VERBAUX put his bundle in the canoe and carried it to the water; he
stepped in, shoved off into the dense opaqueness, and paddled away to
the south-east, and had gone but a short distance when he heard shouts
and cries in the direction of the post. The sounds penetrated eerily to
him, and seemed first behind, then to one side; a gun-shot vibrated
softly, the harsh edges of the sound smoothed off by the motionless,
lifeless fog. Jules smiled grimly, laid his paddle across his knees
while he unfastened his shirt at the neck, turned up the loose sleeves,
and laid his cap on the bottom of the canoe; then he knelt and braced
himself strongly with his knees, grasped the paddle firmly in his big
hands, and listened. In a minute he heard the faint rolling of shingle
as canoes were pushed rapidly over it. He thrust the paddle deep into
the water and swung the canoe sharply to the right, and then worked
noiselessly along. The thick atmosphere was cleft by the bow and rolled
visibly to either side as his little craft cut through it rapidly; he
swung to the right again and backed water when he saw the trees looming
up a few yards ahead. Then he drifted. Not far along the shore he could
hear the fast-fading thumps of hastily wielded paddles, and the advices
shouted to his pursuers. He heard the factor’s strident tones cursing
and growling, and he chuckled when the sounds of the canoes had gone and
the voices went back to the post.
Then with silent, revolving strokes of the long paddle he left the murky
shadows of the trees and moved in stillness out on the lake; little
eddying bubbles showed his track over the calm surface. Soon he
increased the speed of the canoe, and long threads of wavelets parted
and fell away from the bow with liquid whisperings.
“Ha! dey aire là-bas!” he muttered as his keen senses caught the distant
clu-u-ck thump of the paddles. He stopped to listen.
“Ki-mi-na-hon an-ootch-kee-je-gak. Pen-du-u-u? [You kill to-day,
Pendu?]”
Jules heard the words plainly, and they seemed magnified by the wet
denseness.
“Ah-ha!” answered a voice from somewhere to the left. Nothing then but
the regular sounds of paddles again, going on.
“Dees bon!” Verbaux thought, and kept on, paddling quietly and keeping
within sound of those ahead. Two hours passed, and then the far-off
roaring of rapids penetrated the gray atmosphere; Jules lost the canoes
ahead and slowed up, drifting with the light wind that was coming from
the north. Nearer and nearer sounded the quick water of the thoroughfare
between Lac des Rochers and the dead water of Rivière du Renard.
“Ah go for dat an’ mabbe have bonne chance an’ passer dose hoddaires!”
he decided, and paddled fast. In a few minutes he felt the strength of
the current, and he stood up in the canoe as the turmoil of water
rushing over rocks and bars sounded straight ahead. The north wind
increased and the fog began to lift; he was on the edge of the rapids;
white water gleamed here and there, but Verbaux guided his craft with
powerful strokes of his blade, now to the right, then to the left, among
the jutting reefs and shifting sand ledges. The crest of a furling water
shoulder broke on the gunwales, half filling the little craft, but Jules
laughed softly when he glided safe beyond the wet jaws of the rapids,
into the flat calm of the next lake. He shoved ashore, drew his canoe
under the thickets, and watched.
Gradually the thick mist rose and disappeared, and he could see
everywhere. The falling sun shone warm over the blue-green expanse;
beyond, the forests were gently moving and the tiny wind ripples hurried
along, rolling to the shore, where they broke and lapped the pebbles
with a monotonous tinkling.
Voices came to him sharply, and from the mouth of the thoroughfare came
five canoes. They drifted out in front of him.
“By sacré-é-é-é! Ah hear somme t’ing go pas’ v’en ve vatch’ au
commencement du rapide!” the single occupant of a canoe growled as he
looked searchingly about the shores and out on the watery distance. The
other men laughed, and Jules smiled. He waited motionless under his
green protection, while the canoes sidled aimlessly along with the light
wind. The birch leaves quivered and rubbed against one another; a little
brown bird lighted on a twig at his feet, cocked its head on one side,
and the black eyes peered merrily at him. Satisfied with its
examination, the little inhabitant of the forest fluttered, cheeping,
into a bush, and sat in its nest.
