Jacques failed in his attempt to break off his engagement with the
fur-traders. The gentleman in charge of Norway House, albeit a
good-natured, estimable man, was one who could not easily brook
disappointment, especially in matters that involved the interests of the
Hudson's Bay Company; so Jacques was obliged to hold to his compact, and
the pastor had to search for another guide.
Spring came, and with it the awakening (if we may use the expression) of
the country from the long, lethargic sleep of winter. The sun burst
forth with irresistible power, and melted all before it. Ice and snow
quickly dissolved, and set free the waters of swamp and river, lake and
sea, to leap and sparkle in their new-found liberty. Birds renewed
their visits to the regions of the north; frogs, at last unfrozen,
opened their leathern jaws to croak and whistle in the marshes, and men
began their preparations for a summer campaign.
At the commencement of the season an express arrived with letters from
headquarters, which, among other matters of importance, directed that
Messrs. Somerville and Hamilton should be dispatched forthwith to the
Saskatchewan district, where, on reaching Fort Pitt, they were to place
themselves at the disposal of the gentleman in charge of the district.
It need scarcely be added that the young men were overjoyed on receiving
this almost unhoped-for intelligence, and that Harry expressed his
satisfaction in his usual hilarious manner, asserting somewhat
profanely, in the excess of his glee, that the governor-in-chief of
Rupert's Land was a "regular brick." Hamilton agreed to all his
friend's remarks with a quiet smile, accompanied by a slight chuckle,
and a somewhat desperate attempt at a caper, which attempt, bordering as
it did on a region of buffoonery into which our quiet and gentlemanly
friend had never dared hitherto to venture, proved an awkward and utter
failure. He felt this, and blushed deeply.
It was further arranged and agreed upon that the young men should
accompany Jacques Caradoc in his canoe. Having become sufficiently
expert canoemen to handle their paddles well, they scouted the idea of
taking men with them, and resolved to launch boldly forth at once as
_bona-fide_ voyageurs. To this arrangement Jacques, after one or two
trials to test their skill, agreed; and very shortly after the arrival
of the express, the trio set out on their voyage, amid the cheers and
adieus of the entire population of Norway House, who were assembled on
the end of the wooden wharf to witness their departure, and with whom
they had managed, during their short residence at that place, to become
special favourites. A month later, the pastor of the Indian village,
having procured a trusty guide, embarked in his tin canoe with a crew of
six men, and followed in their track.
In process of time spring merged into summer--a season chiefly
characterised in those climes by intense heat and innumerable clouds of
mosquitoes, whose vicious and incessant attacks render life, for the
time being, a burden. Our three voyageurs, meanwhile, ascended the
Saskatchewan, penetrating deeper each day into the heart of the North
American continent. On arriving at Fort Pitt, they were graciously
permitted to rest for three days, after which they were forwarded to
another district, where fresh efforts were being made to extend the
fur-trade into lands hitherto almost unvisited. This continuation of
their travels was quite suited to the tastes and inclinations of Harry
and Hamilton, and was hailed by them as an additional reason for
self-gratulation. As for Jacques, he cared little to what part of the
world he chanced to be sent. To hunt, to toil in rain and in sunshine,
in heat and in cold, at the paddle or on the snow-shoe, was his
vocation, and it mattered little to the bold hunter whether he plied it
upon the plains of the Saskatchewan or among the woods of Athabasca.
Besides, the companions of his travels were young, active, bold,
adventurous, and therefore quite suited to his taste. Redfeather, too,
his best and dearest friend, had been induced to return to his tribe for
the purpose of mediating between some of the turbulent members of it and
the white men who had gone to settle among them, so that the prospect of
again associating with his red friend was an additional element in his
satisfaction. As Charley Kennedy was also in this district, the hope of
seeing him once more was a subject of such unbounded delight to Harry
Somerville, and so, sympathetically, to young Hamilton, that it was with
difficulty they could realise the full amount of their good fortune, or
give adequate expression to their feelings. It is, therefore, probable
that there never were three happier travellers than Jacques, Harry, and
Hamilton, as they shouldered their guns and paddles, shook hands with
the inmates of Fort Pitt, and with light steps and lighter hearts
launched their canoe, turned their bronzed faces once more to the summer
sun, and dipped their paddles again in the rippling waters of the
Saskatchewan River.
