And that very day, when he was strong enough to sit up, Rod did plead with his half-Indian comrade that Minnetaki might be allowed to accompany them.  But Wabi stanchly refused even to consider the proposition, and Mukoki, when he learned of the girl’s desire, grinned and chuckled in his astonishment for the next half-hour.

“Minnetaki ver’ brave—­ver’ brave girl,” he confided to Rod, “but she die up there, I guess so!  You want Minnetaki die?”

Rod assured him that he did not, and the subject was dropped.

That day and night in the old cabin was one of the pleasantest within Rod’s memory, despite the youth’s wound.  A cheerful fire of dry pine and poplar burned in the stone fireplace, and when Minnetaki announced that the evening meal was ready Rod was for the first time allowed to leave his bunk.  For the greater part of the day Wabi and Mukoki had searched in the chasm and along the mountains for signs of the outlaw Indian’s band, but their search had revealed nothing to arouse their fears.  As mysterious and unaccountable as the fact seemed, there was no doubt that the old cabin was a retreat known only to Woonga himself, and as the four sat in the warm glow of the fire, eating and drinking, the whole adventure was gone over again and again until there seemed no part of it left in doubt.  Minnetaki described her capture and explained the slowness of their flight after the massacre.  Woonga was ill and had refused to move far from the scene of the slaughter until he had fully regained his strength.

“But why did Woonga kill the Indian back on the trail?” asked Rod.

Minnetaki shuddered as she thought of the terrible scene that had been enacted before her eyes.

“I heard them quarreling,” she said, “but I couldn’t understand.  I know that it was about me.  We had gone but a short distance after the sledges separated when Woonga, who was ahead of me, turned about and shot the other in the breast.  It was terrible!  And then he drove on as coolly as though nothing had happened.”

“I’m curious to know how he used the bear’s feet,” exclaimed Rod.

“They were huge pads into which he slipped his feet, moccasins and all,” explained Minnetaki.  “He told me that the dogs would go on to Kenegami House, and that if pursuers followed us they would follow the sledge trail and never give a thought to the bear tracks.”

Mukoki chuckled deep down in his throat.

“He no fool Rod,” he said.  “Nobody fool Rod!”

“Especially when he’s on Minnetaki’s trail,” laughed Wabi happily.

“Wasn’t it Rod who discovered the secret of the lost gold, after you had given up all hope?” retorted Minnetaki.

The lost gold!