Jules heard voices again; he crouched at the water’s edge and looked out
along the rippling surface: the canoes were coming back in single file,
passing close along the bushes. He crept away from the water and lay
flat behind a heap of last year’s leaves. He could see the lake fringe
plainly; soon the bow of the first canoe came within range of his eyes;
it moved evenly and steadily, then Le Pendu’s figure, kneeling in the
stern and paddling silently, showed dark. Jules could see him watching,
first the mouth of the stream, then the woods. Le Pendu passed and the
other four, and they were gone noiselessly. Verbaux kept still for some
time. The sun set rayonning in the west, while the purples and gold of
its good-night intensified, then paled and melted away. The little wind,
too, sank, and the summer twilight was soft and mysterious; the
twinkling points of night appeared one by one, and the moon gleamed in
its blue-white strength.
“Ah go, mabbe!” Jules whispered to himself, and cautiously worked his
way to the canoe. He reached it and listened: the tiny noises of the
night, the shrill _bzzzing_ of mosquitoes, the distant murmur of the
fast water, were all that broke the lonely silence. With a heave and a
few quick steps Jules slid his little canoe in the black waters, sat
himself quietly on its ribbed bottom, and started to push out from the
shadows of the trees. A long black something appeared out in front of
him, moving very slowly. A branch caught on the thwart of his canoe, it
grated, creaked a little, then snapped back, swishing. Jules sat still,
his paddle holding the bottom. The something beyond stopped its motion;
then it swung inshore and came toward him without a sound.
“Maintenant mak’ fight!” Jules thought, and felt under his shirt for his
knife, found it, put it between his teeth, and sat waiting. The
something grew into the shape of a canoe with a man. It came on slowly;
then the man stopped paddling, and Jules pictured him listening. Nearer
and nearer drifted the canoe; only the _drip-drip-drip_ of the drops
from the oncoming paddle-blade that rested across the canoe. Right up to
the bow of Jules’s craft it came, then the man backed water, seeing the
woods ahead of him, and his canoe was motionless while he listened, five
feet from Verbaux. Everything became still, it seemed to Jules; even the
insects ceased humming; his heart-beats were heavy, a surely audible
sound he thought, as he gripped the knife closer with his teeth. He
could see the man perfectly now: Le Pendu it was; the cold moonlight
brought his figure into clear relief with the dark background. Le Pendu
sat there listening, scanning the woods.
“Diable, vat dat Ah hear?” he said, half aloud, and listened again. A
musquash swam between the two canoes, and saw the strange things; it
dove at once with a noisy splash; the ripples flowed away, sparkling in
the night light, and broke with a light curling on the pebbles of the
shore. In a moment the black head reappeared beyond the stern of Le
Pendu’s canoe; it swam round and looked at this unknown thing that
invaded the sanctity of the wild waters of the North. Le Pendu moved his
head, watching; instantly the musquash saw and dove again loudly, and
was gone beneath the waters; its wake rolled evenly away and was
dispersed by the weight of the lake. Jules sat in his canoe, watching
the man almost at his elbow. And so the two were, when an indistinct
thumping sounded from beyond.
Le Pendu swung his canoe round with a long stroke of his paddle; another
canoe loomed black and drew near.
“S-s-s-st!” its guide said softly.
“S-s-s-st!” Le Pendu answered, and moved his craft to meet the other.
“Sa-win? [Do you hear anything?]” The rough voice was toned low.
“Ah-ha,” Le Pendu answered, “mais eet vas kil-ou-th [muskrat], Ah
t’ink!”
“La-cha-ne-weet-chil-to-o? [Did you see him?]”
“Non,” Le Pendu growled softly, and the two canoes floated side by side.
Jules waited; the canoes near him watched, and lay there, mirrored
vaguely on the even waters. An owl hooted from the black forests, and
its hoarse call echoed away among the trees. Then Le Pendu’s canoe began
to move down the shore.
“Et-chin-oo-e? [Where are you going?]” asked the man in the canoe. Le
Pendu did not answer.
“Et-chin—” began the man again.
“Se-eith-lint-ai! [I hear you!]” Le Pendu answered savagely.
“Qu-ar-a-koot cho-oe! [You are a fool. Come!]” he added.
The two canoes moved away silently and disappeared in the shadow gloom,
following the timber edge. Jules breathed a sigh of relief and took his
knife from his mouth.
