THE BEAR BROKE COVER WITH A SAVAGE ROARTHE BEAR BROKE COVER WITH A SAVAGE ROAR
The bear itself heard them shouting, and, having located the presence of an enemy, now broke cover with a savage roar, limping as best he could in a vain endeavor to get up the slope and to attack his enemies. But again and again the rifles spoke, and an instant later the great bear dropped down and rolled limpat the bottom of the slope, almost back into the bushes from which he had come.
“He’s dead now, all right!” said Alex, even as he held out his hand to restrain his young companions once more from rushing in on their game. “Some one hit him in the head that last time. I’m thinking the hide won’t be good for much, for he must be shot full of holes by now!”
Such indeed proved to be the case. The high-power rifles, fired at close range, with hands excited yet none the less fairly accurate, had done their work in such fashion as might have finished three or four bears instead of one even as large as this one proved to be.
Alex turned once more to note the conduct of his young friends as they gathered at the side of the dead bear. He smiled a little bit grimly. Whereas their faces had lately been flushed and eager, they now were just a little pale, and he saw that they all were disposed to tremble as they stood.
“We’re well out of that,” said he, quietly. “That’s bad as the Parle Pas. Of course the odds were in our favor, but with a bear of this size any man or any party is well out of it when they get him down. But here’s your grizzly, young gentlemen.”
“My, isn’t he a whale!” said Jesse. “There’s plenty of meat, I should think.”
“Yes, we’ve killed him,” said Alex, “but what good is he to us? Grizzlies aren’t good to eat, even when they are feeding on berries, as this one is.”
“Never mind,” said Rob; “this is a pretty good robe, I want to tell you, even if it is only in August. It is finer and closer than our Alaska bears; see how white on the shoulders and face. I believe he’s about as ugly a customer, too, as most of our big Alaska bears, that live on fish.”
“Yes,” said Alex, “he’s what you call a bald-face, and whether there’s any truth in it or not, Injuns always say that these white-faced bears are the most savage. Look at his claws—they’re white too. All of them perfect, however, which shows that he hasn’t been digging among the rocks very much, but has been feeding in low country for quite a while. I suppose Moise would call this bear his cousin, and I doubt if he’d want to help skin him. But that’s what we’ve got to do now, and it’s no easy job either.”
“We’ll all help,” said Rob.
“Well, you’d better go and help by finding some sort of rock for a whetstone,” said Alex, “for I see I have left my file down in camp.There’s nothing in the world takes the edge off the best steel like skinning a big bear—the hide is like sandpaper inside.”
“Here’s something,” said Jesse, picking up a flat stone, “and maybe we can sharpen the knives on it.”
They all fell to work now, each with his own hunting-knife. Alex, of course, did most of the work, first ripping down the tough hide with his big buffalo knife, along each leg and up the middle of the body. Then giving each of the boys a leg, and himself keeping clear of the eager knife blades, they all began the work of skinning off the hide.
“Skin it close,” said Alex, “and don’t leave on much meat. The Injuns never skin a bear hide close, for the women like the fat, it seems, and they do all the scraping in camp. But this hide is so big that I’m not anxious to carry any more weight on it than I have to—I should not wonder if it would weigh seventy-five to a hundred pounds, the best we can do.”
At last, however, they had the great hide free from the carcass, with the footpads and long claws attached, and the scalp all skinned carefully free from the skull at eyes, ears, and nose. Rob insisted on taking the skull also, although Alex demurred.
“We’ll carry it, Alex,” said he. “This is asplendid robe, I’m telling you, fine color, and not worn nearly as badly as I should have expected in the summer-time. We’re going to have a rug made out of it for Uncle Dick’s house, and we want the skull, too. We’ll carry that down the hill.”
“All right,” said Alex; “I’ll have plenty to do with the rest of this old fellow.”
He rolled the green hide into a pack, which he lashed tightly with some thongs, and once more using his belt as a pack-strap, which he rested on the top of his head, he managed to get under the weight of the green hide, and started off at a half trot, following the nearest valley down to the river where their camp was pitched.
Strong as the old hunter was, at times even he was willing enough to set down his pack and rest awhile, and to smoke a pipe. The boys, who were carrying his rifle and also making shifts at carrying the heavy bear skull, themselves were willing enough to join him when he stopped. At last, however, they got to the top of the bank under which their camp was pitched.
“Listen!” said Rob. “There’s some one talking.”
Alex nodded. They stepped up to the top of the bank and looked over.
They saw sitting near the fire three men beside Moise, all of them Indians or half-breeds. They were all of them talking and laughing eagerly, certainly not showing very much of the so-called Indian reserve, at the time the hunters peered over at them. Yet occupied as they were, their senses were always alert. One of them heard a twig snap, and turned his face to the bank.
Alex said nothing, but kicked over the edge of the bank the big rolled hide of the grizzly; after which, silently and with proper dignity, all the hunters, old and young, advanced down the bank and across the beach toward the fire. No one said anything until after the rifles were all lined up against the blanket rolls and the pipes of the men had been filled once more. Moise at length could be dignified no more, and broke out into a loud series of French, English, and Cree terms, all meant to express his delight and approvalat the success of the hunt. The three breeds also smiled broadly and nodded approvingly, once in a while saying a word in their own tongue to one another. They did not, however, seem to ask any questions regarding the hunt as yet. Alex spoke a word or so to Moise.
“She’s been my cousin,” said Moise, pointing indifferently to all three of the new-comers. He also pointed to their means of locomotion, a long and risky looking dugout which lay at the beach.
“He’ll gone on up the river,” said Moise, “from Hudson’s Hope.”
