HOMEWARD BOUND.
The next day the boys, enriched by many postcards and souvenirs, set out
on their return trip. They voyaged along under the high banks of the St.
Lawrence, from Cape Diamond to Cape Rouge, drinking in every bit of the
striking scenery with interest.
About a mile above Wolfe’s Cove they passed the historic little village
of Sillery, where, in the stormy days of the Christian conquest of
Canada, the Jesuits called about them the Hurons and preached to them in
a language of which the wondering Indians, listening with stoical
patience, understood not a word.
In later years there came a dispute as to whether the land about Sillery
belonged to the Jesuits or the Hurons. The British decided in favor of
the Jesuits, but offered the Hurons other lands. These they refused, and
the red men soon melted away into the forests to dwindle ultimately to
extinction.
About midway between Quebec and Montreal the boys stopped at the town of
Three Rivers, so called from the fact of its being on the triple
junction of the St. Maurice River with the St. Lawrence. Three Rivers
was an important early trading post, being the head of tide water on the
St. Lawrence. Champlain erected a fort there on the site of a primitive
defense built by the Algonquins and destroyed by the Iroquois. It was
from here, too, so Ralph was able to inform his chums, that Father
Brebeuf set forth with a party of Hurons to preach in the farthest
wilderness.
The good father, according to history, was as much of a fighting man as
a preacher. He taught the Indians how to build fortifications and to
palisade squares with flanking towers, which were a vast improvement on
their round stockades.
The boys stopped at a dock adjoining a small farmhouse, not far from
Three Rivers, to buy some fresh provisions, for Persimmons’ experiments
in cookery had proved disastrous to their larder.
The place was kept by a descendant of the old “_habitants_” of the
country, a man as brown as a berry, with high, Indian-like cheek bones
and beady black eyes. His house must have stood there for hundreds of
years. It was of rough, whitewashed stone, and had a steep roof, with a
huge chimney at one end.
While they were waiting for the fresh milk and the eggs that the
_habitant_ promised to produce promptly, they gazed about the living
room into which they had been ushered.
Its rough walls were whitewashed and adorned with crude pictures,
chiefly of religious subjects. Ropes of onions, hams and dried fruit
hung from the roof beams. In a corner, snowshoes and sleds and firearms
told a mute story of the severity of the Canadian winter. It was all as
it might have been in the days of the earliest settler.
But, if the people were primitive, they had a clear idea of how to
charge for their viands! There was no help for it but to pay the bill,
while the cunning little eyes of the _habitant_ surveyed the roll from
which Ralph peeled the required amount. He was plainly wishing that he
had charged twice as much, particularly when he saw the fine boat the
boys had.
The return trip through the canals with occasional stretches of clear
water was monotonous. Nothing occurred out of the ordinary. But the
delay in the canals and a slight overheating of the machinery resulted
in its being dark by the time they neared their island.
“Well, we’ve had a grand trip, but I’m glad to be back again,” declared
Ralph, as they came into familiar waters once more.
“So am I,” agreed Hardware. “I’ll be glad to get a decent meal again.”
He glanced in an aggravating way at Persimmons, who had been the ship’s
cook and bottle washer, as well as engineer at times, and was now
getting a breath of fresh air above deck. He ducked just in time to
avoid a well-aimed piece of oily waste which Persimmons, justly
indignant, flung at him.
“Next cruise we take,” declared the disgruntled lad, “you can take the
pots and pans, Hardware. And I’ll bet that anything you make will taste
like your name!”
“I’d rather it did than like an unripe persimmon!” declared Hardware.
Then Ralph had to exercise his good offices to make peace between the
belligerents. But soon more important matters occupied their minds.
The strange craft that they had almost forgotten on their cruise of
sight-seeing came back now with vividness to their recollections. The
surprising appearance and equally startling disappearance of the
mysterious motor boat were recalled as they threaded home waters again.
As the _River Swallow_ moved through the darkness with her electric side
and bow lights glowing like jewels, each boy was busy with speculations
concerning it.
Their reveries were cut short by a sudden shout which appeared to come
from right under the bow.
“What was that?” exclaimed Hardware in a startled tone. He was alone on
the bridge with Ralph. Persimmons was below, having returned to his
engines.
“Jiggered if I know! Somebody shouted, though. It was right under the
bow.”
“That’s what I thought. Hark, there it is again!”
Both boys strained their ears. Unmistakably a hail had come out of the
darkness.
“Clap on the search-light quick, Hardware,” ordered Ralph.
The boy snapped the light on. It blazed out fan-like in the night,
cutting a broad circle of light that revealed the whole river as
Hardware swept it from side to side. Suddenly he gave a shout and
pointed.
Embraced in the circle of light, and right under their bow almost, was a
frail boat. In it were seated two Indians. Their craft was piled high
with baskets which they had been trying to sell among the islands.
The boys knew at once that the red men came from a reservation down the
river and belonged to the St. Regis tribe.
“They’re coming right down on us!” cried Ralph.
“What’s the matter with them?” cried Harry. “I see,” he added
immediately, “they’ve broken their paddle. See, they are waving the
stump of it in the air! Steer out, Ralph! Steer out, or you’ll run them
down!”
“I—I can’t,” exclaimed Ralph in an agitated voice.
“Can’t! Why not?”
“Don’t you see where we are? There are rocks on each side. If I turn out
we’ll be ripped like an egg shell on them.”
“Gracious, that’s so!” And then Hardware noticed for the first time that
they were running through a narrow channel between two islands.