By noon next day they had made a forced
march of ne^ly thirty miles, which, considering
the nature of the ground, the heaviness of
their burdens, and the unwillingness of the
carriers, was admirable. Silas decided to have
two hours' mid-day rest. Mrs Jay guarded the
camp, sitting astride the bags of gold, whilst
Piatt and Silas slept. If the Indians thought
they could take advantage of this opportunity,
they were mistaken, for she kept her keen old
Irish eyes on every man in turn, and if any one
of them showed signs of restlessness she



112 TALES OF THE KLONDYKE

levelled her rifle at him immediately, and
opened upon him a volume of abuse from her
inexhaustible vocabulary, which was even
more terrifying than the levelled barrel of her
gun.
Again they resumed their journey. Silas,
gaping after his short sleep, left the main duty
of surveillance to his wife. They went on
with occasional brief halts till long after
nightfall, and when they eventually camped
for their night's sleep, a long distance seemed
to have been placed between them and
danger.
Piatt was on guard for the night, and took
care not to sleep a wink. There seemed some
restlessness on the part of the Indians, and the
conduct of Blackhand was peculiar. He had
certainly a knife in his hand, and was moving
stealthily towards Silas. Indeed, Piatt was
sufficiently suspicious to let off" his rifle — not to
injure the Redskin, but to alarm him and arouse
his companions. Immediately the shot was
fired everybody jumped up, but it seemed to
be a false alarm, and morning dawned without
further disturbance.
