ADVENTURE IN PANTOMIME
On a river ever broadening as it made its way toward the far distant sea,
rode a crude skin canoe. In the canoe rode Gordon Duncan, his
granddaughter Faye and the two Indians. They had not left that canoe
since they entered it, and that had been sixteen hours back.
To the white man and the girl this wild journey had been a constant
strain; to the Indians it was but the day’s work. Many times before for
twenty, thirty hours they had ridden thus without sleeping.
To land now was impossible; to turn back was out of the question.
Besides, who would turn back? Had they not, but a quarter of an hour ago,
caught a glimpse of that which they sought?
They had rounded a rocky ledge where the river ran between low hills and
had come upon a long, straight stretch of water. At the end of that
stretch a dark object specked the water.
Gordon Duncan had lifted the glass once to his eyes and said:
“It’s Timmie.”
The raft and the man had disappeared at once beyond a bend in the river;
yet there was now ground for hope. And here they were still driving their
boat forward, still hoping that before disaster befell that aged recluse
and his crazy craft, they might overtake him and save him from a terrible
death. For, should they fail, disaster from crowding ice, rushing rapids
and the mad spring upheaval must surely overtake him.
“And he once saved my life,” said Gordon Duncan. “We may have been hasty,
followed him too far. It’s too late to think of that now. We can only
follow on.”
The journey thus far had been exciting, but quite safe. There was a wild
charm about it all, the racing water, the black, brown and green of
fleeting landscape, the occasional flocks of wild ducks that shot by
them, and the smell of spring everywhere charmed the young Scotch girl.
Yet it was dangerous. They might meet disaster at any turn. Her
grandfather had told Faye this, and she believed it. The water they
passed over at first had seemed white. That was because the winter ice
still lay still beneath the surface water that had rushed down from hills
and mountains.
“If it should rise beneath us!” she said with a shudder.
When, after a half hour of dreamy half-sleeping, she looked at the water,
it was black.
“Ice has gone out down here,” her grandfather explained.
“Then we are safe?”
“Far from it. The ice before us may jam at any point. It will then pile
mountain high. If there are steep banks as here, we will face disaster.”
The girl did not say, “Then why not turn back?” She knew the man too
well. He had seen what seemed to him a duty. He could but go on.
“If only Johnny Longbow were here!” she thought.
* * * * * * * *
Johnny Longbow was surprised and not a little frightened on seeing the
hunchback close beside him.
“What now?” he thought as his heart skipped a beat. “He was not so sleepy
as I supposed. He’s followed me. Did he believe me to be running away? If
so, what then?”
Whatever might be the strange creature’s feelings in the matter, the grin
he bestowed upon Johnny was friendly enough. His actions during the next
few minutes showed plainer than words that he knew more than Johnny did
about the whole affair.
Selecting a smooth surface of snow, he scooped out a channel for a
distance of twenty feet. This channel was a foot wide and two inches
deep. Next, having searched out a bundle of brittle twigs, he began
breaking one up and laying the pieces side by side in the bottom of the
channel. When he had constructed a rude square some eight inches across,
he selected certain bent and twisted bits of wood and, with a skill that
seemed extraordinary, created a tiny image of a man with a paddle in his
hand. This he placed well to the front upon the small platform. Back of
this he built up a miniature sled and four dogs.
All this was Greek to Johnny. When, however, with a few clever twists the
man had made a small boat and, after placing four figures within it, had
dropped it in the shallow channel, it all came to Johnny like a flash.
“The snow channel represents the river,” he told himself. “The figures in
the skin boat are my friends and the two Indians. But that before them
must be a raft. What of that?”
He studied over this for some time without reaching a conclusion. That a
raft was passing on before his friends, and that it carried a man, a sled
and four dogs, this much was certain. But who was the man?
“Don’t matter,” he told himself. “Might be anyone, a trapper, a
prospector, a lone Indian. But my comrades have gone ahead. How am I to
overtake them?”
In his eyes as he tried in vain to catch some glimpse of those who had
glided from his field of vision was a glint of despair.
The hunchback, who during all this time had been studying his face, did
not appear satisfied.
Selecting larger sticks, he constructed on the ground a larger raft. With
infinite pains he built up a new wooden man, four dogs and a sled.
Then, with equal care he began moulding small models from snow. One was a
rude cooking pot, another a flat pan, a third a prehistoric lamp. Other
figures were added. When all these were done, he piled them on the newly
made raft, and atop them all, a disc of metal taken from a pocket of his
skin trousers.
Still Johnny did not understand. When he shook his head, the hunchback
seized the metal affair and pressed it into his hand.
“Green,” he told himself as he turned it over, “Green like copper, but
heavy as lead. What can it be? What—
“Green gold!” he cried excitedly. “And now I understand. It is Timmie and
his green gold they are following. He rides ahead on a raft.”
Seeing that he was at last understood, the hunchback roared with hoarse
laughter.
After that, having seized Johnny’s hunting knife, with a few clever
strokes he shaped a miniature canoe. In this he placed two sticks. After
pointing to one, he struck Johnny a light blow. Then, after touching the
other, he smote his own breast.
Dropping the toy canoe in the snow channel, he moved it along until it
was abreast the skin boat. Then both boats overtook the raft.
“That’s plain enough,” the boy told himself. “We are to get into a boat
and pursue them. We will overtake my friends. Then together we will
overhaul Timmie and his raft load of dogs and green gold. Only question
is, where’s our boat?”
As if understanding the question, the hunchback laid heavy hands upon
him, turned him half about and marched him down the river.