“By diable, Ah t’ink dat taime bataille, sans doute!” he muttered, and
sat still. The summer night passed on; the moon sank slowly and
everything was dark; Verbaux pushed carefully out on the open water and
listened, but nothing stirred. Then he moved off rapidly with scarce a
ripple. Very soon the forest behind shrank to a black line, then that
was gone and only the flat water stretched away on all sides. He paddled
faster, heading to the south, his body swaying regularly to and fro, to
and fro as he plied the ash blade.
“Ah mus’ arrive Rivière des Loups befor’ de sonne comme!” he said as he
saw the faint lightening of the eastern skies. The one word “Marie” and
the one thought to find her thrummed in his mind. “Marie!” on the
forward stroke, “Marie!” on the back sway, he whispered continuously.
“Enfin!” and he felt relieved as the distant noise of running water came
softly through space; a little while more and trees grew up before him,
and then he reached them and stopped to eat—but only drew himself under
some bushes, and did not leave the canoe. As he ate and scooped up
handfuls of water, the heavens underwent their beautiful changes of
sunrise; a loon laughed from the bottom of a cove, and the shrill cry
echoed on the morning air.
A marsh bottom was near Jules’s resting-place, and something moving on
it caught his eyes; he looked at it, and distinguished the black shape
of a moose. The huge animal walked to the water’s edge and splashed
noisily as it waded along, feeding on the pod roots and tender
water-grasses. It came toward Verbaux, and as the light grew stronger he
could see the sprouting antlers and the long ears flopping awkwardly. A
gentle draft blew from him to the moose; suddenly the animal stopped,
lifted its head, and stared in Verbaux’s direction. “Who-offf!” A few
lumbering strides, then a crashing in the underbrush, and it was gone.
Jules watched towards the blue far-away land that marked the place he
had come from in the night, but no pursuing canoe appeared.
“By gar Jules get ’way good dat taime certainement!” he said to himself,
and started on again.
He paddled on until the sun stood full high; a strong wind was blowing,
and little foam crests raced after one another as far as his eyes could
reach across the shining waters. Billowy clouds passed overhead, rolling
on out of sight beyond the far mountains. Soon the lake waters narrowed
and Jules pushed easily, hurried on by the wind. He looked ahead
thoroughly; nothing moved. Then a sharp bend in the lake outlet, and he
was in calm waters that flowed silently but strongly onward; he stopped
working and watched the banks slide by as if by magic. Dull whirlpools
and huge eddies appeared here and there as the current was headed by
rocks on the bottom and recoiled to the surface. Birds fluttered to and
fro over the stream, and gray and white moose-jays floated on the air
with open wings, calling harshly. Silently Verbaux went on and down with
the waters. Suddenly he thrust his paddle in the strong flow and brought
the canoe to a standstill with a giant heave. Splashings went on round
the next bend; they sounded plainly on the drafty air. Then
_qu-a-a-ack_.
“Bah! des canards!” laughed Jules, and let himself glide on. The
afternoon passed thus; scenes shifted, and new ones, as green and
soothing, filled their places for an instant, then they too changed, and
evermore they came in endless lines on both sides of the river,
motionless, soft and fragrant with the odours of the wilderness. The
water quickened, riffles showed long and even, and then the dull booming
of a fall came heavily to Jules’s ears.
“Ah stop là ce soir; dere ees place for ’slip!” he said aloud, and stood
up to guide the canoe hither and thither among the sharp rock-heads that
shone wet and glistening above their wave-skirts. It continued white,
then evened again, and the flow was irresistible; below him Verbaux
could see the river line finish, and beyond that the tops of tall pines
appeared on a level with him.
“La chute d’eau! go to lan’ maintenant.” He swept the canoe to the bank
on the right-hand side and stepped ashore. Gratefully he stretched his
long body and bathed his sun- and wind-burned skin. A good trail led
away into the sombering woods; he picked up the canoe, threw it on his
shoulders with a quick heave, and went on down the path, half trotting,
with loose knees, to ease the weight. The open path kept just in from
the river, under the huge trees whose branches met the fast water and
swayed as it carried them with it, then springing back to be caught
again.
“Personne comme dees vay encore!” Jules muttered, watching the soft
mosses and boggy clays under his feet as he scuffled along.
“By gar mus’ soon arriver à la chute!” he thought, and just then came
out on the top of the falls and put down the canoe.
