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diff --git a/14960.txt b/14960.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c152d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/14960.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6647 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Silent Places, by Steward Edward White + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Silent Places + +Author: Steward Edward White + +Release Date: February 7, 2005 [EBook #14960] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SILENT PLACES *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Illustration: The woodsmen, with a simultaneous movement, +raised their rifles [Page 208]] + +THE SILENT PLACES + +BY + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE + +_Illustrated by Philip R. Goodwin_ + +NEW YORK +McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. + +MCMIV + +Published, April, 1904 + + + + +_To My Mother_ + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The woodsmen, with a simultaneous movement, + raised their rifles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + + Facing page +The child uttered a sharp cry of fright. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 +"Pretty enough to kiss!" cried Dick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 +"Listen, Little Sister," said he. "Now I go on a long journey" . . . 148 +Dick jumped forward and snatched aside the opening into the wigwam . 228 +The hound sniffed deep, filling his nostrils with the feather snow . 258 +"Stop!" he commanded, his voice croaking harsh across the stillness. 294 + + + + +THE SILENT PLACES + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +At about eight o'clock one evening of the early summer a group of men +were seated on a grass-plot overlooking a broad river. The sun was just +setting through the forest fringe directly behind them. + +Of this group some reclined in the short grass, others lay flat on the +bank's slope, while still others leaned against the carriages of two +highly ornamented field-guns, whose embossed muzzles gaped silently at +an eastern shore nearly two miles distant. + +The men were busy with soft-voiced talk, punctuating their remarks with +low laughter of a singularly infectious character. It was strange +speech, richly embroidered with the musical names of places, with +unfamiliar names of beasts, and with unintelligible names of things. +Kenogami, Mamatawan, Wenebogan, Kapuskasing, the silver-fox, the +sea-otter, the sable, the wolverine, the musk-ox, parka, babiche, +tump-line, giddes,--these and others sang like arrows cleaving the +atmosphere of commoner words. In the distant woods the white-throats and +olive thrushes called in a language hardly less intelligible. + +There scarcely needed the row of glistening birch-barks below the men, +the warehouse with its picketed lane, the tall flag-staff, the +block-house stockade, the half-bred women chatting over the low fences +of the log-houses, the squaws wandering to and fro in picturesque +silence, the Indian children playing noisily or standing in awe before +the veranda of the white house, to inform the initiated that this little +forest- and river-girt settlement was a post of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company. The time of sunset and the direction of the +river's flow would have indicated a high latitude. The mile-long meadow, +with its Indian camp, the oval of forest, the immense breadth of the +river identified the place as Conjuror's House. Thus the blue water in +the distance was James Bay, the river was the Moose; enjoying his Manila +cheroot on the Factory veranda with the other officers of the Company +was Galen Albret, and these men lounging on the river bank were the +Company's post-keepers and runners, the travellers of the Silent Places. + +They were of every age and dressed in a variety of styles. All wore +ornamented moccasins, bead garters, and red sashes of worsted. As to the +rest, each followed his taste. So in the group could be seen bare heads, +fillet-bound heads, covered heads; shirt sleeves, woollen jerseys, and +long, beautiful blanket coats. Two things, however, proved them akin. +They all possessed a lean, wiry hardness of muscle and frame, a +hawk-like glance of the eye, an almost emaciated spareness of flesh on +the cheeks. They all smoked pipes of strong plug tobacco. + +Whether the bronze of their faces, thrown into relief by the evening +glow, the frowning steadiness of their eyes, or more fancifully the +background of the guns, the flag-staff and the stockade was most +responsible, the militant impression persisted strongly. These were the +veterans of an hundred battles. They were of the stuff forlorn hopes are +fashioned from. A great enemy, a powerful enemy, an enemy to be +respected and feared had hardened them to the unyielding. The adversary +could almost be measured, the bitterness of the struggle almost be +gauged from the scars of their spirits; the harshness of it, the cruelty +of it, the wonderful immensity of it that should so fashion the souls +and flesh of men. For to the bearing of these loungers clung that hint +of greater things which is never lacking to those who have called the +deeps of man's nature to the conquering. + +The sun dipped to the horizon, and over the landscape slipped the +beautiful north-country haze of crimson. From the distant forest sounded +a single mournful wolf-howl. At once the sledge-dogs answered in chorus. +The twilight descended. The men gradually fell silent, smoking their +pipes, savouring the sharp snow-tang, grateful to their toughened +senses, that still lingered in the air. + +Suddenly out of the dimness loomed the tall form of an Indian, advancing +with long, straight strides. In a moment he was among them responding +composedly to their greetings. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou', Me-en-gen," said they. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," said he. + +He touched two of the men lightly on the shoulder. They arose, for they +knew him as the bowsman of the Factor's canoe, and so understood that +Galen Albret desired their presence. + +Me-en-gen led the way in silence, across the grass-plot, past the +flag-staff, to the foot of the steps leading to the Factory veranda. +There the Indian left them. They mounted the steps. A voice halted them +in the square of light cast through an intervening room from a lighted +inner apartment. + +The veranda was wide and low; railed in; and, except for the square of +light, cast in dimness. A dozen men sat in chairs, smoking. Across the +shaft of light the smoke eddied strangely. A woman's voice accompanied +softly the tinkle of a piano inside. The sounds, like the lamplight, +were softened by the distance of the intervening room. + +Of the men on the veranda Galen Albret's identity alone was evident. +Grim, four-square, inert, his very way of sitting his chair, as though +it were a seat of judgment and he the interpreter of some fierce +blood-law, betrayed him. From under the bushy white tufts of his +eyebrows the woodsmen felt the search of his inspection. Unconsciously +they squared their shoulders. + +The older had some fifty-five or sixty years, though his frame was +still straight and athletic. A narrow-brimmed slouch hat shadowed quiet, +gray eyes, a hawk nose, a long sweeping white mustache. His hands were +tanned to a hard mahogany-brown carved into veins, cords, and gnarled +joints. He had kindly humour in the wrinkles of his eyes, the slowly +developed imagination of the forest-dweller in the deliberation of their +gaze, and an evident hard and wiry endurance. His dress, from the rough +pea-jacket to the unornamented moccasins, was severely plain. + +His companion was hardly more than a boy in years, though more than a +man in physical development. In every respect he seemed to be especially +adapted to the rigours of northern life. The broad arch of his chest, +the plump smoothness of his muscles, above all, the full roundness of +his throat indicated that warmth-giving blood, and plenty of it, would +be pumped generously to every part of his body. His face from any point +of view but one revealed a handsome, jaunty boy, whose beard was still a +shade. But when he looked at one directly, the immaturity fell away. +This might have been because of a certain confidence of experience +beyond what most boys of twenty can know, or it might have been the +result merely of a physical peculiarity. For his eyes were so +extraordinarily close together that they seemed by their very proximity +to pinch the bridge of his nose, and in addition, they possessed a queer +slant or cast which twinkled perpetually now in one, now in the other. +It invested him at once with an air singularly remote and singularly +determined. But at once when he looked away the old boyishness returned, +enhanced further by a certain youthful barbarity in the details of his +dress--a slanted heron's feather in his hat, a beaded knife-sheath, an +excess of ornamentation on his garters and moccasins, and the like. + +In a moment one of the men on the veranda began to talk. It was not +Galen Albret, though Galen Albret had summoned them, but MacDonald, his +Chief Trader and his right-hand man. Galen Albret himself made no sign, +but sat, his head sunk forward, watching the men's faces from his +cavernous eyes. + +"You have been called for especial duty," began MacDonald, shortly. "It +is volunteer duty, and you need not go unless you want to. We have +called you because you have the reputation of never having failed. That +is not much for you, Herron, because you are young. Still we believe in +you. But you, Bolton, are an old hand on the Trail, and it means a good +deal." + +Galen Albret stirred. MacDonald shot a glance in his direction and +hastened on. + +"I am going to tell you what we want. If you don't care to tackle the +job, you must know nothing about it. That is distinctly understood?" + +He hitched forward nearer the light, scanning the men carefully. They +nodded. + +"Sure!" added Herron. + +"That's all right. Do you men remember Jingoss, the Ojibway, who +outfitted here a year ago last summer?" + +"Him they calls th' Weasel?" inquired Sam Bolton. + +"That's the one. Do you remember him well? how he looks?" + +"Yes," nodded Sam and Dick Herron together. + +"We've got to have that Indian." + +"Where is he?" asked Herron. Sam Bolton remained silent. + +"That is for you to find out." MacDonald then went on to explain +himself, hitching his chair still nearer, and lowering his voice. "A +year ago last summer," said he, "he got his 'debt' at the store of two +hundred castors[1] which he was to pay off in pelts the following +spring. He never came back. I don't think he intends to. The example is +bad. It has never happened to us before. Too many Indians get credit at +this Post. If this man is allowed to go unpunished, we'll be due for all +sorts of trouble with our other creditors. Not only he, but all the rest +of them, must be made to feel that an embezzler is going to be caught, +every time. They all know he's stolen that debt, and they're waiting to +see what we're going to do about it. I tell you this so you'll know that +it's important." + +[Footnote 1: One hundred dollars.] + +"You want us to catch him?" said Bolton, more as a comment than an +inquiry. + +"Catch him, and catch him alive!" corrected MacDonald. "There must be no +shooting. We've got to punish him in a way that will make him an +example. We've got to allow our Indians 'debt' in order to keep them. If +we run too great a risk of loss, we cannot do it. That is a grave +problem. In case of success you shall have double pay for the time you +are gone, and be raised two ranks in the service. Will you do it?" + +Sam Bolton passed his emaciated, gnarled hand gropingly across his +mouth, his usual precursor of speech. But Galen Albret abruptly +interposed, speaking directly, with authority, as was his habit. + +"Hold on," said he, "I want no doubt. If you accept this, you must not +fail. Either you must come back with that Indian, or you need not come +back at all. I won't accept any excuses for failure. I won't accept any +failure. It does not matter if it takes ten years. _I want that man_." + +Abruptly he fell silent. After a moment MacDonald resumed his speech. + +"Think well. Let me know in the morning." + +Bolton again passed his hand gropingly before his mouth. + +"No need to wait for me," said he; "I'll do it." + +Dick Herron suddenly laughed aloud, startling to flight the gravities of +the moment. + +"If Sam here's got her figured out, I've no need to worry," he asserted. +"I'm with you." + +"Very well," agreed MacDonald. "Remember, this must be kept quiet. Come +to me for what you need." + +"I will say good-by to you now," said Galen Albret. "I do not wish to be +seen talking to you to-morrow." + +The woodsmen stepped forward, and solemnly shook Galen Albret's hand. He +did not arise to greet these men he was sending out into the Silent +Places, for he was the Factor, and not to many is it given to rule a +country so rich and extended. They nodded in turn to the taciturn +smokers, then glided away into the darkness on silent, moccasined feet. + +The night had fallen. Here and there through the gloom shone a lamp. +Across the north was a dim glow of phosphorescence, precursor of the +aurora, from which occasionally trembled for an instant a single shaft +of light. The group by the bronze field-cannon were humming softly the +sweet and tender cadences of _La Violette dandine_. + +Instinctively the two woodsmen paused on the hither side of rejoining +their companions. Bolton's eyes were already clouded with the trouble of +his speculation. Dick Herron glanced at his comrade quizzically, the +strange cast flickering in the wind of his thought. + +"Oh, Sam!" said he. + +"What?" asked the older man, rousing. + +"Strikes me that by the time we get through drawin' that double pay on +this job, we'll be rich men--and old!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +The men stood looking vaguely upward at the stars. + +Dick Herron whipped the grasses with a switch he had broken in passing a +willow-bush. His mind was little active. Chiefly he regretted the good +time he had promised himself here at the Post after the labour of an +early spring march from distant Winnipeg. He appreciated the +difficulties of the undertaking, but idly, as something that hardly +concerned him. The details, the planning, he dismissed from his mind, +confident that his comrade would rise to that. In time Sam Bolton would +show him the point at which he was to bend his strength. Then he would +stoop his shoulders, shut his eyes, and apply the magnificent brute +force and pluck that was in him. So now he puckered his lips to the +sibilance of a canoe-song, and waited. + +But the other, Sam Bolton, the veteran woodsman, stood in rapt +contemplation, his wide-seeing, gentle eyes of the old man staring with +the magnitude of his revery. + +Beyond the black velvet band lay the wilderness. There was the trackless +country, large as the United States itself, with its great forests, its +unmapped bodies of water, its plains, its barren grounds, its mountains, +its water courses wider even than the Hudson River. Moose and bear, true +lords of the forest, he might see any summer day. Herds of caribou, +sometimes thousands strong, roamed its woodlands and barrens. Wolves, +lurking or bold as their prey was strong or weak, clung to the caribou +bands in hope of a victim. Wolverines,--unchanged in form from another +geological period--marten, mink, fisher, otter, ermine, muskrat, lynx, +foxes, beaver carried on their varied affairs of murder or of peaceful +industry. Woods Indians, scarcely less keen of sense or natural of life +than the animals, dwelt in their wigwams of bark or skins, trapped and +fished, made their long migrations as the geese turn following their +instinct. Sun, shadow, rain, cold, snow, hunger, plenty, labour, or the +peaceful gliding of rivers, these had watched by the Long Trail in the +years Sam Bolton had followed it. He sensed them now dimly, +instinctively, waiting by the Trail he was called upon to follow. + +Sam Bolton had lived many years in the forest, and many years alone. +Therefore he had imagination. It might be of a limited quality, but +through it he saw things in their essences. + +Now from the safe vantage ground of the camp, from the breathing space +before the struggle, he looked out upon the wilderness, and in the +wilderness he felt the old, inimical Presence as he had felt it for +forty years. The scars of that long combat throbbed through his +consciousness. The twisting of his strong hands, the loosening of the +elasticity, the humbling of the spirit, the caution that had displaced +the carelessness of youth, the keenness of eye, the patience,--all these +were at once the marks of blows and the spoils of victory received from +the Enemy. The wilderness, calm, ruthless, just, terrible, waited in the +shadow of the forest, seeking no combat, avoiding none, conquering with +a lofty air of predestination, yielding superbly as though the moment's +victory for which a man had strained the fibres of his soul were, after +all, a little, unimportant thing; never weary, never exultant, +dispassionate, inevitable, mighty, whose emotions were silence, whose +speech was silence, whose most terrible weapon was the great white +silence that smothered men's spirits. Sam Bolton clearly saw the North. +He felt against him the steady pressure of her resistance. She might +yield, but relentlessly regained her elasticity. Men's efforts against +her would tire; the mechanics of her power remained constant. What she +lost in the moments of her opponent's might, she recovered in the hours +of his weakness, so that at the last she won, poised in her original +equilibrium above the bodies of her antagonists. Dimly he felt these +things, personifying the wilderness in his imagination of the old man, +arranging half-consciously his weapons of craft in their due order. + +Somewhere out beyond in those woods, at any one of the thirty-two points +of the compass, a man was lurking. He might be five or five hundred +miles away. He was an expert at taking care of himself in the woods. +Abruptly Sam Bolton began to formulate his thoughts aloud. + +"We got to keep him or anybody else from knowin' we's after him, Dick," +said he. "Jest as soon as he knows that, it's just too easy for him to +keep out of our way. Lucky Jingoss is an Ojibway, and his people are way +off south. We can fool this crowd here easy enough; we'll tell 'em we're +looking for new locations for winter posts. But she's an awful big +country." + +"Which way'll we go first?" asked Dick, without, however, much interest +in the reply. Whatever Sam decided was sure to be all right. + +"It's this way," replied the latter. "He's got to trade somewheres. He +can't come into any of the Posts here at the Bay. What's the nearest? +Why, Missinaibie, down in Lake Superior country. Probably he's down in +that country somewheres. We'll start south." + +"That's Ojibway country," hazarded Dick at random. + +"It's Ojibway country, but Jingoss is a Georgian Bay Ojibway. Down near +Missinaibie every Injun has his own hunting district, and they're +different from our Crees,--they stick pretty close to their district. +Any strangers trying to hunt and trap there are going to get shot, sure +pop. That makes me think that if Jingoss has gone south, and if he's +trading now at Missinaibie, and if he ain't chummed up with some of them +Ojibways to get permission to trap in their allotments, and if he ain't +pushed right on home to his own people or out west to Winnipeg country, +then most likely we'll find him somewheres about the region of th' +Kabinakagam." + +"So we'll go up th' Missinaibie River first," surmised Dick. + +"That's how we'll make a start," assented Bolton. + +As though this decision had terminated an interview, they turned with +one accord toward the dim group of their companions. As they approached, +they were acclaimed. + +"Here he is," "Dick, come here," "Dick, sing us the song. Chante donc +'Oncle Naid,' Deeck." + +And Dick, leaning carelessly against the breech of the field-guns, in a +rich, husky baritone crooned to the far north the soft syllables of the +far south. + + "_Oh, there was an old darkey, and his name was Uncle Ned, + And he lived long ago, long ago!_" + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +In the selection of paddles early next morning Sam insisted that the +Indian rule be observed, measuring carefully that the length of each +implement should just equal the height of its wielder. He chose the +narrow maple blade, that it might not split when thrust against the +bottom to check speed in a rapid. Further the blades were stained a +brilliant orange. + +Dick Herron had already picked one of a dozen birch-bark canoes laid +away under the bridge over the dry coulee. He knew a good canoe as you +would know a good horse. Fourteen feet it measured, of the heavy +winter-cut of bark, and with a bottom all of one piece, without cracks +or large knots. + +The canoe and the paddles they laid at the water's edge. Then they went +together to the great warehouse, behind the grill of whose upper room +MacDonald was writing. Ordinarily the trappers were not allowed inside +the grill, but Dick and Sam were told to help themselves freely. The +stocking Dick left to his older companion, assuring himself merely of an +hundred rounds of ammunition for his new model Winchester rifle, the +44-40 repeater, then just entering the outskirts of its popularity. + +In the obscurity of the wide, low room the old woodsman moved to and +fro, ducking his head to avoid things hanging, peering into corners, +asking an occasional question of MacDonald, who followed him silently +about. Two small steel traps, a narrow, small-meshed fish-net, a +fish-line and hooks, powder, ball, and caps for the old man's +muzzle-loader, a sack of salt were first laid aside. This represented +subsistence. Then matches, a flint-and-steel machine, two four-point +blankets. These meant warmth. Then ten pounds of plug tobacco and as +many of tea. These were necessary luxuries. And finally a small sack of +flour and a side of bacon. These were merely a temporary provision; when +they should be exhausted, the men would rely wholly on the forest. + +Sam Bolton hovered over the pile, after it was completed, his eyes half +shut, naming over its items again and again, assuring himself that +nothing lacked. At his side MacDonald made suggestions. + +"Got a copper pail, Sam? a frying-pan? cups? How about the axe? Better +have an extra knife between you. Need any clothes? Compass all right?" + +To each of these questions Sam nodded an assent. So MacDonald, having +named everything--with the exception of the canvas square to be used as +a tarpaulin or a tent, and soap and towel--fell silent, convinced that +he could do nothing more. + +But Dick, who had been drumming his fingers idly against the window, +turned with a suggestion of his own. + +"How're we fixed for shoe pacs? I haven't got any." + +At once MacDonald looked blank. + +"By George, boys, I ain't got but four or five pairs of moccasins in the +place! There's plenty of oil tan; I can fix you all right there. But +smoke tans! That Abitibi gang mighty near cleaned me out. You'll have to +try the Indians." + +Accordingly Bolton and Herron took their way in the dusty little +foot-trodden path--there were no horses in that frontier--between the +Factor's residence and the Clerk's house, down the meandering trail +through the high grasses of the meadow to where the Indian lodges lifted +their pointed tops against the sky. + +The wigwams were scattered apparently at random. Before each a fire +burned. Women and girls busied themselves with a variety of camp-work. A +tame crow hopped and fluttered here and there just out of reach of the +pointed-nosed, shaggy wolf-dogs. + +The latter rushed madly forward at the approaching strangers, yelping in +a curious, long-drawn bay, more suggestive of their wolf ancestors than +of the domestic animal. Dick and Sam laid about them vigorously with +short staffs they had brought for the purpose. Immediately the dogs, +recognising their dominance, slunk back. Three men sauntered forward, +grinning broadly in amiable greeting. Two or three women, more bashful +than the rest, scuttled into the depths of wigwams out of sight. A +multitude of children concealed themselves craftily, like a covey of +quail, and focussed their bright, bead-like eyes on the new-comers. The +rest of the camp went its way unmoved. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," greeted Sam Bolton. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," replied the three. + +These Indians were of the far upper country. They spoke no English nor +French, and adhered still to their own tribal customs and religious +observances. They had lingered several days beyond their time for the +purpose of conjuring. In fact at this very moment the big medicine lodge +raised itself in the centre of the encampment like a miniature circus +tent. Sam Bolton addressed the two in their own language. + +"We wish to buy many moccasins of your old women," said Sam. + +Immediately one of the Indians glided away. From time to time during the +next few minutes he was intermittently visible as he passed from the +dark interior of one wigwam, across the sunlight, and into the dark +interior of another. + +The older of the two still in company of the white men began to ask +questions. + +"The Little Father is about to make a long journey?" + +"Does one buy so many moccasins for a short?" + +"He goes to hunt the fur?" + +"Perhaps." + +"In what direction does he set the bow of his canoe?" + +Suddenly Dick Herron, who had, as usual, been paying attention to almost +anything rather than the matter in hand, darted suddenly toward a clump +of grass. In a moment he straightened his back to hold at arm's length a +struggling little boy. At the instant of his seizure the child uttered a +sharp cry of fright, then closed his lips in the stoicism of his race. + +That one cry was enough, however. Rescue darted from the nearest wigwam. +A flying figure covered the little distance in a dozen graceful leaps, +snatched the child from the young man's hands and stood, one foot +advanced, breast heaving, a palpitating, wild thing, like a symbol of +defiance. + +The girl belonged distinctly to the more attractive type; it required +but little imagination to endow her with real beauty. Her figure was +straight and slim and well-proportioned, her eyes large, her face oval +and quite devoid of the broad, high-cheeked stupidity so common in +the northern races. At the moment she flashed like a brand with +quick-breathed anger and fear. + +[Illustration: The child uttered a sharp cry of fright] + +Dick looked at her at first with amazement, then with mingled admiration +and mischief. He uttered a ferocious growl and lowered his shoulders as +though about to charge. Immediately the defiance broke. The girl turned +and fled, plunging like a rabbit into the first shelter that offered, +pursued by shrieks of delight from the old squaws, a pleased roar from +Dick, and the laughter of the Indian men themselves. + +"May-may-gwan[2]," said the oldest Indian, naming her, "foster sister to +the boy you had caught." + +[Footnote 2: The Butterfly.] + +"She is Ojibway, then," exclaimed Dick, catching at the Ojibway word. + +"Ae," admitted the Cree, indifferently. Such inclusions of another +tribe, either by adoption or marriage, are not uncommon. + +At this moment the third Indian approached. + +"No moccasins," he reported. "Plenty buckskin." + +Sam Bolton looked troubled. This meant a delay. However, it could not be +avoided. + +"Let the old women make some," he decided. + +The Cree old-man shook his head. + +"That cannot be. There is not time. We turn our canoes to the +Missinaibie by next sun." + +Sam pondered again, turning over in his mind this fresh complication. +But Dick, kicking the earth clods in impatience, broke in. + +"Well, we're going by the Missinaibie, too. Let the women make the +moccasins. We will accompany you." + +"That might be," replied the Indian. + +"It is well," said Bolton. + +An old woman was summoned. She measured her customers' feet with a +buckskin thong. Then they departed without further ceremony. An Indian +rarely says farewell. When his business is finished he goes. + +"Dick," said Sam, "you ought not to have broke in there." + +"What do you mean?" asked the other, puzzled. + +"Suggesting our travelling with them." + +"Why?" cried Dick in astonishment. "Ain't you never travelled with +Injuns before?" + +"That ain't th' question. Did you notice that third Injun? the one who +didn't do any talking?" + +"Sure! What of him?" + +"Well, he's an Ojibway. Th' rest are Wood Crees. And I miss my guess if +he ain't a bad customer. He watched us mighty close, and his eyes are +bad. He's sharp. He's one of that wondering kind. He's wondering now who +we are, and where we're going, and why we're hitting so long a trail. +And what's more, he belongs to this Jingoss's people in a roundabout +sort of way. He's worse than fifty Crees. Maybe he knows all about +Jingoss, and if he does, he'll get suspicious the minute we angle down +into that country." + +"Let's let 'em slide, then," suggested Dick, impatiently. "Let's buy +some buckskin and make our own moccasins." + +"Too late now," negatived Sam. "To back out would be bad." + +"Oh, well, you're just borrowing trouble anyway," laughed Dick. + +"Maybe, maybe," acknowledged the other; "but borrowing trouble, and +then figuring out how you're going to meet it if it comes to you in good +earnest, is mighty good woodcraft." + +"Sam," burst out Dick, whose attention had been caught by a word in his +companion's first speech, and whose mind had been running on it +throughout the ensuing discussion, "did you notice that girl? She's a +tearing little beauty!" + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +By now it was nearly noon. The travellers carried the packs they had +made up down to the water-side where the canoe lay. Although the Indians +would not get under way until the following morning, it had been decided +to push on at once, thus avoiding the confusion of a crowded start. + +In the course of the morning's business the news of their expedition had +noised abroad. Especially were they commiserated by the other runners +and post-keepers. During all the winter these men had lived under the +frown of the North, conducting their affairs confidently yet with +caution, sure of themselves, yet never sure of the great power in whose +tolerance they existed, in spite of whom they accomplished. Now was the +appointed time of rest. In the relaxation of the thought they found pity +for those ordered out of season into the Silent Places. + +So at the river's bank Sam Bolton and Dick Herron, ready for departure, +found a group gathered. It was supposed that these men were to act as +scouts, to reconnoitre shrewdly in the Enemy's country, to spy out the +land, so that in the autumn the Company might throw into the wilderness +new posts, to be inhabited during the colder months. + +"Look heem Bla'k Bevair Lak," advised Louis Placide; "I t'ink dose +Ojibway mak' heem lots marten, mink la bas." + +"Lads," said Kern, the trader at Old Brunswick House, "if you're going +up th' Missinaibie just cast an eye on my _cache_ at Gull Lake, and see +that the carcajaus have let her be." + +Young Herbert was curious. "Where are you headed, boys?" he inquired. + +But Ki-wa-nee, the trusty, the trader at Flying Post, the only Indian in +the Company's service holding rank as a commissioned officer, grunted in +contempt at the question, while Achard, of New Brunswick House, motioned +warningly toward the groups of Indian trappers in the background. "Hush, +boy," said he to Herbert, "news travels, and in the south are the Free +Traders to snatch at a new country." + +By now the voyageurs had turned their canoe over, slid it into the +water, and piled the duffle amidships. + +But before they had time to step aboard, came Virginia Albret, then +seventeen years old and as slender and graceful as a fawn. The daughter +of the Factor, she had acquired a habit of command that became her well. +While she enunciated her few and simple words of well-wishing, she +looked straight out at them from deep black eyes. The two woodsmen, awed +into a vast respect, fumbled their caps in their hands and noted, in the +unconscious manner of the forest frequenter, the fresh dusk rose of her +skin, the sharply defined red of her lips, the soft wheat colour of her +hair. It was a gracious memory to carry into the Silent Places, and was +in itself well worth the bestowal. However, Virginia, as was her habit, +gave presents. On each she bestowed a long silk handkerchief. Sam +Bolton, with a muttered word of thanks, stuffed his awkwardly into his +shirt bosom. Dick, on the other hand, with a gesture half of gallantry, +half of bravado, stripped his own handkerchief from his neck and cast it +far into the current, knotting the girl's gift in its place. Virginia +smiled. A strong push sent the canoe into the current. They began to +paddle up-stream. + +For perhaps a mile their course threaded in and out the channel of a +number of islands, then shot them into the broad reach of the Moose +itself. There they set themselves to straight-forward paddling, hugging +closely the shore that they might escape as much as possible the full +strength of the current. In this manner they made rapid progress, for, +of course, they paddled in the Indian fashion--without bending either +elbow, and with a strong thrust forward of the shoulders at the end of +the stroke--and they understood well how to take advantage of each +little back eddy. + +After an hour and a half they came to the first unimportant rapids, +where they were forced to drop their paddles and to use the long +spruce-poles they had cut and peeled that morning. Dick had the bow. It +was beautiful to see him standing boldly upright, his feet apart, +leaning back against the pressure, making head against the hurrying +water. In a moment the canoe reached the point of hardest suction, where +the river broke over the descent. Then the young man, taking a deep +breath, put forth the strength that was in him. Sam Bolton, poised in +the stern, holding the canoe while his companion took a fresh hold, +noted with approval the boy's physical power, the certainty of his skill +at the difficult river work, the accuracy of his calculations. Whatever +his heedlessness, Dick Herron knew his trade. It was, indeed, a powerful +Instrument that Galen Albret in his wisdom had placed in Sam Bolton's +hands. + +The canoe, torn from the rapid's grasp, shot into the smooth water +above. Calmly Sam and Dick shook the water from their poles and laid +them across the thwarts. The _swish click! swish click!_ of the paddles +resumed. + +Now the river began to hurry in the ten-mile descent below the Abitibi. +Although the smooth rush of water was unbroken by the swirls of rapids, +nevertheless the current proved too strong for paddling. The voyagers +were forced again to the canoe poles, and so toiled in graceful but +strenuous labour the remaining hours of their day's journey. When +finally they drew ashore for the night, they had but just passed the +mouth of French River. + +To men as skilled as they, the making of camp was a brief affair. Dick, +with his axe, cleared the space of underbrush, and sought dry wood for +fuel. The older man in the meantime hunted about until he found a dead +white-birch sapling. This he easily thrust to the ground with a strong +push of his hand. The jar burst here and there the hard envelope of the +birch bark to expose a quantity of half-powdery, decayed wood, dry as +tinder and almost as inflammable as gunpowder. Into a handful of this +Sam threw the sparks from his flint and steel. The bark itself fed +admirably the first flame. By the time Dick returned, the fire was ready +for his fuel. + +They cooked tea in the copper pail, and roasted bacon on the ends of +switches. This, with bread from the Post, constituted their meal. After +supper they smoked, banked the fire with green wood, and rolled +themselves in their blankets to sleep. It was summer, so they did not +trouble to pitch their shelter. + +The night died into silence. Slowly the fire worked from within through +the chinks of the green logs. Forest creatures paused to stare at it +with steady eyes, from which flashed back a blaze as intense as the +fire's own. An owl took his station near and began to call. Overhead the +brilliant aurora of the Far North palpitated in a silence that seemed +uncanny when coupled with such intensity of movement. Shadows stole here +and there like acolytes. Breezes rose and died like the passing of a +throng. The woods were peopled with uncanny influences, intangible, +unreal, yet potent with the symbolism of the unknown Presence watching +these men. The North, calm, patient, biding her time, serene in the +assurance of might, drew close to the camp in the wilderness. + +By and by a little pack of wolves came and squatted on their haunches +just in the shadow. They were well fed and harmless, but they sat there +blinking lazily at the flames, their tongues lolling, exactly like so +many shaggy and good-humoured dogs. About two o'clock Dick rolled out of +his blanket and replenished the fire. He did it somnolently, +his eyes vacant, his expression that of a child. Then he took a +half-comprehending glance at the heaven's promise of fair weather, and +sank again into the warmth of his blanket. The wolves had not stirred. