One of the ice windows was directly over the spot where Sandy was sleeping, and toward this Dick’s attention was suddenly attracted as through a sixth sense. A shadow had loomed up in the tiny square—the shadow of a face peering in!
Dick sat up with a start and grasped his rifle. Evidently, whoever was looking in could see nothing, since it was darker inside the igloo than outside. Taking advantage of the prowler’s inability to see, Dick picked up his rifle and pushed back the huge cake of snow which plugged up the small round door. Softly, then, he stole outside and commenced the crawl around the igloo toward the window through which he had seen the face. Yet he must have made more noise than he thought, for at the moment he reached a point from which he could see the spying person, there sounded a guttural outcry, and the crunch of running feet across the snow.
“Halt!” cried Dick, leaping up and firing his rifle into the air.
But the fleeing culprit had a good start and he proved not slow on his feet. Dick watched the dark form vanish in the dim sunlight, while the aroused camp scrambled out to see what was wrong.
Corporal McCarthy listened intently to Dick’s story of what had happened. The officer said little at the time, but presently he entered the boys’ igloo, calling in the Constable and Toma.
When they all were comfortably seated, Corporal McCarthy addressed the boys:
“What has just happened, on top of the capture we made yesterday, makes me feel as if I ought to explain the real motive of this long trip. Your Uncle Walter McClaren wanted me to keep you fellows out of trouble, provided there was no real need of your services, but now that we seem to be right in the territory of the fellow we are after, it looks like I’ll have to enlist you in the service of the mounted.”
Dick and Sandy exchanged glances and became all ears, as the Corporal went on:
“Corporal Thalman, an officer sent out ahead of us, has been either killed or lost somewhere in this region, while trailing a half-breed Eskimo murderer, called Fred Mistak. Sloan and I are after Corporal Thalman, or what’s left of him, and of course we intend to get Mistak.”
“What did I tell you?” Dick whispered aside to Sandy.