“Well, when they go,” said Alex, “I suppose you’ll have to give them something to eat, as you seem to be doing now. Only please don’t part with quite all our supplies—we’re going to need a little tea and flour for ourselves before we get out of here. You can tell these men there’s plenty of game in this part of the country, so they can easily make a hunt if they like.”
“Sure,” said Moise, “I’ll dream last night you’ll catch grizzly this time. But how we’ll go to put heem in boat,hein? S’pose we put that hide in canoe, she’ll sink unless we eat up all the grub pile.”
Alex told Moise to unroll the bear hide sothat it might dry as much as possible. He then set all of them at fleshing the hide, a task none of them seemed to relish. Afterward, he also added some sort of counsel in the Cree language which presently resulted in the three visitors tightening up their belts, taking their solitary rifle, and passing out of sight in the bush at the top of the bank.
“Where are they going?” asked John, curiously, of Moise.
“She’ll say she’ll go after bear meat,” said Moise. “Not got much meat, for she’ll ain’t seen much moose yet.”
“Well, they’re welcome to that grizzly meat,” grinned Alex. “I didn’t think they’d eat it. They must be starving. Make them up a little package of tinned stuff, Moise, and put it in their boat. I think we’ll need about all the bacon we’ve got, and they can use the fat of the bear better than we can. Give them some tea, and a little flour too. What do they say about the river below here at the big cañon?”
“Says bad water,” said Moise. “She’ll rose perhaps four, three, two inches to-day, maybe so, here, and that’s all same so many foots in the cañon. She’ll say best way to do is to take portage trail and leave those boat on west end of those cañon.”
“Yes, but we want to get our boats through,” said Alex, “although it must be a dozen miles anyhow by way of the carrying trail, and not too good at that.”
“He’ll say,” resumed Moise, “s’pose we take those boat through to the big mountain—through big water, ver’ wide, with many islands—we’ll come on a place where boats can go up the bank, if plenty men carry them up. Then she’ll been ten mile, eight mile, to some place below the mountain. All the tam she’ll say best way is to go by horse, on the north side of the river, on the police trail from Fort St. John, s’pose we’ll could find that trail, an’ s’pose we’ll had some horse.”
“What do you say, Mr. Rob?” asked Alex. “We ought to get our boats down. Shall we haul out at the west end, or try for Hudson’s Hope?”
“I’d be in favor of getting down as far as we can,” said Rob. “We can reach the head of the mountain in a couple of days. I’m for moving on down and taking a chance on the rest of it! Of course we’ll have to portage the cañon somehow.”
“That suits me,” said John. And even Jesse, the youngest of the three, was all for continuing the journey as originally planned.
“All right,” said Alex, “I’m with you.We’re learning the game now, certainly, and I don’t think we’ll find this part of the river any worse than it has been up above. There isn’t anything bad marked on the map, anyhow, for quite a way.”
At about this time, as they were all busied about the camping place, the boys noticed Alex and Moise step a little apart and begin to converse in low tones. From their looks and gestures, the boys gathered that the men were speaking of something in which they themselves were concerned, in just what way they could not tell. Presently Moise smiled and nodded vigorously. Approaching the camp-fire, he took up his short-handled ax and slung it at his back by a bit of thong. Then he stepped over to the tallest and straightest pine-tree which grew close to the water’s edge thereabout. Active as a cat, he soon had climbed the lower branches, where, without pausing, he began to hack off, close to the trunk, every branch within his reach. Having done so, he climbed yet higher up and repeated the operation, as though it were his purpose to cut off nearly all the branches to the top of the tree. At first the boys thought he was gathering boughs for the beds, but as they were almost ready to break camp they could not understand this.
“Let’s go up and help him, fellows!” exclaimed John.
Alex restrained them. “No, you mustn’t do that.” John stopped rather abashed.
“You see,” explained the old hunter, “you are concerned in this, so you must not help.”
“I don’t understand—” began John.
“Well, the truth is, we are going to give you a celebration. In short, we are making a monument for you young gentlemen, all of you.”
Rob broke into the conversation. “A monument? But we’re not dead, and aren’t going to be soon!”
“This is a monument of the Far North. It is not necessary to die. We are making you what we call a ‘lob-stick,’ or ‘lop-stick.’”
“I never heard of anything like that.”
“Very likely not. Nor do I suppose there is one this far to the west, although there are some which we may see down the Peace River. Had Mackenzie and Fraser got their dues, each of them would have had a ‘lob-stick’ somewhere in here. Probably they were too busy in those days. But if either of them had had a ‘lob-stick’ made for him it would very likely be standing to-day. In that case every man who went past on the river would know why it had been given.”
The boys were very much excited over this and demanded of Alex that he should explain more precisely these matters.
“Well,” said the old hunter, kindly, “each country has its own ways. When I was in London with General Kitchener I went to Westminster Cathedral, and saw there engraved in brass the names of men who had done deeds worth commemorating. It is our way in this country also to perpetuate the memory of deeds of goodness or of bravery, anything which is remarkable and worth remembering. Here and there along the Peace River, and far to the north on the Athabasca, you will see a tree trimmed like this, different from the others, and noticeable to all passers-by. Perhaps one tells where a man has saved the life of another man, or where a party have divided their food until all starved, or where some great deed was done, such as a fight with some animal. Any great event in our history we may keep in mind in this way. When the men go by on the river they think of that. We believe it may make their hearts stronger, or make them more disposed to do good or brave things themselves. It is our custom.”
“But what have we done to deserve this?” demanded Rob.