As their bark was exceedingly small, and burdened with but little
lading, they resolved to abandon the usual route, and penetrate the
wilderness through a maize of lakes and small rivers well known to their
guide. By this arrangement they hoped to travel more speedily, and
avoid navigating a long sweep of the river by making a number of
portages; while, at the same time, the changeful nature of the route was
likely to render it more interesting. From the fact of its being seldom
traversed, it was also more likely that they should find a supply of
game for the journey.
Towards sunset, one fine day, about two weeks after their departure from
Fort Pitt, our voyageurs paddled their canoe round a wooded point of
land that jutted out from, and partially concealed, the mouth of a large
river, down whose stream they had dropped leisurely during the last
three days, and swept out upon the bosom of a large lake. This was one
of those sheets of water which glitter in hundreds on the green bosom of
America's forests, and are so numerous and comparatively insignificant
as to be scarce distinguished by a name, unless when they lie directly
in the accustomed route of the fur-traders. But although, in comparison
with the fresh-water oceans of the Far West, this lake was unnoticed and
almost unknown, it would by no means have been regarded in such a light
had it been transported to the plains of England. In regard to
picturesque beauty it was perhaps unsurpassed. It might be about six
miles wide, and so long that the land at the farther end of it was
faintly discernible on the horizon. Wooded hills, sloping gently down
to the water's edge; jutting promontories, some rocky and barren, others
more or less covered with trees; deep bays, retreating in some places
into the dark recesses of a savage-looking gorge, in others into a
distant meadow-like plain, bordered with a stripe of yellow sand;
beautiful islands of various sizes, scattered along the shores as if
nestling there for security, or standing barren and solitary in the
centre of the lake, like bulwarks of the wilderness, some covered with
luxuriant vegetation, others bald and grotesque in outline, and covered
with gulls and other waterfowl,--this was the scene that broke upon the
view of the travellers as they rounded the point, and, ceasing to
paddle, gazed upon it long and in deep silence, their hands raised to
shade their eyes from the sun's rays, which sparkled in the water, and
fell, here in bright spots and broken patches, and there in yellow
floods, upon the rocks, the trees, the forest glades and plains around
them.
"What a glorious scene!" murmured Hamilton, almost unconsciously.
"A perfect paradise!" said Harry, with a long-drawn sigh of
satisfaction.--"Why, Jacques, my friend, it's a matter of wonder to me
that you, a free man, without relations or friends to curb you, or
attract you to other parts of the world, should go boating and canoeing
all over the country at the beck of the fur-traders, when you might come
and pitch your tent here for ever!"
"For ever!" echoed Jacques.
"Well, I mean as long as you live in this world."
"Ah, master," rejoined the guide, in a sad tone of voice, "it's just
because I have neither kith nor kin nor friends to draw me to any
partic'lar spot on arth, that I don't care to settle down in this one,
beautiful though it be."
"True, true," muttered Harry; "man's a gregarious animal, there's no
doubt of that."
"Anon?" exclaimed Jacques.
"I meant to say that man naturally loves company," replied Harry,
smiling.
"An' yit I've seen some as didn't, master; though, to be sure, that was
onnat'ral, and there's not many o' them, by good luck. Yes, man's fond
o' seein' the face o' man."
"And woman too," interrupted Harry.--"Eh, Hamilton, what say you?
"`O woman, in our hours of ease
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.'
"Alas, Hammy! pain and anguish and everything else may wring our
unfortunate brows here long enough before woman, `lovely woman,' will
come to our aid. What a rare sight it would be, now, to see even an
ordinary housemaid or cook out here! It would be good for sore eyes.
It seems to me a sort of horrible untruth to say that I've not seen a
woman since I left Red River; and yet it's a frightful fact, for I don't
count the copper-coloured nondescripts one meets with hereabouts to be
women at all. I suppose they are, but they don't look like it."
"Don't be a goose, Harry," said Hamilton.
"Certainly not, my friend. If I were under the disagreeable necessity
of being anything but what I am, I should rather be something that is
not in the habit of being shot," replied the other, paddling with
renewed vigour in order to get rid of some of the superabundant spirits
that the beautiful scene and brilliant weather, acting on a young and
ardent nature, had called forth.
