Had Minnetaki saved herself by taking her captor's life?

For a moment Rod was almost convinced that this was so. He examined
the stains in the snow and found that they were still damp and
unfrozen. He was sure that the tragedy had occurred less than an hour
before. More cautiously, and yet swifter than before, he followed the
trail of the sledge, his rifle held in readiness for a shot at
any moment. The path became wilder and in places it seemed almost
inaccessible. But between the tumbled mass of rock the sledge had
found its way, its savage driver not once erring in his choice of the
openings ahead. Gradually the trail ascended until it came to the
summit of a huge ridge. Hardly had Rod reached the top when another
trail cut across that of the sledge.

Deeply impressed in the softening snow were the footprints of a big
bear!

The first warm sunshine, thought Rod, had aroused the beast from his
winter sleep, and he was making a short excursion from his den. From
where the bear had crossed the trail the sledge turned abruptly in the
direction from which the bear had come.

Without giving a thought to his action, Rod began his descent of the
ridge in the trail made by the bear, at the same time keeping his eyes
fixed upon the sledge track and the distant forest. At the foot of the
ridge the great trunk of a fallen tree lay in his path, and as he went
to climb over it he stopped, a cry of amazement stifling itself in his
throat. Over that tree the bear had scrambled, and upon it, close to
the spot where the animal had brushed off the snow in his passage, was
the imprint of a human hand!