“Moise and I and those other men who were here have the right to decide in regard to that,” said Alex. “We would not be foolish enough to leave a ‘lob-stick’ for any light reason. To us it seemed that you were brave, considering your years, in facing the grizzly this morning as you did; also, that you are brave to undertake this trip, young as you are, and with us whom you did not know, across this wild country, which daunted even Mackenzie and Fraser in the old days. Having met in council, Moise and I have determined to do this. We think there is no other ‘lob-stick’ on the river above here, and that there is not apt to be.”
By this time Moise had lopped off all the branches of the tree except the top ones, which stood out like an umbrella. Descending from stub to stub, he now trimmed off all the remaining branches clear to the ground. As Alex had said, the tree stood straight and unmistakable, so that anyvoyageuron the river must notice it.
Rob took off his hat, and the others did the same. “We do not know how to thank you for this honor, Alex and Moise,” said he, “but we will try never to do anything which shall make you ashamed of us. If we do, you may come and cut down this tree.”
“I believe it will stand,” smiled Alex. “Not many men pass here in these days, but by and by every man who does come here will know where this tree stands and why it was made a ‘lob-stick.’ They will measure distances by it on the river. And always when thevoyageurspass, or when they camp here near the tree, they will know your story. That is the way history is made in this country. I think that a hundred years from now, perhaps, men will know your story as well as you do that of Mackenzie and Fraser, although theirs was written in books. This is our custom. If it pleases you, we are very glad.”
Hats still in hand, the boys now stepped up one by one and shook hands with Alex and Moise. When they left this camp they looked back for a long time, and they could see their commemorative tree standing out tall, slender, and quite distinct from all the others. No doubt it stands there to-day just as it was left in the honor of our youngvoyageurs.
Alex now went down to the boats and began to rearrange the cargo, from which the boys saw that in his belief it was best to continue the journey that evening, although it now was growing rather late. Evidently he was for running down ahead of the flood-water if any such should come, although it seemed to all of them that after all they need have no great fear, for the river had risen little if any since morning.
They determined to put the big bear hide in theMary Ann, and shifted some of the burden of that boat to theJaybird, folding up the long hide and putting it at the bottom of the canoe under the thwarts, so that the weight would come as low as possible. When theMary Annhad received the rest of her necessary cargo she showed most of her bundles and packages above the gunwale, and Alex looked at the two boats a little dubiously, even after Moise had carried down to the dugoutof his cousins such of the joint supplies as even his liberality thought proper.
“We’ll try her, anyhow,” said Alex, taking a look up the river, which came rolling down, tawny now, and not white and green in its colors. So saying, they pushed off.
They must, at this camp, have been somewhere between twelve and twenty miles east of the mouth of the Parle Pas rapids, and they had made perhaps a dozen miles more that evening when they began to come to a place where again the mountains approached the stream closely. Here they could not see out at all from their place at the foot of the high banks which hedged them in. At nightfall they encamped in a wild region which seemingly never had known the foot of man. The continuous rush of the waters and the gloom of the overhanging forests now had once more that depressing effect which sometimes is not unknown even to seasonedvoyageurs. Had they been asked, the young travelers must truthfully have replied that they would be glad when at last the mountains were passed and the prairie country to the eastward reached.
On the next day they continued among the high hills for several hours, although at length the river expanded into a wide reach whichgave them a little free paddling. In such contractions of the stream as they met it seemed to them that the rocks were larger, the water deeper, and each hour becoming more powerful than it had been. Advancing cautiously, they perhaps had covered thirty miles when they came to a part of the stream not more than three hundred yards wide, where the current was very smooth but of considerable velocity. Below this the mountains crowded still closer in to the stream, seeming to rise almost directly from the edge of the banks and to tower nearly two thousand feet in height.
“We must be getting close to the big portage now,” said Rob to Moise, as they reached this part of the river.
“Yes,” said Moise, “pretty soon no more water we’ll could ron.”
Moise’s speech was almost prophetic. In less than half an hour after that moment they met with the first really serious accident of the entire journey, and one which easily might have resulted disastrously to life as well as to property.
They were running a piece of water where a flat rapid dropped down without much disturbance toward a deep bend where the current swung sharply to the right. A little islandwas at one side, on which there had been imbedded the roots of a big tree, which had come down as driftwood. The submerged branch of this tree, swinging up and down in the violent current, made one of the dangerous “sweepers” which canoemen dread. Both Rob and Moise thought there was plenty of room to get by, but just as they cleared the basin-like foot of the rapid theMary Annsuddenly came to a stop, hard and fast amidships, on a naked limb of the tree which had been hidden in the discolored waters at the time.
As is usual in all such accidents, matters happened very quickly. The first thing they knew the boat was lifted almost bodily from the water. There was the cracking noise of splintering wood, and an instant later, even as the white arm of the tree sunk once more into the water, theMary Annsunk down, weak and shattered, her back broken square across, although she still was afloat and free.
Rob gave a sudden shout of excitement and began to paddle swiftly to the left, where the bank was not far away. Moise joined him, and they reached the shore none too soon, their craft half full of water, for not only had the keel to the lower ribs of the boat been shattered by the weight thus suspended amidships,but the sheathing had been ripped and torn across, so that when they dragged the poorMary Annup the beach she was little more than the remnant of herself.
The others, coming down the head of the rapid a couple of hundred yards to the rear, saw this accident, and now paddled swiftly over to join the shipwrecked mariners, who luckily had made the shore.
“It’s bad, boys,” said Rob, hurrying down to catch the prow of theJaybirdas she came alongside. “Just look at that!”
