toward them, but the boys were hidden in the gloom.
Another half-inch, and the bark refused to unroll farther. "Careful!" whispered Wabi. With the point of his knife he loosened the cohesion. "I guess there's nothing " began Rod. Even as he spoke he caught his breath. A mark had appeared on the bark, a black, meaningless mark with a line running down from it into the scroll.
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