CHAPTER V

AN INFERNAL MACHINE


When Bruce, Barney and the Major found themselves stranded on the shore
of a vast frozen lake at the beginning of an Arctic winter, they at once
took steps to conserve all resources. Building a cache between three
scrub spruce trees, they piled upon it their wolf meat and skins. To
Barney the thought of eating "dog meat," as he called it, was most
repulsive, but necessity gives man little choice in the Arctic, so he
munched his roast wolf's back that night in silence. But at the same
time, he vowed that, sure as the caribou had not all passed, he would
dine on caribou roast before long.

Once the cache was completed, they began scouting the woods near the
ruins of the burned trading station. There they found plain signs of
Indians. A circle of beaten tracks made certain a pow-wow had been
held there.

"Doesn't look very good to me," admitted the Major. "These Indians of the
Little Sticks are a fierce and cruel people, full of superstitions, and
living up to the old law of 'blood revenge.' There's only one thing in
our favor: they have a superstition about a giant creature, known as the
Thunder-bird. The stories of this terrible bird are known to almost all
Indian tribes, but the Little Sticks believe them literally. From the
tracks I should judge that they left in great haste. What could cause