They all got out now and discharged the cargo of theMary Ann, including the heavy grizzly hide, which very likely was the main cause of the accident, its weight having served to fracture the stout fabric of the plucky little boat. When they turned her over the case looked rather hopeless.
“She’s smashed almost to her rail,” said Rob, “and we’ve broken that already. It’s that old grizzly hide that did it, I’m sure. We lit fair on top of that ‘sweeper,’ and our whole weight was almost out of the water when it came up below us. Talk about the power of water, I should say you could see it there, all right—it’s ripped our whole ship almost in two! I don’t see how we can fix it up this time.”
Moise by this time had lighted his pipe, yet he did not laugh, as he usually did, but, on the contrary, shook his head at Alex.
“Maybe so we’ll could fix heem,” was all he would venture.
“Well, one thing certain,” said Rob, “we’ll have to go into camp right here, even if it isn’t late.”
“Did you have any fun in the other rapids above here?” asked John of Rob.
“No,” said Rob; “it was all easy. We’ve run a dozen or twenty a lot worse than this one. Not even the Parle Pas hurt us. Then I come in here, head paddler, and I run my boat on a ‘sweeper’ in a little bit of an easy drop like this. It makes me feel pretty bad, I’ll tell you that!”
They walked about the boat with hands in pockets, looking gloomy, for they were a little bit doubtful, since Moise did not know, whether they could repair theMary Anninto anything like working shape again.
Alex, as usual, made little comment and took things quietly. They noticed him standing and looking intently down the river across the near-by bend.
“I see it too,” said Rob. “Smoke!”
The old hunter nodded, and presently walked on down the beach to have a look atthe country below, leaving Moise to do what he could with the broken boat. The boys joined Alex.
Presently they saw, not far around the bend, a long dugout canoe pulled up on the beach. Near by was a little fire, at which sat two persons, an old man and a younger one. They did not rise as the visitors approached, but answered quietly when Alex spoke to them in Cree.
“
These men say,” interpreted Alex, as he turned to the boys, “that it’s sixteen to twenty miles from here to the end of the portage out of the hills, across the north bank, which cuts off the thirty miles of cañon that nobody ever tries to run. They say for a little way the river is wide, with many islands, but below that it narrows down and gets very bad. They’re tracking stuff up-stream from the portage to a surveyors’ camp which depends on their supplies. They say they will not sell their canoe, because they couldn’t get up-stream, but that if we can get east of the portage there’s a man, a sort of farmer, somewhere below there, who has a boat which perhaps he would sell.”
“What good would that do us?” demanded John. “A boat twenty or thirty miles east of here across the mountains isn’t going to help us very much. What we want is a boat now, and I don’t see how we can get along without it. Won’t they sell their canoe?”
“No, they don’t want to sell it,” said Alex; “they say they’re under employment, and must get through to the camp from Hudson’s Hope on time. We couldn’t portage a dugout, anyhow. But they say that we can go on up there with them if we like, and then come back and go around by the portage. What do you say, Mr. Rob?”
Rob answered really by his silence and his tight-shut jaw. “Well,” said he, “at least I don’t much care about turning back on a trail. But we’ll have to split here, I think, unless we all go into camp. But part of us can go on through by the river, and the rest come on later. Maybe we cancachesome of our luggage here, and have it brought on across by these men, if they’re going back to Hudson’s Hope.”
“That sounds reasonable,” said Alex, nodding. “I believe we can work it out.”
He turned and spoke rapidly in Cree to the two travelers, with many gestures, pointing both up and down the stream, all of them talking eagerly and at times vehemently.
“They say,” said Alex at last, “there’s a place at the foot of the high bank above the cañon head where two or three men might be able to get a boat up to the carrying trail, although the landing is little used to-day.But they say if we could get across to the east end of the cañon they could send men down by the trail after that other boat. They don’t think we can get our boat across. They say they’ll find us in a few days, they think, somewhere on the portage. They ask us if they can have what’s left of our canoe. They say they’ll take two dollars a day and grub if we want them to work for us. They don’t say that no man could make the portage below here, but don’t think we could do it with our crew. Well, what do you say now, Mr. Rob?”
“Why, it’s all as easy as a fiddle-string,” said Rob. “I’ll tell you how we’ll fix it. Jess, you and Moise go with these men on up to the surveyors’ camp, and back down to Hudson’s Hope—you can take enough grub to last you around, and you know that water is easy now. Alex and John and I will still have enough grub to last us through to the east side of the Rockies—we’re almost through now. It might be rather hard work for Jess. The best way for him is to keep with Moise, who’ll take good care of him, and it’s more fun to travel than to loaf in camp. For the rest of us, I say we ought to go through, because we started to go through. We all know where we are now. Moise will bring the menand supplies around to meet us at the east side. Even if we didn’t meet,” he said to Jesse, “and if you and Moise got left alone, it would be perfectly simple for you to go on through to Peace River Landing, two or three hundred miles, to where you will get word of Uncle Dick. There are wagon-trails and steamboats and all sorts of things when you once get east of the mountains, so there’s no danger at all. In fact, our trip is almost done right where we stand here—the hardest part is behind us. Now, Jess, if you don’t feel hard about being asked to go back up the river, or to stay here till these men come back down-stream, that’s the way it seems best to me.”
“I’m not so anxious as all that to go on down this river,” grinned Jesse. “It isn’t getting any better. Look at what it did to the oldMary Annup there.”
“Well, the main thing is not to get lonesome,” said Rob, “and to be sure there’s no danger. We’ll get through, some time or somewhere. Only don’t get uneasy, that’s all. You ought to get around to us in a couple of days after you start on the back trail. How does it look to you, Alex?”