At his feet the black water unrolled smoothly over the edge, then broke
into green and white sheets with a deep roar that reverberated hollowly
from the cliff-circled pool below. Mist-spouts and clouds of spray
whirled into the air, enwreathing the low branches of the forest. Great
masses of bubbles and froth that gleamed coldly in the evening light
were born before his eyes, and carried swiftly off, to burst and die.
The chill scent of the mist rose invigoratingly to him.
“Bon Dieu, dat fin’!” he whispered. Little by little the long tree
shadows crept athwart the perpendicular waters, and the last rays of the
sun shone through their falling depths, fringing each sheet with
sparkling points. Then the lights changed; slowly the waters turned
black, and the foam showed whiter than ever. Still Jules watched the
wonderful changes of the wilds. In a few minutes he could not see the
pool, and the roar seemed deeper and more powerful. Wild and glorious it
sounded down there, unseen, unfelt, mysterious, and grand. And ever at
his feet the flow passed on sullenly, to be dashed to mist and foam
beneath.
“Dat bon!” Verbaux said again, drawing a deep breath. “Ah go heet
maintenant an’ dormir. To-mor’ Ah mus’ arriver Lac des Diables.” He left
the brink, drew the canoe into the bushes, and felt his way along the
trail in the darkness to a tumbled-down bark lean-to.
Early the following morning he went up to the falls for his canoe and
lugged it down to the pool. The drafts played with the flying spume,
twisting it into fantastic clouds that eddied from cliff to cliff; the
black shapes of trout showed now and then as they rolled up lazily in
the froth under the fall. The air dripped with its overload of moisture,
and as Jules stepped in the canoe and shoved off, he brushed away the
little beads of water that clung to his hair and eyebrows.
The current, now fast, then slow, carried him down-stream until noon,
then the bank widened again and Verbaux passed out on another lake. The
waters were unruffled and reflected the skies accurately.
“Dere comme la brigade; mabbe Ah fin’ h’out somme t’ing de Marie, Dieu
l’espère!” Jules said aloud as he saw a convoy of canoes coming toward
him across the lake. He waited, motionless, and his reflection grew
longer and shorter in the calm waters as the canoe swung round idly,
moved by the faint strength of the current that flowed into the lake
behind him.
“Verbaux, mon Gar, bon Dieu, dat toi?” shouted a voice from the canoes.
Jules started violently.
“Le Grand!” he whispered. “B’en, oui!” he shouted back. Then a canoe
separated from the group and came on fast, the man paddling hard while
the others cheered and laughed. The two canoes floated side by side and
the two men grasped each other’s hands.
“Marie?” Jules said hoarsely.
“Là-bas, h’all sauf!” smiled Le Grand, pointing beyond the distant
mountains.
“Dieu merci!” and Jules bowed his head; Le Grand was silent. The rest
came up. “Bon, toi fin’ heem, hein?” said a big voyageur laughingly to
Le Grand. The latter nodded gravely.
“’Ow toi comme ici?” asked the voyageur, Maurice Lefèvrier, of Jules.
“Le facteur he sen’ moi for to go Lac Tonnerres see eef dose
Assiniboines tak’ de trap’!” Verbaux answered.
Le Grand looked at him quickly, and Jules narrowed his eyes; the other
understood and made no comment.
It grew late, and some one suggested stopping for the night; the canoes
were grounded and their loads covered from the dew. After supper Verbaux
beckoned silently to Le Grand, and the two walked out to a little bank
that overlooked the water, and sat down. A soft wind surged from the
lake, and overhead banks of clouds drove on; sometimes their masses
split and the silver of the full moon streamed through in a white flood,
only to be dammed again by the hurrying gloom. Above the two stretched
spreading branches, through whose leaves the night wind blew, making
them breathe tremulously. The lulling song of curling ripples overbore
all other sound; even the mosquitoes bit silently.
Jules and Le Grand filled their pipes; Le Grand struck a light, and its
sheen was bright as he held it to the bowl; he passed it to Verbaux, and
the two smoked quietly, watching the uncertain waters that merged into
total darkness out there beyond them.
“Vat for toi comme?” Le Grand asked then slowly.
“To fin’ Marie!” Jules whispered.
“Bon!” and Le Grand nodded.