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +Now the small sack of flour and the side of bacon and the loose +provisions brought from the Post could last but a little time, and the +journey was like to be long. The travellers were to be forced from now +on, just as are the wolves, the eagles, the hawks, the carcajous, and +other predatory creatures of the woods, to give their first thoughts to +the day's sustenance. All other considerations gave way to this. This +was the first, the daily tribute to be wrested from the stubborn grasp +of the North. Winning that, anything was possible; failing that, nothing +could follow but defeat. Therefore, valuable exceedingly were the two +little steel traps and the twelve-foot length of gill-net, the sharp, +thin knives in the beaded sheaths, and especially precious, precious +above all things else, the three hundred rounds of ammunition for the +rifles. They must be guarded and cared for and saved. + +Therefore an incident of the early afternoon was more than welcome. + +All the morning they had toiled against the current, sometimes poling, +sometimes "tracking" by means of a sixty-foot cod-line. Dick looped this +across his chest and pulled like a horse on the tow-path, while Sam +Bolton sat in the stern with the steering-paddle. The banks were +sometimes precipitous, sometimes stony, sometimes grown to the water's +edge with thick vegetation. Dick had often to wade, often to climb and +scramble, sometimes even to leap from one foothold to another. Only +rarely did he enjoy level footing and the opportunity for a straight +pull. Suddenly in a shallow pool, near the river's edge, and bordered +with waist-high grass, he came upon a flock of black ducks. They were +full grown, but as yet unable to fly. Dick dropped his tow-line and ran +forward with a shout. At once the ducks became confused, scattering in +all directions, squawking madly, spattering the water. The mother flew. +The brood, instead of making for the open river, where it would have +been safe, scuttled into the tall grasses. + +Here was the chance for fresh meat without the expenditure of a shot. +Sam Bolton promptly disembarked. To us it would have seemed a simple +matter. But the black duck is an expert at concealment, even in the +open. He can do wonders at it when assisted by the shadows of long +grass. And when too closely approached he can glide away to right and +left like a snake, leaving no rustle to betray his passage. Five minutes +passed before the first was discovered. Then it was only because Dick's +keen eye had detected a faintly stirring grass-blade ten feet away, and +because Dick's quick muscles had brought him like a tiger to the spot. +He held up his victim by the neck. + +"Good enough," growled Sam. + +And although they had seen nine ducks go into the grass plot, which was +not more than fifty feet across, they succeeded in finding but three. +However, they were satisfied. + +In spite of the deliberation of their journeying, the Indians did not +overtake them until nearly dark. It was just above the junction of the +Abitibi. The river was without current, the atmosphere without the +suspicion of a breeze. Down to the very water's edge grew the forest, +so velvet-dark that one could not have guessed where the shadow left off +and the reflection began. Not a ripple disturbed the peace of the water, +nor a harsh sound the twilight peace of the air. Sam and Dick had +paddled for some time close to one bank, and now had paused to enjoy +their pipes and the cool of the evening. Suddenly against the reflected +sky at the lower bend a canoe loomed into sight, and crept smoothly and +noiselessly under the forest shadow of the opposite bank. Another +followed, then another, and another and still another in regular +interval. Not a sound could be heard. In the distance their occupants +gave the illusion of cowled figures,--the Indian women close wrapped in +their shawls, dropping their heads modestly or turning them aside as +their customs commanded them to do on encountering strangers. Against +the evening glow of the reflected sky for a single instant they stood +out in the bright yellow of the new birch-bark, the glow of warm colour +on the women's dress. Then instantaneously, in the darkness of the +opposite bank, they faded wraith-like and tenuous. Like phantoms of the +past they glided by, a river's width away; then vanished around the +upper bend. A moment later the river was empty. + +"Th' squaws goin' ahead to start camp," commented Sam Bolton, +indifferently; "we'll have th' bucks along pretty quick." + +They drove their paddles strongly, and drifted to the middle of the +river. + +Soon became audible shouts, cries, and laughter, the click of canoe +poles. The business of the day was over. Until nearly sundown the men's +canoes had led, silent, circumspect, seeking game at every bend of the +river. Now the squaws had gone on to make camp. No more game was to be +expected. The band relaxed, joking, skylarking, glad to be relieved for +a little while of the strain of attention. + +In a moment the canoes appeared, a long, unbroken string, led by +Haukemah. In the bow sat the chief's son, a lad of nine, wielding his +little paddle skilfully, already intelligent to twist the prow sharply +away from submerged rocks, learning to be a canoe-man so that in the +time to come he might go on the Long Trail. + +Each canoe contained, besides its two occupants, a variety of household +goods, and a dog or two coiled and motionless, his sharp nose resting +between his outstretched forepaws. The tame crow occupied an ingenious +cage of twisted osiers. + +Haukemah greeted the two white men cordially, and stopped paddling to +light his pipe. One by one the other canoes joined them. A faint haze of +tobacco rose from the drifting group. + +"My brothers have made a long sun," observed old Haukemah. "We, too, +have hastened. Now we have met, and it is well. Down past the white rock +it became the fortune of Two-fingers to slay a caribou that stood by the +little water[3]. Also had we whitefish the evening before. Past the +Island of the Three Trees were signs of moose." He was telling them the +news, as one who passed the time of day. + +[Footnote 3: A spring.] + +"We have killed but neenee-sheeb, the duck," replied Dick, holding up +one of the victims by the neck, "nor have we seen the trail of game." + +"Ah hah," replied Haukemah, politely. + +He picked up his paddle. It was the signal to start. + +"Drop in astern," said Dick to his companion in English, "it's the +light of the evening, and I'm going to troll for a pickerel." + +One by one the canoes fell into line. Now, late in the day, the travel +was most leisurely. A single strong stroke of the paddle was always +succeeded by a pause of contemplation. Nevertheless the light craft +skimmed on with almost extraordinary buoyancy, and in silent regularity +the wooded points of the river succeeded one another. + +Sam busied himself with the trolling-spoon, but as soon as the last +canoe was well beyond hearing he burst out: + +"Dick, did you notice the Chippewa?" + +"No. What?" + +"He understands English." + +"How do you know?" + +"He was right behind us when you told me you were goin' to try the +fishing, and he moved out th' way before we'd raised our paddles." + +"Might have been an accident." + +"Perhaps, but I don't believe it. He looked too almighty innocent. +Another thing, did you notice he was alone in his canoe?" + +"What of it?" + +"Shows he ain't noways popular with th' rest. Generally they pair off. +There's mostly something shady about these renegades." + +"Well?" + +"Oh, nothing. Only we got to be careful." + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +Camp was made among the trees of an elevated bank above a small brook. + +Already the Indian women had pitched the shelters, spreading squares of +canvas, strips of birch-bark or tanned skins over roughly improvised +lean-to poles. A half dozen tiny fires, too, they had built, over which +some were at the moment engaged in hanging as many kettles. Several of +the younger women were cleaning fish and threading them on switches. +Others brought in the small twigs for fuel. Among them could be seen +May-may-gwan, the young Ojibway girl, gliding here and there, eyes +downcast, inexpressibly graceful in contrast with the Crees. + +At once on landing the men took up their share of the work. Like the +birds of the air and the beasts of the wood their first thoughts turned +to the assurance of food. Two young fellows stretched a gill-net across +the mouth of the creek. Others scattered in search of favourable spots +in which to set the musk-rat traps, to hang snares for rabbits and +grouse. + +Soon the camp took on the air of age, of long establishment, that is so +suddenly to be won in the forest. The kettles began to bubble; the +impaled fish to turn brown. A delicious odour of open-air cooking +permeated the air. Men filled pipes and smoked in contemplation; +children warmed themselves as near the tiny fires as they dared. Out of +the dense blackness of the forest from time to time staggered what at +first looked to be an uncouth and misshapen monster, but which presently +resolved itself into an Indian leaning under a burden of spruce-boughs, +so smoothly laid along the haft of a long forked stick that the bearer +of the burden could sling it across his shoulder like a bale of hay. As +he threw it to the ground, a delicate spice-like aroma disengaged itself +to mingle with the smell of cooking. Just at the edge of camp sat the +wolf-dogs, their yellow eyes gleaming, waiting in patience for their +tardy share. + +After the meal the women drew apart. Dick's eyes roved in vain, seeking +a glimpse of the Ojibway girl. He was too familiar with Indian +etiquette to make an advance, and in fact his interest was but +languidly aroused. + +The men sat about the larger fire smoking. It was the hour of +relaxation. In the blaze their handsome or strong-lined brown faces +lighted good-humouredly. They talked and laughed in low tones, the long +syllables of their language lisping and hissing in strange analogy to +the noises of the fire or the forest or the rapids or some other natural +thing. Their speech was of the chances of the woods and the approaching +visit to their Ojibway brothers in the south. For this they had brought +their grand ceremonial robes of deerskin, now stowed securely in bags. +The white men were silent. In a little while the pipes were finished. +The camp was asleep. Through the ashes and the embers prowled the +wolf-dogs, but half-fed, seeking scraps. Soon they took to the beach in +search of cast-up fish. There they wandered all night long under the +moon voicing their immemorial wrongs to the silenced forest. + +Almost at first streak of dawn the women were abroad. Shortly after, the +men visited their traps and lifted the nets. In this land and season of +plenty the catch had been good. The snares had strangled three hares; +the steel traps had caught five muskrats, which are very good eating in +spite of their appearance; the net had intercepted a number of pickerel, +suckers, and river whitefish. This, with the meat of the caribou, shot +by Three Fingers the day before, and the supplies brought from the Post, +made ample provision. + +Nevertheless, when the camp had been struck and the canoes loaded, the +order of march was reversed. Now the men took the lead by a good margin, +and the women and children followed. For in the wooded country game +drinks early. + +Before setting out, however, old Haukemah blazed a fair clean place on a +fir-tree, and with hard charcoal from the fire marked on it these +characters: + +[Illustration: random characters] + +"Can you read Injun writin'?" asked Dick. "I can't." + +"Yes," replied Sam, "learned her when I was snowed up one winter with +Scar-Face down by the Burwash Lake country." He squinted his eyes, +reading the syllables slowly. + +"'Abichi-ka-menot Moosamik-ka-ja yank. Missowa edookan owasi sek +negi--' Why, it's Ojibway, not Cree," he exclaimed. "They're just leaving +a record. 'Good journey from Moose Factory. Big game has been seen.' +Funny how plumb curious an Injun is. They ain't one could come along here +and see th' signs of this camp and rest easy 'till he'd figgered out how +many they were, and where they were going, and what they were doing, and +all about it. These records are a kind-hearted try to save other Injuns +that come along a whole lot of trouble. That's why old Haukemah wrote it +in Ojibway 'stead of Cree: this is by rights Ojibway country." + +"We'd better pike out, if we don't want to get back with th' squaws," +suggested Dick. + +About two hours before noon, while the men's squadron was paddling +slowly along a flat bank overgrown with grass and bushes, Dick and Sam +perceived a sudden excitement in the leading canoes. Haukemah stopped, +then cautiously backed until well behind the screen of the point. The +other canoes followed his example. In a moment they were all headed down +stream, creeping along noiselessly without lifting their paddles from +the water. + +"They've seen some game beyant the point," whispered Dick. "Wonder what +it is?" + +But instead of pausing when out of earshot for the purpose of uncasing +the guns or landing a stalking party, the Indians crept, gradually from +the shore, caught the current, and shot away down stream in the +direction from which they had come. + +"It's a bear," said Sam, quietly. "They've gone to get their war-paint +on." + +The men rested the bow of their canoe lightly against the shore, and +waited. In a short time the Indian canoes reappeared. + +"Say, they've surely got th' dry goods!" commented Dick, amused. + +In the short interval that had elapsed, the Indians had intercepted +their women, unpacked their baggage, and arrayed themselves in their +finest dress of ceremony. Buckskin elaborately embroidered with beads +and silks in the flower pattern, ornaments of brass and silver, sacred +skins of the beaver, broad dashes of ochre and vermilion on the naked +skin, twisted streamers of coloured wool--all added to the barbaric +gorgeousness of the old-time savage in his native state. Each bowsman +carried a long brass-bound forty-five "trade-gun," warranted to kill up +to ten yards. + +"It's surely a nifty outfit!" commented Sam, half admiringly. + +A half dozen of the younger men were landed. At once they disappeared in +the underbrush. Although the two white men strained their keen senses +they were unable to distinguish by sight or sound the progress of the +party through the bushes. + +"I guess they're hunters, all right," conceded Dick. + +The other men waited like bronze statues. After a long interval a +pine-warbler uttered its lisping note. Immediately the paddles dipped in +the silent deer-stalker's stroke, and the cavalcade crept forward around +the point. + +Dick swept the shore with his eye, but saw nothing. Then all heard +plainly a half-smothered grunt of satisfaction, followed by a deep drawn +breath. Phantom-like, without apparently the slightest directing motion, +the bows of the canoes swung like wind-vanes to point toward a little +heap of driftlogs under the shadow of an elder bush. The bear was +wallowing in the cool, wet sand, and evidently enjoying it. A moment +later he stuck his head over the pile of driftwood, and indulged in a +leisurely survey of the river. + +His eye was introspective, vacant, his mouth was half open, and his +tongue lolled out so comically that Dick almost laughed aloud. No one +moved by so much as a hand's breadth. The bear dropped back to his +cooling sand with a sigh of voluptuous pleasure. The canoes drew a +little nearer. + +Now old Haukemah rose to his height in the bow of his canoe, and began +to speak rapidly in a low voice. Immediately the animal bobbed into +sight again, his wicked little eyes snapping with intelligence. It took +him some moments to determine what these motionless, bright-coloured +objects might be. Then he turned toward the land, but stopped short as +his awakened senses brought him the reek of the young men who had +hemmed in his shoreward escape. He was not yet thoroughly alarmed, so +stood there swaying uneasily back and forth, after the manner of bears, +while Haukemah spoke swiftly in the soft Cree tongue. + +"Oh, makwa, our little brother," he said, "we come to you not in anger, +nor in disrespect. We come to do you a kindness. Here is hunger and cold +and enemies. In the Afterland is only happiness. So if we shoot you, oh +makwa, our little brother, be not angry with us." + +He raised his trade-gun and pulled the trigger. A scattering volley +broke from the other canoes and from the young men concealed in the +bushes. + +Now a trade-gun is a gun meant to trade. It is a section of what looks +to be gas-pipe, bound by brass bands to a long, clumsy, wooden stick +that extends within an inch of the end of the barrel. It is supposed to +shoot ball or shot. As a matter of fact the marksman's success depends +more on his luck than his skill. Were it not for the Woods-Indian's +extraordinary powers of still-hunting so that he can generally approach +very near to his game, his success would be small indeed. + +With the shock of a dozen little bullets the bear went down, snarling +and biting and scattering the sand, but was immediately afoot again. A +black bear is not a particularly dangerous beast in ordinary +circumstances--but occasionally he contributes quite a surprise to the +experience of those who encounter him. This bear was badly wounded and +cruelly frightened. His keen sense of smell informed him that the bushes +contained enemies--how many he did not know, but they were concealed, +unknown, and therefore dreadful. In front of him was something definite. +Before the astonished Indians could back water, he had dashed into the +shallows, and planted his paws on the bow of old Haukemah's canoe. + +A simultaneous cry of alarm burst from the other Indians. Some began +frantically to recharge their muzzle-loading trade-guns; others dashed +toward the spot as rapidly as paddle or moccasin could bring them. +Haukemah himself roused valiantly to the defence, but was promptly upset +and pounced upon by the enraged animal. A smother of spray enveloped the +scene. Dick Herron rose suddenly to his feet and shot. The bear +collapsed into the muddied water, his head doubled under, a thin stream +of arterial blood stringing away down the current. Haukemah and his +steersman rose dripping. A short pause of silence ensued. + +"Well, you are a wonder!" ejaculated Sam Bolton at last. "How in thunder +did you do that? I couldn't make nothing out of _that_ tangle--at least +nothing clear enough to shoot at!" + +"Luck," replied Dick, briefly. "I took a snap shot, and happened to make +it." + +"You ran mighty big chances of winning old Haukemah," objected Sam. + +"Sure! But I didn't," answered Dick, conclusively. + +The Indians gathered to examine in respectful admiration. Dick's bullet +had passed from ear to ear. To them it was wonderful shooting, as indeed +it would have been had it indicated anything but the most reckless luck. +Haukemah was somewhat disgusted at the wetting of his finery, but the +bear is a sacred animal, and even ceremonial dress and an explanation of +the motives that demanded his death might not be sufficient to appease +his divinity. The women's squadron appeared about the bend, and added +their cries of rejoicing to those of their husbands and brothers. + +The beautiful buckskin garments were hastily exchanged for ordinary +apparel. By dint of much wading, tugging, and rolling the carcass was +teased to the dry beach. There the body was securely anchored by the +paws to small trees, and the work of skinning and butchering began. + +Not a shred was wasted. Whatever flesh would not be consumed within a +few days they cut into very thin strips and hung across poles to dry. +Scraps went to the dogs, who were for once well fed. Three of the older +squaws went to work with bone scrapers to tan the hide. In this season, +while the fur was not as long as it would be later, it was fine and new. +The other squaws pitched camp. No right-minded Indian would dream of +travelling further with such a feast in prospect. + +While these things were preparing, the older men cleaned and washed the +bear's skull very carefully. Then they cut a tall pole, on the end of +which they fastened the skull, and finished by planting the whole affair +securely near the running water. When the skull should have remained +there for the space of twelve moons, the sacred spirit of the departed +beast would be appeased. For that reason Haukemah would not here leave +his customary hieroglyphic record when he should break camp. If an enemy +should happen along, he could do harm to Haukemah simply by overturning +the trophy, whereas an unidentified skull might belong to a friend, and +so would be let alone on the chance. For that reason, too, when they +broke camp the following day, the expert trailers took pains to +obliterate the more characteristic indications of their stay. + +Now abruptly the weather changed. The sky became overcast with low, gray +clouds hurrying from the northwest. It grew cold. After a few hours of +indecision it began to rain, dashing the chill water in savage gusts. +Amidships in each canoe the household goods were protected carefully by +means of the wigwam covers, but the people themselves sat patiently, +exposed to the force of the storm. Water streamed from their hair, over +their high cheeks, to drip upon their already sodden clothing. The +buckskin of their moccasins sucked water like so many sponges. They +stepped indifferently in and out of the river,--for as to their legs, +necessarily much exposed, they could get no wetter--and it was very +cold. Whenever they landed the grass and bushes completed the soaking. +By night each and every member of the band, including the two white men, +were as wet as though they had plunged over-head in the stream. Only +there was this difference: river-water could have been warmed gradually +by the contact of woolen clothes with the body, but the chill of +rain-water was constantly renewed. + +Nor was there much comfort in the prospect when, weary and cold, they +finally drew their canoes ashore for the evening's camp. The forest was +dripping, the ground soggy, each separate twig and branch cold and +slippery to the hand. The accumulated water of a day showered down at +the slightest movement. A damp wind seemed to rise from the earth +itself. + +Half measures or timid shrinkings would not do. Every one had to plunge +boldly into the woods, had to seize and drag forth, at whatever cost of +shower-bath the wilderness might levy, all the dead wood he could find. +Then the value of the birch-bark envelope about the powdery touch-wood +became evident. The fire, at first small and steamy, grew each instant. +Soon a dozen little blazes sprang up, only to be extinguished as soon as +they had partially dried the site of wigwams. Hot tea was swallowed +gratefully, duffel hung before the flames. Nobody dried completely, but +everybody steamed, and even in the pouring rain this little warmth was +comfort by force of contrast. The sleeping blankets were damp, the +clothes were damp, the ground was damp, the air was damp; but, after +all, discomfort is a little thing and a temporary, and can be borne. In +the retrospect it is nothing at all. Such is the indian's philosophy, +and that is why in a rain he generally travels instead of lying in camp. + +The storm lasted four days. Then the wind shifted to the north, bringing +clearing skies. + +Up to now the river had been swift in places, but always by dint of +tracking or poling the canoes had been forced against the quick water. +Early one forenoon, however, Haukemah lifted carefully the bow of his +canoe and slid it up the bank. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +The portage struck promptly to the right through a tall, leafy woods, +swam neck-high in the foliage of small growth, mounted a steep hill, and +meandered over a bowlder-strewn, moss-grown plateau, to dip again, a +quarter of a mile away, to the banks of the river. But you must not +imagine one of your easy portages of Maine or lower Canada. This trail +was faint and dim,--here an excoriation on the surface of a fallen and +half-rotted tree, there a withered limb hanging, again a mere _sense_ in +the forest's growth that others had passed that way. Only an expert +could have followed it. + +The canoe loads were dumped out on the beach. One after another, even to +the little children, the people shouldered their packs. The long sash +was knotted into a loop, which was passed around the pack and the +bearer's forehead. Some of the stronger men carried thus upward of two +hundred pounds. + +Unlike a party of white men, the Indians put no system into their work. +They rested when they pleased, chatted, shouted, squatted on their heels +conversing. Yet somehow the task was accomplished, and quickly. To one +on an elevation dominating the scene it would have been most +picturesque. Especially noticeable were those who for the moment stood +idle, generally on heights, where their muscle-loose attitudes and +fluttering draperies added a strangely decorative note to the landscape; +while below plodded, bending forward under their enormous loads, an +unending procession of patient toilers. In five minutes the portage was +alive from one end to the other. + +To Dick and Sam Bolton the traverse was a simple matter. Sam, by the aid +of his voyager's sash, easily carried the supplies and blankets; Dick +fastened the two paddles across the thwarts to form a neck-yoke, and +swung off with the canoe. Then they returned to the plateau until their +savage friends should have finished the crossing. + +Ordinarily white men of this class are welcome enough to travel with the +Indian tribes. Their presence is hardly considered extraordinary enough +for comment. Sam Bolton, however, knew that in the present instance he +and Dick aroused an unusual interest of some sort. + +He was not able to place it to his own satisfaction. It might be because +of Bolton's reputation as a woodsman; it might be because of Dick +Herron's spectacular service to Haukemah in the instance of the bear; it +might be that careful talk had not had its due effect in convincing the +Indians that the journey looked merely to the establishment of new +winter posts; Sam was not disinclined to attribute it to pernicious +activity on the part of the Ojibway. It might spring from any one of +these. Nor could he quite decide its quality;--whether friendly or +inimical. Merely persisted the fact that he and his companion were +watched curiously by the men and fearfully by the women; that they +brought a certain constraint to the camp fire. + +Finally an incident, though it did not decide these points, brought +their ambiguity nearer to the surface. + +One evening old Haukemah received from the women the bear's robe fully +tanned. Its inner surface had been whitened and then painted rudely +with a symbolical representation of the hunt. Haukemah spoke as follows, +holding the robe in his hand: + +"This is the robe of makwa, our little brother. His flesh we all ate of. +But you who killed him should have his coat. Therefore my women have +painted it because you saved their head man." + +He laid the robe at Dick's feet. Dick glanced toward his companion with +the strange cast flickering quizzically in his narrow eyes. "Fine thing +to carry along on a trip like ours," he said in English. "_I_ don't know +what to do with it. They've worked on it mighty near a week. I wish to +hell they'd keep their old robe." However, he stooped and touched it in +sign of acceptance. "I thank my brother," he said in Cree. + +"You'll have to bring it along," Sam answered in English. "We'll have to +carry it while we're with them, anyway." + +The Indian men were squatted on their heels about the fire, waiting +gravely and courteously for this conference, in an unknown tongue, to +come to an end. The women, naturally interested in the disposal of +their handiwork, had drawn just within the circle of light. + +Suddenly Dick, inspired, darted to this group of women, whence he +returned presently half dragging, half-coaxing a young girl. She came +reluctantly, hanging back a little, dropping her head, or with an +embarrassed giggle glancing shyly over her shoulder at her companions. +When near the centre of the men's group, Dick dropped her hand. + +Promptly she made as though to escape, but stopped at a word from +Haukemah. It was May-may-gwan, the Ojibway girl. + +Obediently she paused. Her eyes were dancing with the excitement of the +adventure, an almost roguish smile curved her mouth and dimpled her +cheek, her lower lip was tightly clasped between her teeth as she stood +contemplating her heavily beaded little moccasin, awaiting the +explanation of this, to her, extraordinary performance. + +"What is your name, little sister?" asked Dick in Cree. + +She dropped her head lower, but glanced from the corner of her eye at +the questioner. + +"Answer!" commanded Haukemah. + +"May-may-gwan," she replied in a low voice. + +"Oh, yes," said Dick, in English. "You're an Ojibway," he went on in +Cree. + +"Yes." + +"That explains why you're such a tearing little beauty," muttered the +young man, again in English. + +"The old-men," he resumed, in Cree, "have given me this robe. Because I +hold it very dear I wish to give it to that people whom I hold dearest. +That people is the Crees of Rupert's House. And because you are the +fairest, I give you this robe so that there may be peace between your +people and me." + +Ill-expressed as this little speech was, from the flowery standpoint of +Indian etiquette, nevertheless its subtlety gained applause. The Indians +grunted deep ejaculations of pleasure. "Good boy!" muttered Sam Bolton, +pleased. + +Dick lifted the robe and touched it to the girl's hand. She gasped in +surprise, then slowly raised her eyes to his. + +"Damn if you ain't pretty enough to kiss!" cried Dick. + +[Illustration: "Pretty enough to kiss!" cried Dick] + +He stepped across the robe, which had fallen between them, circled the +girl's upturned face with the flat of his hands, and kissed her full on +the lips. + +The kiss of ceremony is not unknown to the northern Indians, and even +the kiss of affection sometimes to be observed among the more +demonstrative, but such a caress as Dick bestowed on May-may-gwan filled +them with astonishment. The girl herself, though she cried out, and ran +to hide among those of her own sex, was not displeased; she rather liked +it, and could not mis-read the admiration that had prompted it. Nor did +the other Indians really object. It was a strange thing to do, but +perhaps it was a white man's custom. The affair might have blown away +like a puff of gunpowder. + +But at the moment of Dick's salute, Sam Bolton cried out sharply behind +him. The young woodsman instantly whirled to confront the Chippewa. + +"He reached for his knife," explained Sam. + +The ejaculation had also called the attention of every member of the +band to the tableau. There could be absolutely no doubt as to its +meaning,--the evident anger of the red, his attitude, his hand on the +haft of his knife. The Chippewa was fairly caught. + +He realised the fact, but his quick mind instantly turned the situation +to his profit. Without attempting to alter the malice of his expression, +he nevertheless dropped his hand from his knife-hilt, and straightened +his figure to the grandiose attitude of the Indian orator. + +"This man speaks crooked words. I know the language of the saganash. He +tells my brothers that he gives this robe to May-may-gwan because he +holds it the dearest of his possessions, and because his heart is good +towards my brother's people. But to the other saganash he said these +words: 'It is a little thing, and I do not wish to carry it. What shall +I do with it?'" + +He folded his arms theatrically. Dick Herron, his narrow eyes blazing, +struck him full on the mouth a shoulder blow that sent him sprawling +into the ashes by the fire. + +The Chippewa was immediately on his feet, his knife in his hand. +Instinctively the younger Crees drew near to him. The old race +antagonism flashed forth, naturally, without the intervention of +reason. A murmur went up from the other bystanders. + +Sam Bolton arose quietly to take his place at Dick's elbow. As yet there +was no danger of violence, except from the outraged Chippewa. The Crees +were startled, but they had not yet taken sides. All depended on an +intrepid front. For a moment they stared at one another, the Indians +uncertain, the Anglo-Saxons, as always, fiercely dominant in spirit, no +matter what the odds against them, as long as they are opposed to what +they consider the inferior race. + +Then a flying figure glided to the two. May-may-gwan, palpitating with +fear, thrust their rifles into the white men's hands, then took her +stand behind them. + +But Haukemah interfered with all the weight of his authority. + +"Stop!" he commanded, sharply. "There is no need that friends should +bear weapons. What are you doing, my young men? Do you judge these +saganash without hearing what they have to say? Ask of them if what the +Chippewa says is true." + +"The robe is fine. I gave it for the reason I said," replied Dick. + +The Cree young men, shaken from their instinctive opposition, sank back. +It was none of their affair, after all, but a question of veracity +between Dick and his enemy. And the Chippewa enjoyed none too good a +reputation. The swift crisis had passed. + +Dick laughed his boyish, reckless laugh. + +"Damn if I didn't pick out the old idiot's best girl!" he cried to his +companion; but the latter doubtfully shook his head. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +When next day the band resumed the journey, it became evident that +May-may-gwan was to be punished for her demonstration of the night +before. Her place in the bow of old Moose Cow's canoe was taken by a +little girl, and she was left to follow as best she might on foot. + +The travel ashore was exceedingly difficult. A dense forest growth of +cedar and tamarack pushed to the very edge of the water, and the rare +open beaches were composed of smooth rocks too small to afford secure +footing, and too large to be trodden under. The girl either slipped and +stumbled on insecure and ankle-twisting shale, or forced a way through +the awful tangle of a swamp. As the canoeing at this point was not at +all difficult, her utmost efforts could not keep her abreast of the +travellers. + +Truth to tell May-may-gwan herself did not appear to consider that she +was hardly used. Indeed she let her hair down about her face, took off +the brilliant bits of color that had adorned her garments, and assumed +the regulation downcast attitude of a penitent. But Dick Herron was +indignant. + +"Look here, Sam," said he, "this thing ain't right at all. She got into +all this trouble on our account, and we're riding canoe here slick as +carcajou in a pork cache while she pegs along afoot. Let's take her +aboard." + +"Won't do," replied Sam, briefly, "can't interfere. Let those Injuns run +themselves. They're more or less down on us as it is." + +"Oh, you're too slow!" objected Dick. "What the hell do we care for a +lot of copper-skins from Rupert's House! We ain't got anything to ask +from them but a few pairs of moccasins, and if they don't want to make +them for us, they can use their buckskin to tie up their sore heads!" + +He thrust his paddle in close to the bow and twisted the canoe towards +shore. + +"Come on, Sam," said he, "show your spunk!" + +The older man said nothing. His steady blue eyes rested on his +companion's back not unkindly, although a frown knit the brows above +them. + +"Come here, little sister," cried Dick to the girl. + +She picked her way painfully through the scrub to the edge of the bank. + +"Get into the canoe," commanded Dick. + +She drew back in deprecation. + +"Ka'-ka'win!" she objected, in very real terror. "The old-men have +commanded that I take the Long Way, and who am I that I should not obey? +It cannot be." + +"Get in here," ordered Dick, obstinately. + +"My brother is good to me, but I cannot, for the head men have ordered. +It would go very hard with me, if I should disobey." + +"Oh, hell!" exploded petulant Dick in English, slamming his paddle down +against the thwarts. + +He leaped ashore, picked the girl up bodily, threw her almost with +violence into the canoe, thrust the light craft into the stream, and +resumed his efforts, scowling savagely. + +The girl dropped her face in her hands. When the white men's craft +overtook the main band, she crouched still lower, shuddering under the +grim scrutiny of her people. Dick's lofty scorn looked neither to right +nor left, but paddled fiercely ahead until the Indians were well astern +and hidden by the twists of the river. Sam Bolton proceeded serenely on +in his accustomed way. + +Only, when the tribesmen had been left behind, he leaned forward and +began to talk to the girl in low-voiced Ojibway, comforting her with +many assurances, as one would comfort a child. After a time she ceased +trembling and looked up. But her glance made no account of the steady, +old man who had so gently led her from her slough of despond, but rested +on the straight, indignant back of the glorious youth who had cast her +into it. And Sam Bolton, knowing the ways of a maid, merely sighed, and +resumed his methodical paddling. + +At the noon stop and on portage it was impossible to gauge the feeling +of the savages in regard to the matter, but at night the sentiment was +strongly enough marked. May-may-gwan herself, much to her surprise, was +no further censured, and was permitted to escape with merely the slights +and sneers the women were able to inflict on her. Perhaps her masters, +possessed of an accurate sense of justice, realised that the latter +affair had not been her fault. Or, what is more likely, their race +antagonism, always ready in these fierce men of the Silent Places, +seized instinctively on this excuse to burst into a definite +unfriendliness. The younger men drew frankly apart. The older made it a +point to sit by the white men's fire, but they conversed formally and +with many pauses. Day by day the feeling intensified. A strong wind had +followed from the north for nearly a week, and so, of course, they had +seen no big game, for the wary animals scented them long before they +came in sight. Meat began to run low. So large a community could not +subsist on the nightly spoils of the net and traps. The continued +ill-luck was attributed to the visitors. Finally camp was made for a day +while Crooked Nose, the best trailer and hunter of them all, went out to +get a caribou. Dick, hoping thus to win a little good will, lent his +Winchester for the occasion. + +The Indian walked very carefully through the mossy woods until he came +upon a caribou trail still comparatively fresh. Nobody but Crooked Nose +could have followed the faint indications, but he did so, at first +rapidly, then more warily, finally at a very snail's pace. His progress +was noiseless. Such a difficult result was accomplished primarily by his +quickness of eye in selecting the spots on which to place his feet, and +also to a great extent by the fact that he held his muscles so pliantly +tense that the weight of his body came down not all at once, but in +increasing pressure until the whole was supported ready for the next +step. He _flowed_ through the woods. + +When the trail became fresh he often paused to scrutinise closely, to +smell, even to taste the herbage broken by the animal's hoofs. Once he +startled a jay, but froze into immobility before that watchman of the +woods had sprung his alarm. For full ten minutes the savage poised +motionless. Then the bird flitted away, and he resumed his careful +stalk. + +It was already nearly noon. The caribou had been feeding slowly forward. +Now he would lie down. And Crooked Nose knew very well that the animal +would make a little detour to right or left so as to be able to watch +his back track. + +Crooked Nose redoubled his scrutiny of the broken herbage. Soon he left +the trail, moving like a spirit, noiselessly, steadily, but so slowly +that it would have required a somewhat extended observation to convince +you that he moved at all. His bead-like black eyes roved here and there. +He did not look for a caribou--no such fool he--but for a splotch of +brown, a deepening of shadow, a contour of surface which long experience +had taught him could not be due to the forest's ordinary play of light +and shade. After a moment his gaze centred. In the lucent, cool, green +shadow of a thick clump of moose maples he felt rather than discerned a +certain warmth of tone. You and I would probably have missed the entire +shadow. But Crooked Nose knew that the warmth of tone meant the brown of +his quarry's summer coat. He cocked his rifle. + +But a caribou is a large animal, and only a few spots are fatal. Crooked +Nose knew better than to shoot at random. He whistled. + +The dark colour dissolved. There were no abrupt movements, no noises, +but suddenly the caribou seemed to develop from the green shadow mist, +to stand, his ears pricked forward, his lustrous eyes wide, his nostrils +quivering toward the unknown something that had uttered the sound. It +was like magic. An animal was now where, a moment before, none had +been. + +Crooked Nose raised the rifle, sighted steadily at the shoulder, low +down, and pulled the trigger. A sharp _click_ alone answered his +intention. Accustomed only to the old trade-gun, he had neglected to +throw down and back the lever which should lift the cartridge from the +magazine. + +Instantly the caribou snorted aloud and crashed noisily away. A dozen +lurking Canada jays jumped to the tops of spruces and began to scream. +Red squirrels, in all directions, alternately whirred their rattles and +chattered in an ecstasy of rage. The forest was alarmed. + +Crooked Nose glanced at the westering sun, and set out swiftly in a +direct line for the camp of his companions. Arrived there he marched +theatrically to the white men, cast the borrowed rifle at their feet, +and returned to the side of the fire, where he squatted impassively on +his heels. The hunt had failed. + +All the rest of the afternoon the men talked sullenly together. There +could be no doubt that trouble was afoot. Toward night some of the +younger members grew so bold as to cast fierce looks in the direction +of the white visitors. + +Finally late in the evening old Haukemah came to them. For some time he +sat silent and grave, smoking his pipe, and staring solemnly into the +coals. + +"Little Father," said he at last, "you and I are old men. Our blood is +cool. We do not act quickly. But other men are young. Their blood is hot +and swift, and it is quick to bring them spirit-thoughts[4]. They say +you have made the wind, kee-way-din, the north wind, to blow so that we +can have no game. They say you conjured Crooked Nose so that he brought +back no caribou, although he came very near it. They say, too, that you +seek a red man to do him a harm, and their hearts are evil toward you on +that account. They say you have made the power of the old-men as +nothing, for what they commanded you denied when you brought our little +sister in your canoe. I know nothing of these things, except the last, +which was foolishness in the doing," the old man glanced sharply at +Dick, puffed on his nearly extinguished pipe until it was well alight, +and went on. "My brothers say they are looking places for winter posts; +I believe them. They say their hearts are kind toward my people; I +believe them. Kee-way-din, the north wind, has many times before blown +up the river, and Crooked Nose is a fool. My heart is good toward you, +but it is not the heart of my young men. They murmur and threaten. Here +our trails fork. My brothers must go now their own way." + +[Footnote 4: Fancies.] + +"Good," replied Sam, after a moment. "I am glad my brother's heart is +good toward me, and I know what young men are. We will go. Tell your +young men." + +An expression of relief overspread Haukemah's face. Evidently the crisis +had been more grave than he had acknowledged. He thrust his hand inside +his loose capote and brought forth a small bundle. + +"Moccasins," said he. + +Sam looked them over. They were serviceable, strong deerskin, with high +tops of white linen cloth procured at the Factory, without decoration +save for a slender line of silk about the tongue. Something approaching +a smile flickered over old Haukemah's countenance as he fished out of +his side pocket another pair. + +"For Eagle-eye," he said, handing them to Dick. The young man had gained +the sobriquet, not because of any remarkable clarity of vision, but from +the peculiar aquiline effect of his narrow gaze. + +The body of the moccasins were made of buckskin as soft as silk, smoked +to a rich umber. The tops were of fawnskin, tanned to milky white. Where +the two parts joined, the edges had been allowed to fall half over the +foot in an exaggerated welt, lined brilliantly with scarlet silk. The +ornamentation was heavy and elaborate. Such moccasins often consume, in +the fashioning, the idle hours of months. The Indian girl carries them +with her everywhere, as her more civilised sister carries an embroidery +frame. On dress occasions in the Far North a man's standing with his +womenkind can be accurately gauged by the magnificence of his foot-gear. + +"The gift of May-may-gwan," explained Haukemah. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" said Dick, in English. + +"Will my brother be paid in tea or in tobacco?" inquired Sam Bolton. + +Haukemah arose. + +"Let these remind you always that my heart is good," said he. "I may +tell my young men that you go?" + +"Yes. We are grateful for these." + +"Old fellow's a pretty decent sort," remarked Dick, after Haukemah had +stalked away. + +"There couldn't anything have happened better for us!" cried Sam. "Here +I was wondering how we could get away. It wouldn't do to travel with +them much longer, and it wouldn't do to quit them without a good reason. +I'm mighty relieved to get shut of them. The best way over into the +Kabinakagam is by way of a little creek the Injuns call the +Mattawishguia, and that ought to be a few hours ahead of us now." He +might have added that all these annoyances, which he was so carefully +discounting, had sprung from Dick's thoughtlessness; but he was silent, +sure of the young man's value when the field of his usefulness should be +reached. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +Dick Herron and Sam Bolton sat on the trunk of a fallen tree. It was dim +morning. Through the haze that shrouded the river figures moved. +Occasionally a sharp sound eddied the motionless silence--a paddle +dropped, the prow of a canoe splashed as it was lifted to the water, the +tame crow uttered a squawk. Little by little the groups dwindled. +Invisible canoes were setting out, beyond the limits of vision. Soon +there remained but a few scattered, cowled figures, the last women +hastily loading their craft that they might not be left behind. Now +these, too, thrust through the gray curtain of fog. The white men were +alone. + +With the passing of the multitude once again the North came close. +Spying on the deserted camp an hundred smaller woods creatures fearfully +approached, bright-eyed, alert, ready to retreat, but eager to +investigate for scraps of food that might have been left. Squirrels +poised in spruce-trees, leaped boldly through space, or hurried across +little open stretches of ground. Meat-hawks, their fluffy plumage +smoothed to alertness, swooped here and there. Momentary and hasty +scurryings in the dead leaves attested the presence of other animals, +faint chirpings and rustlings the presence of other birds, following +these their most courageous foragers. In a day the Indian camp would +have taken on the character of the forest; in a month, an ancient ruin, +it would have fitted as accurately with its surroundings as an acorn in +the cup. + +Now the twisted vapours drained from among the tree-trunks into the +river bed, where it lay, not more than five feet deep, accurately +marking the course of the stream. The sun struck across the tops of the +trees. A chickadee, upside down in bright-eyed contemplation, uttered +two flute-notes. Instantly a winter-wren, as though at a signal, went +into ecstatic ravings. The North was up and about her daily business. + +Sam Bolton and Dick finally got under way. After an hour they arrived +opposite the mouth of a tributary stream. This Sam announced as the +Mattawishguia. Immediately they turned to it. + +The Mattawishguia would be variously described; in California as a +river, in New England as a brook, in Superior country as a trout stream. +It is an hundred feet wide, full of rapids, almost all fast water, and, +except in a few still pools, from a foot to two feet deep. The bottom is +of round stones. + +Travel by canoe in such a stream is a farce. The water is too fast to +pole against successfully more than half the time; the banks are too +overgrown for tracking with the tow-line. About the only system is to +get there in the best way possible. Usually this meant that Dick waded +at the bow and Sam at the stern, leaning strongly against the current. +Bowlders of all sorts harassed the free passage, stones rolled under the +feet, holes of striking unexpectedness lay in wait, and the water was +icy cold. Once in a while they were able to paddle a few hundred feet. +Then both usually sat astride the ends of the canoe, their legs hanging +in the water in order that the drippings might not fall inside. As this +was the early summer, they occasionally kicked against trees to drive +enough of the numbness from their legs so that they could feel the +bottom. + +It was hard work and cold work and wearing, for it demanded its exact +toll for each mile, and was as insistent for the effort at weary night +as at fresh morning. + +Dick, in the vigour of his young strength, seemed to like it. The +leisure of travel with the Indians had barely stretched his muscles. +Here was something against which he could exert his utmost force. He +rejoiced in it, taking great lungfuls of air, bending his shoulders, +breaking through these outer defences of the North with wanton +exuberance, blind to everything, deaf to everything, oblivious of all +other mental and physical sensations except the delight of applying his +skill and strength to the subduing of the stream. + +But Sam, patient, uncomplaining, enduring, retained still the broader +outlook. He, too, fought the water and the cold, adequately and +strongly, but it was with the unconsciousness of long habit. His mind +recognised the Forest as well as the Stream. The great physical thrill +over the poise between perfect health and the opposing of difficulties +he had left behind him with his youth; as indeed he had, in a lesser +sense, gained with his age an indifference to discomfort. He was +cognisant of the stillness of the woods, the presence of the birds and +beasts, the thousand subtleties that make up the personality of the +great forest. + +And with the strange sixth sense of the accustomed woodsman Sam felt, as +they travelled, that something was wrong. The impression did not come to +him through any of the accustomed channels. In fact, it hardly reached +his intellect as yet. Through long years his intuitions had adapted +themselves to their environment. The subtle influences the forest always +disengaged found in the delicately attuned fibres of his being that +which vibrated in unison with them. Now this adjustment was in some way +disturbed. To Sam Bolton the forest was _different_, and this made him +uneasy without his knowing why. From time to time he stopped suddenly, +every nerve quivering, his nostrils wide, like some wild thing alert for +danger. And always the other five senses, on which his mind depended, +denied the sixth. Nothing stirred but the creatures of the wilderness. + +Yet always the impression persisted. It was easily put to flight, and +yet it always returned. Twice, while Dick rested in the comfort of +tobacco, Sam made long detours back through the woods, looking for +something, he knew not what; uneasy, he knew not why. Always he found +the forest empty. Everything, well ordered, was in its accustomed place. +He returned to the canoe, shaking his head, unable to rid himself of the +sensation of something foreign to the established order of things. + +At noon the men drew ashore on a little point of rock. There they boiled +tea over a small fire, and ate the last of their pilot's bread, together +with bacon and the cold meat of partridges. By now the sun was high and +the air warm. Tepid odours breathed from the forest, and the songs of +familiar homely birds. Little heated breezes puffed against the +travellers' cheeks. In the sun's rays their garments steamed and their +muscles limbered. + +Yet even here Sam Bolton was unable to share the relaxation of mind and +body his companion so absolutely enjoyed. Twice he paused, food +suspended, his mouth open, to listen intently for a moment, then to +finish carrying his hand to his mouth with the groping of vague +perplexity. Once he arose to another of his purposeless circles through +the woods. Dick paid no attention to these things. In the face of +danger his faculties would be as keenly on the stretch as his comrade's; +but now, the question one merely of difficult travel, the responsibility +delegated to another, he bothered his head not at all, but like a good +lieutenant left everything to his captain, half closed his eyes, and +watched the smoke curl from his brier pipe. + +When evening fell the little fish-net was stretched below a chute of +water, the traps set, snares laid. As long as these means sufficed for a +food supply, the ammunition would be saved. Wet clothes were hung at a +respectful distance from the blaze. + +Sam was up and down all night, uncomfortable, indefinitely groping for +the influence that unsettled his peace of mind. The ghost shadows in the +pines; the pattering of mysterious feet; the cries, loud and distant, or +faint and near; the whisperings, whistlings, sighings, or crashes; all +the thousand ethereal essences of day-time noises that go to make up the +Night and her silences--these he knew. What he did not know, could not +understand, was within himself. What he sought was that thing in Nature +which should correspond. + +The next day at noon he returned to Dick after a more than usually long +excursion, carrying some object. He laid it before his companion. The +object proved to be a flat stone; and on the flat stone was the wet +print of a moccasin. + +"We're followed," he said, briefly. + +Dick seized the stone and examined it closely. + +"It's too blurred," he said, at last; "I can't make it out. But th' man +who made that track wasn't far off. Couldn't you make trail of him? He +must have been between you an' me when you found this rock." + +"No," Sam demurred, "he wasn't. This moccasin was pointed down stream. +He heard me, and went right on down with th' current. He's sticking to +the water all the way so as to leave no trail." + +"No use trying to follow an Injun who knows you're after him," agreed +Dick. + +"It's that Chippewa, of course," proffered Sam. "I always was doubtful +of him. Now he's followin' us to see what we're up to. Then, he ain't +any too friendly to you, Dick, 'count of that scrap and th' girl. But I +don't think that's what he's up to--not yet, at least. I believe he's +some sort of friend or kin of that Jingoss, an' he wants to make sure +that we're after him." + +"Why don't he just ambush us, then, an' be done with it?" asked Dick. + +"Two to one," surmised Bolton, laconically. "He's only got a +trade-gun--one shot. But more likely he thinks it ain't going to do him +much good to lay us out. More men would be sent. If th' Company's really +after Jingoss, the only safe thing for him is a warning. But his friend +don't want to get him out of th' country on a false alarm." + +"That's so," said Dick. + +They talked over the situation, and what was best to be done. + +"He don't know yet that we've discovered him," submitted Sam. "My +scouting around looked like huntin', and he couldn't a seen me pick up +that stone. We better not try to catch him till we can make _sure_. He's +got to camp somewheres. We'll wait till night. Of course he'll get away +from th' stream, and he'll cover his trail. Still, they's a moon. I +don't believe anybody could do it but you, Dick. If you don't make her, +why there ain't nothing lost. We'll just have to camp down here an' go +to trapping until he gets sick of hanging around." + +So it was agreed. Dick, under stress of danger, was now a changed man. +What he lacked in experience and the power to synthesise, he more than +made up in the perfection of his senses and a certain natural instinct +of the woods. He was a better trailer than Sam, his eyesight was keener, +his hearing more acute, his sense of smell finer, his every nerve alive +and tingling in vibrant unison with the life about him. Where Sam +laboriously arrived by the aid of his forty years' knowledge, the +younger man leaped by the swift indirection of an Indian--or a woman. +Had he only possessed, as did Bolton, a keen brain as well as keen +higher instincts, he would have been marvellous. + +The old man sat near the camp-fire after dark that night sure that +Herron was even then conducting the affair better than he could have +done himself. He had confidence. No faintest indication,--even in the +uncertainty of moonlight through the trees,--that a man had left the +river would escape the young man's minute inspection. And in the search +no twig would snap under those soft-moccasined feet; no betraying +motion of brush or brake warn the man he sought. Dick's woodcraft of +that sort was absolute; just as Sam Bolton's woodcraft also was +absolute--of its sort. It might be long, but the result was +certain,--unless the Indian himself suspected. + +Dick had taken his rifle. + +"You know," Sam reminded him, significantly, "we don't really need that +Injun." + +"I know," Dick had replied, grimly. + +Now Sam Bolton sat near the fire waiting for the sound of a shot. From +time to time he spread his gnarled, carved-mahogany hands to the blaze. +Under his narrow hat his kindly gray-blue eyes, wrinkled at the corners +with speculation and good humour, gazed unblinking into the light. As +always he smoked. + +Time went on. The moon climbed, then descended again. Finally it shone +almost horizontally through the tree-trunks, growing larger and larger +until its field was crackled across with a frostwork of twigs and +leaves. By and by it reached the edge of a hill-bank, visible through an +opening, and paused. It had become huge, gigantic, big with mystery. A +wolf sat directly before it, silhouetted sharply. Presently he raised +his pointed nose, howling mournfully across the waste. + +The fire died down to coals. Sam piled on fresh wood. It hissed +spitefully, smoked voluminously, then leaped into flame. The old +woodsman sat as though carved from patience, waiting calmly the issue. + +Then through the shadows, dancing ever more gigantic as they became more +distant, Sam Bolton caught the solidity of something moving. The object +was as yet indefinite, mysterious, flashing momentarily into view and +into eclipse as the tree-trunks intervened or the shadows flickered. The +woodsman did not stir; only his eyes narrowed with attention. Then a +branch snapped, noisy, carelessly broken. Sam's expectancy flagged. +Whoever it was did not care to hide his approach. + +But in a moment the watcher could make out that the figures were two; +one erect and dominant, the other stooping in surrender. Sam could not +understand. A prisoner would be awkward. But he waited without a motion, +without apparent interest, in the indifferent attitude of the +woods-runner. + +Now the two neared the outer circle of light; they stepped within it; +they stopped at the fire's edge. Sam Bolton looked up straight into the +face of Dick's prisoner. + +It was May-may-gwan, the Ojibway girl. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +Dick pulled the girl roughly to the fireside, where he dropped her arm, +leaving her downcast and submissive. He was angry all through with the +powerless rage of the man whose attentions a woman has taken more +seriously than he had intended. Suddenly he was involved more deeply +than he had meant. + +"Well, what do you think of that?" he cried. + +"What you doing here?" asked Sam in Ojibway, although he knew what the +answer would be. + +She did not reply, however. + +"Hell!" burst out Dick. + +"Well, keep your hair on," advised Sam Bolton, with a grin. "You +shouldn't be so attractive, Dicky." + +The latter growled. + +"Now you've got her, what you going to do with her?" pursued the older +man. + +"Do with her?" exploded Dick; "what in hell do you mean? I don't want +her; she's none of my funeral. She's got to go back, of course." + +"Oh, sure!" agreed Sam. "She's got to go back. Sure thing! It's only two +days down stream, and then the Crees would have only four days' start +and getting farther every minute. A mere ten days in the woods without +an outfit. Too easy; especially for a woman. But of course you'll give +her your outfit, Dick." + +He mused, gazing into the flames, his eyes droll over this new +complication introduced by his thoughtless comrade. + +"Well, we can't have her with us," objected Dick, obstinately. "She'd +hinder us, and bother us, and get in our way, and we'd have to feed +her--we may have to starve ourselves;--and she's no damn _use_ to us. +She can't go. I won't have it; I didn't bargain to lug a lot of squaws +around on this trip. She came; I didn't ask her to. Let her get out of +it the best way she can. She's an Injun. She can make it all right +through the woods. And if she has a hard time, she _ought_ to." + +"Nice mess, isn't it, Dick?" grinned the other. + +"No mess about it. I haven't anything to do with such a fool trick. What +did she expect to gain tagging us through the woods that way half a mile +to the rear? She was just waiting 'till we got so far away from th' +Crees that we couldn't send her back. I'll fool her on that, damn her!" +He kicked a log back into place, sending the sparks eddying. + +"I wonder if she's had anything to eat lately?" said Bolton. + +"I don't care a damn whether she has or not," said Dick. + +"Keep your hair on, my son," advised Sam again. "You're hot because you +thought you'd got shut of th' whole affair, and now you find you +haven't." + +"You make me sick," commented Dick. + +"Mebbe," admitted the woodsman. He fell silent, staring straight before +him, emitting short puffs from his pipe. The girl stood where she had +been thrust. + +"I'll start her back in the morning," proffered Dick after a few +moments. Then, as this elicited no remark, "We can stock her up with +jerky, and there's no reason she shouldn't make it." Sam remained grimly +silent. "Is there?" insisted Dick. He waited a minute for a reply. +Then, as none came, "Hell!" he exclaimed, disgustedly, and turned away +to sit on a log the other side of the fire with all the petulance of a +child. + +"Now look here, Sam," he broke out, after an interval. "We might as well +get at this thing straight. We can't keep her with us, now, can we?" + +Sam removed his pipe, blew a cloud straight before him, and replaced it. + +Dick reddened slowly, got up with an incidental remark about damn fools, +and began to spread his blankets beneath the lean-to shelter. He +muttered to himself, angered at the dead opposition of circumstance +which he could not push aside. Suddenly he seized the girl again by the +arm. + +"Why you come?" he demanded in Ojibway. "Where you get your blankets? +Where you get your grub? How you make the Long Trail? What you do when +we go far and fast? What we do with you now?" Then meeting nothing but +the stolidity with which the Indian always conceals pain, he flung her +aside. "Stupid owl!" he growled. + +He sat on the ground and began to take off his moccasins with +ostentatious deliberation, abruptly indifferent to it all. Slowly he +prepared for the night, yawning often, looking at the sky, arranging the +fire, emphasising and delaying each of his movements as though to prove +to himself that he acknowledged only the habitual. At last he turned in, +his shoulder thrust aggressively toward the two motionless figures by +the fire. + +It was by now close to midnight. The big moon had long since slipped +from behind the solitary wolf on the hill. Yet Sam Bolton made no move +toward his blankets, and the girl did not stir from the downcast +attitude into which she had first fallen. The old woodsman looked at the +situation with steady eyes. He realised to the full what Dick Herron's +thoughtlessness had brought on them. A woman, even a savage woman inured +to the wilderness, was a hindrance. She could not travel as fast nor as +far; she could not bear the same burdens, endure the same hardship; she +would consume her share of the provisions. And before this expedition +into the Silent Places should be finished the journeying might require +the speed of a course after quarry, the packing would come finally to +the men's back, the winter would have to be met in the open, and the +North, lavish during these summer months, sold her sustenance dear when +the snows fell. The time might come when these men would have to arm for +the struggle. Cruelty, harshness, relentlessness, selfishness, +singleness of purpose, hardness of heart they would have perforce to +assume. And when they stripped for such a struggle, Sam Bolton knew that +among other things this woman would have to go. If the need arose, she +would have to die; for this quest was greater than the life of any woman +or any man. Would it not be better to send her back through certain +hardship now, rather than carry her on to a possible death in the White +Silence. For the North as yet but skirmished. Her true power lay behind +the snows and the ice. + +The girl stood in the same attitude. Sam Bolton spoke to her. + +"May-may-gwan." + +"Little Father." + +"Why have you followed us?" + +The girl did not reply. + +"Sister," said the woodsman, kindly, "I am an old man. You have called +me Father. Why have you followed us?" + +"I found Jibiwanisi good in my sight," she said, with a simple dignity, +"and he looked on me." + +"It was a foolish thing to do." + +"Ae," replied the girl. + +"He does not wish to take you in his wigwam." + +"Eagle-eye is angry now. Anger melts under the sun." + +"I do not think his will." + +"Then I will make his fire and his buckskin and cook his food." + +"We go on a long journey." + +"I will follow." + +"No," replied the woodsman, abruptly, "we will send you back." + +The girl remained silent. + +"Well?" insisted Bolton. + +"I shall not go." + +A little puzzled at this insistence, delivered in so calm a manner, Sam +hesitated as to what to say. Suddenly the girl stepped forward to face +him. + +"Little Father," she said, solemnly, "I cannot go. Those are not my +people. I do not know my people. My heart is not with them. My heart is +here. Little Father," she went on, dropping her voice, "it is here, +here, here!" she clasped her breast with both hands. "I do not know how +it is. There is a pain in my breast, and my heart is sad with the words +of Eagle-eye. And yet here the birds sing and the sun is bright. Away +from here it is dark. That is all I know. I do not understand it, Little +Father. My heart is here. I cannot go away. If you drive me out, I shall +follow. Kill me, if you wish, Little Father; I do not care for that. I +shall not hinder you on the Long Trail. I shall do many things. When I +cannot travel fast enough, then leave me. My heart is here; I cannot go +away." She stopped abruptly, her eyes glowing, her breath short with the +quivering of passion. Then all at once her passivity fell on her. She +stood, her head downcast, patient, enduring, bending to circumstance +meekly as an Indian woman should. + +Sam Bolton made no reply to this appeal. He drew his sheath-knife, cut +in two the doubled three-point blanket, gave one of the halves to the +girl, and indicated to her a place under the shelter. In the firelight +his face hardened as he cast his mind again over the future. He had not +solved the problem, only postponed it. In the great struggle women would +have no place. + +At two o'clock, waking in the manner of woodsmen and sailors the world +over, he arose to replenish the fire. He found it already bright with +new fuel, and the Indian girl awake. She lay on her side, the blanket +about her shoulders, her great wistful eyes wide open. A flame shot into +the air. It threw a momentary illumination into the angles of the +shelter, discovering Dick, asleep in heavy exhaustion, his right forearm +across his eyes. The girl stole a glance at Sam Bolton. Apparently he +was busy with the fire. She reached out to touch the young man's +blanket. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +Dick was afoot after a few hours' sleep. He aroused Sam and went about +the preparation of breakfast. May-may-gwan attempted to help, but both +she and her efforts were disregarded. She brought wood, but Dick rustled +a supply just the same, paying no attention to the girl's little pile; +she put on fresh fuel, but Dick, without impatience,--indeed, as though +he were merely rearranging the fire,--contrived to undo her work; she +brought to hand the utensils, but Dick, in searching for them, always +looked where they had originally been placed. His object seemed not so +much to thwart the girl as to ignore her. When breakfast was ready he +divided it into two portions, one of which he ate. After the meal he +washed the few dishes. Once he took a cup from the girl's hand as she +was drying it, much as he would have taken it from the top of a stump. +He then proceeded to clean it as though it had just been used. + +May-may-gwan made no sign that she noticed these things. After a little +she helped Sam roll the blankets, strike the shelter, construct the +packs. Here her assistance was accepted, though Sam did not address her. +After a few moments the start was made. + +The first few hours were spent as before, wading the stream. As she +could do nothing in the water, May-may-gwan kept to the woods, walking +stolidly onward, her face to the front, expressionless, hiding whatever +pain she may have felt. This side of noon, however, the travellers came +to a cataract falling over a fifty-foot ledge into a long, +cliff-bordered pool. + +It became necessary to portage. The hill pinched down steep and close. +There existed no trails. Dick took the little camp axe to find a way. He +clambered up one after the other three ravines--grown with brush and +heavy ferns, damp with a trickle of water,--always to be stopped near +the summit by a blank wall impossible to scale. At length he found a +passage he thought might be practicable. Thereupon he cut a canoe trail +back to the water-side. + +In clearing this trail his attention turned to making room for a canoe +on a man's back. Therefore the footing he bothered with not at all. +Saplings he clipped down by bending them with the left hand, and +striking at the strained fibres where they bowed. A single blow would +thus fell treelets of some size. When he had finished his work there +resulted a winding, cylindrical hole in the forest growth some three +feet from the ground. Through this cylinder the canoe would be passed +while its bearer picked a practised way among slippery rocks, old stubs, +new sapling stumps, and undergrowth below. Men who might, in later +years, wish to follow this Indian trail, would look not for footprints +but for waist-high indications of the axe. + +When the canoe had been carried to the top of the bluff that marked the +water-fall, it was relaunched in a pool. In the meantime May-may-gwan, +who had at last found a use for her willingness, carried the packs. Dick +re-embarked. His companion perceived that he intended to shove off as +soon as the other should have taken his place. Sam frustrated that, +however, by holding fast to the gunwale. May-may-gwan stepped in +amidships, with a half-deprecating glance at the young man's inscrutable +back. At the end of the brief paddling the upper pool allowed them, she +was first ashore. + +Late that afternoon the travel for a half mile became exceedingly +difficult. The stream took on the character of a mountain brook. It +hardly paid to float the canoe in the tiny holes among the rocks, +miniature cascades, and tortuous passages. The forest grew to the very +banks, and arched over to exclude the sun. Every few feet was to be +avoided a tree, half clinging to the bank, leaning at a perilous slant +out over the creek. Fortunately the spring freshets in this country of +the great snows were powerful enough to sweep out the timber actually +fallen, so the course of the stream itself was clear of jams. At length +the travellers reached a beaver-dam, and so to a little round lake among +the hills. They had come to the head waters of the Mattawishguia. + +In the lake stood two moose, old and young. Dick succeeded in killing +the yearling, though it took two shots from his Winchester. It was +decided to camp here over one day in order that the meat might be +saved. + +A circle of hills surrounded the little body of water. On them grew +maples and birches, among which scattered a few hemlocks and an +occasional pine. At the edge of the water were cedars leaning out to +look at their reflections. A deep and solemn peace seemed to brood over +the miniature lake. Such affairs as bird songs, the slap of a paddle, +the shots from Dick's rifle could not break this strange stillness. They +spoke hastily, and relapsed to silence, like the rare necessary voices +in a room where one lies dead. The hush, calm and primal, with the +infinity of the wilderness as its only measure of time, took no account +of the shock of a second's interruption. Two loons swam like ghosts. +Everywhere and nowhere among the trees, in the hills, over the water, +the finer senses were almost uneasily conscious of a vast and awful +presence. It was as yet aloof, unheeding, buddhistic, brooding in +nirvanic calm, still unawakened to put forth the might of its +displeasure. Under its dreaming eyes men might, fearfully and with +reverence, carry on their affairs,--fearfully and with reverence, +catching the breath, speaking low, growing silent and stern in the +presence of the North. + +At the little camp under the cedars, Dick Herron and Sam Bolton, +assisted by the Ojibway girl, May-may-gwan, cut the moose-meat into thin +strips, salted, and dried it in the bright sun. And since the presence +of loons argued fish, they set their nets and lines. Several days thus +passed. + +In their relations the three promptly settled back into a species of +routine. Men who travel in the Silent Places speedily take on the colour +of their surroundings. They become silent also. A band of voyageurs of +sufficient strength may chatter and sing; they have by the very force of +numbers created an atmosphere of their own. But two are not enough for +this. They have little to say, for their souls are laved by the great +natural forces. + +Dick Herron, even in ordinary circumstances, withdrew rather grimly into +himself. He looked out at things from beneath knit brows; he held his +elbows close to his sides, his fists clenched, his whole spiritual being +self-contained and apart, watchful for enmity in what he felt but could +not understand. But to this, his normal habit, now was added a +sullenness almost equally instinctive. In some way he felt himself +aggrieved by the girl's presence. At first it was merely the natural +revolt of a very young man against assuming responsibility he had not +invited. The resulting discomfort of mind, however, he speedily assigned +to the girl's account. He continued, as at first, to ignore her. But in +the slow rumination of the forest he became more and more irritably +sensible of her presence. Sam's taciturnity was contrastedly sunny and +open. He looked on things about him with the placid receptivity of an +old man, and said nothing because there was nothing to say. The Ojibway +girl remained inscrutable, helping where she could, apparently desirous +of neither praise nor blame. + +At the end of three days the provisions were ready. There had resulted +perhaps sixty pounds of "jerky." It now became necessary to leave the +water-way, and to strike directly through the forest, over the hills, +and into the country of the Kabinikagam. + +Dick shouldered a thirty-pound pack and the canoe. Sam Bolton and the +girl managed the remainder. Every twenty minutes or so they would rest, +sinking back against the trunks of trees, mossy stones, or a bank of new +ferns. The forest was open and inexpressibly lofty. Moose maples, young +birches, and beeches threw their coolness across the face, then above +them the columns of the trunks, then far up in green distance the leaves +again, like the gold-set roof of a church. The hill mounted always +before them. Ancient rocks hoary with moss, redolent of dampness, stood +like abandoned altars given over to decay. A strange, sweet wind +freighted with stray bird-notes wandered aimlessly. + +Nothing was said. Dick led the way and set the intervals of the +carrying. When he swung the canoe from his shoulders the others slipped +their tump-lines. Then all rubbed their faces with the broad +caribou-leaf to keep off the early flies, and lay back, arms extended, +breathing deep, resting like boxers between the rounds. Once at the top +of the ridge Dick climbed a tree. He did this, not so much in +expectation of seeing the water-courses themselves, as to judge by the +general lay of the country where they might be found. + +In a bare open space under hemlocks Sam indicated a narrow, high, little +pen, perhaps three feet long by six inches wide, made of cut saplings. +Dick examined it. + +"Marten deadfall," he pronounced. "Made last winter. Somebody's been +trapping through here." + +After a time a blaze on a tree was similarly remarked. Then the +travellers came to a tiny creek, which, being followed, soon debouched +into a larger. This in turn became navigable, after the north-country +fashion. That is to say, the canoe with its load could much of the time +be floated down by the men wading in the bed of the creek. Finally Sam, +who was in the lead, jerked his head toward the left bank. + +"Their winter camp," said he, briefly. + +A dim trail led from the water to a sheltered knoll. There stood the +framework of a pointed tepee, the long poles spread like fingers above +their crossing point. A little pile of gnawed white skulls of various +sizes represented at least a portion of the season's catch. Dick turned +them over with his foot, identifying them idly. From the sheltered +branches of a near-by spruce hung four pairs of snow-shoes cached there +until the next winter. Sam gave his first attention to these. + +"A man, a woman, and two well-grown children," he pronounced. He ran his +hand over the bulging raquette with the long tail and the slightly +up-curved end. "Ojibway pattern," he concluded. "Dick, we're in the +first hunting district. Here's where we get down to business." + +He went over the ground twice carefully, examining the state of the +offal, the indications of the last fire. + +"They've been gone about six weeks," he surmised. "If they ain't gone +visiting, they must be down-stream somewheres. These fellows don't get +in to trade their fur 'till along about August." + +Two days subsequent, late in the afternoon, Dick pointed out what looked +to be a dark streak beneath a bowlder that lay some distance from the +banks on a shale bar. + +"What's that animal?" he asked. + +"Can't make her out," said Bolton, after inspection. + +"Ninny-moosh," said the Indian girl, indifferently. It was the first +word she had spoken since her talk with the older man. + +"It's a dog, all right," conceded Sam. "She has sharp eyes." + +The animal rose and began to bark. Two more crashed toward him through +the bushes. A thin stream of smoke disengaged itself from the tops of +the forest trees. As they swept around the bend, the travellers saw a +man contemplating them stolidly through a screen of leaves. + +The canoe floated on. About an hundred yards below the Indians Sam +ordered a landing. Camp was made as usual. Supper was cooked. The fire +replenished. Then, just before the late sunset of the Far North, the +bushes crackled. + +"Now let me do the talking," warned Sam. + +"All right. I'll just keep my eye on this," Dick nodded toward the girl. +"She's Ojibway, too, you know. She may give us away." + +"She can't only guess," Sam reminded. "But there ain't any danger, +anyway." + +The leaves parted. The Indian appeared, sauntering with elaborate +carelessness, his beady eyes shifting here and there in an attempt to +gather what these people might be about. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," he greeted them. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +The Indian advanced silently to the fireside, where he squatted on his +heels. He filled a pipe, scraping the tobacco from the square plug Sam +extended to him. While he did this, and while he stuffed it into the +bowl, his keen eyes shifted here and there, gathering the material for +conclusions. + +Sam, watchful but also silent, could almost follow his mental processes. +The canoe meant travel, the meagreness of the outfits either rapid or +short travel, the two steel traps travel beyond the sources of supply. +Then inspection passed lightly over the girl and from her to the younger +man. With a flash of illumination Sam Bolton saw how valuable in +allaying suspicion this evidence of a peaceful errand might prove to be. +Men did not bring their women on important missions involving speed and +danger. + +Abruptly the Indian spoke, going directly to the heart of the matter, +after the Indian fashion. + +"Where you from?" + +"Winnipeg," replied Sam, naming the headquarters of the Company. + +The direction of travel was toward Winnipeg. Sam was perfectly aware of +the discrepancy, but he knew better than to offer gratuitous +explanation. The Indian smoked. + +"Where you come from now?" he inquired, finally. + +"Tschi-gammi[5]." + +[Footnote 5: Lake Superior.] + +This was understandable. Remained only the object of an expedition of +this peculiar character. Sam Bolton knew that the Indian would satisfy +himself by surmises,--he would never apply the direct question to a +man's affairs,--and surmise might come dangerously near the truth. So he +proceeded to impart a little information in his own way. + +"You are the hunter of this district?" Sam asked. + +"Yes." + +"How far do you trap?" + +The Indian mentioned creeks and rivers as his boundaries. + +"Where do you get your debt?" + +"Missinaibi." + +"That is a long trail." + +"Yes." + +"Do many take it each year?" + +The Indian mentioned rapidly a dozen names of families. + +Sam at once took another tack. + +"I do not know this country. Are there large lakes?" + +"There is Animiki." + +"Has it fish? Good wood?" + +"Much wood. Oga[6], kinoj[7]." + +[Footnote 6: Pickerel.] + +[Footnote 7: Pike.] + +Sam paused. + +"Could a _brigade_ of canoes reach it easily?" he inquired. + +Now a _brigade_ is distinctly an institution of the Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company. It is used for two purposes; to maintain +communication with the outside world, and to establish winter camps in +the autumn or to break them up in the spring. At once the situation +became clear. A gleam of comprehension flashed over the Indian's eyes. +With the peculiar attention to detail distinctively the forest runner's +he indicated a route. Sam was satisfied to let the matter rest there for +the present. + +The next evening he visited the Indian's camp. It was made under a +spreading tree, the tepee poles partly resting against some of the lower +branches. The squaw and her woman child kept to the shadows of the +wigwam, but the boy, a youth of perhaps fifteen years, joined the men by +the fire. + +Sam accepted the hospitality of a pipe of tobacco, and attacked the +question in hand from a ground tacitly assumed since the evening before. + +"If Hutsonbaycompany make winterpost on Animiki will you get your debt +there instead of Missinaibie?" he asked first of all. + +Of course the Indian assented. + +"How much fur do you get, good year?" + +The Indian rapidly ran over a list. + +"Lots of fur. Is it going to last? Do you keep district strict here?" +inquired Sam. + +Under cover of this question Sam was feeling for important information. +As has perhaps been mentioned, in a normal Indian community each head of +a family is assigned certain hunting districts over which he has +exclusive hunting and trapping privileges. This naturally tends toward +preservation of the fur. An Indian knows not only where each beaver dam +is situated, but he knows also the number of beaver it contains and how +many can be taken without diminution of the supply. If, however, the +privileges are not strictly guarded, such moderation does not obtain. +When an Indian finds a dam, he cleans it out; because if he does not, +the next comer will. Sam's question then apparently had reference only +to the probability that the fur in a close district would be strictly +enough preserved to make the establishment of a winter post worth while. +In reality he wanted to measure the possibility of an outsider's gaining +a foothold. Logically in a section where the tribal rights were rigidly +held to, this would be impossible except through friendship or purchase; +while in a more loosely organized community a stranger might readily +insinuate himself. + +"Good keeping of district," replied the Indian. "I keep head-waters of +Kabinikagam down to Sand River. When I find man trapping on my ground, I +shoot him. Fur last all right." + +This sufficed for the moment. The next morning Sam went over early to +the other camp. + +"To-day I think we go," he announced. "Now you tell me all the hunters, +where I find them, what are their districts, how much fur they kill." + +"Ah hah!" assented the Indian. Sam's leisurely and indirect method had +convinced him. Easily given information on the other hand would have set +him to thinking; and to think, with an Indian, is usually to become +suspicious. + +The two descended to the shore. There they squatted on their heels +before a little patch of wet sand while the Indian explained. He marked +roughly, but with almost the accuracy of a survey, the courses of +streams and hills, and told of the routes among them. Sam listened, his +gnarled mahogany hand across his mouth, his shrewd gray eyes bent +attentively on the cabalistic signs and scratches. An Indian will +remember, from once traversing it, not only the greater landmarks, but +the little incidents of bowlder, current, eddy, strip of woods, bend of +trail. It remains clear-cut in his mind forever after. The old woodsman +had in his long experience acquired something of this faculty. He +comprehended the details, and, what is more, stored them away in his +memory where he could turn to them readily. This was no small feat. + +With an abrupt movement of the back of his hand the Indian smoothed the +sand. Squatting back more on his haunches, he refilled his pipe and +began to tell of the trappers. In their description he referred always +to the map he had drawn on Bolton's imagination as though it had +actually lain spread out before them. Sam referred each name to its +district, as you or I would write it across the section of a chart, and +kept accurately in mind which squares of the invisible map had been thus +assigned and which not. It was an extraordinary effort, but one not +unusual among practised woods runners. This peculiarly minute and +concrete power of recollection is early developed in the wild life. + +The Indian finished. Sam remained a moment in contemplation. The +districts were all occupied, and the name of Jingoes did not appear. +That was, however, a small matter. The Ojibway might well have changed +his name, or he might be paying for the privilege of hunting in another +man's territory. A less experienced man would have been strongly +tempted to the more direct question. But Sam knew that the faintest hint +of ulterior motive would not be lost on the Indian's sharp perceptions. +An inquiry, carelessly and indirectly made, might do no harm. But then +again it might. And it was better to lose two years of time in the +search than a single grain of confidence in those with whom the little +party might come in contact. + +After all, Sam Bolton was well satisfied. He had, by his simple +diplomacy, gained several valuable results. He had firmly convinced one +man of a common body, wherein news travels quickly, of his apparent +intentions; he had, furthermore, an exact knowledge of where to find +each and every district head-man of the whole Kabinikagam country. +Whether or not the man he sought would prove to be one of these +head-men, or the guest or lessee of one of them, was a question only to +be answered by direct search. At least he knew where to search, which +was a distinct and valuable advantage. + +"Mi-gwetch--thank you," he said to the Indian when he had finished. "I +understand. I go now to see the Lake. I go to talk to each of your +head-men. I go to see the trapping country with my own eyes. When I +have seen all, I go to Winnipeg to tell my head-man what I have seen." + +The Indian nodded. It would have been quite inconceivable to him had Sam +suggested accepting anything less than the evidence of his eyes. + +The three resumed their journey that afternoon. Sam knew exactly where +he was going. Dick had fallen into a sullen yet rebellious mood, +unaccountable even to himself. In his spirit was the ferment of a +resentfulness absolutely without logical object. With such a man ferment +demands action. Here, in the accustomed labours of this woods travel, +was nothing to bite on save monotony. Dick Herron resented the monotony, +resented the deliberation necessary to so delicate a mission, resented +the unvarying tug of his tump-line or the unchanging yield of the water +to his paddle, resented the placidity of the older man, above all +resented the meek and pathetic submissiveness of the girl. His narrow +eyes concentrated their gaze ominously. He muttered to himself. The +untrained, instinctive strength of the man's spirit fretted against +delay. His enthusiasm, the fire of his hope, urged him to earn his +self-approval by great exertion. Great exertion was impossible. Always, +day by day, night by night, he chafed at the snail-like pace with which +things moved, chafed at the delay imposed by the nature of the quest, +the policy of the old man, the presence of the girl. Only, in the +rudimentary processes of his intelligence, he confused the three in one, +and the presence of the girl alone received the brunt of his sullen +displeasure. In the splendour of his strength, head down, heart evil, +restrained to a bitter obedience only by the knowledge that he could do +nothing alone, he broke through the opposing wilderness. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +Sam Bolton gauged perfectly the spirit in his comrade, but paid it +little attention. He knew it as a chemical reaction of a certain phase +of forest travel. It argued energy, determination, dogged pluck when the +need should arise, and so far it was good. The woods life affects +various men in various ways, but all in a manner peculiar to itself. It +is a reagent unlike any to be found in other modes of life. The moment +its influence reaches the spirit, in that moment does the man change +utterly from the person he has been in other and ordinary surroundings; +and the instant he emerges from its control he reverts to his accustomed +bearing. But in the dwelling of the woods he becomes silent. It may be +the silence of a self-contained sufficiency; the silence of an equable +mind; the silence variously of awe, even of fear; it may be the silence +of sullenness. This, as much as the vast stillness of the wilderness, +has earned for the region its designation of the Silent Places. + +Nor did the older woodsman fear any direct results from the younger's +very real, though baseless, anger. These men were bound together by +something stronger than any part of themselves. Over them stood the +Company, and to its commands all other things gave way. No matter how +rebellious might be Dick Herron's heart, how ruffled the surface of his +daily manner, Bolton knew perfectly well he would never for a single +instant swerve in his loyalty to the main object of the expedition. +Serene in this consciousness, the old woodsman dwelt in a certain sweet +and gentle rumination of his own. Among the finer instincts of his being +many subtle mysteries of the forest found their correspondences. The +feeling of these satisfied him entirely, though of course he was +incapable of their intellectualisation. + +The days succeeded one another. The camps by the rivers or in the woods +were in essential all alike. The shelter, the shape, and size of the +tiny clearing, the fire, the cooking utensils scattered about, +the little articles of personal belonging were the same. Only +certain details of surrounding differed, and they were not of +importance,--birch-trees for poplars, cedar for both, a river bend to +the northwest instead of the southwest, still water for swift, a low +bank for a high; but always trees, water, bank, and the sky brilliant +with stars. After a little the day's progress became a myth, to be +accepted only by the exercise of faith. The forest was a great treadmill +in which men toiled all day, only to be surrounded at night by the same +grandeurs and littlenesses they had that morning left. In the face of +this apparent futility time blew vast. Years were as nothing measured by +the task of breaking through the enchanted web that enmeshed them. + +And yet all knew by experience, though no one of them could rise to a +realisation of the fact, that some day their canoe would round the bend +and they would find themselves somewhere. Then they could say to +themselves that they had arrived, and could tell themselves that between +here and their starting-point lay so many hundred miles. Yet in their +secret hearts they would not believe it. They would know that in reality +it lay but just around the corner. Only between were dream-days of the +shifting forest heavy with toil. + +This is the enchantment the North lays on her children, so that when +the toil oppresses them and death seems to win, they may not care +greatly to struggle, knowing that the struggle is vain. + +In the country of the Kabinikagam they visited thus many hunting +districts. The travel neither hastened nor lagged. From time to time it +was necessary to kill, and then the meat must be cared for. Berries and +wild rice were to be gathered. July drew near its end. + +Sam Bolton, knowing now the men with whom he had to deal, found no +difficulty in the exercise of his simple diplomacy. The Ojibway +defaulter was not to be heard of, but every nook searched without result +narrowed the remaining possibilities. Everything went well enough until +late one afternoon. + +The portage happened to lead above a narrow gorge over a rapids. To +accomplish it the travellers had first to scale a steep little hill, +then to skirt a huge rounded rock that overhung the gorge. The roughness +of the surface and the adhesive power of their moccasins alone held them +to the slant. These were well sufficient. Unfortunately, however, Dick, +without noticing it, had stepped into a little pool of water on +disembarking. Buckskin while dry is very adhesive; when wet very +slippery. As he followed Sam out on the curving cheek of the rock his +foot slid, he lost his equilibrium, was on the edge of falling, +overbalanced by the top-heavy pack he was carrying. Luckily Sam himself +was portaging the canoe. Dick, with marvellous quickness, ducked loose +from the tump-line. The pack bounded down the slant, fell with a splash, +and was whirled away. With the impetus of the same motion the young man +twisted himself as violently as possible to regain his footing. He would +probably have succeeded had it not been for the Indian girl. She had +been following the two, a few steps in the rear. As Dick's foot turned, +she slipped her own pack and sprang forward, reaching out her arm in the +hope of steadying him. Unfortunately she did this only in time to get in +the way of the strong twist Dick made for recovery. The young man +tottered for an instant on the very brink of saving himself, then gave +it up, and fell as loosely as possible into the current. + +May-may-gwan, aghast at what she had done, stood paralyzed, staring into +the gorge. Sam swung the canoe from his shoulders and ran on over the +hill and down the other side. + +The Indian girl saw the inert body of the woodsman dashed down through +the moil and water, now showing an arm, now a leg, only once, for a +single instant, the head. Twice it hit obstacles, limp as a sack of +flour. Then it disappeared. + +Immediately she regained the use of her legs, and scrambled over the +hill after Sam, her breath strangling her. She found below the rapids a +pool, and half in the water at its edge Dick seated, bruised and cut, +spitting water, and talking excitedly to his companion. Instantly she +understood. The young woods runner, with the rare quickness of expedient +peculiar to these people, had allowed himself to be carried through the +rapids muscle-loose, as an inanimate object would be carried, without an +attempt to help himself in any way. It was a desperate chance, but it +was the only chance. The slightest stiffening of the muscles, the least +struggle would have thrown him out of the water's natural channel +against the bowlders; and then a rigidly held body would have offered +only too good a resistance to the shock. By a miracle of fortune he had +been carried through, bruised and injured, to be sure, but conscious. +Sam had dragged him to the bush-grown bank. There he sat up in the water +and cleared his lungs. He was wildly excited. + +"She did it!" he burst Out, as soon as he could speak. "She did it a +purpose! She reached out and pushed me! By God, there she is now!" + +With the instinct of the hunter he had managed to cling to his rifle. He +wrenched at the magazine lever, throwing the muzzle forward for a shot, +but it had been jammed, and he was unable to move it. "She reached out +and pushed me! I felt her do it!" he cried. He attempted to rise, but +fell back, groaning with a pain that kept him quiet for several moments. + +"Sam!" he muttered, "she's there yet. Kill her. Damn it, didn't you see! +I had my balance again, and she pushed me! She had it in for me!" His +face whitened for an instant as he moved, then flooded with a red anger. +"My God!" he cried, in the anguish of a strong man laid low, "she's +busted me all over!" He wrenched loose his shoulders from Sam's support, +struggled to his knees, and fell back, a groan of pain seeming fairly to +burst from his heart. His head hit sharply against a stone. He lay +still. + +"May-may-gwan!" called Sam Bolton, sharply. + +She came at once, running eagerly, the paralysis of her distress broken +by his voice. Sam directed her by nods of the head. With some difficulty +they carried the unconscious man to the flat and laid him down, his head +on Sam's rolled coat. Then, while May-may-gwan, under his curtly +delivered directions, built a fire, heated water, carried down the two +remaining packs and opened them, Sam tenderly removed Dick's clothes, +and examined him from head to foot. The cuts on the head were nothing to +a strong man; the bruises less. Manipulation discovered nothing wrong +with the collar-bone and ribs. But at last Sam uttered a quick +exclamation of discovery. + +Dick's right ankle was twisted strongly outward and back. + +An inexperienced man would have pronounced it a dislocation, but Sam +knew better. He knew better because just once, nearly fifteen years +before, he had assisted Dr. Cockburn at Conjuror's House in the caring +for exactly such an accident. Now he stood for some moments in silence +recalling painfully each little detail of what he had observed and of +what the physician had told him. + +Rapidly by means of twigs and a tracing on the wet sand he explained to +May-may-gwan what was the matter and what was to be done. The fibula, or +outer bone of the leg, had been snapped at its lower end just above the +ankle, the foot had been dislocated to one side, and either the inner +ligament of the ankle had given way, or--what would be more serious--one +of the ankle-bones itself had been torn. Sam Bolton realised fully that +it was advisable to work with the utmost rapidity, before the young man +should regain consciousness, in order that the reduction of the fracture +might be made while the muscles were relaxed. Nevertheless, he took time +both to settle his own ideas, and to explain them to the girl. It was +the luckiest chance of Dick Herron's life that he happened to be +travelling with the one man who had assisted in the skilled treatment of +such a case. Otherwise he would most certainly have been crippled. + +Sam first of all pried from the inner construction of the canoe two or +three of the flat cedar strips used to reinforce the bottom. These he +laid in several thicknesses to make a board of some strength. On the +board he folded a blanket in wedge form, the thick end terminating +abruptly three or four inches from the bottom. He laid aside several +buckskin thongs, and set May-may-gwan to ripping bandages of such +articles of clothing as might suit. + +Then he bent the injured leg at the knee. May-may-gwan held it in that +position, while Sam manipulated the foot into what he judged to be the +proper position. Especially did he turn the foot strongly inward that +the inner ankle-bone might fall to its place. As to the final result he +confessed himself almost painfully in doubt, but did the best he knew. +He remembered the post-surgeon's cunning comments, and tried to assure +himself that the fractured ends of the bones met each other fairly, +without the intervention of tendons or muscle-covering, and that there +was no obstruction to the movements of the ankle. When he had finished, +his brow was wrinkled with anxiety, but he was satisfied that he had +done to the limit of his knowledge. + +May-may-gwan now held the cedar board, with its pad, against the inside +of the leg. Sam bound the thin end of the wedge-shaped blanket to the +knee. Thus the thick end of the pad pressed against the calf just above +the ankle, leaving the foot and the injured bone free of the board. Sam +passed a broad buckskin thong about the ankle and foot in such a manner +as to hold the foot from again turning out. Thus the fracture was fixed +in place. The bandages were wound smoothly to hold everything secure. + +The two then, with the utmost precaution, carried their patient up the +bank to a level space suitable for a camp, where he was laid as flat as +possible. The main business was done, although still there remained +certain cuts and contusions, especially that on the forehead, which had +stunned him. + +After the reduction of the fracture,--which was actually consummated +before Dick regained his consciousness,--and the carrying of the young +man to the upper flat, Sam curtly instructed May-may-gwan to gather +balsam for the dressing of the various severer bruises. She obtained the +gum, a little at a time, from a number of trees. Here and there, where +the bark had cracked or been abraded, hard-skinned blisters had exuded. +These, when pricked, yielded a liquid gum, potent in healing. While she +was collecting this in a quickly fashioned birch-bark receptacle, Sam +made camp. + +He realised fully that the affair was one of many weeks, if not of +months. On the flat tongue overlooking the river he cleared a wide +space, and with the back of his axe he knocked the hummocks flat. A +score or so of sapling poles he trimmed. Three he tied together +tripod-wise, using for the purpose a strip of the inner bark of cedar. +The rest he leaned against these three. He postponed, until later, the +stripping of birch-bark to cover this frame, and gave his attention to +laying a soft couch for Dick's convalescence. The foundation he made of +caribou-moss, gathered dry from the heights; the top of balsam boughs +cleverly thatched so that the ends curved down and in, away from the +recumbent body. Over all he laid what remained of his own half blanket. +Above the bed he made a framework from which a sling would be hung to +suspend the injured leg. + +All this consumed not over twenty minutes. At the end of that time he +glanced up to meet Dick's eyes. + +"Leg broke," he answered the inquiry in them. "That's all." + +"That girl--," began Dick. + +"Shut up!" said Sam. + +He moved here and there, constructing, by means of flat stones, a trough +to be used as a cooking-range. At the edge of the clearing he met the +Indian girl returning with her little birch-bark saucer. + +"Little Sister," said he. + +She raised her eyes to him. + +"I want the truth." + +"What truth, Little Father?" + +He looked searchingly into her eyes. + +"It does not matter; I have it," he replied. + +She did not ask him further. If she had any curiosity, she did not +betray it; if she had any suspicion of what he meant, she did not show +it. + +Sam returned to where Dick lay. + +"Look here, Sam," said he, "this comes of--" + +"Shut up!" said Sam again. "Look here, you, you've made trouble enough. +Now you're laid up, and you're laid up for a good long while. This ain't +any ordinary leg break. It means three months, and it may mean that +you'll never walk straight again. It's got to be treated mighty +careful, and you've got to do just what I tell you. You just behave +yourself. It wasn't anybody's fault. That girl had nothing to do with +it. If you weren't a great big fool you'd know it. We both got to take +care of you. Now you treat her decent, and you treat me decent. It's +time you came off." + +He said it as though he meant it. Nevertheless it was with the most +elaborate tenderness that he, assisted by May-may-gwan, carried Dick to +his new quarters. But in spite of the utmost care, the transportation +was painful. The young man was left with no strength. The rest of the +afternoon he dozed in a species of torpor. + +Sam's energy toward permanent establishment did not relax. He took a +long tramp in search of canoe birches, from which at last he brought +back huge rolls of thick bark. These he and the girl sewed together in +overlapping seams, using white spruce-roots for the purpose. The result +was a water-tight covering for the wigwam. A pile of firewood was the +fruit of two hours' toil. In the meantime May-may-gwan had caught some +fish with the hook and line and had gathered some berries. She made +Dick a strong broth of dried meat. At evening the old man and the girl +ate their meal together at the edge of the bluff overlooking the broil +of the river. They said little, but somehow the meal was peaceful, with +a content unknown in the presence of the impatient and terrible young +man. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +During the days that ensued a certain intimacy sprang up between Sam +Bolton and the Indian girl. At first their talk was brief and confined +to the necessities. Then matters of opinion, disjointed, fragmentary, +began to creep in. Finally the two came to know each other, less by what +was actually said, than by the attitude of mind such confidences +presupposed. One topic they avoided. Sam, for all his shrewdness, could +not determine to what degree had persisted the young man's initial +attraction for the girl. Of her devotion there could be no question, but +in how much it depended on the necessity of the moment lay the puzzle. +Her demeanor was inscrutable. Yet Sam came gradually to trust to her +loyalty. + +In the soft, sweet open-air life the days passed stately in the manner +of figures on an ancient tapestry. Certain things were each morning to +be done,--the dressing of Dick's cuts and contusions with the healing +balsam, the rebandaging and adjusting of the splints and steadying +buckskin strap; the necessary cooking and cleaning; the cutting of wood; +the fishing below the rapids; the tending of traps; the occasional +hunting of larger game; the setting of snares for rabbits. From certain +good skins of the latter May-may-gwan was engaged in weaving a blanket, +braiding the long strips after a fashion of her own. She smoked tanned +buckskin, and with it repaired thoroughly both the men's garments and +her own. These things were to be done, though leisurely, and with slow, +ruminative pauses for the dreaming of forest dreams. + +But inside the wigwam Dick Herron lay helpless, his hands clenched, his +eyes glaring red with an impatience he seemed to hold his breath to +repress. Time was to be passed. That was all he knew, all he thought +about, all he cared. He seized the minutes grimly and flung them behind +him. So absorbed was he in this, that he seemed to give grudgingly and +hastily his attention to anything else. He never spoke except when +absolutely necessary; it almost seemed that he never moved. Of Sam he +appeared utterly unconscious. The older man performed the little +services about him quite unnoticed. The Indian girl Dick would not +suffer near him at all. Twice he broke silence for what might be called +commentatorial speech. + +"It'll be October before we can get started," he growled one evening. + +"Yes," said Sam. + +"You wait till I _can_ get out!" he said on another occasion, in vague +threat of determination. + +At the beginning of the third week Sam took his seat by the moss and +balsam pallet and began to fill his pipe in preparation for a serious +talk. + +"Dick," said he, "I've made up my mind we've wasted enough time here." + +Herron made no reply. + +"I'm going to leave you here and go to look over the other hunting +districts by myself." + +Still no reply. + +"Well?" demanded Sam. + +"What about me?" asked Dick. + +"The girl will take care of you." + +A long silence ensued. "She'll take everything we've got and get out," +said Dick at last. + +"She will not! She'd have done it before now." + +"She'll quit me the first Injuns that come along." + +Sam abandoned the point. + +"You needn't take the risk unless you want to. If you say so, I'll +wait." + +"Oh, damn the risk," cried Dick, promptly. "Go ahead." + +The woodsman smoked. + +"Sam," said the younger man. + +"What?" + +"I know I'm hard to get along with just now. Don't mind me. It's hell to +lie on your back and be able to do nothing. I've seemed to hinder the +game from the first. Just wait till I'm up again!" + +"That's all right, my boy," replied Sam. "I understand. Don't worry. +Just take it easy. I'll look over the district, so we won't be losing +any time. And, Dick, be decent to the girl." + +"To hell with the girl," growled Dick, lapsing abruptly from his +expansive mood. "She got me into this." + +Not another word would he speak, but lay, staring upward, chewing the +cud of resentment. + +Promptly on the heels of his decision Sam Bolton had a long talk with +May-may-gwan, then departed carrying a little pack. It was useless to +think now of the canoe, and in any case the time of year favoured +cross-country travel. The distances, thus measured, were not excessive, +and from the Indian's descriptions, Sam's slow-brooding memory had +etched into his mind an accurate map of the country. + +At noon the girl brought Dick his meal. After he had eaten she removed +the few utensils. Then she returned. + +"The Little Father commanded that I care for your hurt," she said, +simply. + +"My leg's all right now," growled Dick. "I can bandage it myself." + +May-may-gwan did not reply, but left the tent. In a moment she +reappeared carrying forked switches, a square of white birch-bark, and a +piece of charcoal. + +"Thus it is," said she rapidly. "These be the leg bones and this the +bone of the ankle. This bone is broken, so. Thus it is held in place by +the skill of the Little Father. Thus it is healing, with stiffness of +the muscles and the gristle, so that always Eagle eye will walk like +wood, and never will he run. The Little Father has told May-may-gwan +what there is to do. It is now the time. Fifteen suns have gone since +the hurt." + +She spoke simply. Dick, interested in spite of himself, stared at the +switches and the hasty charcoal sketch. The dead silence hung for a full +minute. Then the young man fell back from his elbow with an enigmatical +snort. May-may-gwan assumed consent and set to work on the simple yet +delicate manipulations, massages, and flexings, which, persisted in with +due care lest the fracture slip, would ultimately restore the limb to +its full usefulness. + +Once a day she did this, thrice a day she brought food. The rest of the +time she was busy about her own affairs; but never too occupied to loop +up a section of the tepee covering for the purpose of admitting fresh +air, to bring a cup of cold water, to readjust the sling which suspended +the injured leg, or to perform an hundred other little services. She did +these things with inscrutable demeanour. As Dick always accepted them in +silence, she offered them equally in silence. No one could have guessed +the thoughts that passed in her heart. + +At the end of a week Dick raised himself suddenly on his elbow. + +"Some one is coming!" he exclaimed, in English. + +At the sound of his voice the girl started forward. Her mouth parted, +her eyes sparkled, her nostrils quivered. Nothing could have been more +pathetic than this sudden ecstatic delight, as suddenly extinguished +when she perceived that the exclamation was involuntary and not +addressed to her. In a moment Sam Bolton appeared, striding out of the +forest. + +He unslung his little pack, leaned his rifle against a tree, consigned +to May-may-gwan a dog he was leading, and approached the wigwam. He +seemed in high good humour. + +"Well, how goes it?" he greeted. + +But at the sight of the man striding in his strength Dick's dull anger +had fallen on him again like a blanket. Unreasonably, as he himself well +knew, he was irritated. Something held him back from the utterance of +the hearty words of greeting that had been on his tongue. A dull, +apathetic indifference to everything except the chains of his +imprisonment enveloped his spirit. + +"All right," he answered, grudgingly. + +Sam deftly unwound the bandages, examining closely the condition of the +foot. + +"Bone's in place all right," he commented. "Has the girl rubbed it and +moved it every day?" + +"Yes." + +"Any pain to amount to anything now?" + +"Pretty dull work lying on your back all day with nothing to do." + +"Yes." + +"Took in the country to southeast. Didn't find anything. Picked up a +pretty good dog. Part 'husky.'" + +Dick had no comment to make on this. Sam found May-may-gwan making +friends with the dog, feeding him little scraps, patting his head, above +all wrinkling the end of his pointed nose in one hand and batting it +softly with the palm of the other. This caused the dog to sneeze +violently, but he exhibited every symptom of enjoyment. The animal had +long, coarse hair, sharp ears set alertly forward, a bushy tail, and +an expression of great but fierce intelligence. + +[Illustration: "Listen, Little Sister," said he. "Now I go on a long +journey"] + +"Eagle-eye does well," said the woodsman. + +"I have done as the Little Father commanded," she replied, and arose to +cook the meal. + +The next day Sam constructed a pair of crutches well padded with moss. + +"Listen, Little Sister," said he. "Now I go on a long journey, perhaps +fifteen suns, perhaps one moon. At the end of six suns more Jibibanisi +may rise. His leg must be slung, thus. Never must he touch the foot to +the ground, even for an instant. You must see to it. I will tell him, +also. Each day he must sit in the sun. He must do something. When snow +falls we will again take the long trail. Prepare all things for it. Give +Eagle-eye materials to work with." + +To Dick he spoke with like directness. + +"I'm off again, Dick," said he. "There's no help for it; you've got to +lay up there for a week yet. Then the girl will show you how to tie your +leg out of the way, and you can move on crutches. If you rest any weight +on that foot before I get back, you'll be stiff for life. I shouldn't +advise you to take any chances. Suit yourself; but I should try to do +no more than get out in the sun. You won't be good for much before snow. +You can get things organised. She'll bring you the stuff to work on, and +will help. So long." + +"Good-by," muttered Dick. He breathed hard, fully occupied with the +thought of his helplessness, with blind, unappeasable rage against the +chance that had crippled him, with bitter and useless questionings as to +why such a moment should have been selected for the one accident of his +young life. Outside he could hear the crackle of the little fire, the +unusual sound of the Indian girl's voice as she talked low to the dog, +the animal's whine of appreciation and content. Suddenly he felt the +need of companionship, the weariness of his own unending, revolving +thoughts. + +"Hi!" he called aloud. + +May-may-gwan almost instantly appeared in the entrance, a scarcely +concealed hope shining in her eyes. This was the first time she had been +summoned. + +"Ninny-moosh--the dog," commanded Dick, coldly. + +She turned to whistle the beast. He came at once, already friends with +this human being, who understood him. + +"Come here, old fellow," coaxed Dick, holding out his hand. + +But the half-wild animal was in doubt. He required assurance of this +man's intentions. Dick gave himself to the task of supplying it. For the +first time in a month his face cleared of its discontent. The old, +winning boyishness returned. May-may-gwan, standing forgotten, in the +entrance, watched in silence. Dick coaxed knowingly, leading, by the +very force of persuasion, until the dog finally permitted a single pat +of his sharp nose. The young man smoothly and cautiously persisted, his +face alight with interest. Finally he conquered. The animal allowed his +ears to be rubbed, his nose to be batted. At length, well content, he +lay down by his new master within reach of the hand that rested +caressingly on his head. The Indian girl stole softly away. At the +fireside she seated herself and gazed in the coals. Presently the marvel +of two tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them away and set about +supper. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +Whether it was that the prospect of getting about, or the diversion of +the dog was responsible for the change, Dick's cheerfulness markedly +increased in the next few days. For hours he would fool with the animal, +whom he had named Billy, after a hunting companion, teaching him to +shake hands, to speak, to wrinkle his nose in a doggy grin, to lie down +at command, and all the other tricks useful and ornamental that go to +make up the fanciest kind of a dog education. The mistakes and successes +of his new friend seemed to amuse him hugely. Often from the tent burst +the sounds of inextinguishable mirth. May-may-gwan, peeping, saw the +young man as she had first seen him, clear-eyed, laughing, the wrinkles +of humour deepening about his eyes, his white teeth flashing, his brow +untroubled. Three days she hovered thus on the outer edge of the renewed +good feeling, then timidly essayed an advance. + +Unobtrusive, she slipped inside the teepee's flap. The dog sat on his +haunches, his head to one side in expectation. + +"The dog is a good dog," she said, her breath choking her. + +Apparently the young man had not heard. + +"It will be well to name the dog that he may answer to his name," she +ventured again. + +Dick, abruptly gripped by the incomprehensible obsession, uneasy as at +something of which he only waited the passing, resentful because of the +discomfort this caused him, unable to break through the artificial +restraint that enveloped his spirit, lifted his eyes suddenly, dead and +lifeless, to hers. + +"It is time to lift the net," he said. + +The girl made no more advances. She moved almost automatically about her +accustomed tasks, preparing the materials for what remained to be done. + +Promptly on the seventh day, with much preparation and precaution, Dick +moved. He had now to suffer the girl's assistance. When he first stood +upright, he was at once attacked by a severe dizziness, which would have +caused a fall had not May-may-gwan steadied him. With difficulty he +hobbled to a seat outside. Even his arms seemed to him pithless. He sank +to his place hard-breathed, exhausted. It was some minutes before he +could look about him calmly. + +The first object to catch his eye was the cardinal red of a moose-maple, +like a spot of blood on velvet-green. And thus he knew that September, +or the Many-caribou-in-the-woods Moon, was close at hand. + +"Hi!" he called. + +May-may-gwan came as before, but without the look of expectation in her +eyes. + +"Bring me wood of mashkigiwateg, wood of tamarack," he commanded; "bring +me mokamon, the knife, and tschi-mokamon, the large knife; bring the +hide of ah-tek, the caribou." + +"These things are ready, at hand," she replied. + +With the _couteau croche_, the crooked knife of the North, Dick laboured +slowly, fashioning with care the long tamarack strips. He was +exceedingly particular as to the selection of the wood, as to the taper +of the pieces. At last one was finished to his satisfaction. Slowly then +he fashioned it, moulding the green wood, steaming it to make it more +plastic, until at last the ends lay side by side, and the loop of wood +bowed above in the shape of a snow-shoe raquette. The exact shape Dick +still further assured by means of two cross-pieces. These were bound in +place by the strips of the caribou-skin rawhide wet in warm water, which +was also used to bind together the two ends. The whole was then laid +aside to dry. + +Thus in the next few days Dick fashioned the frame of six snow-shoes. He +adhered closely to the Ojibway pattern. In these woods it was not +necessary to have recourse to the round, broad shape of the rough +bowlder-hills, nor was it possible to use the long, swift shoe of the +open plains. After a while he heated red the steel end of his rifle +cleaning-rod and bored holes for the webbing. This also he made of +caribou rawhide, for caribou shrinks when wet, thus tightening the +lacing where other materials would stretch. Above and below the +cross-pieces he put in a very fine weaving; between them a coarser, that +the loose snow might readily sift through. Each strand he tested again +and again; each knot he made doubly sure. + +Nor must it be imagined that he did these things alone. May-may-gwan +helped him, not only by fetching for him the tools and materials, of +which he stood in need, but also in the bending, binding, and webbing +itself. Under the soft light of the trees, bathed in the aroma of fresh +shavings and the hundred natural odours of the forest, it was +exceedingly pleasant accurately to accomplish the light skilled labour. +But between these human beings, alone in a vast wilderness, was no +communication outside the necessities of the moment. Thus in a little +the three pairs of snow-shoes, complete even to the buckskin foot-loops, +hung from the sheltered branch of a spruce. + +"Bring now to me," said the young man, "poles of the hickory, logs of +gijik, the cedar; bring me wigwass, the birch-bark, and the rawhide of +mooswa, the moose." + +"These things are at hand," repeated May-may-gwan. + +Then ensued days of severe toil. Dick was, of course, unable to handle +the axe, so the girl had to do it under his direction. The affair was of +wedges with which to split along the grain; of repeated attempts until +the resulting strips were true and without warp; of steaming and tying +to the proper curve, and, finally, of binding together strongly with the +tough _babiche_ into the shape of the dog-sledge. This, too, was +suspended at last beneath the sheltering spruce. + +"Bring me now," said Dick, "rawhide of mooswa, the moose, rawhide of +ah-tek, the caribou, watab, the root for sewing." + +Seated opposite each other, heads bent over the task, they made the +dog-harness, strong, serviceable, not to be worn out, with the collar, +the broad buckskin strap over the back, the heavy traces. Four of them +they made, for Sam would undoubtedly complete the team, and these, too, +they hung out of reach in the spruce-tree. + +Now Sam returned from his longest trip, empty of information, but light +of spirit, for he had succeeded by his simple shrewdness in avoiding all +suspicion. He brought with him another "husky" dog, and a strong animal +like a Newfoundland; also some tea and tobacco, and an axe-blade. This +latter would be especially valuable. In the extreme cold steel becomes +like glass. The work done earned his approval, but he paused only a +day, and was off again. + +From the inside of the teepee hung many skins of the northern hare which +May-may-gwan had captured and tanned while Dick was still on his back. +The woven blanket was finished. Now she lined the woollen blankets with +these hare-skins, over an hundred to each. Nothing warmer could be +imagined. Of caribou skin, tanned with the hair on, she and Dick +fashioned jackets with peaked hoods, which, when not in use, would hang +down behind. The opening about the face was sewn with bushy fox's tails, +and a puckering-string threaded through so that the wearer could +completely protect his features. Mittens they made from pelts of the +muskrat. Moccasins were cut extra large and high, and lined with fur of +the hare. Heavy rawhide dog-whips and buckskin gun-cases completed the +simple winter outfit. + +But still there remained the question of sustenance. Game would be +scarce and uncertain in the cold months. + +It was now seven weeks since Dick's accident. Cautiously, with many +pauses, he began to rest weight on the injured foot. Thanks to the +treatment of massage and manipulation, the joint was but little +stiffened. Each day it gained in strength. Shortly Dick was able to +hobble some little distance, always with the aid of a staff, always +heedfully. As yet he was far from the enjoyment of full freedom of +movement, but by expenditure of time and perseverance he was able to +hunt in a slow, patient manner. The runways where the caribou came to +drink late in the evening, a cautious float down-stream as far as the +first rapids, or even a plain sitting on a log in the hope that game +would chance to feed within range--these methods persisted in day after +day brought in a fair quantity of meat. + +Of the meat they made some jerky for present consumption by the dogs, +and, of course, they ate fresh as much as they needed. But most went +into pemmican. The fat was all cut away, the lean sliced thin and dried +in the sun. The result they pounded fine, and mixed with melted fat and +the marrow, which, in turn, was compressed while warm into air-tight +little bags. A quantity of meat went into surprisingly little pemmican. +The bags were piled on a long-legged scaffolding out of the reach of +the dogs and wild animals. + +The new husky and Billy had promptly come to teeth, but Billy had held +his own, much to Dick Herron's satisfaction. The larger animal was a +bitch, so now all dwelt together in amity. During the still hunt they +were kept tied in camp, but the rest of the time they prowled about. +Never, however, were they permitted to leave the clearing, for that +would frighten the game. At evening they sat in an expectant row, +awaiting the orderly distribution of their evening meal. Somehow they +added much to the man-feel of the camp. With their coming the atmosphere +of men as opposed to the atmosphere of the wilderness had strengthened. +On this side was the human habitation, busy at its own affairs, creating +about itself a definite something in the forest, unknown before, +preparing quietly and efficiently its weapons of offence and defence, +all complete in its fires and shelters and industries and domestic +animals. On the other, formidable, mysterious, vast, were slowly +crystallising, without disturbance, without display, the mighty opposing +forces. In the clarified air of the first autumn frosts this antagonism +seemed fairly to saturate the stately moving days. It was as yet only +potential, but the potentialities were swelling, ever swelling toward +the break of an actual conflict. + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +Now the leaves ripened and fell, and the frost crisped them. Suddenly +the forest was still. The great, brooding silence, composed of a +thousand lesser woods voices, flowed away like a vapour to be succeeded +by a fragile, deathly suspension of sound. Dead leaves depended +motionless from the trees. The air hung inert. A soft sunlight lay +enervated across the world. + +In the silence had been a vast, holy mystery of greater purpose and +life; in the stillness was a menace. It became the instant of poise +before the break of something gigantic. + +And always across it were rising strange rustlings that might mean great +things or little, but whose significance was always in doubt. Suddenly +the man watching by the runway would hear a mighty scurrying of dead +leaves, a scampering, a tumult of hurrying noises, the abruptness of +whose inception tightened his nerves and set galloping his heart. Then, +with equal abruptness, they ceased. The delicate and fragile stillness +settled down. + +In all the forest thus diverse affairs seemed to be carried +on--fearfully, in sudden, noisy dashes, as a man under fire would dodge +from one cover to another. Every creature advertised in the leaves his +presence. Danger lurked to this, its advantage. Even the man, taking his +necessary footsteps, was abashed at the disproportionate and unusual +effects of his movements. It was as though a retiring nature were to be +accompanied at every step through a crowded drawing-room by the jingling +of bells. Always the instinct was to pause in order that the row might +die away, that the man might shrink to his accustomed unobtrusiveness. +And instantaneously, without the grace of even a little transitional +echo, the stillness fell, crowding so closely on the heels of the man's +presence that almost he could feel the breath of whatever it +represented. + +Occasionally two red squirrels would descend from the spruce-trees to +chase each other madly. Then, indeed, did the spirit of autumn seem to +be outraged. The racket came to be an insult. Always the ear expected +its discontinuance, until finally the persistence ground on the nerves +like the barking of a dog at night. At last it was an indecency, an orgy +of unholy revel, a profanation, a provocative to anger of the +inscrutable woods god. Then stillness again with the abruptness of a +sword-cut. + +Always the forest seemed to be the same; and yet somehow in a manner not +to be defined a subtle change was taking place in the wilderness. +Nothing definite could be instanced. Each morning of that Indian summer +the skies were as soft, the sun as grateful, the leaves as gorgeous in +their blazonment, yet each morning an infinitesimal something that had +been there the day before was lacking, and for it an infinitesimal +something had been substituted. The change from hour to hour was not +perceptible; from week to week it was. The stillness grew in portent; +the forest creatures moved more furtively. Like growth, rather than +chemical change; the wilderness was turning to iron. With this hardening +it became more formidable and menacing. No longer aloof in nirvanic +calm, awakened it drew near its enemies, alert, cunning, circumspect, +ready to strike. + +Each morning a thin film of ice was to be seen along the edges of the +slack water. Heavy, black frosts whitened the shadows and nipped the +unaccustomed fingers early in the day. The sun was swinging to the +south, lengthening the night hours. Whitefish were running in the river. + +These last the man and the girl caught in great numbers, and smoked and +piled on long-legged scaffolds. They were intended as winter food for +the dogs, and would constitute a great part of what would be taken along +when the journey should commence. + +Dick began to walk without his crutches, a very little at a time, +grimly, all his old objectless anger returned when the extent of his +disability was thus brought home to him. But always with persistence +came improvement. Each attempt brought its reward in strengthened +muscles, freer joints, greater confidence. At last it could be no longer +doubted that by the Indian's Whitefish Moon he would be as good as ever. +The discovery, by some queer contrariness of the man's disposition, was +avoided as long as possible, and finally but grudgingly admitted. Yet +when at last Dick confessed to himself that his complete recovery was +come, his mood suddenly changed. The old necessity for blind, +unreasoning patience seemed at an end. He could perceive light ahead, +and so in the absence of any further need for taut spiritual nerves, he +relaxed the strain and strode on more easily. He played more with the +dogs--of which still his favourite was Billy; occasionally he burst into +little snatches of song, and the sound of his whistling was merry in the +air. At length he paused abruptly in his work to fix his quizzical, +narrow gaze on the Indian girl. + +"Come, Little Sister," said he, "let us lift the nets." + +She looked up at him, a warm glow leaping to her face. This was the +first time he had addressed her by the customary diminutive of +friendship since they had both been members of the Indian camp on the +Missinaibie. + +They lifted the net together, and half-filled the canoe with the shining +fish. Dick bore himself with the careless good humour of his earlier +manner. The greater part of the time he seemed unconscious of his +companion's presence, but genuinely unconscious, not with the +deliberate affront of a pretended indifference. Under even this negative +good treatment the girl expanded with an almost luxuriant gratitude. Her +face lost its stoical mask of imperturbability, and much of her former +arch beauty returned. The young man was blind to these things, for he +was in reality profoundly indifferent to the girl, and his abrupt change +of manner could in no way be ascribed to any change in his feeling for +her. It was merely the reflex of his inner mood, and that sprang solely +from joy over the permission he had given himself again to contemplate +taking the Long Trail. + +But Sam Bolton, returning that very day from his own long journey, saw +at once the alteration in May-may-gwan, and was troubled over it. He +came into camp by the river way where the moss and spruce-needles +silenced his footsteps, so he approached unnoticed. The girl bent over +the fire. A strong glow from the flames showed the stronger glow +illuminating her face from within. She hummed softly a song of the +Ojibway language: + + "Mong-o doog-win + Nin dinaindoon--" + "Loon's wing I thought it was + In the distance shining. + But it was my lover's paddle + In the distance shining." + +Then she looked up and saw him. + +"Little Father!" she cried, pleased. + +At the same moment Dick caught sight of the new-comer and hobbled out of +the wigwam. + +"Hello, you old snoozer!" he shouted. "We began to think you weren't +going to show up at all. Look at what we've done. I believe you've been +lying out in the woods just to dodge work. Where'd you steal _that_ +dog?" + +"Hello, Dick," replied Sam, unslinging his pack. "I'm tired. Tell her to +rustle grub." + +He leaned back against a cedar, half-closing his eyes, but nevertheless +keenly alert. The changed atmosphere of the camp disturbed him. Although +he had not realised it before, he preferred Dick's old uncompromising +sulkiness. + +In accordance with the woods custom, little was said until after the +meal was finished and the pipes lit. Then Dick inquired: + +"Well, where you been this time, and what did you find?" + +Sam replied briefly as to his journey, making it clear that he had now +covered all the hunting districts of this region with the single +exception of one beyond the Kenogami. He had discovered nothing; he was +absolutely sure that nothing was to be discovered. + +"I didn't go entirely by what the Injuns told me," he said, "but I +looked at the signs along the trapping routes and the trapping camps to +see how many had been at it, and I'm sure the number tallies with the +reg'lar Injun hunters. I picked up that dog over to Leftfoot Lake. Come +here, pup!" + +The animal slouched forward, his head hanging, the rims of his eyes +blood red as he turned them up to his master. He was a powerful beast, +black and tan, with a quaintly wrinkled, anxious countenance and long, +pendent ears. + +"Strong," commented Dick, "but queer-looking. He'll have trouble keeping +warm with that short coat." + +"He's wintered here already," replied Sam, indifferently. "Go lie +down!" + +The dog slouched slowly back, his heavy head and ears swinging to each +step, to where May-may-gwan was keeping his peace with the other +animals. + +"Now for that Kenogami country," went on Sam; "it's two weeks from here +by dogs, and it's our last chance in this country. I ain't dared ask too +many questions, of course, so I don't know anything about the men who're +hunting there. There's four families, and one other. He's alone; I got +that much out of the last place I stopped. We got to wait here for snow. +If we don't raise anything there, we'd better get over toward the +Nipissing country." + +"All right," said Dick. + +The older man began to ask minutely concerning the equipment, +provisions, and dog food. + +"It's all right as long as we can take it easy and hunt," advised Sam, +gradually approaching the subject that was really troubling him, "and +it's all right if we can surprise this Jingoss or ambush him when we +find him. But suppose he catches wind of us and skips, what then? It'll +be a mighty pretty race, my son, and a hard one. We'll have to fly +light and hard, and we'll need every pound of grub we can scrape." + +The young man's eyes darkened and his nostrils expanded with the +excitement of this thought. + +"Just let's strike his trail!" he exclaimed. + +"That's all right," agreed the woodsman, his eyes narrowing; "but how +about the girl, then?" + +But Dick exhibited no uneasiness. He merely grinned broadly. + +"Well, _what_ about the girl? That's what I've been telling you. Strikes +me that's one of your troubles." + +Half-satisfied, the veteran fell silent. Shortly after he made an +opportunity to speak to May-may-gwan. + +"All is well, Little Sister?" he inquired. + +"All is well," she replied; "we have finished the parkas, the sledges, +the snow-shoes, the blankets, and we have made much food." + +"And Jibiwanisi?" + +"His foot is nearly healed. Yesterday he walked to the Big Pool and +back. To-day, even this afternoon, Little Father, the Black Spirit left +him so that he has been gay." + +Convinced that the restored good feeling was the result rather of Dick's +volatile nature than of too good an understanding, the old man left the +subject. + +"Little Sister," he went on, "soon we are going to take the winter +trail. It may be that we will have to travel rapidly. It may be that +food will be scarce. I think it best that you do not go with us." + +She looked up at him. + +"These words I have expected," she replied. "I have heard the speech you +have made with the Ojibway men you have met. I have seen the +preparations you have made. I am not deceived. You and Jibiwanisi are +not looking for winter posts. I do not know what it is you are after, +but it is something you wish to conceal. Since you have not told me, I +know you wish to conceal it from me. I did not know all this when I left +Haukemah and his people. That was a foolish thing. It was done, and I do +not know why. But it was done, and it cannot be undone. I could not go +back to the people of Haukemah now; they would kill me. Where else can I +go? I do not know where the Ojibways, my own people, live." + +"What do you expect to do, if you stay with me?" inquired Sam, +curiously. + +"You come from Conjuror's House. You tell the Indians you come from +Winnipeg, but that is not so. When you have finished your affairs, you +will return to Conjuror's House. There I can enter the household of some +officer." + +"But you cannot take the winter trail," objected Sam. + +"I am strong; I can take the winter trail." + +"And perhaps we may have to journey hard and fast." + +"As when one pursues an enemy," said the girl, calmly. "Good. I am +fleet. I too can travel. And if it comes to that, I will leave you +without complaint when I can no longer tread your trail." + +"But the food," objected Sam, still further. + +"Consider, Little Father," said May-may-gwan; "of the food I have +prepared much; of the work, I have done much. I have tended the traps, +raised the nets, fashioned many things, attended Eagle-eye. If I had +not been here, then you, Little Father, could not have made your +journeys. So you have gained some time." + +"That is true," conceded Sam. + +"Listen, Little Father, take me with you. I will drive the dogs, make +the camp, cook the food. Never will I complain. If the food gets scarce, +I will not ask for my share. That I promise." + +"Much of what you say is true," assented the woodsman, "but you forget +you came to us of your free will and unwelcomed. It would be better that +you go to Missinaibie." + +"No," replied the girl. + +"If you hope to become the squaw of Jibiwanisi," said Sam, bluntly, "you +may as well give it up." + +The girl said nothing, but compressed her lips to a straight line. After +a moment she merely reiterated her original solution: + +"At Conjuror's House I know the people." + +"I will think of it," then concluded Sam. + +Dick, however, could see no good in such an arrangement. He did not care +to discuss the matter at length, but preserved rather the attitude of a +man who has shaken himself free of all the responsibility of an affair, +and is mildly amused at the tribulations of another still involved in +it. + +"You'll have a lot of trouble dragging a squaw all over the north," he +advised Sam, critically. "Of course, we can't turn her adrift here. +Wouldn't do that to a dog. But it strikes me it would even pay us to go +out of our way to Missinaibie to get rid of her. We could do that." + +"Well, I don't know--" doubted Sam. "Of course--" + +"Oh, bring her along if you want to," laughed Dick, "only it's your +funeral. You'll get into trouble, sure. And don't say I didn't tell +you." + +It might have been imagined by the respective attitudes of the two men +that actually Sam had been responsible for the affair from the +beginning. Finally, laboriously, he decided that the girl should go. She +could be of assistance; there was small likelihood of the necessity for +protracted hasty travel. + +The weather was getting steadily colder. Greasy-looking clouds drove +down from the north-west. Heavy winds swept by. The days turned gray. +Under the shelter of trees the ground froze into hummocks, which did not +thaw out. The crisp leaves which had made the forest so noisy +disintegrated into sodden silence. A wildness was in the air, swooping +down with the breeze, buffeting in the little whirlwinds and eddies, +rocking back and forth in the tops of the storm-beaten trees. Cold +little waves lapped against the thin fringe of shore ice that crept day +by day from the banks. The water itself turned black. Strange birds +swirling down wind like leaves uttered weird notes of migration. The +wilderness hardened to steel. + +The inmates of the little camp waited. Each morning Dick was early afoot +searching the signs of the weather; examining the ice that crept +stealthily from shore, waiting to pounce upon and imprison the stream; +speculating on the chances of an early season. The frost pinched his +bare fingers severely, but he did not mind that. His leg was by now +almost as strong as ever, and he was impatient to be away, to leave +behind him this rapid that had gained over him even a temporary victory. +Always as the time approached, his spirits rose. It would have been +difficult to identify this laughing boy with the sullen and terrible man +who had sulked through the summer. He had made friends with all the +dogs. Even the fierce "huskies" had become tame, and liked to be upset +and tousled about and dragged on their backs growling fierce but mock +protest. The bitch he had named Claire; the hound with the long ears he +had called Mack, because of a fancied and mournful likeness to +MacDonald, the Chief Trader; the other "husky" he had christened Wolf, +for obvious reasons; and there remained, of course, the original Billy. +Dick took charge of the feeding. At first he needed his short, heavy +whip to preserve order, but shortly his really admirable gift with +animals gained way, and he had them sitting peacefully in a row awaiting +each his turn. + +At last the skim ice made it impossible longer to use the canoe in +fishing on the river. The craft was, therefore, suspended bottom up +between two trees. A little snow fell and remained, but was speedily +swept into hollows. The temperature lowered. It became necessary to +assume thicker garments. Once having bridged the river the ice +strengthened rapidly. And then late one afternoon, on the wings of the +northwest wind, came the snow. All night it howled past the trembling +wigwam. All the next day it swirled and drifted and took the shapes of +fantastic monsters leaping in the riot of the storm. Then the stars, +cold and brilliant, once more crackled in the heavens. The wilderness in +a single twenty-four hours had changed utterly. Winter had come. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + + +In the starlit, bitter cold of a north country morning the three packed +their sledge and harnessed their dogs. The rawhide was stubborn with the +frost, the dogs uneasy. Knots would not tie. Pain nipped the fingers, +cruel pain that ate in and in until it had exposed to the shock of +little contacts every tightened nerve. Each stiff, clumsy movement was +agony. From time to time one of the three thrust hand in mitten to beat +the freezing back. Then a new red torture surged to the very +finger-tips. They bore it in silence, working hastily, knowing that +every morning of the long, winter trip this fearful hour must come. Thus +each day the North would greet them, squeezing their fingers in the +cruel hand-clasp of an antagonist testing their strength. + +Over the supplies and blankets was drawn the skin envelope laced to the +sledge. The last reluctant knot was tied. Billy, the leader of the four +dogs, casting an intelligent eye at his masters, knew that all was +ready, and so arose from his haunches. Dick twisted his feet skilfully +into the loops of his snow-shoes. Sam, already equipped, seized the +heavy dog-whip. The girl took charge of the gee-pole with which the +sledge would be guided. + +"Mush!--Mush on!" shouted Sam. + +The four dogs leaned into their collars. The sledge creaked free of its +frost anchorage and moved. + +First it became necessary to drop from the elevation to the river-bed. +Dick and May-may-gwan clung desperately. Sam exercised his utmost skill +and agility to keep the dogs straight. The toboggan hovered an instant +over the edge of the bank, then plunged, coasting down. Men hung back, +dogs ran to keep ahead. A smother of light snow settled to show, in the +dim starlight, the furrow of descent. And on the broad, white surface of +the river were eight spot of black which represented the followers of +the Long Trail. + +Dick shook himself and stepped ahead of the dogs. + +"Mush! Mush on!" commanded Sam again. + +Dick ran on steadily in the soft snow, swinging his entire weight now on +one foot, now on the other, passing the snow-shoes with the peculiar +stiff swing of the ankle, throwing his heel strongly downward at each +step in order to take advantage of the long snow-shoe tails' elasticity. +At each step he sank deep into the feathery snow. The runner was forced +to lift the toe of the shoe sharply, and the snow swirled past his +ankles like foam. Behind him, in the trail thus broken and packed for +them, trotted the dogs, their noses low, their jaws hanging. Sam drove +with two long-lashed whips; and May-may-gwan, clinging to the gee-pole, +guided the sledge. + +In the absolute and dead stillness of a winter morning before the dawn +the little train went like ghosts in a mist of starlight. The strange +glimmering that seems at such an hour to disengage from the snow itself +served merely to establish the separate bulks of that which moved across +it. The bending figure of the man breaking trail, his head low, his body +moving in its swing with the regularity of a pendulum; the four +wolf-like dogs, also bending easily to what was not a great labour, the +line of their open jaws and lolling tongues cut out against the snow; +another human figure; the low, dark mass of the sledge; and again the +bending figure at the rear,--all these contrasted in their half-blurred +uncertainty of outline and the suggested motion of their attitude with +the straight, clear silhouette of the spruce-trees against the sky. + +Also the sounds of their travelling offered an analogous contrast. The +dull _crunch, crunch, crunch_ of the snow-shoes, the breathing of the +living beings, the glither and creak of the sledge came to the ear +blurred and confused; utterly unlike the cameo stillness of the winter +dawn. + +Ten minutes of the really violent exertion of breaking trail warmed Dick +through. His fingers ceased their protest. Each breath, blowing to +steam, turned almost immediately to frost. He threw back the hood of his +capote, for he knew that should it become wet from the moisture of his +breath, it would freeze his skin, and with his violent exertions +exposure to the air was nothing. In a short time his eyebrows and +eyelashes became heavy with ice. Then slowly the moisture of his body, +working outward through the wool of his clothing, frosted on the +surface, so that gradually as time went on he grew to look more and more +like a great white-furred animal. + +The driving here on the open river was comparatively easy. Except +occasionally, the straight line could be adhered to. When it became +necessary to avoid an obstruction, Sam gave the command loudly, +addressing Billy as the lead dog. + +"Hu, Billy!" he would cry. + +And promptly Billy would turn to the right. Or: + +"Chac, Billy!" he would cry. + +And Billy would turn to the left, with always in mind the thought of the +long whip to recall his duty to man. + +Then the other dogs turned after him. Claire, for her steadiness and +sense, had been made sledge-dog. Always she watched sagaciously to pull +the end of the sledge strongly away should the deviation not prove +sufficient. Later, in the woods, when the trail should become difficult, +much would depend on Claire's good sense. + +Now shortly, far to the south, the sun rose. The gray world at once +became brilliant. The low frost haze,--invisible until now, to be +invisible all the rest of the day,--for these few moments of the level +beams worked strange necromancies. The prisms of a million ice-drops on +shrubs and trees took fire. A bewildering flash and gleam of jewels +caught the eye in every direction. And, suspended in the air, like the +shimmer of a soft and delicate veiling, wavered and floated a mist of +vapour, tinted with rose and lilac, with amethyst and saffron. + +As always on the Long Trail, our travellers' spirits rose with the sun. +Dick lengthened his stride, the dogs leaned to their collars, Sam threw +back his shoulders, the girl swung the sledge tail with added vim. Now +everything was warm and bright and beautiful. It was yet too early in +the day for fatigue, and the first discomforts had passed. + +But in a few moments Dick stopped. The sledge at once came to a halt. +They rested. + +At the end of ten minutes Sam stepped to the front, and Dick took the +dog-whip. The young man's muscles, still weak from their long inaction, +ached cruelly. Especially was this true of the ligaments at the +groin--used in lifting high the knee,--and the long muscles along the +front of the shinbone,--by which the toe of the snow-shoe was elevated. +He found himself very glad to drop behind into the beaten trail. + +The sun by now had climbed well above the horizon, but did little to +mitigate the cold. As long as the violent movement was maintained a warm +and grateful glow followed the circulation, but a pause, even of a few +moments, brought the shivers. And always the feathery, clogging +snow,--offering slight resistance, it is true, but opposing that slight +resistance continuously, so that at last it amounted to a great deal. A +step taken meant no advance toward easier steps. The treadmill of forest +travel, changed only in outward form, again claimed their dogged +patience. + +At noon they paused in the shelter of the woods. The dogs were anchored +by the simple expedient of turning the sledge on its side. A little fire +of dried spruce and pine branches speedily melted snow in the kettle, +and that as speedily boiled tea. Caribou steak, thawed, then cooked over +the blaze, completed the meal. As soon as it was swallowed they were off +again before the cold could mount them. + +The inspiration and uplift of the morning were gone; the sun was +sinking to a colder and colder setting. All the vital forces of the +world were running down. A lethargy seized our travellers. An effort was +required merely to contemplate treading the mill during the three +remaining hours of daylight, a greater effort to accomplish the first +step of it, and an infinite series of ever-increasing efforts to make +the successive steps of that long afternoon. The mind became weary. And +now the North increased by ever so little the pressure against them, +sharpening the cold by a trifle; adding a few flakes' weight to the snow +they must lift on their shoes; throwing into the vista before them a +deeper, chillier tone of gray discouragement; intensifying the +loneliness; giving to the winds of desolation a voice. Well the great +antagonist knew she could not thus stop these men, but so, little by +little, she ground them down, wore away the excess of their vitality, +reduced them to grim plodding, so that at the moment she would hold them +weakened to her purposes. They made no sign, for they were of the great +men of the earth, but they bent to the familiar touch of many little +fingers pushing them back. + +Now the sun did indeed swing to the horizon, so that there remained +scant daylight. + +"Chac, Billy!" cried Sam, who again wielded the whip. + +Slowly, wearily, the little party turned aside. In the grove of spruce +the snow clung thick and heavy. A cold blackness enveloped them like a +damp blanket. Wind, dying with the sun, shook the snow from the trees +and cried mournfully in their tops. Gray settled on the landscape, +palpable, real, extinguishing the world. It was the second dreadful hour +of the day, the hour when the man, weary, discouraged, the sweat of +travel freezing on him, must still address himself to the task of making +a home in the wilderness. + +Again the sledge was turned on its side. Dick and May-may-gwan removed +their snow-shoes, and, using them as shovels, began vigorously to scrape +and dig away the snow. Sam unstrapped the axe and went for firewood. He +cut it with little tentative strokes, for in the intense cold the steel +was almost as brittle as glass. + +Now a square of ground flanked by high snow walls was laid bare. The two +then stripped boughs of balsam with which to carpet all one end of it. +They unharnessed the dogs, and laid the sledge across one end of the +clear space, covering it with branches in order to keep the dogs from +gnawing the moose-skin wrapper. It was already quite dark. + +But at this point Sam returned with fuel. At once the three set about +laying a fire nearly across the end of the cleared space opposite the +sledge. In a moment a tiny flame cast the first wavering shadows against +the darkness. Silently the inimical forces of the long day withdrew. + +Shortly the camp was completed. Before the fire, impaled on sticks, hung +the frozen whitefish thawing out for the dogs. Each animal was to +receive two. The kettle boiled. Meat sizzled over the coals. A piece of +ice, whittled to a point, dripped drinking-water like a faucet. The +snow-bank ramparts were pink in the glow. They reflected appreciably the +heat of the fire, though they were not in the least affected by it, and +remained flaky to the touch. A comfortable sizzling and frying and +bubbling and snapping filled the little dome of firelight, beyond which +was the wilderness. Weary with an immense fatigue the three lay back +waiting for their supper to be done. The dogs, too, waited patiently +just at the edge of the heat, their bushy tails covering the bottoms of +their feet and their noses, as nature intended. Only Mack, the hound, +lacking this protection, but hardened to greater exposure, lay flat on +his side, his paws extended to the blaze. They all rested quietly, worn +out, apparently without the energy to move a single hair. But now Dick, +rising, took down from its switch the first of the whitefish. Instantly +every dog was on his feet. Their eyes glared yellow, their jaws +slavered, they leaped toward the man who held the fish high above his +head and kicked energetically at the struggling animals. Sam took the +dog whip to help. Between them the food was distributed, two fish to a +dog. The beasts took each his share to a place remote from the others +and bolted it hastily, returning at once on the chance of a further +distribution, or the opportunity to steal from his companions. After a +little more roaming about, growling and suspicious sniffing, they again +settled down one by one to slumber. + +Almost immediately after supper the three turned in, first removing and +hanging before the fire the duffel and moccasins worn during the day. +These were replaced by larger and warmer sleep moccasins lined with fur. +The warm-lined coverings they pulled up over and around them completely, +to envelop even their heads. This arrangement is comfortable only after +long use has accustomed one to the half-suffocation; but it is +necessary, not only to preserve the warmth of the body, but also to +protect the countenance from freezing. At once they fell into exhausted +sleep. + +As though they had awaited a signal, the dogs arose and proceeded to +investigate the camp. Nothing was too trivial to escape their attention. +Billy found a tiny bit of cooked meat. Promptly he was called on to +protect his discovery against a vigorous onslaught from the hound and +the other husky. Over and over the fighting dogs rolled, snorting and +biting, awakening the echoes of the forest, even trampling the sleepers, +who, nevertheless, did not stir. In the mean time, Claire, uninvolved, +devoured the morsel. The trouble gradually died down. One after another +the animals dug themselves holes in the snow, where they curled up, +their bushy tails over their noses and their fore paws. Only Mack, the +hound with the wrinkled face and long, pendent ears, unendowed with such +protection, crept craftily between his sleeping masters. + +Gradually the fire died to coals, then filmed to ashes. Hand in hand the +cold and the darkness invaded the camp. As the firelight faded, objects +showed dimly, growing ever more distinct through the dying glow--the +snow-laden bushes, the pointed trees against a steel sky of stars. The +little, artificial tumult of homely sound by which these men had created +for the moment an illusion of life sank down under the unceasing +pressure of the verities, so that the wilderness again flowed +unobstructed through the forest aisles. With a last _pop_ of coals the +faint noise of the fire ceased. Then an even fainter noise slowly became +audible, a crackling undertone as of silken banners rustling. And at +once, splendid, barbaric, the mighty orgy of the winter-time aurora +began. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + + +In a day or two Dick was attacked by the fearful _mal de raquette_, +which tortures into knots the muscles of the leg below the knee; and by +cramps that doubled him up in his blankets. This was the direct result +of his previous inaction. He moved only with pain; and yet, by the stern +north-country code, he made no complaint and moved as rapidly as +possible. Each time he raised his knee a sharp pain stabbed his groin, +as though he had been stuck by a penknife; each time he bent his ankle +in the recover the _mal de raquette_ twisted his calves, and stretched +his ankle tendons until he felt that his very feet were insecurely +attached and would drop off. During the evening he sat quiet, but after +he had fallen asleep from the mere exhaustion of the day's toil, he +doubled up, straightened out, groaned aloud, and spoke rapidly in the +strained voice of one who suffers. Often he would strip his legs by the +fire, in order that Sam could twist a cleft stick vigorously about the +affected muscles; which is the Indian treatment. As for the cramps, they +took care of themselves. The day's journey was necessarily shortened +until he had partly recovered, but even after the worst was over, a long +tramp always brought a slight recurrence. + +For the space of nearly ten weeks these people travelled thus in the +region of the Kabinikagam. Sometimes they made long marches; sometimes +they camped for the hunting; sometimes the great, fierce storms of the +north drove them to shelter, snowed them under, and passed on shrieking. +The wind opposed them. At first of little account, its very insistence +gave it value. Always the stinging snow whirling into the face; always +the eyes watering and smarting; always the unyielding opposition against +which to bend the head; always the rush of sound in the ears,--a +distraction against which the senses had to struggle before they could +take their needed cognisance of trail and of game. An uneasiness was +abroad with the wind, an uneasiness that infected the men, the dogs, the +forest creatures, the very insentient trees themselves. It racked the +nerves. In it the inimical Spirit of the North seemed to find its +plainest symbol; though many difficulties she cast in the way were +greater to be overcome. + +Ever the days grew shorter. The sun swung above the horizon, low to the +south, and dipped back as though pulled by some invisible string. +Slanting through the trees it gave little cheer and no warmth. Early in +the afternoon it sank, silhouetting the pointed firs, casting across the +snow long, crimson shadows, which faded into gray. It was replaced by a +moon, chill and remote, dead as the white world on which it looked. + +In the great frost continually the trees were splitting with loud, +sudden reports. The cold had long since squeezed the last drops of +moisture from the atmosphere. It was metallic, clear, hard as ice, +brilliant as the stars, compressed with the freezing. The moon, the +stars, the earth, the very heavens glistened like polished steel. Frost +lay on the land thick as a coverlid. It hid the east like clouds of +smoke. Snow remained unmelted two feet from the camp-fire. + +And the fire alone saved these people from the enemy. If Sam stooped for +a moment to adjust his snow-shoe strap, he straightened his back with a +certain reluctance,--already the benumbing preliminary to freezing had +begun. If Dick, flipping his mitten from his hand to light his pipe, did +not catch the fire at the second tug, he had to resume the mitten and +beat the circulation into his hand before renewing the attempt, lest the +ends of his fingers become frosted. Movement, always and incessantly, +movement alone could keep going the vital forces on these few coldest +days until the fire had been built to fight back the white death. + +It was the land of ghosts. Except for the few hours at midday these +people moved in the gloom and shadow of a nether world. The long +twilight was succeeded by longer night, with its burnished stars, its +dead moon, its unearthly aurora. On the fresh snow were the tracks of +creatures, but in the flesh they glided almost invisible. The +ptarmigan's bead eye alone betrayed him, he had no outline. The ermine's +black tip was the only indication of his presence. Even the larger +animals,--the caribou, the moose--had either turned a dull gray, or were +so rimed by the frost as to have lost all appearance of solidity. It was +ever a surprise to find these phantoms bleeding red, to discover that +their flesh would resist the knife. During the strife of the heavy +northwest storms one side of each tree had become more or less plastered +with snow, so that even their dark trunks flashed mysteriously into and +out of view. In the entire world of the great white silence the only +solid, enduring, palpable reality was the tiny sledge train crawling +with infinite patience across its vastness. + +White space, a feeling of littleness and impotence, twilight gloom, +burnished night, bitter cold, unreality, phantasmagoria, ghosts like +those which surged about Aeneas, and finally clogging, white +silence,--these were the simple but dreadful elements of that journey +which lasted, without event, from the middle of November until the +latter part of January. + +Never in all that time was an hour of real comfort to be anticipated. +The labours of the day were succeeded by the shiverings of the night. +Exhaustion alone induced sleep; and the racking chill of early morning +alone broke it. The invariable diet was meat, tea, and pemmican. Besides +the resolution required for the day's journey and the night's +discomfort, was the mental anxiety as to whether or not game would be +found. Discouragements were many. Sometimes with full anticipation of a +good day's run, they would consume hours in painfully dragging the +sledge over unexpected obstructions. At such times Wolf, always of an +evil disposition, made trouble. Thus besides the resolution of spirit +necessary to the work, there had to be pumped up a surplusage to meet +the demands of difficult dog-driving. And when, as often happened, a +band of the gray wolves would flank them within smelling distance, the +exasperation of it became almost unbearable. Time and again Sam had +almost forcibly to restrain Dick from using the butt of his whip on +Wolf's head. + +Nor could they treat themselves in the weary succession of days to an +occasional visit with human beings. During the course of their journey +they investigated in turn three of the four trapping districts of the +Kabinikagam. But Sam's judgment advised that they should not show +themselves to the trappers. He argued that no sane man would look for +winter posts at this time of year, and it might be difficult otherwise +to explain the presence of white men. It was quite easy to read by the +signs how many people were to be accounted for in each district, and +then it was equally easy to ambush in a tree, during the rounds for +examination of the traps, until their identities had all been +established. It was necessary to climb a tree in order to escape +discovery by the trapper's dog. Of course the trail of our travellers +would be found by the trapper, but unless he actually saw them he would +most probably conclude them to be Indians moving to the west. +Accordingly Dick made long detours to intercept the trappers, and spent +many cold hours waiting for them to pass, while Sam and the girl hunted +in another direction to replenish the supplies. In this manner the +frequenters of these districts had been struck from the list. No one of +them was Jingoss. There remained but one section, and that the most +northerly. If that failed, then there was nothing to do but to retrace +the long, weary journey up the Kabinikagam, past the rapids where Dick +had hurt himself, over the portage, down the Mattawishgina, across the +Missinaibie, on which they had started their travels, to the country of +the Nipissing. Discussing this possibility one rest-time, Dick said: + +"We'd be right back where we started. I think it would pay us to go down +to Brunswick House and get a new outfit. It's only about a week up the +Missinaibie." Then, led by inevitable association of ideas, "Wonder if +those Crees had a good time? And I wonder if they've knocked our friend +Ah-tek, the Chippewa, on the head yet? He was a bad customer." + +"You better hope they have," replied Sam. "He's got it in for you." + +Dick shrugged his shoulders and laughed easily. + +"That's all right," insisted the older man; "just the same, an Injun +never forgets and never fails to get even. You may think he's forgotten, +but he's layin' for you just the same," and then, because they happened +to be resting in the lea of a bank and the sun was at its highest for +the day, Sam went on to detail one example after another from his wide +observation of the tenacity with which an Indian pursues an obligation, +whether of gratitude or enmity. "They'll travel a thousand miles to get +even," he concluded. "They'll drop the most important business they +got, if they think they have a good chance to make a killing. He'll run +up against you some day, my son, and then you'll have it out." + +"All right," agreed Dick, "I'll take care of him. Perhaps I'd better get +organised; he may be laying for me around the next bend." + +"I don't know what made us talk about it," said Sam, "but funnier things +have happened to me." Dick, with mock solicitude, loosened his knife. + +But Sam had suddenly become grave. "I believe in those things," he said, +a little fearfully. "They save a man sometimes, and sometimes they help +him to get what he wants. It's a Chippewa we're after; it's a Chippewa +we've been talkin' about. They's something in it." + +"I don't know what you're driving at," said Dick. + +"I don't know," confessed Sam, "but I have a kind of a hunch we won't +have to go back to the Nipissing." He looked gropingly about, without +seeing, in the manner of an old man. + +"I hope your hunch is a good one," replied Dick. "Well, mush on!" + +The little cavalcade had made barely a dozen steps in advance when Sam, +who was leading, came to a dead halt. + +"Well, what do you make of that?" he asked. + +Across the way lay the trunk of a fallen tree. It had been entirely +covered with snow, whose line ran clear and unbroken its entire length +except at one point, where it dipped to a shallow notch. + +"Well, what do you make of that?" Sam inquired again. + +"What?" asked Dick. + +Sam pointed to the shallow depression in the snow covering the prostrate +tree-trunk. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + + +Dick looked at his companion a little bewildered. + +"Why, you must know as well as I do," he said, "somebody stepped on top +of that log with snow-shoes, and it's snowed since." + +"Yes, but who?" insisted Sam. + +"The trapper in this district, of course." + +"Sure; and let me tell you this,--that trapper is the man we're after. +That's his trail." + +"How do you know?" + +"I'm sure. I've got a hunch." + +Dick looked sceptical, then impressed. After all, you never could tell +what a man might not learn out in the Silent Places, and the old +woodsman had grown gray among woods secrets. + +"We'll follow the trail and find his camp," pursued Sam. + +"You ain't going to ambush him?" inquired Dick. + +"What's the use? He's the last man we have to tend to in this district, +anyway. Even if it shouldn't be Jingoss, we don't care if he sees us. +We'll tell him we're travelling from York to Winnipeg. It must be pretty +near on the direct line from here." + +"All right," said Dick. + +They set themselves to following the trail. As the only persistences of +it through the last storm were to be found where the snow-shoes had left +deep notches on the fallen timber, this was not an easy matter. After a +time the affair was simplified by the dogs. Dick had been breaking +trail, but paused a moment to tie his shoe. The team floundered ahead. +After a moment it discovered the half-packed snow of the old trail a +foot below the newer surface, and, finding it easier travel, held to it. +Between the partial success at this, and an occasional indication on the +tops of fallen trees, the woodsmen managed to keep the direction of the +fore-runner's travel. + +Suddenly Dick stopped short in his tracks. + +"Look there!" he exclaimed. + +Before them was a place where a man had camped for the night. + +"He's travelling!" cried Sam. + +This exploded the theory that the trail had been made by the Indian to +whom the trapping rights of the district belonged. At once the two men +began to spy here and there eagerly, trying to reconstruct from the +meagre vestiges of occupation who the camper had been and what he had +been doing. + +The condition of the fire corroborated what the condition of the trail +had indicated. Probably the man had passed about three days ago. The +nature of the fire proclaimed him an Indian, for it was small and round, +where a white man's is long and hot. He had no dogs; therefore his +journey was short, for, necessarily, he was carrying what he needed on +his back. Neither on the route nor here in camp were any indications +that he had carried or was examining traps; so the conclusion was that +this trip was not merely one of the long circles a trapper sometimes +makes about the limits of his domain. What, then, was the errand of a +single man, travelling light and fast in the dead of winter? + +"It's the man we're after," said Sam, with conviction. "He's either +taken the alarm, or he's visiting." + +"Look," called the girl from beneath the wide branches of a spruce. + +They went. Beneath a lower limb, whose fan had protected it from the +falling snow, was the single clear print of a snow-shoe. + +"Hah!" cried Sam, in delight, and fell on his knees to examine it. At +the first glance he uttered another exclamation of pleasure, for, though +the shoe had been of the Ojibway pattern, in certain modifications it +suggested a more northerly origin. The toes had been craftily upturned, +the tails shortened, the webbing more closely woven. + +"It's Ojibway," induced Sam, over his shoulder, "but the man who made it +has lived among the Crees. That fits Jingoss. Dick, it's the man we're +after!" + +It was by now almost noon. They boiled tea at the old camp site, and +tightened their belts for a stern chase. + +That afternoon the head wind opposed them, exasperating, tireless in its +resistance, never lulling for a single instant. At the moment it seemed +more than could be borne. Near one o'clock it did them a great despite, +for at that hour the trail came to a broad and wide lake. There the snow +had fallen, and the wind had drifted it so that the surface of the ice +was white and smooth as paper. The faint trail led accurately to the +bank--and was obliterated. + +Nothing remained but to circle the shores to right and to left until the +place of egress was discovered. This meant long work and careful work, +for the lake was of considerable size. It meant that the afternoon would +go, and perhaps the day following, while the man whose footsteps they +were following would be drawing steadily away. + +It was agreed that May-may-gwan should remain with the sledge, that Dick +should circle to the right, and Sam to the left, and that all three +should watch each other carefully for a signal of discovery. + +But now Sam happened to glance at Mack, the wrinkle-nosed hound. The +sledge had been pulled a short distance out on the ice. Mack, +alternately whining and sniffing, was trying to induce his comrades to +turn slanting to the left. + +"What's the matter with that dog?" he inquired on a sudden. + +"Smells something; what's the difference? Let's get a move on us," +replied Dick, carelessly. + +"Hold on," ordered Sam. + +He rapidly changed the dog-harness in order to put Mack in the lead. + +"Mush! Mush on!" he commanded. + +Immediately the hound, his nose low, uttered a deep, bell-like note and +struck on the diagonal across the lake. + +"Come on," said Sam; "he's got it." + +Across the white waste of the lake, against the bite of the unobstructed +wind, under the shelter of the bank opposite they ran at slightly +accelerated speed, then without pause into the forest on the other side. + +"Look," said the older woodsman, pointing ahead to a fallen trunk. It +was the trail. + +"That was handy," commented Dick, and promptly forgot about it. But Sam +treasured the incident for the future. + +And then, just before two o'clock, the wind did them a great service. +Down the long, straight lines of its flight came distinctly the creak +of snow-shoes. Evidently the traveller, whoever he might be, was +retracing his steps. + +At once Sam overturned the sledge, thus anchoring the dogs, and Dick ran +ahead to conceal himself. May-may-gwan offered a suggestion. + +"The dogs may bark too soon," said she. + +Instantly Sam was at work binding fast their jaws with buckskin thongs. +The girl assisted him. When the task was finished he ran forward to join +Dick, hidden in the bushes. + +Eight months of toil focussed in the moment. The faint creaking of the +shoes came ever louder down the wind. Once it paused. Dick caught his +breath. Had the traveller discovered anything suspicious? He glanced +behind him. + +"Where's the girl?" he hissed between his teeth. "Damn her, she's warned +him!" + +But almost with Sam's reply the creaking began again, and after an +instant of indetermination continued its course. + +Then suddenly the woodsmen, with a simultaneous movement, raised their +rifles, and with equal unanimity lowered them, gasping with +astonishment. Dick's enemy, Ah-tek, the renegade Chippewa of Haukemah's +band on the Missinaibie, stepped from the concealment of the bushes. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + + +Of the three the Indian was the first to recover. + +"Bo' jou', bo' jou'," said he, calmly. + +Sam collected himself to a reply. Dick said nothing, but fell behind, +with his rifle across his arm. All marched on in silence to where lay +the dog-sledge, guarded by May-may-gwan. The Chippewa's keen eyes took +in every detail of the scene, the overturning of the sledge, the +muzzling of the dogs, the general nature of the equipment. If he made +any deductions, he gave no sign, nor did he evince any further +astonishment at finding these men so far north at such a time of year. +Only, when he thought himself unobserved, he cast a glance of peculiar +intelligence at the girl, who, after a moment's hesitation, returned it. + +The occasion was one of elaborate courtesy. Sam ordered tea boiled, and +offered his tobacco. Over the fire he ventured a more direct inquiry +than his customary policy would have advised. + +"My brother is a long journey from the Missinaibie." + +The Chippewa assented. + +"Haukemah, then, hunts these districts." + +The Chippewa replied no. + +"My brother has left Haukemah." + +Again the Chippewa denied, but after enjoying for a moment the baffling +of the old man's intentions, he volunteered information. + +"The trapper of this district is my brother. I have visited him." + +"It was a short visit for so long a journey. The trail is but three days +old." + +Ah-tek assented gravely. Evidently he cared very little whether or not +his explanation was accepted. + +"How many days to Winnipeg?" asked Sam. + +"I have never been there," replied the Indian. + +"We have summered in the region of the Missinaibie," proffered Sam. "Now +we go to Winnipeg." + +The Indian's inscrutable countenance gave no indication as to whether or +not he believed this. After a moment he knocked the ashes from his pipe +and arose, casting another sharp glance at May-may-gwan. She had been +busy at the sledge. Now she approached, carrying simply her own blankets +and clothing. + +"This man," said she to the two, "is of my people. He returns to them. I +go with him." + +The Chippewa twisted his feet into his snow-shoes, nodded to the white +men, and swung away on the back trail in the direction whence our +travellers had come. The girl, without more leave-taking, followed close +at his back. For an instant the crunch of shoes splintered the frosty +air. Then they rounded a bend. Silence fell swift as a hawk. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" ejaculated Dick at last. "Do you think he was +really up here visiting?" + +"No, of course not," replied Sam. "Don't you see--" + +"Then he came after the girl?" + +"Good God, _no!_" answered Sam. "He--" + +"Then he was after me," interrupted Dick again with growing excitement. +"Why didn't you let me shoot him, Sam--" + +"Will you shut up and listen to me?" demanded the old man, impatiently. +"If he'd wanted you, he'd have got you when you were hurt last summer; +and if he'd wanted the girl, he'd have got her then, too. It's all clear +to me. He _has_ been visiting a friend,--perhaps his brother, as he +said,--and he did spend less than three days in the visit. What did he +come for? Let me tell you! That friend, or brother, is Jingoss, and he +came up here to warn him that we're after him. The Chippewa suspected us +a little on the Missinaibie, but he wasn't sure. Probably he's had his +eye on us ever since." + +"But why didn't he warn this Jingoss long ago, then?" objected Dick. + +"Because we fooled him, just as we fooled all the Injuns. We _might_ be +looking for winter posts, just as we said. And then if he came up here +and told Jingoss we were after him, when really we didn't know beans +about Jingoss and his steals, and then this Jingoss should skip the +country and leave an almighty good fur district all for nothing, that +would be a nice healthy favour to do for a man, wouldn't it! No, he had +to be _sure_ before he made any moves. And he didn't get to be sure +until he heard somehow from some one who saw our trails that three +people were travelling in the winter up through this country. Then he +piked out to warn Jingoss." + +"I believe you're right!" cried Dick. + +"Of course I'm right. And another thing; if that's the case we're pretty +close there. How many more trappers are there in this district? Just +one! And since this Chippewa is going back on his back trail within +three days after he made it, he couldn't have gone farther than that one +man. And that one man must be--" + +"Jingoss himself!" finished Dick. + +"Within a day and a half of us, anyway; probably much closer," +supplemented Sam. "It's as plain as a sledge-trail." + +"He's been warned," Dick reminded him. + +But Sam, afire with the inspiration of inductive reasoning, could see no +objection there. + +"This Chippewa knew we were in the country," he argued, "but he hadn't +any idea we were so close. If he had, he wouldn't have been so foolish +as to follow his own back track when he was going out. I don't know what +his ideas were, of course, but he was almighty surprised to see us here. +He's warned this Jingoss, not more than a day or so ago. But he didn't +tell him to skedaddle at once. He said, 'Those fellows are after you, +and they're moseying around down south of here, and probably they'll get +up here in the course of the winter. You'd probably better slide out +'till they get done.' Then he stayed a day and smoked a lot, and started +back. Now, if Jingoss just thinks we're coming _some time_, and not +to-morrow, he ain't going to pull up stakes in such a hell of a hurry. +He'll pack what furs he's got, and he'll pick up what traps he's got +out. That would take him several days, anyway. My son, we're in the nick +of time!" + +"Sam, you're a wonder," said Dick, admiringly. "I never could have +thought all that out." + +"If that idea's correct," went on Sam, "and the Chippewa's just come +from Jingoss, why we've got the Chippewa's trail to follow back, haven't +we?" + +"Sure!" agreed Dick, "all packed and broken." + +They righted the sledge and unbound the dogs' jaws. + +"Well, we got rid of the girl," said Dick, casually. "Damn little fool. +I didn't think she'd leave us that easy. She'd been with us quite a +while." + +"Neither did I," admitted Sam; "but it's natural, Dick. We ain't her +people, and we haven't treated her very well, and I don't wonder she was +sick of it and took the first chance back. We've got our work cut out +for us now, and we're just as well off without her." + +"The Chippewa's a sort of public benefactor all round," said Dick. + +The dogs yawned prodigiously, stretching their jaws after the severe +muzzling. Sam began reflectively to undo the flaps of the sledge. + +"Guess we'd better camp here," said he. "It's getting pretty late and +we're due for one hell of a tramp to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + + +Some time during the night May-may-gwan rejoined them. Sam was awakened +by the demonstration of the dogs, at first hostile, then friendly with +recognition. He leaped to his feet, startled at the apparition of a +human figure. Dick sat up alert at once. The fire had almost died, but +between the glow of its embers and the light of the aurora sifted +through the trees they made her out. + +"Oh, for God's _sake!_" snarled Dick, and lay back again in his +blankets, but in a moment resumed his sitting position. "She made her +choice," he proffered vehemently, "make her stick to it! Make her stick +to it. She can't change her mind every other second like this, and we +don't _need_ her!" + +But Sam, piling dry wood on the fire, looked in her face. + +"Shut up, Dick," he commanded sharply. "Something in this." + +The young man stared at his companion an enigmatical instant, hesitating +as to his reply. + +"Oh, all right," he replied at last with ostentatious indifference. "I +don't give a damn. Don't sit up too late with the young lady. Good +night!" He disappeared beneath his coverings, plainly disgruntled, as, +for a greater or less period of time, he always was when even the least +of his plans or points of view required readjustment. + +Sam boiled tea, roasted a caribou steak, knelt and removed the girl's +damp foot-gear and replaced it with fresh. Then he held the cup to her +lips, cut the tough meat for her with his hunting-knife, even fed her as +though she were a child. He piled more wood on the fire, he wrapped +about her shoulders one of the blankets with the hare-skin lining. +Finally, when nothing more remained to be done, he lit his pipe and +squatted on his heels close to her, lending her mood the sympathy of +human silence. + +She drank the tea, swallowed the food, permitted the change of her +foot-gear, bent her shoulders to the blanket, all without the appearance +of consciousness. The corners of her lips were bent firmly downward. +Her eyes, fixed and exalted, gazed beyond the fire, beyond the dancing +shadows, beyond the world. After a long interval she began to speak, +low-voiced, in short disconnected sentences. + +"My brothers seek the Ojibway, Jingoss. They will take him to Conjuror's +House. But Jingoss knows that my brothers come. He has been told by +Ah-tek. He leaves the next sun. He is to travel to the west, to Peace +River. Now his camp is five hours to the north. I know where it is. +Jingoss has three dogs. He has much meat. He has no gun but the +trade-gun. I have learned this. I come to tell it to my brothers." + +"Why, May-may-gwan?" inquired Sam, gently. + +She turned on him a look of pride. + +"Have you thought I had left you for him?" she asked. "I have learned +these things." + +Sam uttered an exclamation of dismay. + +"What?" she queried with a slow surprise. + +"But he, the Chippewa," Sam pointed out, "now he knows of our presence. +He will aid Jingoss; he will warn him afresh to-night!" + +May-may-gwan was again rapt in sad but ex alted contemplation of +something beyond. She answered merely by a contemptuous gesture. + +"But--" insisted Sam. + +"I know," she replied, with conviction. + +Sam, troubled he knew not why, leaned forward to arrange the fire. + +"How do you know, Little Sister?" he inquired, after some hesitation. + +She answered by another weary gesture. Again Sam hesitated. + +"Little Sister," said he, at last, "I am an old man. I have seen many +years pass. They have left me some wisdom. They have made my heart good +to those who are in trouble. If it was not to return to your own people, +then why did you go with Ah-tek this morning?" + +"That I might know what my brothers wished to know." + +"And you think he told you all these things truly?" doubted Sam. + +She looked directly at him. + +"Little Father," said she slowly, "long has this man wanted me to live +in his wigwam. For that he joined Haukemah's band;--because I was +there. I have been good in his eyes. Never have I given him favour. My +favour always would unlock his heart." + +"But are you sure he spoke truth," objected Sam. "You have never looked +kindly on him. You left Haukemah's band to go with us. How could he +trust you?" + +She looked at him bravely. + +"Little Father," she replied, "there is a moment when man and woman +trust utterly, and when they say truly what lies in their hearts." + +"Good God!" cried Sam, in English. + +"It was the only way," she answered the spirit of his interjection. "I +had known before only his forked tongue." + +"Why did you do this, girl? You had no right, no reason. You should have +consulted us." + +"Little Father," said she, "the people of your race are a strange +people. I do not understand them. An evil is done them, and they pass it +by; a good is done them, and they do not remember. With us it is +different. Always in our hearts dwell the good and the evil." + +"What good have we done to you?" asked Sam. + +"Jibiwanisi has looked into my heart," she replied, lapsing into the +Indian rhetoric of deep emotion. "He has looked into my heart, and in +the doorway he blots out the world. At the first I wanted to die when he +would not look on me with favour. Then I wanted to die when I thought I +should never possess him. Now it is enough that I am near him, that I +lay his fire, and cook his tea and caribou, that I follow his trail, +that I am ready when he needs me, that I can raise my eyes and see him +breaking the trail. For when I look up at him the sun breaks out, and +the snow shines, and there is a light under the trees. And when I think +of raising my eyes, and he not there, nor anywhere near, then my heart +freezes, Little Father, freezes with loneliness." + +Abruptly she arose, casting aside the blanket and stretching her arms +rigid above her head. Then with equal abruptness she stooped, caught up +her bedding, spread it out, and lay down stolidly to rest, turning her +back to both the white men. + +But Sam remained crouched by the fire until the morning hour of waking, +staring with troubled eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + + +Later in the morning Dick attempted some remark on the subject of the +girl's presence. At once Sam whirled on him with a gust of passion +utterly unlike his ordinary deliberate and even habit. + +"Shut your damned mouth!" he fairly shouted. + +Dick whistled in what he thought was a new enlightenment, and followed +literally the other's vigorous advice. Not a syllable did he utter for +an hour, by which time the sun had risen. Then he stopped and pointed to +a fresh trail converging into that they were following. + +The prints of two pairs of snow-shoes joined; those of one returned. + +Sam gasped. Dick looked ironical. The interpretation was plain without +the need of words. The Chippewa and the girl, although they had started +to the southeast, had made a long detour in order again to reach +Jingoss. These two pairs of snow-shoe tracks marked where they had +considered it safe again to strike into the old trail made by the +Chippewa in going and coming. The one track showed where Ah-tek had +pushed on to rejoin his friend; the other was that of the girl returning +for some reason the night before, perhaps to throw them off the scent. + +"Looks as if they'd fooled you, and fooled you good," said Dick, +cheerfully. + +For a single instant doubt drowned Sam's faith in his own insight and in +human nature. + +"Dick," said he, quietly, "raise your eyes." + +Not five rods farther on the trail the two had camped for the night. +Evidently Ah-tek had discovered his detour to have lasted out the day, +and, having satisfied himself that his and his friend's enemies were not +ahead of him, he had called a halt. The snow had been scraped away, the +little fire built, the ground strewn with boughs. So far the indications +were plain and to be read at a glance. But upright in the snow were two +snow-shoes, and tumbled on the ground was bedding. + +Instantly the two men leaped forward. May-may-gwan, her face stolid and +expressionless, but her eyes glowing, stood straight and motionless by +the dogs. Together they laid hold of the smoothly spread top blanket +and swept it aside. Beneath was a jumble of warmer bedding. In it, his +fists clenched, his eyes half open in the horrific surprise of a sudden +calling, lay the Chippewa stabbed to the heart. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + + +The silence of the grave lay over the white world. Deep in the forest a +tree detonated with the frost. There by the cold last night's camp the +four human figures posed, motionless as a wind that has died. Only the +dogs, lolling, stretching, sending the warm steam of their breathing +into the dead air, seemed to stand for the world of life, and the world +of sentient creatures. And yet their very presence, unobtrusive in the +forest shadows, by contrast thrust farther these others into the land of +phantoms and of ghosts. + +Then quietly, as with one consent, the three living ones turned away. +The older woodsman stepped into the trail, leading the way for the dogs; +the younger woodsman swung in behind at the gee-pole; the girl followed. +Once more; slowly, as though reluctant, the forest trees resumed their +silent progress past those three toiling in the treadmill of the days. +The camp dropped back; it confused itself in the frost mists; it was +gone, gone into the mystery and the vastness of the North, gone with its +tragedy and its symbol of the greatness of human passion, gone with its +one silent watcher staring at the sky, awaiting the coming of day. The +frost had mercifully closed again about its revelation. No human eye +would ever read that page again. + +Each of the three seemed wrapped in the splendid isolation of his own +dream. They strode on sightless, like somnambulists. Only mechanically +they kept the trail, and why they did so they could not have told. No +coherent thoughts passed through their brains. But always the trees, +frost-rimed, drifted past like phantoms; always the occult influences of +the North loomed large on their horizon like mirages, dwindled in the +actuality, but threatened again in the bigness of mystery when they had +passed. The North was near, threatening, driving the terror of her +tragedy home to the hearts of these staring mechanical plodders, who now +travelled they knew not why, farther and farther into the depths of +dread. + +But the dogs stopped, and Billy, the leader, sniffed audibly in inquiry +of what lay ahead. Instantly, in the necessity for action, the spell +broke. The mystery which had lain so long at their horizon, which but +now had crept in, threatening to smother them, rolled back to its +accustomed place. The north withheld her hand. + +Before them was another camp, one that had been long used. A conical +tepee or wigwam, a wide space cleared of snow, much debris, racks and +scaffolds for the accommodation of supplies, all these attested long +occupancy. + +Sam jerked the cover from his rifle, and cast a hasty glance at the +nipple to see if it was capped. Dick jumped forward and snatched aside +the opening into the wigwam. + +"Not at home!" said he. + +"Gone," corrected Sam, pointing to a fresh trail beyond. + +At once the two men turned their attention to this. After some +difficulty they established the fact of a three-dog team. Testing the +consistency of the snow they proved a heavy load on the toboggan. + +"I'm afraid that means he's gone for good," said Sam. + +[Illustration: Dick jumped forward and snatched aside the opening into +the wigwam] + +A further examination of camp corroborated this. The teepee had been +made double, with the space between the two walls stuffed with moss, so +evidently it had been built as permanent winter quarters. The fact of +its desertion at this time of year confirmed the reasoning as to the +identity of its occupant and the fact of his having been warned by the +dead Chippewa. Skulls of animals indicated a fairly prosperous fur +season. But the skulls of animals, a broken knife, a pile of +balsam-boughs, and the deserted wigwam were all that remained. Jingoss +had taken with him his traps, his pelts, his supplies. + +"That's a good thing," concluded Sam, "a mighty good thing. It shows he +ain't much scared. He don't suspect we're anywhere's near him; only that +it ain't very healthy to spend the winter in this part of the country. +If he'd thought we was close, he wouldn't have lugged along a lot of +plunder; he'd be flying mighty light." + +"That's right," agreed Dick. + +"And in that case he isn't travelling very fast. We'll soon catch up." + +"He only left this morning," supplemented Dick, examining the +frost-crystals in the new-cut trail. + +Without wasting further attention, they set out in pursuit. The girl +followed. Dick turned to her. + +"I think we shall catch him very soon," said he, in Ojibway. + +The girl's face brightened and her eyes filled. The simple words +admitted her to confidence, implied that she, too, had her share in the +undertaking, her interest in its outcome. She stepped forward with +winged feet of gladness. + +Luckily a light wind had sprung up against them. They proceeded as +quietly and as swiftly as they could. In a short time they came to a +spot where Jingoss had boiled tea. This indicated that he must have +started late in the morning to have accomplished only so short a +distance before noon. The trail, too, became fresher. + +Billy, the regular lead dog, on this occasion occupied his official +position ahead, although, as has been pointed out, he was sometimes +alternated with the hound, who now ran just behind him. Third trotted +Wolf, a strong beast, but a stupid; then Claire, at the sledge, +sagacious, alert, ready to turn the sledge from obstruction. For a +long, time all these beasts, with the strange intelligence of animals +much associated with man, had entertained a strong interest in the +doings of their masters. Something besides the day's journey was in the +wind. They felt it through their keen instinctive responsiveness to the +moods of those over them; they knew it by the testimony of their bright +eyes which told them that these investigations and pryings were not all +in an ordinary day's travel. Investigations and pryings appeal to a +dog's nature. Especially did Mack, the hound, long to be free of his +harness that he, too, might sniff here and there in odd nooks and +crannies, testing with that marvelously keen nose of his what his +masters regarded so curiously. Now at last he understood from the +frequent stops and examinations that the trail was the important thing. +From time to time he sniffed of it deeply, saturating his memory with +the quality of its effluvia. Always it grew fresher. And then at last +the warm animal scent rose alive to his nostrils, and he lifted his head +and bayed. + +The long, weird sound struck against the silence with the impact of a +blow. Nothing more undesirable could have happened. Again Mack bayed, +and the echoing bell tones of his voice took on a strange similarity to +a tocsin of warning. Rustling and crackling across the men's fancies the +influences of the North moved invisible, alert, suddenly roused. + +Dick whirled with an exclamation, throwing down and back the lever of +his Winchester, his face suffused, his eye angry. + +"Damnation!" exclaimed Bolton, anticipating his intention, and springing +forward in time to strike up the muzzle of the rifle, though not soon +enough to prevent the shot. + +Against the snow, plastered on a distant tree, the bullet hit, +scattering the fine powder; then ricochetted, shrieking with increasing +joy as it mounted the upper air. After it, as though released by its +passage from the spell of the great frost, trooped the voices and echoes +of the wilderness. In the still air such a racket would carry miles. + +Sam looked from the man to the dog. + +"Well, between the two of you!" said he. + +Dick sprang forward, lashing the team with his whip. + +"After him!" he shouted. + +They ran in a swirl of light snow. In a very few moments they came to a +bundle of pelts, a little pile of traps, the unnecessary impediments +discarded by the man they pursued. So near had they been to a capture. + +Sam, out of breath, peremptorily called a halt. + +"Hold on!" he commanded. "Take it easy. We can't catch him like this. +He's travelling light, and he's one man, and he has a fresh team. He'll +pull away from us too easy, and leave us with worn-out dogs." The old +man sat and deliberately filled his pipe. + +Dick fumed up and down, chafing at the delay, convinced that something +should be done immediately, but at a loss to tell what it should be. + +"What'll we do, then?" he asked, after a little. + +"He leaves a trail, don't he?" inquired Sam. "We must follow it." + +"But what good--how can we ever catch up?" + +"We've got to throw away our traps and extra duffle. We've got to travel +as fast as we can without wearing ourselves out. He may try to go too +fast, and so we may wear him down. It's our only show, anyway. If we +lose him now, we'll never find him again. That trail is all we have to +go by." + +"How if it snows hard? It's getting toward spring storms." + +"If it snows hard--well--" The old man fell silent, puffing away at his +pipe. "One thing I want you to understand," he continued, looking up +with a sudden sternness, "don't you ever take it on yourself to shoot +that gun again. We're to take that man alive. The noise of the shot +to-day was a serious thing; it gave Jingoss warning, and perhaps spoiled +our chance to surprise him. But he might have heard us anyway. Let that +go. But if you'd have killed that hound as you started out to do, you'd +have done more harm than your fool head could straighten out in a +lifetime. That hound--why--he's the best thing we've got. I'd--I'd +almost rather lose our rifles than him--" he trailed off again into +rumination. + +Dick, sobered as he always was when his companion took this tone, +inquired why, but received no answer. After a moment Sam began to sort +the contents of the sledge, casting aside all but the necessities. + +"What's the plan?" Dick ventured. + +"To follow." + +"How long do you think it will be before we catch him?" + +"God knows." + +The dogs leaned into their harness, almost falling forward at the +unexpected lightness of the load. Again the little company moved at +measured gait. For ten minutes nothing was said. Then Dick: + +"Sam," he said, "I think we have just about as much chance as a snowball +in hell." + +"So do I," agreed the old woodsman, soberly. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + + +They took up the trail methodically, as though no hurry existed. At the +usual time of the evening they camped. Dick was for pushing on an extra +hour or so, announcing himself not in the least tired, and the dogs +fresh, but Sam would have none of it. + +"It's going to be a long, hard pull," he said. "We're not going to catch +up with him to-day, or to-morrow, or next day. It ain't a question of +whether you're tired or the dogs are fresh to-night; it's a question of +how you're going to be a month from now." + +"We won't be able to follow him a month," objected Dick. + +"Why?" + +"It'll snow, and then we'll lose th' trail. The spring snows can't be +far off now. They'll cover it a foot deep." + +"Mebbe," agreed Sam, inconclusively. + +"Besides," pursued Dick, "he'll be with his own people in less than a +month, and then there won't be any trail to follow." + +Whereupon Sam looked a little troubled, for this, in his mind, was the +chief menace to their success. If Jingoss turned south to the Lake +Superior country, he could lose himself among the Ojibways of that +region; and, if all remained true to him, the white men would never +again be able to get trace of him. _If all remained true to him:_--on +the chance of that Sam was staking his faith. The Honourable the +Hudson's Bay Company has been established a great many years; it has +always treated its Indians justly; it enjoys a tremendous prestige for +infallibility. The bonds of race are strong, but the probabilities were +good that in the tribes with whom Jingoss would be forced to seek +sanctuary would be some members, whose loyalty to the Company would +out-balance the rather shadowy obligation to a man they had never seen +before. Jingoss might be betrayed. The chances of it were fairly good. +Sam Bolton knew that the Indian must be perfectly aware of this, and +doubted if he would take the risk. A single man with three dogs ought to +run away from three pursuers with only four. Therefore, the old +woodsman thought himself justified in relying at least on the meagre +opportunity a stern chase would afford. + +He did not know where the Indian would be likely to lead him. The +checker-board of the wilderness lay open. As he had before reflected, it +would be only too easy for Jingoss to keep between himself and his +pursuers the width of the game. The Northwest was wide; the plains +great; the Rocky Mountains lofty and full of hiding-places,--it seemed +likely he would turn west. Or the deep forests of the other coast +offered unlimited opportunities of concealment,--the east might well be +his choice. It did not matter particularly. Into either it would not be +difficult to follow; and Sam hoped in either to gain a sight of his +prize before the snow melted. + +The Indian, however, after the preliminary twists and turns of +indecision, turned due north. For nearly a week Sam thought this must be +a ruse, or a cast by which to gain some route known to Jingoss. But the +forests began to dwindle; the muskegs to open. The Land of Little Sticks +could not be far distant, and beyond them was the Barren Grounds. The +old woodsman knew the defaulter for a reckless and determined man. +Gradually the belief, and at last the conviction, forced itself on him +that here he gamed with no cautious player. The Indian was laying on the +table the stakes of life or death. He, too, had realised that the test +must be one of endurance, and in the superbness of his confidence he had +determined not to play with preliminary half measures, but to apply at +once the supreme test to himself and his antagonists. He was heading +directly out into the winter desert, where existed no game but the +single big caribou herd whose pastures were so wide that to meet them +would be like encountering a single school of dolphins in all the seven +seas. + +As soon as Sam discovered this, he called Dick's attention to it. + +"We're in for it," said he, "he's going to take us out on the Barren +Grounds and lose us." + +"If he can," supplemented Dick. + +"Yes, if he can," agreed Sam. After a moment he went on, pursuing his +train of thought aloud, as was his habit. + +"He's thinking he has more grub than we have; that's about what it +amounts to. He thinks he can tire us out. The chances are we'll find no +more game. We've got to go on what we have. He's probably got a +sledge-load;--and so have we;--but he has only one to feed, and three +dogs, and we have three and four dogs." + +"That's all right; he's our Injun," replied Dick, voicing the instinct +of race superiority which, after all, does often seem to accomplish the +impossible. "It's too bad we have the girl with us," he added, after a +moment. + +"Yes, it is," agreed Sam. Yet it was most significant that now it +occurred to neither of them that she might be abandoned. + +The daily supply of provisions was immediately cut to a minimum, and +almost at once they felt the effects. The north demands hard work and +the greatest resisting power of the vitality; the vitality calls on the +body for fuel; and the body in turn insists on food. It is astonishing +to see what quantities of nourishment can be absorbed without apparent +effect. And when the food is denied, but the vitality is still called +upon, it is equally astonishing to see how quickly it takes its revenge. +Our travellers became lean in two days, dizzy in a week, tired to the +last fibre, on the edge of exhaustion. They took care, however, not to +step over that edge. + +Sam Bolton saw to it. His was not only the bodily labour, but the mental +anxiety. His attitude was the tenseness of a helmsman in a heavy wind, +quivering to the faintest indication, ready to give her all she will +bear, but equally ready to luff this side of disaster. Only his equable +mind could have resisted an almost overpowering impulse toward sporadic +bursts of speed or lengthening of hours. He had much of this to repress +in Dick. But on the other hand he watched zealously against the needless +waste of even a single second. Every expedient his long woods life or +his native ingenuity suggested he applied at once to the problem of the +greatest speed, the least expenditure of energy to a given end, the +smallest consumption of food compatible with the preservation of +strength. The legitimate travel of a day might amount to twenty or +thirty miles. Sam added an extra five or ten to them. And that five or +ten he drew from the living tissues of his very life. They were a +creation, made from nothing, given a body by the individual genius of +the man. The drain cut down his nervous energy, made him lean, drew the +anxious lines of an incipient exhaustion across his brow. + +At first, as may be gathered, the advantages of the game seemed to be +strongly in the Indian's favour. The food supply, the transportation +facilities, and advantage of position in case game should be encountered +were all his. Against him he need count seriously only the offset of +dogged Anglo-Saxon grit. But as the travel defined itself, certain +compensations made themselves evident. + +Direct warfare was impossible to him. He possessed only a +single-barrelled muzzle-loading gun of no great efficiency. In case of +ambush he might, with luck, be able to kill one of his pursuers, but he +would indubitably be captured by the other. He would be unable to +approach them at night because of their dogs. His dog-team was stronger, +but with it he had to break trail, which the others could utilise +without further effort. Even should his position in advance bring him on +game, without great luck, he would be unable to kill it, for he was +alone and could not leave his team for long. And his very swiftness in +itself would react against him, for he was continually under the +temptation daily to exceed by a little his powers. + +These considerations the white men at first could not see; and so, +logically, they were more encouraged by them when at last they did +appear. And then in turn, by natural reaction when the glow had died, +the great discouragement of the barren places fell on their spirits. +They plodded, seeing no further than their daily necessity of travel. +They plodded, their eyes fixed to the trail, which led always on toward +the pole star, undeviating, as a deer flies in a straight line hoping to +shake off the wolves. + +The dense forest growth was succeeded in time by the low spruce and +poplar thickets; these in turn by the open reaches planted like a park +with the pointed firs. Then came the Land of Little Sticks, and so on +out into the vast whiteness of the true North, where the trees are +liliputian and the spaces gigantic beyond the measures of the earth; +where living things dwindle to the significance of black specks on a +limitless field of white, and the aurora crackles and shoots and spreads +and threatens like a great inimical and magnificent spirit. + +The tendency seemed toward a mighty simplification, as though the +complexities of the world were reverting toward their original +philosophic unity. The complex summer had become simple autumn; the +autumn, winter; now the very winter itself was apparently losing its +differentiations of bushes and trees, hills and valleys, streams and +living things. The growths were disappearing; the hills were flattening +toward the great northern wastes; the rare creatures inhabiting these +barrens took on the colour of their environment. The ptarmigan matched +the snow,--the fox,--the ermine. They moved either invisible or as +ghosts. + +Little by little such dwindling of the materials for diverse +observation, in alliance with the too-severe labour and the starving, +brought about a strange concentration of ideas. The inner world seemed +to undergo the same process of simplification as the outer. Extraneous +considerations disappeared. The entire cosmos of experience came to be +an expanse of white, themselves, and the Trail. These three reacted one +on the other, and outside of them there was no reaction. + +In the expanse of white was no food: their food was dwindling; the +Trail led on into barren lands where no food was to be had. That was the +circle that whirled insistent in their brains. + +At night they sank down, felled by the sheer burden of weariness, and no +matter how exhausted they might be the Trail continued, springing on +with the same apparently tireless energy toward its unknown goal in the +North. Gradually they lost sight of the ultimate object of their quest. +It became obscured by the immediate object, and that was the following +of the Trail. They forgot that a man had made it, or if for a moment it +did occur to them that it was the product of some agency outside of and +above itself, that agent loomed vaguely as a mysterious, extra-human +power, like the winds or the cold or the great Wilderness itself. It did +not seem possible that he could feel the need for food, for rest, that +ever his vital forces could wane. In the north was starvation for them, +a starvation to which they drew ever nearer day by day, but irresistibly +the notion obsessed them that this forerunner, the forerunner of the +Trail, proved no such material necessities, that he drew his sustenance +from his environment in some mysterious manner not to be understood. +Always on and on and on the Trail was destined to lead them until they +died, and then the maker of it,--not Jingoss, not the Weasel, the +defaulter, the man of flesh and blood and nerves and thoughts and the +capacities for suffering,--but a being elusive as the aurora, an +embodiment of that dread country, a servant of the unfriendly North, +would return as he had done. + +Over the land lay silence. The sea has its undertone on the stillest +nights; the woods are quiet with an hundred lesser noises; but here was +absolute, terrifying, smothering silence,--the suspension of all sound, +even the least,--looming like a threatening cloud larger and more +dreadful above the cowering imagination. The human soul demanded to +shriek aloud in order to preserve its sanity, and yet a whisper uttered +over against the heavy portent of this universal stillness seemed a +profanation that left the spirit crouched beneath a fear of retribution. +And then suddenly the aurora, the only privileged voice, would crackle +like a silken banner. + +At first the world in the vastness of its spaces seemed to become bigger +and bigger. Again abruptly it resumed its normal proportions, but they, +the observers of it, had been struck small. To their own minds they +seemed like little black insects crawling painfully. In the distance +these insects crawled was a disproportion to the energy expended, a +disproportion disheartening, filling the soul with the despair of an +accomplishment that could mean anything in the following of that which +made the Trail. + +Always they ate pemmican. Of this there remained a fairly plentiful +supply, but the dog meat was running low. It was essential that the team +be well fed. Dick or Sam often travelled the entire day a quarter of a +mile one side or the other, hoping thus to encounter game, but without +much success. A fox or so, a few plarmigan, that was all. These they +saved for the dogs. Three times a day they boiled tea and devoured the +little square of pemmican. It did not supply the bulk their digestive +organs needed, and became in time almost nauseatingly unpalatable, but +it nourished. That, after all, was the main thing. The privation carved +the flesh from their muscles, carved the muscles themselves to leanness. + +But in spite of the best they could do, the dog feed ran out. There +remained but one thing to do. Already the sledge was growing lighter, +and three dogs would be quite adequate for the work. They killed Wolf, +the surly and stupid "husky." Every scrap they saved, even to the +entrails, which froze at once to solidity. The remaining dogs were put +on half rations, just sufficient to keep up their strength. The +starvation told on their tempers. Especially did Claire, the sledge-dog, +heavy with young, and ravenous to feed their growth, wander about like a +spirit, whining mournfully and sniffing the barren breeze. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + + +The journey extended over a month. The last three weeks of it were +starvation. At first this meant merely discomfort and the bearing of a +certain amount of pain. Later it became acute suffering. Later still it +developed into a necessity for proving what virtue resided in the bottom +of these men's souls. + +Perforce now they must make a choice of what ideas they would keep. Some +things must be given up, just as some things had to be discarded when +they had lightened the sledge. All the lesser lumber had long since +gone. Certain bigger things still remained. + +They held grimly to the idea of catching the Indian. Their natural love +of life held tenaciously to a hope of return. An equally natural hope +clung to the ridiculous idea that the impossible might happen, that the +needle should drop from the haystack, that the caribou might spring into +their view from the emptiness of space. Now it seemed that they must +make a choice between the first two. + +"Dick," said Bolton, solemnly, "we've mighty little pemmican left. If we +turn around now, it'll just about get us back to the woods. If we go on +farther, we'll have to run into more food, or we'll never get out." + +"I knew it," replied Dick. + +"Well?" + +Dick looked at him astonished. "Well, what?" he inquired. + +"Shall we give it up?" + +"Give it _up_!" cried the young man. "Of course not; what you thinking +of?" + +"There's the caribou," suggested Sam, doubtfully; "or maybe Jingoss has +more grub than he's going to need. It's a slim chance." + +They still further reduced the ration of pemmican. The malnutrition +began to play them tricks. It dizzied their brains, swarmed the vastness +with hordes of little, dancing black specks like mosquitoes. In the +morning every muscle of their bodies was stiffened to the consistency of +rawhide, and the movements necessary to loosen the fibres became an +agony hardly to be endured. Nothing of voluntary consciousness +remained, could remain, but the effort of lifting the feet, driving the +dogs, following the Trail; but involuntary consciousness lent them +strange hallucinations. They saw figures moving across the snow, but +when they steadied their vision, nothing was there. + +They began to stumble over nothing; occasionally to fall. In this was +added effort, but more particularly added annoyance. They had +continually to watch their footsteps. The walking was no longer +involuntary, but they had definitely to think of each movement necessary +to the step, and this gave them a further reason for preoccupation, for +concentration. Dick's sullenness returned, more terrible than in the +summer. He went forward with his head down, refusing to take notice of +anything. He walked: that was to him the whole of existence. + +Once reverting analogously to his grievance of that time, he mentioned +the girl, saying briefly that soon they must all die, and it was better +that she die now. Perhaps her share of the pemmican would bring them to +their quarry. The idea of return--not abandoned, but persistently +ignored--thrust into prominence this other,--to come to close quarters +with the man they pursued, to die grappled with him, dragging him down +to the same death by which these three perished. But Sam would have none +of it, and Dick easily dropped the subject, relapsing into his grim +monomania of pursuit. + +In Dick's case even the hope of coming to grapples was fading. He +somehow had little faith in his enemy. The man was too intangible, too +difficult to gauge. Dick had not caught a glimpse of the Indian since +the pursuit began. The young man realised perfectly his own exhaustion; +but he had no means of knowing whether or not the Indian was tiring. His +faith waned, though his determination did not. Unconsciously he +substituted this monomania of pursuit. It took the place of the faith he +felt slipping from him--the faith that ever he would see the _fata +morgana_ luring him out into the Silent Places. + +Soon it became necessary to kill another dog. Dick, with a remnant of +his old feeling, pleaded for the life of Billy, his pet. Sam would not +entertain for a moment the destruction of the hound. There remained +only Claire, the sledge-dog, with her pathetic brown eyes, and her +affectionate ways of the female dog. They went to kill her, and +discovered her in the act of defending the young to which she had just +given birth. Near at hand crouched Mack and Billy, their eyes red with +famine, their jaws a-slaver, eager to devour the newborn puppies. And in +the grim and dreadful sight Sam Bolton seemed at last to glimpse the +face of his terrible antagonist. + +They beat back the dogs, and took the puppies. These they killed and +dressed. Thus Claire's life was bought for her by the sacrifice of her +progeny. + +But even that was a temporary respite. She fell in her turn, and was +devoured, to the last scrap of her hide. Dick again intervened to save +Billy, but failed. Sam issued his orders the more peremptorily as he +felt his strength waning, and realised the necessity of economising +every ounce of it, even to that required in the arguing of expedients. +Dick yielded with slight resistance, as he had yielded in the case of +the girl. All matters but the one were rapidly becoming unimportant to +him. That concentration of his forces which represented the weapon of +his greatest utility, was gradually taking place. He was becoming an +engine of dogged determination, an engine whose burden the older man had +long carried on his shoulders, but which now he was preparing to launch +when his own strength should be gone. + +At last there was left but the one dog, Mack, the hound, with the +wrinkled face and the long, hanging ears. He developed unexpected +endurance and an entire willingness, pulling strongly on the sledge, +waiting in patience for his scanty meal, searching the faces of his +masters with his wise brown eyes, dumbly sympathetic in a trouble whose +entirety he could not understand. + +The two men took turns in harnessing themselves to the sledge with Mack. +The girl followed at the gee-pole. + +May-may-gwan showed the endurance of a man. She made no complaint. +Always she followed, and followed with her mind alert. Where Dick shut +obstinately his faculties within the bare necessity of travel, she and +her other companion were continually alive to the possibilities of +expedient. This constituted an additional slight but constant drain on +their vital forces. + +Starvation gained on them. Perceptibly their strength was waning. Dick +wanted to kill the other dog. His argument was plausible. The toboggan +was now very light. The men could draw it. They would have the dog-meat +to recruit their strength. + +Sam shook his head. Dick insisted. He even threatened force. But then +the woodsman roused his old-time spirit and fairly beat the young man +into submission by the vehemence of his anger. The effort left him +exhausted. He sank back into himself, and refused, in the apathy of +weariness, to give any explanation. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX + + +By now it was the first week in March. The weather began to assume a new +aspect. During the winter months it had not snowed, for the moisture had +all been squeezed from the air, leaving it crisp, brilliant, sparkling. +Now the sun, long hesitant, at last began to swing up the sky. Far south +the warmer airs of spring were awakening the Kansas fields. Here in the +barren country the steel sky melted to a haze. During the day, when the +sun was up, the surface of the snow even softened a little, and a very +perceptible warmth allowed them to rest, their parkas thrown back, +without discomfort. + +The men noticed this, and knew it as the precursor of the spring +snow-fall. Dick grew desperately uneasy, desperately anxious to push on, +to catch up before the complete obliteration of the trail, when his +resources would perforce run out for lack of an object to which to apply +them. He knew perfectly well that this must be what the Indian had +anticipated, the reason why he had dared to go out into the barren +grounds, and to his present helpless lack of a further expedient the +defaulter's confidence in the natural sequence seemed only too well +justified. Sam remained inscrutable. + +The expected happened late one afternoon. All day the haze had +thickened, until at last, without definite transition, it had become a +cloud covering the entire sky. Then it had snowed. The great, clogging +flakes sifted down gently, ziz-zagging through the air like so many +pieces of paper. They impacted softly against the world, standing away +from each other and from the surface on which they alighted by the full +stretch of their crystal arms. In an hour three inches had fallen. The +hollows and depressions were filling to the level; the Trail was growing +indistinct. + +Dick watched from the shelter of a growing despair. Never had he felt so +helpless. This thing was so simple, yet so effective; and nothing he +could do would nullify its results. As sometimes in a crisis a man will +give his whole attention to a trivial thing, so Dick fastened his gaze +on a single snow-shoe track on the edge of a covered bowlder. By it he +gauged the progress of the storm. When at last even his imagination +could not differentiate it from the surface on either side, he looked +up. The visible world was white and smooth and level. No faintest trace +of the Trail remained. East, west, north, south, lay uniformity. The +Indian had disappeared utterly from the face of the earth. + +The storm lightened and faint streaks of light shot through the clouds. + +"Well, let's be moving," said Sam. + +"Moving where?" demanded Dick, bitterly. But the old man led forward the +hound. + +"Remember the lake where we lost the track of that Chippewa?" he +inquired. "Well, a foot of light snow is nothing. Mush on, Mack!" + +The hound sniffed deep, filling his nostrils with the feather snow, +which promptly he sneezed out. Then he swung off easily on his little +dog-trot, never at fault, never hesitant, picking up the turns and +twistings of the Indian's newer purpose as surely as a mind-reader the +concealed pin. + +[Illustration: The hound sniffed deep, filling his nostrils with the +feather snow] + +For Jingoss had been awaiting eagerly this fall of snow, as this +immediate change of direction showed. He was sure that now they could no +longer follow him. It was for this he had lured them farther and +farther into the wilderness, waiting for the great enemy of them all to +cover his track, to throw across his vanishing figure her ultimate +denial of their purposes. At once, convinced of his safety, he turned to +the west and southwest. + +At just what moment he discovered that he was still followed it was +impossible to determine. But very shortly a certain indecision could be +read in the signs of his journeying. He turned to the south, changed his +mind, doubled on his tracks like a rabbit, finally, his purpose decided, +he shot away on the direct line again for the frozen reaches of +desolation in the north. + +The moment's flicker of encouragement lighted by the success of the dog, +fell again to blackness as the three faced further incursion into the +land of starvation. They had allowed themselves for a moment to believe +that the Indian might now have reached the limit of his intention; that +now he might turn toward a chance at least of life. But this showed that +his purpose, or obstinacy or madness remained unchanged, and this newer +proof indicated that it possessed a depth of determination that might +lead to any extreme. They had to readjust themselves to the idea. +Perforce they had to extend their faith, had to believe in the caribou +herds. From every little rise they looked abroad, insisting on a +childish confidence in the existence of game. They could not afford to +take the reasonable view, could not afford to estimate the chances +against their encountering in all that vastness of space the single +pin-point where grazed abundance. + +From time to time, thereafter, the snow fell. On the mere fact of their +persistence it had litle effect; but it clogged their snow-shoes, it +wore them down. A twig tripped them; and the efforts of all three were +needed to aid one to rise. A dozen steps were all they could accomplish +without rest; a dozen short, stumbling steps that were, nevertheless, so +many mile-posts in the progress to their final exhaustion. When one +fell, he lay huddled, unable at once to rally his vital forces to +attempt the exertion of regaining his feet. The day's journey was +pitifully short, pitifully inadequate to the imperious demands of that +onward-leading Trail, and yet each day's journey lessened the always +desperate chance of a return to the game country. In spite of that, it +never again crossed their minds that it might be well to abandon the +task. They might die, but it would be on the Trail, and the death clutch +of their fingers would still be extended toward the north, where dwelt +their enemy, and into whose protective arms their quarry had fled. + +As his strength ebbed Dick Herron's energies concentrated more and more +to his monomania of pursuit. The round, full curves of his body had +shrunken to angles, the fresh tints of his skin had turned to leather, +the flesh of his cheeks had sunken, his teeth showed in the drawing back +of his lips. All these signs spoke of exhaustion and of ultimate +collapse. But as the case grew more desperate, he seemed to discover in +some unsuspected quality of his spirit, or perhaps merely of his youth, +a fitful and wonderful power. He collapsed from weakness, to be sure; +but in a moment his iron will, apparently angered to incandescence, got +him to his feet and on his way with an excess of energy. He helped the +others. He urged the dog. And then slowly the fictitious vigour ran out. +The light, the red, terrible glare of madness, faded from his eye; it +became glazed and lifeless; his shoulders dropped; his head hung; he +fell. + +Gradually in the transition period between the darkness of winter and +the coming of spring the world took on an unearthly aspect. It became an +inferno of light without corresponding warmth, of blinding, flaring, +intolerable light reflected from the snow. It became luminous, as though +the ghosts of the ancient days of incandescence had revisited the +calendar. It was raw, new, huge, uncouth, embryonic, adapted to the +production of tremendous monsters, unfit for the habitation of tiny men +with delicate physical and mental adjustments. Only to the mind of a +Caliban could it be other than terrifying. Things grew to a size out of +all reason. The horizon was infinitely remote, lost in snow-mists, +fearful with the large-blown mirages of little things. Strange and +indeterminate somethings menaced on all sides, menaced in greater and +greater threat, until with actual proximity they mysteriously +disappeared, leaving behind them as a blind to conceal their real +identity such small matters as a stunted shrub, an exposed rock, the +shadow of a wind-rift on the snow. And low in the sky danced in unholy +revel the suns, sometimes as many as eight of them, gazing with the +abandoned red eyes of debauchees on the insignificant travellers groping +feebly amid phantasmagoria. + +The great light, the dazzle, the glitter, the incessant movement of the +mirages, the shining of the mock suns, all these created an impression +of heat, of light, of the pleasantness of a warmed land. Yet still +persisted, only modified by the sun, the cold of the northern winter. +And this denial of appearance sufficed to render unreal all the round +globe, so that at any moment the eye anticipated its crumbling like a +dust apple, with its cold, its vastness, its emptiness, its hunger, its +indecently many suns, leaving the human soul in the abyss of space. The +North threw over them the power of her spell, so that to them the step +from life to death seemed a short, an easy, a natural one to take. + +Nevertheless their souls made struggle, as did their bodies. They fought +down the feeling of illusion just as they had fought down the feelings +of hunger, of weariness, and of cold. Sam fashioned rough wooden +spectacles with tiny transverse slits through which to look, and these +they assumed against the snow-blindness. They kept a sharp watch for +freezing. Already their faces were blackened and parched by the frost, +and cracked through the thick skin down to the raw. Sam had frozen his +great toe, and had with his knife cut to the bone in order to prevent +mortification. They tried to talk a little in order to combat by unison +of spirit the dreadful influence the North was bringing to bear. They +gained ten feet as a saint of the early church gained his soul for +paradise. + +Now it came to the point where they could no longer afford to eat their +pemmican. They boiled it, along with strips of the rawhide dog-harness, +and drank the soup. It sufficed not at all to appease the pain of their +hunger, nor appreciably did it give them strength, but somehow it fed +the vital spark. They endured fearful cramps. So far had their faculties +lost vigour that only by a distinct effort of the will could they focus +their eyes to the examination of any object. + +Their obsessions of mind were now two. They followed the Trail; they +looked for the caribou herds. After a time the improbability became +tenuous. They actually expected the impossible, felt defrauded at not +obtaining it, cried out weakly against their ill fortune in not +encountering the herd that was probably two thousand miles away. In its +withholding the North seemed to play unfairly. She denied them the +chances of the game. + +And the Trail! Not the freezing nor the starvation nor the illusion were +so potent in the deeper discouragement of the spirit as that. Always it +led on. They could see it; they could see its direction; that was all. +Tireless it ran on and on and on. For all they knew the Indian, hearty +and confident in his wilderness strength, might be watching them at +every moment, laughing at the feeble thirty feet their pain bought them, +gliding on swiftly in an hour farther than they could travel in a day. +This possibility persisted until, in their minds, it became the fact. +They endowed their enemy with all they themselves lacked; with strength, +with swiftness, with the sustenance of life. Yet never for a moment did +it occur to them to abandon the pursuit. + +Sam was growing uncertain in his movements; Dick was plainly going mad. +The girl followed; that was all one could say, for whatever suffering +she proved was hidden beneath race stolidity, and more nobly beneath a +great devotion. + +And then late one afternoon they came to a bloody spot on the snow. Here +Jingoss had killed. Here he had found what had been denied them, what +they needed so sorely. The North was on his side. He now had meat in +plenty, and meat meant strength, and strength meant swiftness, and +swiftness meant the safety of this world for him and the certainty of +the next for them. The tenuous hope that had persisted through all the +psychological pressure the North had brought to bear, the hope that they +had not even acknowledged to themselves, the hope based merely on the +circumstance that they did not _know_, was routed by this one fact. Now +they could no longer shelter behind the flimsy screen of an ignorance of +their enemy's condition. They knew. The most profound discouragement +descended on them. + +But even yet they did not yield to the great antagonist. The strength of +meat lacked them: the strength of despair remained. A rapid dash might +bring them to grapples. And somewhere in the depths of their indomitable +spirits, somewhere in the line of their hardy, Anglo-Saxon descent, +they knew they would find the necessary vitality. + +Stars glittered like sparks on polished steel. On the northwest wind +swooped the chill of the winter's end, and in that chill was the breath +of the North. Sam Bolton, crushed by the weight of a great exhaustion, +recognised the familiar menace, and raised his head, gazing long from +glazed eyes out into the Silent Places. + +"Not yet!" he said aloud. