to bound from the depths of despair to the pinnacles of hope is by no means an uncommon experience to vigorous youth. when victor ravenshaw awoke next morning after a profound and refreshing sleep, and looked up through the branches at the bright sky, despondency fled, and he felt ready for anything. he was early awake, but peegwish had evidently been up long before him, for that wrinkled old savage had kindled the fire, and was seated on the other side of it wrapped in his blanket, smoking, and watching the preparation of breakfast. when victor contemplated his solemn eyes glaring at a roasting duck, which suggested the idea that he had been sitting there and glaring all night, he burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
“come, i say, vic,” said ian, roused by this from a comfortable nap, “if you were a hyena there might be some excuse for you, but being only a man—forgive me, a boy—you ought to have more sense than to disturb your friends so.”
“oui, yes; dat is troo. vraiment, it is too bad,” growled rollin, sitting up and stretching himself. “howsomewhatever, it is time to rise. oui!”
“i should think it was,” retorted victor; “the sun is already up, and you may be sure that petawanaquat has tramped some miles this morning. come, peegwish, close your eyes a bit for fear they jump out. what have you got to give us, eh? robbiboo, ducks, and—no, is it tea? well, we are in luck to have fallen in with you.”
he rested his head on his hand, and lay looking at the savage with a pleased expression, while rollin rose and went off to cut more firewood.
the robbiboo referred to was a sort of thick soup made of pemmican boiled with flour. without loss of time the party applied themselves to it. when appetite was partially appeased ian propounded the question, what was to be done?
“follow up the trail as fast as we can,” said victor promptly.
“dat is bon advise,” observed rollin. “hand over de duck, peegvish, an’ do try for shut your eyes. if you vould only vink it vould seem more comfortabler.”
peegwish did not smile, but with deepened gravity passed the duck.
“i’m not so sure of the goodness of the advice,” said ian. “to go scampering into the woods on a chase that may lead us we know not where or how long, with only a small quantity of provisions and ammunition, and but one gun, may seem energetic and daring, but it may not, perhaps, be wise.”
victor admitted that there was truth in that, and looked perplexed.
“nevertheless, to give up at this point, and return to the settlement for supplies,” he said, “would be to lose the advantage of our quick start. how are we to get over the difficulty?”
“moi, i can you git out of de difficulty,” said rollin, lighting his pipe with a business air. “dis be de vay. peegvish et me is out for long hunt vid much pemmican, poodre an’ shote. you make von ’greement vid me et peegvish. you vill engage me; i vill go vid you. you can take vat you vill of our tings, and send peegvish back to de settlement for tell fat ye bees do.”
this plan, after brief but earnest consideration, was adopted. the old indian returned to willow creek with pencil notes, written on birch bark, to old samuel ravenshaw and angus macdonald, and the other three of the party set off at once to renew the chase on foot, with blankets and food strapped to their backs and guns on their shoulders—for rollin carried his own fowling-piece, and victor had borrowed that of peegwish.
as happened the previous day, they failed several times to find the trail of the fugitives, but at last ian discovered it, and they pushed forward with renewed hope. the faint footmarks at first led them deep into the woods, where it was difficult to force a passage; then the trail disappeared altogether on the banks of a little stream. but the pursuers were too experienced to be thrown off the scent by such a well-known device as walking up stream in the water. they followed the brook until they came to the place where petawanaquat had once more betaken himself to dry land. it was a well-chosen spot; hard and rocky ground, on which only slight impressions could be left, and the wily savage had taken care to step so as to leave as slight a trail as possible; but the pursuers had sharp and trained eyes. ian macdonald, in particular, having spent much of his time as a hunter before setting up his school, had the eyes of a lynx. he could distinguish marks when his companions could see nothing until they were pointed out, and although frequently at fault, he never failed to recover the trail sooner or later.