“She ees bien?” Verbaux breathed deeply and looked at Le Grand hard.
The latter nodded again. “She vait for toi, Verbaux! Ah tol’ Marie Ah
comme for to fin’ toi h’aga’n; mais,” and he chuckled softly, “toi comme
fin’ me! C’est bon!” he repeated.
The two smoked on, silent both. The wind fell away gradually, the leaves
were still, the clouds had gone, and the moon shone unrestrained in all
its power, creating black shadows and distances, harshening outlines,
softening the vague shades that lay on the two men. Insects hummed, and
little animals seeking their food travelled through the thick underbrush
with suggestive cracklings.
“Dam’!” Le Grand said as he slapped his face, “dat mosquit’ he bit’
harrd!” And Verbaux smiled.
“Le Grand, Ah vant h’ask toi somme t’ing important!” he said.
“Qu’est?” asked the other, taking his pipe from his mouth.
“Marie, she h’ask for moi?” A note of eagerness, one of faint suspicion,
but it was the voice of Jules’s big heart that spoke, trembling a
little.
Le Grand laughed and put out his hand. “She h’ask many, many taime for
toi, Jules, an’ Ah have comme to breeng toi to dat petite fille!” he
said.
Verbaux shuddered, and his eyes grew soft and moist. “Ah go avec toi
to-mor’!” he said simply.
“Bon!” Le Grand replied, and they were silent again, each thinking his
own thoughts: the thoughts of two men, but of one woman whom each loved,
but each in a different way.
The moon rose higher and higher until it cast no shadows; fleeting stars
shot hither and thither, and were mirrored, flashing, in the black
water. Owls hooted, loons called shrilly, things of the night stirred
noisily, but the thoughts of the two men were always of one.
“Allons!” Le Grand spoke, “to-mor’ ve mus’ go far! You ronne ’vay f’om
Facteur Donal’?”
“Oui.” Jules looked in surprise at his friend that guessed so well.
“Non!” he added, “Ah no ronne ’vay; Ah tell to le facteur dat Ah go
’vay, an’ den Ah ronne—en canot!” and he laughed, so did Le Grand, and
the two went back to where the rest had made camp. Most of the crowd
were asleep in their blankets by the big fire; some still sat there
talking.
“Dis Verbaux,” Le Grand said to Lefèvrier, who rested in the warm light,
his back against a log, his feet to the heat. The big voyageur and Jules
shook hands. They talked awhile, then slept with the rest.
A mink, drawn by the smell of pemmican, sneaked up from the shore, its
wet body glistening in the dying firelight. It scuffled here and there,
nosing about the supper remains, then vanished to the lake again with a
bit of the dried meat. All night everything was silent, but when the
birds began to flutter in the brush and the kingfisher called harshly on
the shore, the men awakened and got up, one by one, to the work of
another day.
“Toi go veet’ me to loook—see eef dose trap’ aire dere?” Jules asked of
Le Grand at breakfast.
“Certainement Ah go, an’ den mus’ go back to la poste,” Le Grand
answered, with a swift glance at the others.
“Au r’voir, Verbaux, Le Grand!” the crowd shouted as Jules and the other
paddled away while the brigade went on toward the mouth of the stream
and the falls above.
“Adieu!” shouted the two, set their faces to the south-east, and paddled
fast.
They worked on for an hour, and neither spoke; then Jules stopped
paddling and rested his long arms.
“Ve have to go fas’!” he said. “V’en dose oddaires dey comme to la
poste—alors!” and he chuckled.
“Allons, den!” grunted his companion, and plied his paddle the faster.
They crossed Lac Terrible and sped on through the dead water of Les
Cerfs. It took them two days to reach Les Rapides du Diable on Rivière
de l’Échelle [River of Ladders]. When they came to the foaming rapids
that lay treacherous before them, white and menacing, Le Grand spoke.
“Eef ve could onlee passé ça!”
“Dat be good!” Jules answered as he guided the canoe ashore.
They ate a light lunch. “Maintenant,” Jules said when they were ready to
start on, “ve go par la rivière an’ les lacs, ou tak’ le canot an’ go
’cross de forêts an’ climb le Mont d’Ours [Bear Mountain]. Vat toi
t’ink, Le Grand?”