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN + + +But the next morning he was unable to rise. The last drop of his +vitality had run out. At length the connection between his will and his +body had been severed, so that the latter was no longer under his +command. After the first moment he knew well enough what this meant, +knew that here he must die, here he must lie crushed finally under the +sheer weight of his antagonist. It was as though she, the great North, +had heard his defiant words the night before, and thus proved to him +their emptiness. + +And yet the last reserves of the old man's purpose were not yet +destroyed. Here he must remain, it is true, but still he possessed next +his hand the human weapon he had carried so far and so painfully by the +exercise of his ingenuity and the genius of his long experience. He had +staggered under its burden as far as he could; now was the moment for +launching it. He called the young man to him. + +"I cannot go on," said he, in gasps. "Leave the sledge. Take the dog. Do +not lose him. Travel fast. You must get him by to-morrow night. Sleep +some to-night. Travel fast." + +Dick nodded. He understood. Already the scarlet hate, the dogged mad +glare of a set purpose was glazing his vision. It was the sprint at the +end of the race. He need no longer save himself. + +He took a single blanket and the little shreds of dog meat that +remained. Some of the pemmican, a mere scrap, he left with Sam. Mack he +held in leash. + +"I will live five days," went on Sam, "perhaps six. I will try to live. +If you should come back in that time,--with meat--the caribou--you +understand." His voice trailed away, unwilling to mock the face of +probability with such a chance. + +Dick nodded again. He had nothing to say. He wrung the old man's hand +and turned away. + +Mack thrust his nose forward. They started. Sam, left alone, rolled +himself again in his thick coverings under the snow, which would protect +him from the night cold. There he would lie absolutely motionless, +hoarding the drops of his life. From time to time, at long intervals, +he would taste the pemmican. And characteristically enough, his regret, +his sorrow, was, not that he must be left to perish, not even that he +must acknowledge himself beaten, but that he was deprived of the chance +for this last desperate dash before death stooped. + +When Dick stepped out on the trail, May-may-gwan followed. After a +moment he took cognisance of the crunch of her snow-shoes behind him. He +turned and curtly ordered her back. She persisted. Again he turned, his +face nervous with all the strength he had summoned for the final effort, +shouting at her hoarsely, laying on her the anger of his command. She +seemed not to hear him. He raised his fist and beat her, hitting her +again and again, finally reaching her face. She went down silently, +without even a moan. But when he stared back again, after the next dozen +steps, she had risen and was still tottering on along the Trail. + +He threw his hands up with a gesture of abandonment. Then without a +word, grim and terrible, he put his head down and started. + +He never looked back. Madness held him. Finesse, saving, the crafty +utilising of small advantages had had their day. It was the moment for +brute strength. All day he swung on in a swirl of snow, tireless. The +landscape swam about him, the white glare searched out the inmost +painful recesses of his brain. He knew enough to keep his eyes shut most +of the time, trusting to Mack. At noon he divided accurately the entire +food supply with the animal. At night he fasted. The two, man and dog, +slept huddled close together for the sake of the warmth. At midnight the +girl crept in broken and exhausted. + +The next day Dick was as wonderful. A man strong in meat could not have +travelled so. The light snow whirled behind him in a cloud. The wind of +his going strained the capote from his emaciated face. So, in the nature +of the man, he would go until the end. Then he would give out all at +once, would fall from full life to complete dissolution of forces. +Behind him, pitifully remote, pitifully bent, struggling futilely, +obsessed by a mania as strong as that of these madmen who persisted even +beyond the end of all things, was the figure of the girl. She could not +stand upright, she could not breathe, yet she, too, followed the Trail, +that dread symbol of so many hopes and ideals and despairs. Dick did +not notice her, did not remember her existence, any more than he +remembered the existence of Sam Bolton, of trees, of streams, of summer +and warm winds, of the world, of the devil, of God, of himself. + +All about him the landscape swayed like mist; the suns danced indecent +revel; specks and blotches, the beginning of snow-blindness, swam +grotesquely projected into a world less real than they. Living things +moved everywhere. Ordinarily the man paid no attention to them, knowing +them for what they were, but once, warned by some deep and subtle +instinct, he made the effort to clear his vision and saw a fox. By +another miracle he killed it. The carcass he divided with his dog. He +gave none of it to the girl. + +By evening of the second day he had not yet overtaken his quarry. But +the trail was evidently fresher, and the fox's meat gave him another +chance. He slept, as before, with Mack the hound; and, as before, +May-may-gwan crept in hours later to fall exhausted. + +And over the three figures, lying as dead, the North whirred in the +wind, waiting to stoop, triumphing, glorying that she had brought the +boasts of men to nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT + + +The next morning was the third day. There was no delay in getting +started. All Dick had to do was to roll his blanket. He whirled on, +still with his impetuous, fictitious vigour unimpaired. The girl +staggered after him ten feet, then pitched forward. He turned +uncertainly. She reached out to touch him. Her eyes said a farewell. It +was the end. + +Dick stood a moment, his eyes vague. Then mechanically he put his head +down, mechanically he looked for the Trail, mechanically he shot away +alone, alone except for the faithful, gaunt hound, the only thing that +remained to him out of a whole world of living beings. + +To his fevered vision the Trail was becoming fresher. Every step he took +gave him the impression of so much gained, as though the man he was in +pursuit of was standing still waiting to be taken. For the first time in +months the conviction of absolute success took possession of him. His +sight cleared, his heart beat strong, his whole being quivered with +vigour. The illusion of the North faded away like a mist. The world was +a flat plain of snow, with here and there a stunted spruce, knee-high, +protruding above it, and with here and there an inequality of hidden +bowlders and rounded knolls. Far off was the horizon, partially hidden +in the normal snow-fog of this time of year. All objects were +stationary, solid, permanent. Even the mock suns were only what was to +be expected in so high a latitude. Dick was conscious of arguing these +things to himself with extraordinary accuracy of logic. He proved a glow +of happiness in the clarity of his brain, in the ease of his body, in +the certainty of his success. The candle flared clear before its +expiration. + +For some moments he enjoyed this feeling of well-being, then a +disturbing element insinuated itself. At first it was merely an +uneasiness, which he could not place, a vague and nebulous irritation, a +single crumpled rose-leaf. Then it grew to the proportions of a menace +which banked his horizon with thunder, though the sun still shone +overhead. Finally it became a terror, clutching him at the throat. He +seemed to feel the need of identifying it. By an effort he recognised it +as a lack. Something was missing without which there was for him no +success, no happiness, no well-being, no strength, no existence. That +something he must find. In the search his soul descended again to the +region of dread, the regions of phantasmagoria. The earth heaved and +rocked and swam in a sea of cold and glaring light. Strange creatures, +momentarily changing shape and size, glided monstrous across the middle +distance. The mock suns danced in the heavens. + +Twice he stopped short and listened. In his brain the lack was defining +itself as the lack of a sound. It was something he had always been used +to. Now it had been taken away. The world was silent in its deprivation, +and the silence stifled him. It had been something so usual that he had +never noticed it; its absence called it to his attention for the first +time. So far in the circle his mind ran; then swung back. He beat his +forehead. Great as were the sufferings of his body, they were as nothing +compared with these unreal torturings of his maddened brain. + +For the third time he stopped, his head sidewise in the attitude of +listening. At once easily, without effort, he knew. All these months +behind him had sounded the _crunch_ of snow-shoes. All these months +about him, wrapping him so softly that he had never been conscious of +it, had been the worship of a great devotion. Now they were taken away, +he missed them. His spirit, great to withstand the hardships of the +body, strong to deny itself, so that even at the last he had resisted +the temptation of hunger and divided with his dog, in its weakened +condition could not stand the exposure to the loneliness, to the barren +winds of a peopleless world. + +A long minute he stood, listening, demanding against all reason to hear +the _crunch, crunch, crunch_ that should tell him he was not alone. +Then, without a glance at the Trail he had followed so long, he turned +back. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE + + +The girl was lying face down as he had left her. Already the windrow of +the snow was beginning to form, like the curve of a wave about to break +over her prostrate body. He sat down beside her, and gathered her into +his arms, throwing the thick three-point blanket with its warm lining +over the bent forms of both. At once it was as though he had always been +there, his back to the unceasing winds, a permanence in the wilderness. +The struggles of the long, long trail withdrew swiftly into the +past--they had never been. And through the unreality of this feeling +shot a single illuminating shaft of truth: never would he find in +himself the power to take the trail again. The bubbling fever-height of +his energies suddenly drained away. + +Mack, the hound, lay patiently at his feet. He, too, suffered, and he +did not understand, but that did not matter; his faithfulness could not +doubt. For a single instant it occurred to the young man that he might +kill the dog, and so procure nourishment with which to extricate himself +and the girl; but the thought drifted idly through his mind, and so on +and away. It did not matter. He could never again follow that Trail, and +a few days more or less-- + +The girl sighed and opened her eyes. They widened. + +"Jibiwanisi!" she whispered. + +Her eyes remained fixed on his face, puzzling out the mere facts. Then +all at once they softened. + +"You came back," she murmured. + +Dick did not reply. He drew her a little closer into his arms. + +For a long time they said nothing. Then the girl: + +"It has come, Jibiwanisi, we must die," and after a moment, "You came +back." + +She closed her eyes again, happily. + +"Why did you come back?" she asked after a while. + +"I do not know," said Dick. + +The snow sifted here and there like beach sand. Occasionally the dog +shook himself free of it, but over the two human beings it flung, +little by little, the whiteness of its uniformity, a warm mantle against +the freezing. They became an integral part of the landscape, permanent +as it, coeval with its rocks and hills, ancient as the world, a symbol +of obscure passions and instincts and spiritual beauties old as the +human race. + +Abruptly Dick spoke, his voice harsh. + +"We die here, Little Sister. I do not regret. I have done the best in +me. It is well for me to die. But this is not your affair. It was not +for you to give your life. Had you not followed you would now be warm in +the wigwams of your people. This is heavy on my heart." + +"Was it for this you came back to me?" she inquired. + +Dick considered. "No," he replied. + +"The south wind blows warm on me," she said, after a moment. + +The man thought her mind wandered with the starvation, but this was not +the case. Her speech had made one of those strange lapses into rhetoric +so common to the savage peoples. + +"Jibiwanisi," she went on solemnly, "to me now this is a land where the +trees are green and the waters flow and the sun shines and the fat deer +are in the grasses. My heart sings like the birds. What should I care +for dying? It is well to die when one is happy." + +"Are you happy, May-may-gwan?" asked Dick. + +For answer she raised her eyes to his. Freed of the distraction of +another purpose, clarified by the near approach of death, his spirit +looked, and for the first time understood. + +"May-may-gwan, I did not know," said he, awed. + +He meant that he had not before perceived her love for him. She thought +he had not before realised his love for her. Her own affection seemed to +her as self-evident as the fact that her eyes were black. + +"Yes, yes," she hastened to comfort what she supposed must be his +distress, "I know. But you turned back." + +She closed her eyes again and appeared to doze in a happy dream. The +North swooped above them like some greedy bird of prey. + +Gradually in his isolation and stillness Dick began to feel this. It +grew on him little by little. Within a few hours, by grace of suffering +and of imminent death, he came into his woodsman's heritage of +imagination. Men like Sam Bolton gained it by patient service, by +living, by the slow accumulations of years, but in essence it remained +the same. Where before the young man had seen only the naked, material +facts, now he felt the spiritual presence, the calm, ruthless, just, +terrible Enemy, seeking no combat, avoiding none, conquering with a +lofty air of predestination, inevitable, mighty. His eyes were opened, +like the prophet's of old. The North hovered over him almost palpable. +In the strange borderland of mingled illusion and reality where now he +and starvation dwelt he thought sometimes to hear voices, the voices of +his enemy's triumph. + +"Is it done?" they asked him, insistently. "Is it over? Are you beaten? +Is your stubborn spirit at last bowed down, humiliated, crushed? Do you +relinquish the prize,--and the struggle? Is it done?" + +The girl stirred slightly in his arms. He focussed his eyes. Already +the day had passed, and the first streamers of the aurora were crackling +in the sky. They reduced this day, this year, this generation of men to +a pin-point in time. The tragedy enacting itself on the snow amounted to +nothing. It would soon be over: it occupied but one of many, many +nights--wherein the aurora would crackle and shoot forth and ebb back in +precisely the same deathful, living way, as though the death of it were +the death in this world, but the life of it were a thing celestial and +alien. The moment, to these three who perished the most important of all +the infinite millions of millions that constitute time, was absolutely +without special meaning to the wonderful, flaming, unearthly lights of +the North. + +Mack, the hound, lay in the position he had first assumed, his nose +between his outstretched forepaws. So he had lain all that day and that +night. So it seemed he must intend to lie until death took him. For on +this dreadful journey Mack had risen above the restrictions imposed by +his status as a zoological species, had ceased to be merely a dog, and +by virtue of steadfastness, of loyalty, of uncomplaining suffering, had +entered into the higher estate of a living being that has fearlessly +done his best in the world before his call to leave it. + +The girl opened her eyes. + +"Jibiwanisi," she said, faintly, "the end is come." + +Agonized, Dick forced himself to consciousness of the landscape. It +contained moving figures in plenty. One after the other he brought them +within the focus of scrutiny and dissolved them into thin air. If only +the caribou herds-- + +He looked down again to meet her eyes. + +"Do not grieve. I am happy, Jibiwanisi," she whispered. + +After a little, "I will die first," and then, "This land and that--there +must be a border. I will be waiting there. I will wait always. I will +not go into the land until you come. I will wait to see it--with you. +Oh, Jibiwanisi," she cried suddenly, with a strength and passion in +startling contrast to her weakness. "I am yours, yours, yours! You are +mine." She half raised herself and seized his two arms, searching his +eyes with terror, trying to reassure herself, to drive off the doubts +that suddenly had thronged upon her. "Tell me," she shook him by the +arm. + +"I am yours," Dick lied, steadily; "my heart is yours, I love you." + +He bent and kissed her on the lips. She quivered and closed her eyes +with a deep sigh. + +Ten minutes later she died. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY + + +This was near the dawn of the fourth day. Dick remained always in the +same attitude, holding the dead girl in his arms. Mack, the hound, lay +as always, loyal, patient to the last. After the girl's departure the +wind fell and a great stillness seemed to have descended on the world. + +The young man had lost the significance of his position, had forgotten +the snow and cold and lack of food, had forgotten even the fact of death +which he was hugging to his breast. His powers, burning clear in the +spirit, were concentrated on the changes taking place within himself. By +these things the world of manhood was opened to him; he was no longer a +boy. To most it comes as a slow growth. With him it was revelation. The +completeness of it shook him to the foundations of life. He took no +account of the certainty of his own destruction. It seemed to him, in +the thronging of new impressions, that he might sit there forever, a +buddha of contemplation, looking on the world as his maturity had +readjusted it. + +Never now could he travel the Silent Places as he had heretofore, +stupidly, blindly, obstinately, unthinkingly, worse than an animal in +perception. The wilderness he could front intelligently, for he had seen +her face. Never now could he conduct himself so selfishly, so brutally, +so without consideration, as though he were the central point of the +system, as though there existed no other preferences, convictions, +conditions of being that might require the readjustment of his own. He +saw these others for the first time. Never now could he live with his +fellow beings in such blindness of their motives and the passions of +their hearts. His own heart, like a lute, was strung to the pitch of +humanity. Never now could he be guilty of such harm as he had +unthinkingly accomplished on the girl. His eyes were opened to human +suffering. The life of the world beat through his. The compassion of the +greater humanity came to him softly, as a gift from the portals of +death. The full savour of it he knew at last, knew that finally he had +rounded out the circle of his domain. + +This was what life required of his last consciousness. Having attained +to it, the greater forces had no more concern with him. They left him, a +poor, weak, naked human soul exposed to the terrors of the North. For +the first time he saw them in all their dreadfulness. They clutched him +with the fingers of cruel suffering so that his body was wracked with +the tortures of dissolution. They flung before his eyes the obscene, +unholy shapes of illusion. They filled his ears with voices. He was +afraid. He cowered down, covering his eyes with his forearms, and +trembled, and sobbed, and uttered little moans. He was alone in the +world, alone with enemies who had him in their power and would destroy +him. He feared to look up. The man's spirit was broken. All the +accumulated terrors which his resolute spirit had thrust from him in the +long months of struggle, rushed in on him now that his guard was down. +They rioted in the empty chambers of his soul. + +"Is it done?" they shrieked in triumph. "Is it over? Are you beaten? Is +your spirit crushed? Is the victory ours? Is it done?" + +Dick shivered and shrank as from a blow. + +"Is it done?" the voices insisted. "Is it over? Are you beaten? Is it +done?" + +The man shrieked aloud in agony. + +"Oh, my God!" he cried. "Oh, yes, yes, yes! I am beaten. I can do +nothing. Kill me. It is done." + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE + + +As though these words were a signal, Mack, the hound, who had up to now +rested as motionless as though frozen to his place, raised himself on +his haunches and gazed earnestly to the north. + +In the distance Dick seemed to make out an object moving. As he had so +often done before, by an effort he brought his eyes to focus, expecting, +as also had happened so often before, that the object would disappear. +But it persisted, black against the snow. Its outlines could not be +guessed; its distance could not be estimated, its direction of travel +could not be determined. Only the bare fact of its existence was sure. +Somewhere out in the waste it, moving, antithesised these other three +black masses on the whiteness, the living man, the living animal, the +dead girl. + +Dick variously identified it. At one moment he thought it a marten near +at hand; then it became a caribou far away; then a fox between the two. +Finally, instantaneously, as though at a bound it had leaped from +indeterminate mists to the commonplace glare of every day, he saw it was +a man. + +The man was moving painfully, lifting each foot with an appearance of +great effort, stumbling, staggering sideways from time to time as though +in extreme weakness. Once he fell. Then he recovered the upright as +though necklaced with great weights. His hands were empty of weapons. In +the uncertainty of his movements he gradually approached. + +Now Dick could see the great emaciation of his features. The bones of +his cheeks seemed to press through his skin, which was leathery and +scabbed and cracked to the raw from much frosting. His lips drew tight +across his teeth, which grinned in the face of exhaustion like the +travesty of laughter on a skull. His eyes were lost in the caverns of +their sockets. His thin nostrils were wide, and through them and through +the parted lips the breath came and went in strong, rasping gasps, +audible even at this distance of two hundred paces. One live thing this +wreck of a man expressed. His forces were near their end, but such of +them as remained were concentrated in a determination to go on. He +moved painfully, but he moved; he staggered, but he always recovered; he +fell, and it was a terrible labour to rise, but always he rose and went +on. + +Dick Herron, sitting there with the dead girl across his knees, watched +the man with a strange, detached curiosity. His mind had slipped back +into its hazes. The world of phantasms had resumed its sway. He was +seeing in this struggling figure a vision of himself as he had been, the +self he had transcended now, and would never again resume. Just so he +had battled, bringing to the occasion every last resource of the human +spirit, tearing from the deeps of his nature the roots where life +germinated and throwing them recklessly before the footsteps of his +endeavour, emptying himself, wringing himself to a dry, fibrous husk of +a man that his Way might be completed. His lips parted with a sigh of +relief that this was all over. He was as an old man whose life, for good +or ill, success or failure, is done, and who looks from the serenity of +age on those who have still their youth to spend, their years to dole +out day by day, painfully, in the intense anxiety of the moral purpose, +as the price of life. In a spell of mysticism he sat there waiting. + +The man plodded on, led by some compelling fate, to the one spot in the +white immensity where were living creatures. When he had approached to +within fifty paces, Dick could see his eyes. They were tight closed. As +the young man watched, the other opened them, but instantly blinked them +shut again as though he had encountered the searing of a white-hot iron. +Dick Herron understood. The man had gone snow-blind. + +And then, singularly enough for the first time, it was borne in on him +who this man was, what was the significance of his return. Jingoss, the +renegade Ojibway, the defaulter, the maker of the dread, mysterious +Trail that had led them so far into this grim land, Jingoss was blind, +and, imagining himself still going north, still treading mechanically +the hopeless way of his escape, had become bewildered and turned south. + +Dick waited, mysteriously held to inaction, watching the useless efforts +of this other from the vantage ground of a wonderful fatalism,--as the +North had watched him. The Indian plodded doggedly on, on, on. He +entered the circle of the little camp. Dick raised his rifle and pressed +its muzzle against the man's chest. + +"Stop!" he commanded, his voice croaking harsh across the stillness. + +The Indian, with a sob of mingled emotion, in which, strangely enough, +relief seemed the predominant note, collapsed to the ground. The North, +insistent on the victory but indifferent to the stake, tossed carelessly +the prize at issue into the hands of her beaten antagonist. + +And then, dim and ghostly, rank after rank, across the middle distance +drifted the caribou herds. + +[Illustration: "Stop!" he commanded, his voice croaking harsh across +the stillness] + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO + + +It was beyond the middle of summer. The day had been hot, but now the +velvet night was descending. The canoe had turned into the channel at +the head of the island on which was situated Conjuror's House. The end +of the journey was at hand. + +Dick paddled in the bow. His face had regained its freshness, but not +entirely its former boyish roundness. The old air of bravado again sat +his spirit--a man's nature persists to the end, and immortal and +unquenchable youth is a gift of the gods--but in the depths of his +strange, narrow eyes was a new steadiness, a new responsibility, the +well-known, quiet, competent look invariably a characteristic of true +woodsmen. At his feet lay the dog, one red-rimmed eye cocked up at the +man who had gone down to the depths in his company. + +The Indian Jingoss sat amidships, his hands bound strongly with buckskin +thongs, a man of medium size, broad face, beady eyes with surface +lights. He had cost much: he was to be given no chance to escape. +Always his hands remained bound with the buckskin thongs, except at +times when Dick or Sam stood over him with a rifle. At night his wrists +were further attached to one of Sam's. Mack, too, understood the +situation, and guarded as jealously as did his masters. + +Sam wielded the steersman's paddle. His appearance was absolutely +unaffected by this one episode in a long life. + +They rounded the point into the main sweep of the east river, stole down +along the bank in the gathering twilight, and softly beached their canoe +below the white buildings of the Factory. With a muttered word of +command to their captive, they disembarked and climbed the steepness of +the low bluff to the grass-plot above. The dog followed at their heels. + +Suddenly the impression of this year, until now so vividly a part of the +present, was stricken into the past, the past of memory. Up to the very +instant of topping the bluff it had been life; now it was experience. + +For the Post was absolutely unchanged from that other summer evening of +over a year ago when they had started out into the Silent Places. The +familiarity of this fact, hitherto, for some strange reason, absolutely +unexpected, reassured them their places in the normal world of living +beings. The dead vision of the North had left in their spirits a +residuum of its mysticism. Their experience of her power had induced in +them a condition of mind when it would not have surprised them to +discover the world shaken to its foundations, as their souls had been +shaken. But here were familiar, peaceful things, unchanged, indifferent +even to the passing of time. Involuntarily they drew a deep breath of +relief, and, without knowing it, re-entered a sanity which had not been +entirely theirs since the snows of the autumn before. + +Over by the guns, indistinct in the falling twilight, the accustomed +group of _voyageurs_ and post-keepers were chatting, smoking, humming +songs in the accustomed way. The low velvet band of forest against the +sky; the dim squares of the log-houses punctuated with their dots of +lamplight; the masses of the Storehouse, the stockade, the Factory; the +long flag-staff like a mast against the stars; the constant impression +of human life and activity,--these anodynes of accustomedness steadied +these men's faith to the supremacy of human institutions. + +On the Factory veranda could be dimly made out the figures of a dozen +men. They sat silent. Occasionally a cigar glowed brighter for a moment, +then dulled. Across a single square of subdued light the smoke eddied. + +The three travellers approached, Sam Bolton in the lead, peering through +the dusk in search of his chief. In a moment he made him out, sitting, +as always, square to the world, his head sunk forward, his eyes gleaming +from beneath the white tufts of his eyebrows. At once the woodsmen +mounted the steps. + +No one stirred or spoke. Only the smokers suspended their cigars in +mid-air a few inches from their faces in the most perfect attitude of +attention. + +"Galen Albret," announced the old woodsman, "here is the Ojibway, +Jingoss." + +The Factor stirred slightly; his bulk, the significance of his features +lost in obscurity. + +"Me-en-gen!" he called, sharply. + +The tall, straight figure of his Indian familiar glided from the dusk of +the veranda's end. + +"To-morrow at smoke time," commanded the Factor, using the Ojibway +tongue, "let this man be whipped before the people, fifty lashes. Then +let him be chained to the Tree for the space of one week, and let it be +written above him in Ojibway and in Cree that thus Galen Albret punishes +those who steal." + +Without a word Me-en-gan took the defaulter by the arm and conducted him +away. + +Galen Albret had fallen into a profound silence, which no one ventured +to break. Dick and Sam, uncertain as to whether or not they, too, were +dismissed, shifted uneasily. + +"How did you find him?" demanded the Factor, abruptly. + +"We went with old Haukemah's band down as far as the Mattawishguia. +There we left them and went up stream and over the divide. Dick here +broke his leg and was laid up for near three months. I looked all that +district over while he was getting well. Then we made winter travel down +through the Kabinikagam country and looked her over. We got track of +this Jingoss over near the hills, but he got wind of us and skipped when +we was almost on top of him. We took his trail. He went straight north, +trying to shake us off, and we got up into the barren country. We'd have +lost him in the snow if it hadn't been for that dog there. He could +trail him through new snow. We run out of grub up there, and finally I +gave out. Dick here pushed on alone and found the Injun wandering around +snow-blind. He run onto some caribou about that time, too, and killed +some. Then he came back and got me:--I had a little pemmican and boiled +my moccasins. We had lots of meat, so we rested up a couple of weeks, +and then came back." + +That was all. These men had done a great thing, and thus simply they +told it. And they only told that much of it because it was their duty; +they must report to their chief. + +Galen Albret seemed for a moment to consider, as was his habit. + +"You have done well," he pronounced at last. "My confidence in you was +justified. The pay stands as agreed. In addition I place you in charge +of the post at Lost River, and you, Herron, in charge of the Mattagami +Brigade." + +The men flushed, deeply pleased, more than rewarded, not by the money +nor the advancement, but by the unqualified satisfaction of their +commander. + +They turned away. At this moment Virginia Albret, on some errand to her +father, appeared outlined in slender youth against the doorway. On the +instant she recognized them. + +"Why, Sam and Dick," she said, "I am glad to see you. When did you get +back?" + +"Just back, Miss Virginia," replied Sam. + +"That's good. I hope you've had a successful trip." + +"Yes," answered Sam. The woodsman stood there a little awkwardly, +wishing to be polite, not sure as to whether they should now go without +further dismissal. + +"See, Miss Virginia," hesitated Sam, to fill in the pause, "I have your +handkerchief yet." + +"I'm glad you kept it, Sam," replied the young girl; "and have you +yours, Dick?" + +And suddenly to Dick the contrast between this reality and that other +came home with the vividness of a picture. He saw again the snow-swept +plain, the wavering shapes of illusion, the mock suns dancing in unholy +revel. The colour of the North burned before his eyes; a madness of the +North unsealed his lips. + +"I used it to cover a dead girl's face," he replied, bluntly. + +The story had been as gray as a report of statistics,--so many places +visited, so much time consumed. The men smoking cigars, lounging on +cushioned seats in the tepid summer air, had listened to it unimpressed, +as one listens to the reading of minutes of a gathering long past. This +simple sentenced breathed into it life. The magnitude of the undertaking +sprang up across the horizon of their comprehension. They saw between +the mile-post markings of Sam Bolton's dry statements of fact, glimpses +of vague, mysterious, and terrible deeds, indistinct, wonderful. The two +before them loomed big in the symbolism of the wide world of men's +endurance and determination and courage. + +The darkness swallowed them before the group on the veranda had caught +its breath. In a moment the voices about the cannon raised in greeting. +A swift play of question and answer shot back and forth. "Out all the +year?" "Where? Kabinikagam? Oh, yes, east of Brunswick Lake." "Good +trip?" "That's right." "Glad of it." Then the clamour rose, many +beseeching, one refusing. The year was done. These men had done a mighty +deed, and yet a few careless answers were all they had to tell of it. +The group, satisfied, were begging another song. And so, in a moment, +just as a year before, Dick's rich, husky baritone raised in the words +of the old melody. The circle was closed. + + "_There was an old darky, and his name was Uncle Ned, + And he lived long ago, long ago--_" + +The night hushed to silence. Even the wolves were still, and the +_giddes_ down at the Indian camp ceased their endless quarrelling. +Dick's voice had all the world to itself. The men on the Factory veranda +smoked, the disks of their cigars dulling and glowing. Galen Albret, +inscrutable, grim, brooded his unguessable thoughts. Virginia, in the +doorway, rested her head pensively against one arm outstretched against +the lintel. + + "_For there's no more work for poor old Ned, + He's gone where the good darkies go_." + +The song finished. There succeeded the great compliment of quiet. + +To Virginia it was given to speak the concluding word of this episode. +She sighed, stretching out her arms. + +"'The greatness of my people,'" she quoted softly. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Silent Places, by Steward Edward White + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SILENT PLACES *** + +***** This file should be named 14960.txt or 14960.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/9/6/14960/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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