"Some of these same redskins," remarked the guide, "are not such bad
sort o' women, for all their ill looks. I've know'd more than one that
was a first-rate wife an' a good mother, though it's true they had
little edication beyond that o' the woods."
"No doubt of it," replied Harry, laughing gaily. "How shall I keep the
canoe's head, Jacques?"
"Right away for the p'int that lies jist between you an' the sun."
"Yes; I give them all credit for being excellent wives and mothers,
after a fashion," resumed Harry. "I've no wish to asperse the character
of the poor Indians; but you must know, Jacques, that they're very
different from the women that I allude to and of whom Scott sung. His
heroines were of a _very_ different stamp and colour!"
"Did he sing of niggers?" inquired Jacques simply.
"Of niggers!" shouted Harry, looking over his shoulder at Hamilton, with
a broad grin; "no, Jacques, not exactly of niggers--"
"Hist!" exclaimed the guide, with that peculiar, subdued energy that at
once indicates an unexpected discovery, and enjoins caution, while at
the same moment, by a deep, powerful back-stroke of his paddle, he
suddenly checked the rapid motion of the canoe.
Harry and his friend glanced quickly over their shoulders with a look of
surprise.
"What's in the wind now?" whispered the former.
"Stop paddling, masters, and look ahead at the rock yonder, jist under
the tall cliff. There's a bear a-sittin' there, an' if we can only get
to shore afore he sees us, we're sartin sure of him."
As the guide spoke he slowly edged the canoe towards the shore, while
the young men gazed with eager looks in the direction indicated, where
they beheld what appeared to be the decayed stump of an old tree or a
mass of brown rock. While they strained their eyes to see it more
clearly, the object altered its form and position.
"So it is," they exclaimed simultaneously, in a tone that was equivalent
to the remark, "Now we believe, because we see it."
In a few seconds the bow of the canoe touched the land, so lightly as to
be quite inaudible, and Harry, stepping gently over the side, drew it
forward a couple of feet, while his companions disembarked.
"Now, Mister Harry," said the guide, as he slung a powder-horn and
shot-belt over his shoulder, "we've no need to circumvent the beast, for
he's circumvented hisself."
"How so?" inquired the other, drawing the shot from his fowling-piece,
and substituting in its place a leaden bullet.
Jacques led the way through the somewhat thinly scattered underwood as
he replied, "You see, Mister Harry, the place where he's gone to sun
hisself is jist at the foot o' a sheer precipice, which runs round ahead
of him and juts out into the water, so that he's got three ways to
choose between. He must clamber up the precipice, which will take him
some time, I guess, if he can do it at all; or he must take to the
water, which he don't like, and won't do if he can help it; or he must
run out the way he went in, but as we shall go to meet him by the same
road, he'll have to break our ranks before he gains the woods, an'
that'll be no easy job."
The party soon reached the narrow pass between the lake and the near end
of the cliff, where they advanced with greater caution, and peeping over
the low bushes, beheld Bruin, a large brown fellow, sitting on his
haunches, and rocking himself slowly to and fro, as he gazed
abstractedly at the water. He was scarcely within good shot, but the
cover was sufficiently thick to admit of a nearer approach.
"Now, Hamilton," said Harry, in a low whisper, "take the first shot. I
killed the last one, so it's your turn this time."
Hamilton hesitated, but could make no reasonable objection to this,
although his unselfish nature prompted him to let his friend have the
first chance. However, Jacques decided the matter by saying, in a tone
that savoured strongly of command, although it was accompanied with a
good-humoured smile--
"Go for'ard, young man; but you may as well put in the primin' first."
Poor Hamilton hastily rectified this oversight with a deep blush, at the
same time muttering that he never _would_ make a hunter; and then
advanced cautiously through the bushes, slowly followed at a short
distance by his companions.