The old hunter nodded his approval. “Yes,” said he; “I think the three of us will take theJaybirdloaded light and run down to thehead of the mountain without much trouble. I don’t hear of anything particularly nasty down below here until you get nearly to the gorge. I think we had better hire these two breeds for a time, put them on pay from the time they start up the river with Moise and Mr. Jess. They say they would like to go with Mr. Jess for their ‘bourgeois’—that’s ‘boss,’ you know. They also say,” he added, smiling, “that they would very much like to have some sugar and tea.”
After a time Alex rose, beckoned to the two breeds, and they all went back up the beach to the place where Moise by this time was building his camp-fire and spreading out the cargo of theMary Annto dry.
The two breeds expressed wonder at the lightness of the boats which they now saw, and rapidly asked in their language how the party had managed to get so far across the mountains with such little craft. But they alternately laughed and expressed surprise when they lifted the fragments of theMary Annand pointed out the nature of the injury she had sustained.
“Those man’ll been my cousin, too,” said Moise, pointing to the new-comers. “She’ll been glad to see us, both of her. Her name is Billy and Richard. Ole Richard, his Injunname was been At-tick—‘The Reindeer.’ Also she’ll say,” he added, “she’ll ain’t got some tea nor sugar.Allons!I think maybe we’ll eat some dish of tea.”
Soon they were seated on the ground, once more eating tea and bannock, piecing out their meal, which, by the way, was the third during the day, with some of the dried caribou meat which they had brought from far above.
“They’ll ask me, my cousin,” said Moise at last, his mouth full, “what we’ll take for those busted canoe.”
“What do you say, Mr. Rob?” asked Alex.
“I don’t see how it’s going to be worth anything to us,” said Rob, “and it will take us a long time to patch her up at best. Tell them we’ll give them what there is left of theMary Annif they’ll take good care of Jess on the way around on the trail. And we’ll pay them two dollars a day each besides.”
When Moise had interpreted this speech, the older of the two breeds, who did not speak any English, rose and gravely shook each of the boys by the hand, then not saying anything further, he rose, took his big buffalo knife from its sheath, and proceeded to finish the distribution of the unfortunateMary Ann, it being his plan evidently not to float her again, but to reduce her to a portable packagewhich could be taken away in their other canoe, the dugout, on the beach below.
“Well, there goes theMary Ann,” said John, sadly. “He is evidently going to make some kindling wood for himself.”
“My cousin she’ll say this boat must be took up to camp, where womans can work on heem,” explained Moise. “He’ll say he’ll patch up those boat fine, for all the ribs she’ll be bent all right an’ not bust, and he’ll make new keel an’ new side rails—oh, you wait! Maybe so nex’ year you’ll come here you’ll see those boatMarie H’Annjust so fine like she never was.”
Whatever might have been the future plans for theMary Ann, she soon resembled nothing so little as a Peterborough canoe. The old man calmly proceeded to separate the framework at bow and stern, so that he could crush the two sides of the canoe together after removing the ribs, which also he proceeded to do, one by one. Finally he had a pile of ribs and some broken splints which he laid carefully on the beach. Then he doubled back the splintered skin of the canoe, throwing away very little indeed of the fractured woodwork. At last he grunted some rapid words to the younger man, who seemed to be his son or a member of his family.
“My cousin she’ll say he can took thoseboat in dugout all right down the river,” said Moise. “She’ll said to me also we’ll go on Hudson’s Hope with heem.” Moise pointed to Jesse. Alex nodded and explained further the plan which had roughly been sketched out before that time by Rob and himself. In a little time the younger Cree had returned and poled the big dugout around the bend up to the place where they were now in camp. With some excited talk on the part of both, they now took the wreck of theMary Annand carried it up the bank to await their return. In different places along the great cottonwood dugout they added such supplies as Moise thought was right. The other supplies they thencached, and put over all the robe of the big grizzly, flesh side out, and heavily salted, weighting the edges down with heavy stones.
The freeboard of the dugout was very slight when Jesse took his place, but seemed quite enough to satisfy the requirements of thesevoyageurs. The old man sprang into the stern of the dugout and motioned to Jesse to find a seat amidships. Meantime Moise was fixing up a towing collar, which he attached to the line. It became apparent that the plan was for him and the younger breed to double on the tracking line, the old man remaining astern to do the steering.
“That’s the way we get up a river in this country,” said Alex to Rob, who was watching all this with interest. “I would bet they would do twenty-five miles a day with that rig they’ve got there—they go almost at a trot whenever there’s an open bit of beach. When there is none, they pole or paddle.”
“I don’t see how they do it,” said Rob. “None of them have got anything on their feet but moccasins, and those men there have only pieces of moccasins at that. I should think the rocks would cut their feet in bits!”
“Well, you know, Moise and his ‘cousins’ are all ‘same like dog,’ as he would say,” smiled Alex. “Your feet get used to it in time. These men have never known anything better, so they have got adjusted to the way they have to make their living. I doubt if they would wear hard-soled shoes if they had them, because they would say the soles would slip on the rocks. They’re in the water about as much as they are out of it when they are tracking a boat up-stream. That’s the way this country was conquered for the white men—by the paddle, pole, and tracking line.”
“You forget Uncle Dick’s way,” chimed in John.
“How do you mean?”
“Railroads.”
“Yes,” said Alex, sighing, “they’re coming some day, that’s sure. But even the surveyors and engineers had to travel this way, and I think you will find even in the country where the wagons are it’s quite a way from here to home.”
“Well, here we go,” said Rob, after a time. “We mustn’t waste daylight, you know.”
