To Wayne and Robin it seemed as if years had passed between the last gunshot and the noise they now heard. Someone was crashing through the bushes upriver! The boys stood frozen, not knowing who it was or what to do.
"Boys, look out! Robin, run! Run, boys!" Ted yelled from above.
They were both terrified. Running was the easiest thing to do, but they didn't. Instead they both had the same thought at exactly the same time. Dana!
Running to the toboggan, Wayne and Robin worked furiously together and had Dana out of her harness in seconds.
"Get him, Dana!" Robin screamed. "Sic him now!"
Dana had sensed that things were wrong. She smelled the human fear in the air and recognized the boys' panic. At a full run before Robin finished speaking, she closed the gap between herself and the bush within seconds and leaped with all her strength as the figure crashed into sight from the willows. He never had a chance. With a scream he fell to the ground, his rifle clattering across the snow. Dana bit hard and began to shake her victim as hard as possible.
"Get it off! Help! Stop it from eating me! Ahhhhhh!"
Johnny and Ted broke through the willows and stopped abruptly on the shore. Ben and the inspector were right behind them. They all gasped for breath, staring at the scene that lay before them. A man sat on the shore sobbing, his hands covering his face. Wayne stood slightly back, guarding him with his own rifle, while Robin held Dana back by the collar about a foot from where the fugitive slumped.
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" Inspector Limpkert exclaimed. "You were right about these boys, Corporal. They sure can handle themselves."
"I guess I was, sir," Ted said with a dazed smile. "More than I ever imagined."
Ted strode over to the prisoner and stood him off the snow. Forcing the man's hands behind his back, he slipped on handcuffs and let the prisoner sag back onto the snow. Dana barked and lunged at the man where he sat. He shouted with fear and skittered crablike across the snow away from the dog.
Inspector Limpkert stepped forward and grabbed the man by the arm. "Would you mind telling us your name, what you're doing here, and why you shot at us?"
The man glared at the snow and shook his head. "I should have taken care of those kids and that dog myself," he muttered.
"I don't think we'll get much out of him right now, sir," Ted said. "Perhaps we should inspect and secure the campsite before heading back to town."
"Excellent, Corporal. Let's get to it!"
With Johnny, Ben, and the boys watching the prisoner, Ted and Inspector Limpkert worked their way back up to the camp. It took some time as they followed the route the man had taken through the bush just in case he had discarded evidence as he ran. When they returned a while later, they had gathered everything they would need.
"I think we'll have a pretty straightforward case," the inspector said, turning to the group and their prisoner. "We found several items that can be identified as belonging to one Fritz Gelder — a pocketknife with his initials engraved in the handle, a pocket watch with Mr. Gelder's name on it, and some tools with his initials. We also have several packs of cigarettes. Camels to be exact! I'm guessing these are the only Camel cigarettes we'll find for at least a thousand miles in any direction." The inspector stopped and glanced at Ted. "And we have one other item that's the most interesting of all, right, Corporal?"
Ted moved closer to the group and took a small pouch the size of a marble bag out of a pocket in his parka. Loosening the drawstrings, he carefully shook some of the contents into the palm of his hand. Everyone crowded around to get a better look at the small objects shining in Ted's open hand.
Robin had never seen anything like them before, but he knew exactly what they were. "Diamonds!" he gasped. "Those are diamonds, aren't they?"
"Yes, indeed, son," Ted said. "They're diamonds. And they're the real mystery Shildii Rock's been guarding all these years. You can touch one if you like, but be careful. If we drop any, we'll never find them in the snow."
The boys didn't need any coaxing. They both gently took one of the gems and held them up for inspection. In the sunset light of an arctic winter day, the diamonds glistened with all the colours of a rainbow.
"So this is what it was all about," Robin said in a hushed voice.