of course they lost much time, and they knew that petawanaquat must be rapidly increasing the distance between them, but they trusted to his travelling more leisurely when he felt secure from pursuit, and to his being delayed somewhat by tony, whom it was obvious he had carried for long distances at a stretch.
for several days the pursuers went on with unflagging perseverance and ever-increasing hope, until they at last emerged from the woods, and began to traverse the great prairie. here the trail diverged for a considerable distance southward, and then turned sharply to the west, in which direction it went in a straight line for many miles, as if petawanaquat had made up his mind to cross the rocky mountains, and throw poor tony into the pacific!
the travellers saw plenty of game—ducks, geese, plover, prairie-hens, antelopes, etcetera,—on the march, but they were too eager in the pursuit of the savage to be turned aside by smaller game. they merely shot a few ducks to save their pemmican. at last they came to a point in the prairie which occasioned them great perplexity of mind and depression of spirit.
it was on the evening of a bright and beautiful day—one of those days in which the air seems fresher and the sky bluer, and the sun more brilliant than usual. they had found, that evening, that the trail led them away to the right towards one of the numerous clumps of woodland which rendered that part of the prairie more like a nobleman’s park than a wild wilderness.
on entering the bushes they perceived that there was a lakelet embosomed like a gem in the surrounding trees. passing through the belt of woodland they stood on the margin of the little lake.
“how beautiful!” exclaimed ian, with a flush of pleasure on his sunburnt face. “just like a bit of paradise.”
“did you ever see paradise, that you know so well what it is like?” asked victor of his unromantic friend.
“yes, vic, i’ve seen it many a time—in imagination.”
“indeed, and what like was it, and what sort of people were there?”
“it was like—let me see—the most glorious scene ever beheld on earth, but more exquisite, and the sun that lighted it was more brilliant by far than ours.”
“not bad, for an unromantic imagination,” said victor, with much gravity. “were there any ducks and geese there?”
“yes, ducks; plenty of them, but no geese; and nobler game—even lions were there, so tame that little children could lead them.”
“better and better,” said victor; “and what of the people?”
ian was on the point of saying that they were all—men, women, and children—the exact counterparts of elsie ravenshaw, but he checked himself and said that they were all honest, sincere, kind, gentle, upright, and that there was not a single cynical person there, nor a—
“hush! what sort of a bird is that?” interrupted victor, laying his hand on ian’s arm and pointing to a small patch of reeds in the lake.
there were so many birds of various kinds gambolling on the surface, that ian had difficulty in distinguishing the creature referred to. at last he perceived it, a curious fat-bodied little bird with a pair of preposterously long legs, which stood eyeing its companions as if in contemplative pity.
“i know it not,” said ian; “never saw it before.”
“we’ll bag it now. stand back,” said victor, raising his gun.
the above conversation had been carried on in a low tone, for the friends were still concealed by a bush from the various and numerous birds which disported themselves on the lake in fancied security and real felicity.
the crash of victor’s gun sent them screaming over the tree-tops—all save the fat creature with the long legs, which now lay dead on the water.
“go in for it, rollin, it’s not deep, i think,” said victor.
“troo, but it may be dangeroose for all dat,” replied the half-breed, leaning his gun against a tree. “howsomewhatever i vill try!”
the place turned out, as he had suspected, to be somewhat treacherous, with a floating bottom. before he had waded half way to the dead bird the ground began to sink under him. presently he threw up his arms, went right down, and disappeared.
both ian and victor started forward with the intention of plunging into the water, but they had not reached the edge when rollin reappeared, blowing like a grampus. they soon saw that he could swim, and allowed him to scramble ashore.
this misadventure did not prevent them from making further attempts to secure the bird, which victor, having some sort of naturalistic propensities, was eager to possess. it was on going round the margin of the lake for this purpose that they came upon the cause of the perplexities before mentioned. on the other side of a point covered with thick bush they came upon the remains of a large indian camp, which had evidently been occupied very recently. indeed, the ashes of some of the fires, rollin declared, were still warm; but it was probably rollin’s imagination which warmed them. it was found, too, that the trail of petawanaquat entered this camp, and was there utterly lost in the confusion of tracks made everywhere by many feet, both large and small.
here, then, was sufficient ground for anxiety. if the savage had joined this band and gone away with it, the pursuers could of course follow him up, but, in the event of their finding him among friends, there seemed little or no probability of their being able to rescue the stolen child. on the other hand, if petawanaquat had left the indians and continued his journey alone, the great difficulty that lay before them was to find his point of departure from a band which would naturally send out hunters right and left as they marched along.
