They were about ready to dine on cold baked beans and coffee, when Toma called their attention to a movement ahead of them from the direction of Fort Dunwoody. It proved to be a man and a dog team.
“Honestly, we’re going to meet somebody!” Sandy exclaimed incredulously. For days they had seen few save enemies.
“Well, maybe this isn’t a friend,” said Dick, dubiously.
Toma studied the man intently as he drew nearer. Finally they could hear the cries of the driver to his dogs and the occasional cracking of his long whip. It was a white man; they could tell even at that distance by the tail to tail hitch of the dogs. Most of the Indians drove in fan formation, each dog attached to separate tugs of varying lengths.
The stranger stopped some distance from them, and came on more slowly. Evidently, he himself was not too certain whether or not he was meeting a hostile party.
“I’m Corporal Richardson of the Mounted,” called the lone driver of the dog team. “Who are you?”
“Dick Kent and Sandy McClaren with a guide from Fort du Lac,” Dick called back through cupped palms.
The policeman seemed satisfied. Cracking his whip over the dogs, he speedily joined the young travelers.
Corporal Richardson was dressed in a heavy fur coat and parka. When near the campfire he pulled open his great coat, disclosing the scarlet of his uniform coat. He listened attentively to Dick’s story of their adventures, and he seemed favorably impressed with both Dick and Sandy, though at first he was somewhat suspicious of Toma.
“I left Fort Dunwoody a week ago,” the policeman told them, his steely eyes unwavering. “We’ve been hearing rumors of Bear Henderson’s outbreak, and I was sent up here to clear some of these trails. Of course Henderson is rather foolish to think he can whip the Mounted and the Hudson’s Bay Company, but he’s made rather a good try at it already. Last report we had he’d burned two trading posts, and had captured three more. Mackenzie’s Landing has fallen to him, I understand. They say his next move is Fort du Lac.”
Dick and Sandy gasped at the revelations of the policeman.
“Didn’t you know about the capture of Fort Good Faith, and the imprisonment of Walter MacClaren, my friend’s uncle?” Dick asked.