WHAT THE DEAD ASHES OF A FIRE TOLD
"PULL hard, Sandy; father wants to land at that spot where the big
crooked tree hangs over the water. Pat has told him that it was there
he spent the night a year ago, when he was here spying out the land and
learning what the Frenchmen were doing in the trapping line. And he
also says it is the finest place for our new home he knows about."
While saying all this Bob was himself throwing his strength upon the
sweep he and his younger brother were managing, while some of the
men rested, or frolicked with their children inside the cabin of the
flatboat.
They were afloat on the Mississippi, and had been descending the
mighty stream most of the day. To cross it with only a clumsy flatboat
was next to impossible. It would have been exceedingly dangerous to
have risked the diverse currents that lay in wait for the incautious
voyager, far out from shore.
Some of the men had even proposed that they try to make one of the
islands that they had passed, and where it would seem they might
be free from an attack on the part of the Indians; but to this Mr.
Armstrong would not agree.
"Look back, friends," he had said when this bold scheme was proposed,
"and try to imagine what would have become of us and our families, had
we been on such an island when the flood came. It was bad enough on
the main land, watching our cabins being undermined, and carried off;
but how much worse had we been watching the waters slowly but surely
covering the very land on which all we loved stood, with the raging
torrent on every side, and no means of reaching the shore? For my part,
after what I have passed through, nothing can tempt me to leave this
firm foundation. True, the Indians and French trappers may get at us
the easier; but we know where we are, and in the other case we would
not."
And his words were of such a nature that even those who had been
loudest in exploiting the benefits to be obtained by resorting to an
island, changed their minds, and would have none of it.
The boat was brought in without a great amount of trouble, for they
had been keeping only a short distance away from the bank while
allowing themselves to be carried along at the will of the strong
current.
Pat was, as always, the first to spring ashore. While the rest were
busy securing the boat, the trapper was circling around up the bank,
looking for recent signs of enemies near the spot.
He had claimed it was a well-known stopping-place for all those passing
up or down-stream. Boats loaded with French trappers might possibly
come along at some time or other; but already time was bringing about
a change in the relations of the colonists and the sons of France; and
if, as seemed very likely, a break did occur between King George and
his American colonies, the French would be found taking the part of the
latter.
Indeed, Mr. Armstrong had taken this into consideration when arranging
to carry his family into the heart of the country controlled and
claimed by the French. He expected to have some little trouble with
them at first; but, after a little time, they would hear great news
from the sea-coast that would lift the scales from their eyes, these
rough and daring trappers, so that they would hold out their hands to
make peace with the newcomers, as common allies against England.
"How does this suit you, Sandy?" asked Bob, when they, too, had
clambered over the side of the boat, and stood on the bank.
"It is a fine place for a camp, and for a cabin, too," replied the
other, looking about him with kindling eyes. "Plenty of big trees to
cut down, or leave standing, just as we think best; and it looks as
if there ought to be a heap of rich furs to be taken along that ridge
back yonder, and the valley that must lie further on. Yes, I like this
place. It is even better than what I could see, whenever I shut my
eyes, and tried to picture our new homestead by the Mississippi."
They looked out upon the great river, where rested the bones of the
discoverer, De Soto, and the copper plates he had sunk beneath its
waters when he claimed the whole region for his royal master; and tears
came into the eyes of Sandy, whose emotions were easily stirred.
"Higher up there, and a little way back, we would build our cabins,
I think," Bob went on to remark, in his usual thoughtful way. "One
bout with a flood will be more than enough for father. Think of what
it meant to us, the destruction of our garden; the uprooting of the
supports of our cabin; and then the loss of mother's little strong-box
in which she kept her few precious remembrances of the past, as well as
that wampum belt given to us by Pontiac, when we saved his life. Yes,
it answers all the needs of our little company; and, once it is decided
that we stay here, watch how soon the axes begin to ring, and the trees
to fall. Inside of three days, we could have a roof over our heads
again."
"I should be glad of that," ventured Sandy, heaving a little sigh as
his eye roved toward their mother, just climbing down from the side of
the boat, assisted by the steady hand of her husband; "for mother has
grown weary of this wandering. She wants to have her own fire to work
over, and cook meals for her family, instead of the whole company."
"Suppose we look around a little," suggested Bob.