On reaching a bush within seventy yards of the bear, Hamilton pushed the
twigs aside with the muzzle of his gun; his eye flashed and his courage
mounted as he gazed at the truly formidable animal before him, and he
felt more of the hunter's spirit within him at that moment than he would
have believed possible a few minutes before. Unfortunately, a hunter's
spirit does not necessarily imply a hunter's eye or hand. Having, with
much care and long time, brought his piece to bear exactly where he
supposed the brute's heart should be, he observed that the gun was on
half-cock, by nearly breaking the trigger in his convulsive efforts to
fire. By the time that this error was rectified, Bruin, who seemed to
feel intuitively that some imminent danger threatened him, rose, and
began to move about uneasily, which so alarmed the young hunter lest he
should lose his shot that he took a hasty aim, fired, and _missed_.
Harry asserted afterwards that he even missed the cliff! On hearing the
loud report, which rolled in echoes along the precipice, Bruin started,
and looking round with an undecided air, saw Harry step quietly from the
bushes, and fire, sending a ball into his flank. This decided him.
With a fierce growl of pain, he scampered towards the water; then
changing his mind, he wheeled round, and dashed at the cliff, up which
he scrambled with wonderful speed.
"Come, Mister Hamilton, load again; quick. I'll have to do the job
myself, I fear," said Jacques, as he leaned quietly on his long gun, and
with a half-pitying smile watched the young man, who madly essayed to
recharge his piece more rapidly than it was possible for mortal man to
do. Meanwhile, Harry had reloaded and fired again; but owing to the
perturbation of his young spirits, and the frantic efforts of the bear
to escape, he missed. Another moment, and the animal would actually
have reached the top, when Jacques hastily fired, and brought it
tumbling down the precipice. Owing to the position of the animal at the
time he fired, the wound was not mortal; and foreseeing that Bruin would
now become the aggressor, the hunter began rapidly to reload, at the
same time retreating with his companions, who in their excitement had
forgotten to recharge their pieces. On reaching level ground, Bruin
rose, shook himself, gave a yell of anger on beholding his enemies, and
rushed at them.
It was a fine sight to behold the bearing of Jacques at this critical
juncture. Accustomed to bear-hunting from his youth, and utterly
indifferent to consequences when danger became imminent, he saw at a
glance the probabilities of the case. He knew exactly how long it would
take him to load his gun, and regulated his pace so as not to interfere
with that operation. His features wore their usual calm expression.
Every motion of his hands was quick and sudden, yet not hurried, but
performed in a way that led the beholder irresistibly to imagine that he
could have done it even more rapidly if necessary. On reaching a ledge
of rock that overhung the lake a few feet, he paused and wheeled about;
click went the doghead, just as the bear rose to grapple with him;
another moment, and a bullet passed through the brute's heart, while the
bold hunter sprang lightly on one side, to avoid the dash of the falling
animal. As he did so, young Hamilton, who had stood a little behind him
with an uplifted axe, ready to finish the work should Jacques's fire
prove ineffective, received Bruin in his arms, and tumbled along with
him over the rock headlong into the water, from which, however, he
speedily arose unhurt, sputtering and coughing, and dragging the dead
bear to the shore.
"Well done, Hammy," shouted Harry, indulging in a prolonged peal of
laughter when he ascertained that his friend's adventure had cost him
nothing more than a ducking; "that was the most amicable, loving plunge
I ever saw."
"Better a cold bath in the arms of a dead bear than an embrace on dry
land with a live one," retorted Hamilton, as he wrung the water out of
his dripping garments.
"Most true, O sagacious diver! But the sooner we get a fire made the
better; so come along."
While the two friends hastened up to the woods to kindle a fire, Jacques
drew his hunting-knife, and, with doffed coat and upturned sleeves, was
soon busily employed in divesting the bear of his natural garment. The
carcass, being valueless in a country where game of a more palatable
kind was plentiful, they left behind as a feast to the wolves. After
this was accomplished and the clothes dried, they re-embarked, and
resumed their journey, plying the paddles energetically in silence, as
their adventure had occasioned a considerable loss of time.
It was late, and the stars had looked down for a full hour into the
profound depths of the now dark lake ere the party reached the ground at
the other side of the point, on which Jacques had resolved to encamp.
Being somewhat wearied, they spent but little time in discussing supper,
and partook of that meal with a degree of energy that implied a sense of
duty as well as of pleasure. Shortly after, they were buried in repose,
under the scanty shelter of their canoe.