By this time Jesse was looking very serious. Naturally he relied very much upon Moise, but he disliked to leave his friends, and especially to say good-by to Alex, on whom they all seemed to depend very much.
“It’s the right thing to do, Jess,” said John, after a time. “So far as that is concerned, you’ll have it just as safe and a good deal easier than we will, in all probability. We’ll meet you in a week or so at most.”
“So long, then!” said Jesse, bravely waving his hand.
“So long!” said Rob and John. They waved their caps to one another, as each boat now began its way, theJaybirdcarrying three passengers, and the long dugout, under the tracking line, taking what remained of the expedition of ourvoyageurs, who now separated for the time to take different directions on the stream they had followed thus far.
For a time after the boats parted the crew of theJaybirdsaid very little as they pursued their way down-stream. The accident to theMary Annmade them all thoughtful, and Rob was very careful in his position as bow paddler for the remaining boat. As the craft was pretty well loaded, Alex also was cautious. They took their time when they struck the head of any fast water, went ashore and prospected, and once in awhile lined down the boat instead of undertaking to run a fast chute. In spite of their additional caution, they ran mile after mile of the great river, until finally they felt themselves approaching the great eastern gate of the Rockies, whence there breaks out upon the lower country of the great Peace River the Unjingah, or Unjigab, as the natives formerly called it.
“Now,” said Alex, at last, as he steered inalong shore, “I think we’ll stop and take a look around.”
They had been expecting the entrance to the actual gorge of the river now for the last three or four miles, for they had passed into the wide space, six or eight hundred yards in extent, described as lying above the cañon entrance, where the river, falling through a narrow passageway in the rocks, is condensed to a quarter of its average width.
The fatigue of the steady travel of the trip now began to show its effect upon them all, and the boys were quite ready to go into camp. Rob and John undertook to prepare the supper, and soon were busy arranging a little fireplace of stone, while Alex climbed up the bank to do some prospecting farther on.
“How does it look, Alex?” inquired Rob, when he finally returned. Alex waved a hand as a sign of his ignorance. “Hills and woods,” said he. “Not so much spruce, but some pine and poplars, and plenty of ‘bois picard’—what you call ‘devil’s club’ on your side of the Rockies. I didn’t know it grew this far east. I don’t see how Mackenzie’s men got up from below with a thirty-foot birch-bark,” he added, after a time. “They must have come through something on this course, becausethey could not have taken the water very much below here, that’s sure.”
“Is there any trail at all, Alex?” asked John.
“We’ve landed almost at the trail—just enough to call a trail for a foot man. It isn’t used much to-day, that’s sure. Pretty steep. Sandy farther up.”
“Could we carry the boat through, do you think?” Rob looked anxiously up at the lofty bank which rose above them. Perhaps there was a little trace of stubbornness in Rob’s make-up, and certainly he had no wish to abandon the project at this stage.
“We might edge her up the bank a little at a time,” said Alex, “snubbing her up by the line. I suppose we could pass it from stump to stump, the same asvoyageurshad to with their big birch-barks sometimes.”
“We’ll get her up somehow to-morrow,” said Rob, “if you say it’s possible.”
“Then there’ll be some more hills,” smiled Alex; “eight or ten or twelve miles of rough country, I suppose.”
“Time enough to trouble about that to-morrow, Alex. Sit down and have a cup of tea.”
They still had one or two of their smoke-dried trout and a bit of the half-dried caribouwhich they had brought down with them. On the whole they made a very fair meal.
“Try some of my biscuits, Alex,” suggested John. “I baked them in the spider—mixed the dough all by myself in the sack, the way Moise does. Aren’t they fine?”
“You’re quite a cook, Mr. John. But I’m sorry we’re so nearly out of meat,” said Alex. “You can’t travel far on flour and tea.”
“Won’t there be any game in the river below the Rockies?” asked Rob.
“Oh yes, certainly; plenty of bear and moose, and this side of the Peace River Landing, wherever there are any prairies, plenty of grouse too; but I don’t think we’ll get back to the prairies—the valley is over a thousand feet deep east of the mountains.”
“Alex, how many moose have you ever killed in all your life?” asked Rob, curiously.
“Three hundred and eighty-seven,” answered Alex, quietly.
The boys looked at each other in astonishment. “I didn’t know anybody ever killed that many moose in all the world,” said John.
“Many people have killed more than I have,” replied Alex. “You see, at times we have to hunt for a living, and if we don’t get a moose or something of the kind we don’t eat.”
“And how many bear have you ever killed, Alex?”
“Twenty-odd grizzlies I have killed or helped kill,” said Alex. “We rarely hunt them alone. Of black bear I don’t know how many—we don’t count them at all, there are so many of them in this country. But now I suppose pretty soon we will have to go over on the Hay River, or the Liard, farther north, to get good hunting. The farms are bringing in mowing-machines and threshing-machines into this country now. The game can’t last forever at this rate.”
“Well, I’m glad we made our trip this year,” said Rob.
“We haven’t made it yet!” smiled Alex. “But I think to-morrow we’ll see what we can do.”
They made an early start in the morning, their first task being that of trying to get theJaybirdup the steep face of the bluff which rose back of the camp, on top of which the trail, such as it was, made off through the shoulders of the mountains in a general course toward the east, the river sweeping in a wide elbow, thirty miles around, through its wild and impassable gorge, far to the south of them.
Taking a boat, even a little one, overland is no easy task, especially up so steep an ascentas this. Powerful as was the old hunter, it was hard enough to make much progress, and at times they seemed to lose as much as they gained. None the less, Alex was something of a general in work of this sort, and when they had gained an inch of progress he usually managed to hold it by means of snubbing the boat’s line around the nearest stump or rock.