"Count me in with you on that," agreed the other, quickly, for it was
just what Sandy was about to propose himself, being fairly wild to do a
little exploring on his own hook.
Of course they carried their guns as they left the vicinity of the
flatboat, for the pioneer of that day never knew at what moment he
would have urgent need of his weapons.
Pat was no longer in sight. He had started to circle rapidly around,
and had already covered so much territory that it seemed as if there
certainly could be nothing near by that might be dangerous.
A rabbit jumped out from almost under their feet; squirrels frisked
among the oaks that grew in abundance in the woods; plump partridges
whirred when they happened to stir the brush, and inside of five
minutes these evidences of the abundance of small game had Sandy
laughing in great glee.
"Oh! I guess none of those stories could have been untrue, brother," he
declared, as they glimpsed a deer that had evidently been lying down
near by, and was only disturbed by their approach; "why, I came near
getting a shot at that doe; but, when that branch closed in behind
her flank, I thought it would be silly to fire, with only a chance of
wounding the poor thing. Mother has taught us not to be cruel when we
take our toll of meat, and I am glad now I did not fire."
"I believe you will have plenty of chances to shoot all you want,
if father decides to stay right around here," remarked Bob. "As for
myself, I fancy that fine ridge just back there. If our cabin topped
that, we could see up and down the river, just as we used to do,
before, up on the Ohio; but what a different thing the Mississippi is
from its tributary!"
"But," broke in Sandy, just then, "didn't you hear Pat tell about that
other big river that comes down from the unknown country away off to
the northwest, and empties its volume of water into the Mississippi not
two hundred miles north of the mouth of the Ohio? He said it was the
real Mississippi, and that the Indians so regarded it, because it comes
from so far away, hundreds and hundreds of miles, so that no man knows
the beginning, up in the country of the Crows; and the strange Indians
with the white skin, called the Mandans; and the Sioux, who, the French
say, are the most savage fighters of all the red race."
Bob looked at his brother doubtfully. He knew something was working on
the mind of the boy, for he was used to reading the signs.
"You listen too much to these idle tales Pat tells, Sandy," he
remarked. "First thing I know, you'll be wanting to go off and explore
that other river, where no English settler has yet built his cabin, and
only savage foes lurk."
Sandy made no reply, but a flush crept over his face; and Bob sighed;
for he knew that his brother had even then been indulging in dreams
of some day seeing that other great river, lying still deeper in the
wilderness that lay toward the land of the setting sun.
"Pat was telling us that trappers call this the most favored place for
many miles along the river," Bob remarked, as he glanced around him.
"Yes," added the other, quickly, "and he said he had camped here once
himself, when he came to the country of the Mississippi to see what the
Frenchmen were doing, and find out if it was really as fine a place
as others had reported. Why, even now that looks like the ashes of a
campfire over yonder."
"You are right, Sandy," declared Bob; "some one has been in camp here,
and not so long ago, too; for the ashes have never been rained on; and
you remember that just three days ago we had a long siege of it."
Bob had touched the flaky ashes with the toe of his moccasin when
saying this. Versed in the knowledge of woodcraft, this was only a
natural thing for the boy to remark. It fell from his lips just as
readily as a lad of the present day might read a printed message that
had been left in the crotch of a stick, after the departure of late
campers.
"I wonder who they could have been, Indians, or French trappers heading
for the nearest trading post with their winter's catch of pelts?" mused
Sandy, looking thoughtfully around him while speaking.
"The chances are the last," Bob replied. "If Indians had been here we
would see some signs to tell us of that fact. Chances are they would
leave a broken arrow behind, or some feathers that were cast aside; and
I do not see any such, do you?"
"No, not here," replied Sandy, and then added: "It seems to me there
is something lying there, in that clump of grass, that has been
thrown aside. Wait until I get it, Bob; perhaps it may give us a clue
concerning the men who made this fire."
Carelessly he stepped aside, and, bending, picked up the object that
had caught his attention. As Sandy stood staring, Bob advanced to his
side with quick strides. Then he, too, seemed to have been turned into
stone, for his eyes were glued upon what Sandy held in his shaking
hand.
The eyes of the two boys met in a startled look; and it could be
plainly seen that they were deeply moved by the discovery Sandy had
made, close to the dead ashes of the abandoned fire.