The Cryptogram Part 38

"Lieutenant Boyd, I command you to leave," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "You forget there is such a thing as law in the Canadas."

"It is you who forget that, sir," retorted the lieutenant, "as you will learn to your cost before many days. But to business! Produce the prisoner."

"I admit that I have one," said Ruthven, "but my claim to him overrides yours. He is a murderer; he has killed a Northwest Company man in cold blood."

"Who?"

"Cuthbert Mackenzie!"

I could scarcely believe that I had heard aright. I exchanged significant and wondering glances with my companion. Could it be possible that Cuthbert Mackenzie had paid the last penalty for his crimes?

"It's a good job, if it's true!" muttered Carteret.

CHAPTER XLI.

BACK FROM THE DEAD.

Lieutenant Boyd was silent for an instant, and I saw that he was a little staggered by the bold daring of the accusation. Then, looking Ruthven straight in the eyes, he said, in a curt and significant tone of voice:

"I am glad to have found some one who can give information concerning Cuthbert Mackenzie, and I will remember you when certain investigations now pending are taken up by the Hudson Bay Company. Shall I make my meaning clearer?"

"As you please," muttered Ruthven, with an air of forced calmness.

"It is needless; I think we understand each other," the lieutenant continued. "As for the prisoner, and the charge you have made against him, I won't enter into that matter at present. Did you arrest him with a warrant?"

"No."

"Then you can't hold him. Set him at liberty, and I will guarantee that you will find him at Fort Garry when you are ready to serve the proper papers on him."

"It's likely I'll believe that," sneered Ruthven. "I tell you the man is guilty. I have witnesses--proofs of the murder."

"I don't care what you have," cried the lieutenant. "I want the man at once--I've parleyed with you far too long. If you don't produce him I'll search the house."

Ruthven sat glowering like a tiger at bay. He scanned our resolute little party, and looked helplessly at the sullen, scowling faces of his own men. "I yield to force of arms," he said hoa.r.s.ely; "but I protest against this unjustifiable outrage. Lagarde, bring the fellow out!"

The storekeeper had meanwhile returned to the room, and now, at Ruthven's bidding, he entered an apartment in the rear and partly closed the door behind him. For a brief interval we waited in silence, hearing only an indistinct murmur of voices. Then Lagarde reappeared, followed by the prisoner.

At sight of the man my heart gave a wild throb, and a cry of amazement was forced to my lips, for there before me, as das.h.i.+ng-looking as ever, but with cheeks slightly sunken and blanched from illness, stood Captain Myles Rudstone.

"You!" I gasped. "Back from the dead!"

"It's the captain, sure enough!" shouted Carteret.

I half expected to see him vanish in thin air, but my doubts were dispelled when he came quickly forward and clasped my hand.

"Don't stare at me as though I was a ghost," he said laughingly. "You see I am real flesh and blood, my dear Carew. I have turned up again, like a bad penny."

"I never dreamed that the prisoner could be you!" I exclaimed. "We believed you dead--buried under the snow."

"It was a natural supposition," the captain replied, as he shook hands with Carteret and Lieutenant Boyd.

"My good fellows, I am greatly indebted to you for this service--for your timely rescue. I was awake when you arrived, and overheard the little discussion, but as I was both gagged and bound, I could do nothing in my own behalf."

With that his face darkened, and striding to the table, he struck it a blow with his fist that set the bottles and cups rattling, and caused Ruthven and his evil crew to shrink back in their seats.

"You and I will have a reckoning at a later time," he cried, addressing Ruthven. "Be a.s.sured that it will come!"

"A word with you, Captain Rudstone," said Boyd. "I must warn you that you are charged with a grave crime, and that I have given a pledge for your safe keeping at Fort Garry."

"What is the accusation?"

"The murder of Cuthbert Mackenzie!" Ruthven blurted out savagely.

The captain shrugged his shoulders, laughed insolently, and gave me a meaning and rea.s.suring glance.

"I reserve my defense," he said. "I will say nothing at present as to the truth or falsity of this charge. Certainly I have done nothing that I would willingly undo--quite the contrary."

"I am sure of that," I said warmly.

"As for your pledge Lieutenant Boyd," the captain continued. "I give you my word I shall wait Mr. Ruthven's pleasure at Port Garry, and I defy him to bring his witnesses before a competent tribunal. Indeed, I court and desire a full investigation of the act with which I stand charged."

As he spoke he glared at Ruthven, and the latter's eyes fell.

"Well said!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "I perceive you have grasped the delicate nature of this affair, Captain Rudstone. By the way, I understand you are the bearer of dispatches. Do you still retain them?"

"That is a misapprehension, sir," was the reply. "I have no dispatches; nor did I stop at any of the company's forts on my journey from the north. I am bound for Fort Garry on a private and personal matter."

"You shall accompany us there at once," said Boyd. "I think we have finished here." Turning to Ruthven, he added: "We are going now, sir.

Let me warn you to keep your men under control--to see that no shots are fired treacherously."

"When we want to shoot it will not be behind your backs," Ruthven replied significantly, and in a voice that trembled with suppressed pa.s.sion. "You will be sorry for this night's work!"

Without further words we left the house, gathered up our men outside, and crossed the clearing to the woods. We pushed on more rapidly to the horses, and one of the men gave his steed to Captain Rudstone and mounted behind a companion. As we rode on a trot toward the fort, the captain, who was in front, between Boyd and myself, related to us in confidence the thrilling story of his adventures. He spoke in low tones, for it was not advisable that the rest should hear a narrative which ought properly to have come to the factor's ear first.

"I shall spin the yarn briefly and without going into details," he began. "My disappearance on that night when we encamped near Fort Charter was a very simple thing. I was on duty, you will remember, and I either heard--or imagined I heard--the report of a musket within half a mile. Hoping to learn what it meant, I ventured too far from camp. The result was that I lost my bearings, and for several hours wandered about in the blinding storm. I shouted at intervals, and fired a couple of shots. At, last, when I was nearly exhausted I came across a recess under a ma.s.s of rocks. I crawled into it--it was warm and tight--and there I slept as I have never slept in my life before. I wakened to find that I was snowed up--many hours must have pa.s.sed--and with tremendous toil I dug myself out of the huge drift. It was then late in the afternoon of the next day. I had no idea of my bearings, and after tramping aimlessly until twilight I stumbled upon a small camp in the wilderness, and found myself Cuthbert Mackenzie's prisoner."

"And did you really kill the scoundrel?" I asked.

"Wait; I am coming to that," replied the captain. "Mackenzie had half a dozen Indians with him, and was on the way south. He knew me, of course, and he swore that he would shoot me at daybreak. We held some conversation, during which he virtually admitted that he had instigated and led the attack on Fort Royal. He meant to kill me--I saw that clearly--and I felt pretty blue when I was bound fast to a tree."

"You worked your bonds loose, I suppose?" inquired Boyd.

"No; I was saved in another way," said the captain--"by your old friend Gray Moose, Carew. It seems that he and a dozen redskins had been following Mackenzie up on account of some old grudge--some act of false dealing--and that night they surprised and attacked the camp. They cut me loose first, seeing that I was a prisoner, and I took part in the scrimmage. I grappled with Mackenzie and overpowered him, and to save my own life I had to stab him to the heart--"

"He deserved it," said I. "It was a just retribution. And how did the fight turn out?"