The Purple Flame by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER VIII TROUBLE FOR PATSY
Hardly had Marian left camp when troubles began to pile up for Patsy.Dawn had not yet come when she heard a strange ki-yi-ing that certainlydid not come from the herd collies, and she looked out and sawapproaching the most disreputable group of Eskimos she had ever seen.Dressed in ragged parkas of rabbit skins, and driving the gauntest, mostvicious looking pack of wolf dogs, these people appeared to come from anew and more savage world than hers. A rapid count told her there wereseven adults and five children.
"Enough of them to eat us out of everything, even to skin boots andrawhide harness," she groaned. "If they are determined to camp here,who's to prevent them?"
For a moment she stood there staring; then with a sudden resolve that shemust meet the situation, she exclaimed:
"I must send them on. Some way, I must. I can't let them starve. Theymust have food, but they must be sent on to some spot where they haverelatives who are able to feed them. The safety of the herd depends uponthat. With food gone we cannot hold our herders. With no herders wecannot hold the deer. Marian explained that to me yesterday."
Walking with all the dignity her sixteen years would permit, sheapproached the spot where the strangers had halted their dogs and weretalking to old Terogloona. The dogs were acting strangely. Sawing at thestrong rawhide bonds that held them to the sleds, they reared up on theirhaunches, ki-yi-ing for all they were worth.
"They smell our deer," Patsy said to herself. "It's a good thing our herdis at the upper end of the range!" She remembered hearing Marian tell howa whole herd of five thousand deer had been hopelessly stampeded by thelusty ki-yi-ing of one wolf dog.
"The reindeer is their natural food," Marian had explained. "If even oneof them gets loose when there is a reindeer about he will rush straightat him and leap for his throat."
"That's one more reason why I must get these people to move on at once,"Patsy whispered to herself.
To Terogloona she said: "What do they want?"
Terogloona turned to them with a simple: "_Suna-go-pezuk-peet?_" heasked, "What do you want?"
With many guttural expressions and much waving of hands, the leaderexplained their wishes.
"He say," smiled Terogloona, "that in the hills about here are manyfoxes, black fox, red fox, white, blue and cross fox. He say, that one,want to camp here; want to set traps; want to catch foxes."
"But what will they eat?" asked Patsy.
Terogloona, having interpreted the question, smiled again at theiranswer:
"They will eat foxes," he answered quietly and modestly.
For a moment Patsy looked into their staring, hungry, questioning eyes.They were lying, and she knew it, but remembering a bit of advice of herfather's: "Never quarrel with a hungry person--feed him," she smiled asshe said to Terogloona:
"You tell them that this morning they shall eat breakfast with me; thatwe will have pancakes and reindeer steak, and tea with plenty of sugar init."
"_Capseta! Ali-ne-ca! Capseta!_" exclaimed one of the strangers who hadunderstood the word sugar and was passing it on in the native word,_Capseta_, to his companions.
It was a busy morning for Patsy. There seemed no end to the appetites ofthese half starved natives. Even Terogloona grumbled at the amount theyate, but Patsy silenced him with the words:
"First they must be fed, then we will talk to them."
Troubles seldom come singly. Hardly had the last pancake been devoured,than Terogloona, looking up from his labors, uttered an exclamation ofsurprise. A half mile up from the camp the tundra was brown with feedingreindeer.
"Scarberry's herd," he hissed.
"Oh!" exclaimed Patsy. "They dare to do that? They dare to drive theirdeer on our nearest and best pasture? And what can we do to stop them?Must Marian's mission be in vain? Must she go all that way for nothing?If they remain, the range will be stripped long before she can return!"
Pressing her hands to her temples, she sat down unsteadily upon one ofthe sleds of the strangers.
She was struggling in a wild endeavor to think of some way out. Then, ofa sudden, a wolfdog jumped up at her very feet and began to ki-yi in amost distressing fashion.
Looking up, she saw that three of Scarberry's deer, having strayed nearerthe camp than the others, had attracted the dog's attention. Like aflash, a possible solution to her problem popped into Patsy's head.
With a cry of delight she sprang to her feet. The next instant she washer usual, calm self.
"Terogloona," she said steadily, "come into the tent for a moment. I havesomething I wish to ask you."
The task which Marian had set for herself, the scaling of the mountain tothe dark spot in its side, was no easy one. Packed by the beating blastof a thousand gales, the snow was like white flint. It rang like steel tothe touch of her iron shod staff. It was impossible to make an impressionin its surface with the soft heel of her deerskin boots. The only way shecould make progress was by the aid of her staff. One slip of that staff,one false step, and she would go gliding, faster, faster, ever faster, toa terrible death far below.
Yet to falter now meant that death of another sort waited her; death inthe form of increasing cold and gathering storm.
Yet she made progress in spite of the cold that numbed her hands andfeet; in spite of her wildly beating heart; regardless of the terror thatgripped her. Now she had covered half the distance; now two-thirds; nowshe could be scarcely a hundred yards away. And now she saw clearly. Shehad not been mistaken. That black spot in the wall of snow was a yawninghole in the side of the mountain, a refuge in the time of storm. Couldshe but reach it, all would be well.
Could she do it? From her position the way up appeared steeper. Shethought of going back for the reindeer. Their knife-like hoofs, cuttinginto the flinty snow, would carry them safely upward. She now regrettedthat she had not driven one before her. Vain regret. To descend now wasmore perilous than to go forward.
So, gripping her staff firmly, pressing her breast to still the wildbeating of her heart, and setting her eyes upon the goal lest they strayto the depths below, she again began to climb.
Now she began going first to right, then to left. This zig-zag course,though longer, was less steep. Up--up--up she struggled, until at last,with an exultant cry of joy, she threw herself over a broad parapet ofsnow and the next instant found herself looking down at a world which butthe moment before had appeared to be reaching up white menacing hands ather. Then she turned to peer into the dark depths of the cave. Sheshivered as she looked. Her old fancies of fairies and goblins, ofstrange, wild people inhabiting these mountains, came sweeping back andquite unnerved her.
The next moment she was herself again, and turning she called down toAttatak:
"Who-hoo! Who-hoo! Bring the reindeer up. Here is shelter for the night."
An inaudible answer came floating back to her. Then she saw the reindeerturn about and begin the long, zig-zag course that in time would bringthem to the mouth of the newly discovered cave.
"And then," Marian said softly to herself.
She was no longer afraid of the dark shadows behind her. In the place offear had come a great curiosity. The same questions which have come toall people throughout all time upon discovering a strange cave in themountains, had come to her. "Am I," she asked herself, "the first personwhose footsteps have echoed in those mysterious corridors of nature, orhave there been others? If there have been others, who were they? Whatwere they like? What did they leave behind that will tell the story oftheir visit here?"
Marian tried to shake herself free from these questions. It was extremelyunlikely that any one, in all the hurrying centuries, had ever passedthis way. They were on the side of a mountain. She had never known of aperson crossing the range before. So she reasoned, but in the end foundherself hoping that this cave might yield to her adventure loving soulsome new and hitherto inexperienced thrill.
In the meantime she heard the labored breat
A great wave of thankfulness swept over her, and with the ferventreverence of a child, she lifted her eyes to the stars and uttered aprayer of thanksgiving.
When the wave of emotion had passed, curiosity again gripped her. Shewished to enter the cave, yet shrank from it. Like a child afraid of thedark, she feared to go forward alone. So, drawing her parka hood closeabout her face to protect it from the cold, she waited for Attatak'sarrival.
Even as she waited there crept into her mind a disturbing question:
"I wonder," she said aloud, "I do wonder how Patsy is getting along withthe herd?"