about you."

He strode over to Mr. Baxter and began to feel about his clothing. The
impossibility of any one hiding a lot of bulky sacks about him without
having them show did not occur to Callack until he had convinced himself
that Mr. Baxter had no gold under his fur suit. Neither had the boys nor
Johnson.

Callack was plainly puzzled. He had confidently expected to get the gold
when he captured the fugitives. Now that it was neither among their
baggage nor on their persons, he did not know what to do. But he was
determined to have the bags of nuggets.

Approaching close to Mr. Baxter, and shaking his fist in the face of the
bound man, he asked:

"Are you going to tell me where that treasure is?"

"No, I am not," was the bold reply.

"Then you'll suffer for it!"

He turned aside, called to some of the Indians, and the three captives
were led into one of the tents, while a guard of several of the Alaskans
was stationed outside.

"Well, they've got us," said Fred softly when they were left alone.

"Yes," admitted Mr. Baxter, "but they haven't got the gold."

CHAPTER XXII

ANXIOUS HOURS

The situation of the captives was desperate. They were in the power of a
white man as savage, or more so, as any of the Indians. To add to this,
he was enraged at his failure to discover the gold, to obtain which he
had risked so much. What he might do to compel them to reveal the hiding
place they could only guess.

For a while after being thrust into the tent there was silence among the
three. They had been roughly handled, the exertion to escape had been
hard, and they were utterly discouraged. It looked as though they had
failed almost in the moment of success.

"Do you think Holfax will bring any aid?" asked Fred after a long pause.

"I think he will try," replied Mr. Baxter. "Whether he can bring enough
of his friends to drive away this band of rascals is another matter. He
ought to come along pretty soon, if he had good luck in reaching a camp
and can persuade enough to come back with him."

"I wish I could loosen some of these knots," remarked Jerry. "I'm tied
so tightly that I can't move, and I'm getting cold."

It was very cold, even in the shelter of the tent, and wrapped as they
were in thick fur garments, for they were tied so tightly that their
blood could not circulate freely.

"Let's see if we can't loosen some of our bonds," suggested Fred. "The
exertion will make us warmer even if we can't