His companion thought a minute. “Mor’ queeck go h’ovaire Mont d’Ours,
mais harrd travaille!” he said.
“Bah! dat notting; Ah have attend so long taime for see Marie, Ah vant
go so queeck possible!”
Le Grand smiled. “Eef you had seulement comme avec moi long h’ago h’at
Isle la Crosse, den ve have feenesh dat Annaotaha, et puis tu vould have
Marie maintenant.”
“Jules beeg fou dose taimes,” Verbaux answered, and let his eyes roam
over the forests that rose hill on hill to mountain heights beyond; for
a second a hateful figure passed in his brain and he shivered.
Le Grand saw and understood. “She h’ask h’all taime for toi, Verbaux,
dese sev’n mont’ passé,” he said softly.
The disagreeable thought was gone, and Jules nodded gratefully to his
friend.
“B’en go!” As he spoke Le Grand lifted the canoe to throw it on his
shoulders, but put it down with a groan.
“Mon pauvre vieux, dat woun’ do dat, hein?”
Jules threw the little craft on his own broad back and led the way into
the green thickets. For a long time the woods were level and the two
picked their way among windfalls and tangled masses of last year’s
undergrowth. Twice they put the canoe in little lakes and paddled across
their clear waters. Then they began to rise; unnoticeably at first, the
walking sloped uphill, then it grew steeper and steeper until they were
climbing slowly up the bouldered side of a mountain whose top looked
down at them through the trees from far above. They came to a little
brook that dashed refreshingly among the rocks and mosses, and Jules put
down the canoe to rest. The forest was hot and breathless, but the
little stream gave off a sense of coolness that was grateful to the two
men. They drank of its strengthening flow and started on. Upward and
onward they toiled, Jules always carrying the canoe, though Le Grand
often attempted to get it, but Verbaux would not give it up.
“Laissez faire,” he said, “Ah’m no fatigue’.” So Le Grand followed,
sometimes pushing when a particularly steep place had to be got over. At
last the top was reached, and they both were glad.
“By gar, dat magnifique!” Le Grand said as they sat on the upturned
canoe and looked round them.
It was coming evening; as far as the eye could reach, the lighter shades
and deep greens of the wilderness spread away in beautiful expanse;
still beyond, fifty miles or more, big mountain ranges loomed blue and
gray in the afternoon haze, their bases clad in dark colours, their
heads touching the sunset clouds. Scattered about, like jewels on a
green cloth, were quantities of lakes shimmering in the soft glare of
the sinking sun. Here they were bright and silvered, there they were
dull, some blue, some colourless; all were still and like liquid drops
and blotches from a mighty pen on a green background. One sheet of water
that lay in the sun’s rays shone like a body of mercury, dazzling the
eye. Lower and still lower sank the fiery globe, turning from yellow to
orange; then deeper and grander shades came and it changed to pink, then
red, tingeing the clouds with its hot colours. The upper winds of the
skies drove streaks and long groups of feathery cloud across the sun’s
face; these were at once magnified and painted in brilliant hues—the
denser ones blue-black, the lighter ones gray, green, yellow, and
scarlet. Ever changing, ever shifting, moving always, the ethereal
scenes bewildered the senses of the two that sat there, spell-bound,
watching: one dreaming, the other happy, contented with his friend, his
quest ended, his hopes realised. Then but half of the red circle showed
above the distant mountains; it cast far-reaching rays athwart the now
purpling heavens and gilded the peak of Mont d’Ours with a mellow glow
that softened everything. The canoe was deep yellow, the men were gently
shadowed by its power. Gradually the light of day sank, and the deep
shades of evening grew. The lakes and streams lost their sparkle and
became vague, almost invisible. A deep sombreness spread over
everything, then white mists rose from the waters as their surfaces
condensed into vapour and floated upward to join the drifting clouds.
Dark it became and darker, and still the two stayed; distance shortened
until nothing but the sides of their own mountain were to be seen. The
thousand night lights appeared one by one till a new, cold glow showed
the forests black, the nearest lakes as indistinct spots, the clouds as
but dark quantities that drifted evenly across the heavens. A
silence,—that silence of the mountains,—absolute, fathomless, was over
everything. No sound, not the slightest breeze moved; only their own
thoughts were heard by the two. The chill strength of the stars grew;
all objects became black in their light, and full night had come.
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