“it’s a blue look-out any way you take it,” remarked poor victor, with an expression worthy of peegwish on his countenance.
“i vish it vas blue. it is black,” said rollin.
ian replied to both remarks by saying that, whether black or blue, they must make the best of it, and set about doing that at once. to do his desponding comrades justice, they were quite ready for vigorous action in any form, notwithstanding their despair.
accordingly, they followed the broad trail of the indians into the prairie a short way, and, separating in different directions round its margins, carefully examined and followed up the tracks that diverged from it for considerable distances, but without discovering the print of the little moccasin with elsie’s patch, or the larger footprint of tony’s captor.
“you see, there are so many footprints, some like and some unlike, and they cross and recross each other to such an extent that it seems to me a hopeless case altogether,” said victor.
“you don’t propose to give it up, do you?” asked ian.
“give it up!” repeated victor, almost fiercely. “give up tony? no! not as long as i can walk, or even crawl.”
“ve vill crawl before long, perhaps,” said rollin; “ve may even stop crawling an’ die at last, but ve must not yet give in.”
in the strength of this resolve they returned to the lakelet when the sun went down, and encamped there. it is needless to say that they supped and slept well notwithstanding—or notwithforstanding, as rollin put it. rollin was fond of long words, and possessed a few that were his own private property. victor had a dream that night. he dreamt that he caught sight of an indian on the plains with tony on his shoulder; that he gave chase, and almost overtook them, when, to save himself, the indian dropped his burden; that he, victor, seized his rescued brother in a tight embrace, and burst into tears of joy; that tony suddenly turned into petawanaquat, and that, in the sharp revulsion of feeling, he, victor, seized the nose of the savage and pulled it out to a length of three yards, twisted it round his neck and choked him, thrust his head down into his chest and tied his arms in a knot over it, and, finally, stuffing him into a mud-puddle, jumped upon him and stamped him down. it was an absurd dream, no doubt, but are not dreams generally absurd?
while engaged in the last mentioned humane operation, victor was awakened by ian.
“it’s time to be moving,” said his comrade with a laugh. “i would have roused you before, but you seemed to be so busily engaged with some friend that i hadn’t the heart to part you sooner.”
the whole of that day they spent in a fruitless effort to detect the footprints of petawanaquat, either among the tracks made by the band of indians or among those diverging from the main line of march. in so doing they wandered far from the camp at the lakelet, and even lost sight of each other. the only result was that ian and rollin returned in the evening dispirited and weary, and victor lost himself.
the ease with which this is done is scarcely comprehensible by those who have not wandered over an unfamiliar and boundless plain, on which the clumps of trees and shrubs have no very distinctive features.
victor’s comrades, however, were alive to the danger. not finding him in camp, they at once went out in different directions, fired shots until they heard his answering reply, and at last brought him safely in.
that night again they spent on the margin of the little lake, and over the camp-fire discussed their future plans. it was finally assumed that petawanaquat had joined the indians, and resolved that they should follow up the trail as fast as they could travel.
this they did during many days without, however, overtaking the indians. then the pemmican began to wax low, for in their anxiety to push on they neglected to hunt. at last, one evening, just as it was growing dark, and while they were looking out for a convenient resting-place, they came on the spot where the indians had encamped, evidently the night before, for the embers of their fires were still smoking.
here, then, they lay down with the pleasing hope, not unmingled with anxiety, that they should overtake the band on the following day.
