CHAPTER VI.

RED-SCAR GOES TO SLEEP—ALF AND BERT ESCAPE WITH THE PONY.

STEPAN would not suffer Alf and Bert to ask any questions; but they felt that he had a definite purpose and plan, and hope began to rise again in their poor little hearts. Quietly they lay in bed, watching him. They saw him put fresh wood on the fire, and water to boil. They saw him get the canister of coffee and measure out a liberal quantity.

And then they saw something else which set them wondering. Into a tiny saucepan containing only a little water, he emptied a small paper bag of faded-looking green things like round dried pods. He put a cover on the saucepan and set it to boil. Then when he had made the coffee, straining it through a bag, he poured through the bag also the decoction he had prepared in the small saucepan and mixed it with the coffee.

It was just ready, and the small saucepan rinsed out and put away, when Gavril came in.

"Make haste now and get thy supper," said Stepan. "Thou art keeping these children awake, and me too; thou hast forgotten that I must make an early start."

Gavril grunted and took a long draught of coffee.

"This coffee of thine has a queer taste, Stepan," he said. "What hast thou done to it?"

"What should I do?" replied the other coolly. "Perhaps it was made in too much of a hurry. People who come in at midnight can hardly, in the backwoods, expect a hotel supper served."

"Well, anyhow, it is hot, and it warms me," said Gavril.

"Yes, and there is condensed milk in it, so it is nourishing. Drink it up and lie down, and I will put out the light."

Gavril said no more. He ate his bread and cheese, and two salted cucumbers, and drank up the coffee to the last drop. Then, overcome with weariness, apparently, he rolled himself up in his sheepskin, lay down on the pile of straw in a corner, and was snoring loudly in a few minutes.

Stepan remained quite quiet for about a quarter of an hour, glancing at Gavril at intervals. At last, assured of his sound slumber, he went to and fro in the hut, collecting the things that would be required for the journey of the boys and himself. Bread, cheese, a small kettle and tin of tea, and a few lumps of sugar, an axe, and his own revolver. The food he divided into two portions, one for himself, one for the children, all but the parcel of tea and sugar, which he gave to them just as it was.

"You may get up now," he whispered to Alf and Bert, as his preparations neared completion; "get up and put on your furs; and you," he added to Alf, "see to the pony. No," he said, with a smile, as the lad's eyes turned with fear to the snoring Gavril; "you need have no misgiving. He will not wake for hours. I gave him a decoction of poppy-heads in his coffee, on purpose to quiet him, so that we could get away."

"Then why should we not take our own sledge and horse as well as the pony?" said Alf. "Gavril stole them from us; we shall but be taking back our own."

"It is true, you are right," said Stepan.

"Look here, dear Stepan," said Alf, clasping the man's rough brown hand in both of his. "Thou art so good to us, we cannot but love thee, and father will love thee too when we tell him all. Take thou the horse and sledge for thy journey, and then afterwards bring them back to the factory; and we, in our father's name, promise thee a welcome, and that all shall be forgotten save thy goodness to us. Sharik can easily carry my brother and me; and so we shall run away both with horse and pony, and Red-scar, if he chase us, must do it on his own splay feet. Say, Stepan, shall it not be so?"

The man's brown eyes grew moist. He raised the boy's hand to his lips.

"Yes, little sir, if God please, it shall be even so," he said.

More loud than ever was Gavril's snoring when the sledge glided noiselessly away over the snow through the wood, with Sharik trotting nimbly behind, making nothing of his double burden.

Until they reached the edge of the forest, their way lay in the same direction, but there the roads diverged.

"That is your route, my children," said Stepan, pointing across the snowy landscape, "and this is mine. Good-bye. God be with you."

With these words he was turning away, when both boys called out, "Wait one moment!"

And as he reined up, Alf guided the pony close to the sledge, and the lads threw their arms round the man's neck and kissed him.

"Nay, Stepan," said Alf, as the poor fellow gave a great sob, "thou must not weep. We shall (for God is so good) soon see thy face again. Look forward to a welcome from us who love thee."

But Stepan could make no answer. The tears were running down his cheeks as he drove away, looking back again and again, and waving his hand.

"And now, Sharik, I wonder if you have any sort of idea where our home lies?" said Alf. "Sit quite still, Bert, and we will see if he chooses any road for himself."

The boys sat motionless, having reined up the pony. Now Alf dropped the reins and waited.

After a full minute Shank turned his head with a look of inquiry, and Alf said very emphatically, "Home, Sharik! Find your way home, old boy! Maybe you know it; we don't."

The wise little animal threw up his head and sniffed the air. Then he snorted and struck off at a smart canter, along a road that led across a frozen marsh for miles and miles. And the moon looked down upon the little travellers, and the stars peeped at them. And the God and Father Whom they trusted was far above moon and stars, yet very near to them in His love and care.

"It can't be much more than twenty to twenty-five miles to the factory from here," said Alf, half turning in the saddle; for Bert was sitting behind him, both arms round his brother's waist, to keep himself on the pony's back.

"No, it can't be so very far," assented Bert, "for we came in little over two hours, when Red-scar drove us, and we did not run more than eleven miles an hour, for all his slashing."

"Still, it is a long way for Sharik, and with two of us on his back," rejoined All, "though I must say he doesn't seem to mind it a scrap, so far. But, of course, he may be tired after a while, and when he is, we must get off and give him a rest and a feed. But we must move on now as quickly as we can, for fear of pursuit."

"But," said Bert, "Red-scar has only his own legs on which to pursue us, and Sharik is going bravely; no man walking or running could possibly overtake him."

"No, and I felt pretty safe too, till just now," replied Alf. "But look at that deep snow we're coming to! The pony will have to go slowly, for he will sink in up to his knees."

"Well, yes, of course," rejoined Bert; "but then, if Red-scar came after us, would he not do the same?"

"No, he wouldn't; that's just it! I never thought of it till just this minute, but do you remember seeing two queer-looking things shaped like something between a sledge and a boat, and with thongs to them? They were hanging up in the corner of the log-house farthest away from the stove."

"Yes," answered Bert; "I remember now you speak of them; what were they?"

"Stepan told me they were snow-shoes, and when you have them on you can slip over the snow almost as though you were skating on ice. You don't sink in a scrap, and that's why the bear-hunters always use them. Because—if Mr. Bruin wakes up very cross out of his winter sleep, and a hunter happens to miss fire, and the bear chases him—he can get away easily on his snow-shoes, while old Bruin sinks up to his haunches in the drifts."

"But, Alf," said Bert, "you don't really believe that Red-scar could overtake Sharik, and get possession of us again, do you? It would be just too dreadful!"

"Yes, worse than anything I could think of," rejoined Alf. "But there, Bert dear, we won't look forward to such a thing and make ourselves miserable over it. After all, just think how We have been watched over and protected, in spite of dangers. And I have the same feeling now that I had when I rode to the town—that God is with us—close to us both; and that if we put our whole trust in Him, and just take the way that He opens up before us, all will be well."