The scar faced Indian whirled, dropped his rifle and fell to his knees, clutching at one shoulder. Dick and Sandy got a glimpse of the men at the fire leaping up and snatching their rifles, as they took to their heels after Toma.
For several minutes they sprinted in the wake of the young Indian’s flying heels, hearing behind the crash of their pursuers through the underbrush, and their cries to one another.
Then, before a hollow tree, half covered by the dead branches of a lightning-blasted pine tree, Toma halted suddenly. He motioned to them to follow and disappeared into the half-obscured hole in the tree. Dick and Sandy slipped in after him. There was barely enough room in the tree for three to stand upright, but they managed to crowd in, while Toma quickly arranged the dead branches over the hole until their hiding place was entirely covered from view.
The distant shouts grew louder, as the men beat the brush looking for them. Two came closer and closer, until at last they stopped before the hollow tree, so near that the three hidden feared their heavy breathing might be heard.
“I thought I saw ’em go this way,” one said, in a harsh voice.
“Mebbe so,” the other, apparently an Indian, answered. “It look like they jump in air an’ fly away.”
“Pierre sure will give us the devil if we let ’em get away,” said the first. “Can’t blame him. Henderson will skin him alive if these trails aren’t kept clean of Hudson’s Bay men and mounties.”
“I see bush move over d’er!” the Indian ejaculated.
The two men moved off in another direction, and the boys in the hollow tree breathed easier.
“No go yet,” Toma advised. “Wait till all quiet.”
The minutes passed slowly while they waited in their cramped position. The shouts of the searchers grew fainter as they apparently abandoned the chase. Presently all was still. Toma peeped out through the branches covering the entrance to the hollow tree. After looking carefully about, the guide pushed back the branches and stepped out. Dick and Sandy followed. They were learning lessons in woodcraft every hour from this child of the forest.
“I think we ought to go back to the camp, steal up close and see if we can’t learn something of your Uncle Walter, Sandy,” Dick announced.