“That’s awfully strong line, isn’t it?” said Rob. “You brought that over with you—we didn’t have that in our country. We use rope. I was noticing how thin the line was which those two breeds had on their dugout yesterday.”
“That’s the sort they use all through the trade in the North,” answered Alex. “It has to be thin, or it would get too waterlogged and heavy. You’ll see how long it needs to be in order that the men on shore can get it over all the rocks and stumps and still leave the steersman headway on the boat. It has been figured out as the right thing through many years, and I have seen it used without change all my life.”
“Well, it hasn’t broken yet,” said Rob. “But I think we had better piece it out by doubling it the best we can. We don’t want to break it up at this work.”
Little by little, Alex lifting the main portionof the weight, and the boys shoving at the stern the best they could, they did edge theJaybirdat last clear to the top of the bank, where finally she sat on level keel on a little piece of green among the trees.
While they were resting John idly passed a little way to one side among the trees, when, much to his surprise, he almost stepped into the middle of a bunch of spruce-grouse. These foolish birds, although perhaps they had hardly seen a white man in all their lives, did no more than to fly up in the low branches of the trees. Alex called out in a low tone to John to come back. Then he fumbled in his pockets until he found a short length of copper wire, out of which he made a noose, fastening it to the end of a long stick.
“Now, Mr. John,” said he, “there’s lunch and supper both if you can get it. Let’s see how good you are at snaring grouse.”
John cautiously stepped up under the tree, expecting every minute that the birds would fly. Yet to his amazement they sat there stupidly looking down at him. Cautiously he raised the pole among the lower branches of the tree, and at length managed to slip the noose fairly about the neck of the nearest bird, when he gave it a jerk and brought it down fluttering. Passing from one side of the treeto the other, he repeated this, and soon had four of the fat, young birds in his possession—a feat which interested John in more ways than one, for, as has been indicated, he was very fond of good things to eat.
They left the birds at the top of the bank, and, turning, brought up in a trip or so all the remainder of their scanty amount of baggage from the waterside below.
“I suppose it might be a good plan, now, to make a trip over to the east,” said Alex, “and see what we can see.”
They found after a long investigation that the trail, as nearly as they could trace it, soon swung away quite a distance from the course of the stream, rising steadily for three miles to a sort of high bench. It held this for several miles, finally approaching a steep slope and dropping sharply toward the level of the water, which was much lower than at the head of the cañon.
They discovered the eastern end of the portage to be close at the foot of a high and precipitous bank back of which grew scattered clumps of poplar-trees. This journey, which only Alex made throughout, took them several miles from the place where they had left theJaybird, and they were tired enough by the time they had returned to their supplies.They made no further progress on that day. Alex told them they would find water at only one place on the portage, so they must camp here in any case for the night.
“
We might just as well do what we can toward getting across,” said Alex the next day, “because now we know what there is ahead of us. I’d just as soon portage the boat a little way, at least, because it will only have to be done when Moise and the two breeds come to help us. Come ahead, then.”
He swung theJaybirdup on his broad shoulders, and started off up a trail none too good at best. The boys, one on each side of the stern of the boat, helped all they could, and thus they made considerable progress, resting and carrying again and again, so that by noon theJaybirdwas high and dry, and far enough indeed from the stream which had brought her on so long a journey.
In short, they kept at this work, doubling back to portage the cargo, and making a mid-way camp at the water, but always edging both their boat and their baggage farther on over the trail, until in the course of three daysthey actually finished the difficult portage, twelve miles in length, alone, one man and two boys! This feat would have been impossible for any man less powerful and determined than Alex, and even he admitted himself to be very weary when at length they paused not far from the scattered buildings of the old port of Hudson’s Hope.
They were now on the eastern side of the Rockies, and the river which they had been following here took on yet a different character. It had dropped down rapidly in the thirty miles of the cañon, and ran in a wide flood, some hundreds of yards across, rapid and indeed violent, but still steady in current, between banks which rose sharply to a thousand feet in height on either side. It was easy to be seen why the earlier traders thought they were among mountains, even before they reached the Rockies, because from the river they really could not see out over the country at all.
At the top of the steep bank above the river they left their boat and most of their supplies, with the intention of waiting until the arrival of the rest of their party. Meantime they paid a visit to the half-abandoned trading-post. There were only two or three log houses, where small stocks of goods sometimeswere kept. There really were two posts here, that of the Hudson Bay Company and of Revillon Frères, but it seemed that only the Hudson Bay post was occupied in the summer-time. Whether or not the trader in charge had any family or any associate they could not tell, but on the door of the log building they found a written notice saying that he was gone out bear hunting, and did not know when he would return.
“Well, this isn’t much of a settlement, young gentlemen,” said Alex, laughing, as he saw their plight. “But I think we can get through with what supplies we have and not trouble the Company at all.”
“I always thought there was a good trail from here to St. John,” said Rob. “At least, it’s marked on the map.”
“Not much of a trail!” said Alex. “I worked with the Mounted Police making trail from St. John as far as Half Way River. But the trail cuts across the corner there, and goes on up to Fort Grahame, on the Finlay River. The real highway here is the river yonder—it’s easy water now all the way to St. John—that is, it will be if we can get a boat. I don’t see any chance of one here, and can only hope that Moise and his ‘cousins’ can find that dugout down below here somewhere.”
“If we were on the river down there, you wouldn’t know there was any post here at all,” said Jesse. “You can’t see any buildings.”
“No,” said Alex; “they’re too high up on this bench. You can see the buildings at St. John as you go by, because they are close to the river, and so you can at Dunvegan. I don’t imagine, however, we’ll want to stop anywhere except in camp this side of Peace River Landing. It’ll be fine from here down.”
“My!” said John, “that certainly was hard work, portaging over that twelve miles there. They ought to have horses and carts, I should say.”
“Hard to use ’em in here,” smiled Alex. “As it is, it’s better than trying to run the cañon. No one ever did get through there, so far as ever I heard.”
“Yes,” said Rob, “Sir Alexander Mackenzie must have come up through the cañon, according to his story. That is, he must have followed the big bend around, although, of course, he had to take his boat out and carry it through the roughest kind of country. That was worse than our portage here, and no man can tell how they made it through, from all you can learn through his story about it. You see, they didn’t know this country then, andhad to learn it as they went. If they had hit that cañon a month later on their journey the men wouldn’t have stood it—they’d have mutinied and killed Mackenzie, or have left him and started home.”
Not caring yet to undertake their embarkment below the portage, they now strolled around here and there, intending to wait until their friends caught up with them. Off to the east they could see, from among the short, choppy hills, a country which seemed for the most part covered with continuous growth of poplars, sometimes broken with glades, or open spaces.
“I’ve never been west of the Half Way River,” said Alex after a time, “but I know right where we are. We could almost throw our boat on the deck of the steamboat from this bank if we were as far east as St. John.”
“No steamboat for ours until we get to Peace River Landing,” said Rob.
“That’s right,” John assented. “We’ve come through this far, and we can finish the way we started—that is, if the other fellows catch up with us all right, and we get another boat. How long since we left them? I’ve sort of lost track of the time.”
“Fifth day,” said Rob. “It’s about time they were coming.”
His prediction was fulfilled that evening, when, as they were preparing the camp-fire for their supper, they heard a loud shout from the trail back of them.
“Who’s that, Alex?” demanded John.
But even as he asked he had his answer. Such excited gesticulations, such cries of welcome, could come from no one but Moise.
The two boys ran rapidly to meet Moise, and overwhelmed him with questions asked all at once.
“How’s everything?” demanded Rob, “and where’s Jesse?”
“Oh, those boy, she’ll been all right,” said Moise. “She’ll be on camp seex, h’eight mile below here, up above, maybe so. My cousins Billy and At-tick, come through with us—they’ll portage half-way to-day.
“But,mes amis,” broke out Moise; “there’s your boat! How you’ll got her through? S’pose you take wings an’ fly over those rock,hein?Mon Dieu!”
“We couldn’t wait any longer, Moise,” said Rob, “and we thought we had better be busy than idle. It was hard work, but Alex carried her over, and we didn’t have much left to pack except our rifles and ourselves.”
“Then you’ll not need any mans for help on the portage? All right. We’ll get some boat below.”
“How far is it back to your camp, Moise?” demanded John.
“Maybe five, seex mile, maybe more—I’ll not keep track of heem.”
“Can we go back there to-night with you? I’d like to see Jess. May we go, Alex?”
“If you like,” answered the old hunter, quietly. “I’ll stay here and sleep, and if you care to, you can sleep there. I don’t doubt you will be glad to see your friend again, and he’ll be glad to see you.”
Tired as the boys had been, they were now so excited that they forgot their fatigue, and trotted along close to Moise as he now turned and struck a steady pace back on the portage trail. It was quite dark when at last they came out on a high bank above a level, at which a camp-fire was glowing. John and Rob put their hands to their mouths and gave a loud “Halloo!” They saw the smaller of the three figures at the fire jump to his feet. Then came the answering “Halloo!” of Jesse, who came scrambling up to meet them as they hurried down.
“You’re safe, then,” said Jesse. “Oh, but I’m glad you got here all right.”
“We’re glad to meet you safe and sound, too,” said Rob. “Yes, we finished the trip—we even carried our boat through by ourselves, and she’s there now on the bank of the stream, ready to go on down.”
“That’s fine,” said Jess. “These two men, the cousins of Moise, have been as nice as you please. They said they could fix up theMary Ann, and they were very glad to have her—there she is, all in a bundle. They are taking her across in sections. It was hard work getting up the river, for it was all dirty and high. But we made it—I think we worked eighteen hours a day all the way round. Moise is a hustler, all right, besides being a cook.”
“So is Alex a hustler, you may depend,” rejoined Rob. “We couldn’t have two better men. Well, here we are, together once more, safe and sound.”
“What’s the programme now, Rob?” asked John.
“We’re to sleep here to-night—although it doesn’t seem as though we’d have very many blankets,” answered Rob. “And then in the morning I suppose Moise would better go and help Alex get the boat down to the river. But where’s the other dugout we were to have, Moise?”
Moise talked awhile further with the two reticent breeds.
“My cousin Billy, he’ll say there’s old man about five, seex mile below there, an’ he’ll got dugout,” he said at last. “He’ll say twenty dollar for dugout.”
“That’s cheaper than Peterboroughs,” said Rob, smiling. “Anyhow, we’ve got to have it, because you can’t buy canoes in shops here on the Peace River. You tell these two men, Moise, to go down there in the morning and have the old man, whoever he is, bring his canoe up as soon as he can to the port. We’ll meet, I should say, about noon to-morrow, if all goes well. And as we’re now through the worst of it and seem to have pretty fair weather yet, I shall be surprised if we don’t get quite a bit farther east inside of the next twenty-four hours.”
“Then hurrah for Uncle Dick!” said John. “He’s somewhere down this river, and maybe it won’t be so very long before we run across him.”
“Hurrah! for all those boy also!” smiled Moise. “Pretty lucky,hein?”