From sundown until daybreak, the ki-yi-ing and the beating of the
stick-kettle on the shore desecrated the stillness of the night with
scarcely any intermission. Shortly after daybreak, the wind having
gone down, Hooliam sent word to Garth that he would like to start.
They were ready in a few minutes. At the sight of Charley's bundle
with the others, Hooliam scowled and muttered in Cree.
"Says he can't take me," said Charley.
Garth flushed angrily. "This was all it needed," he burst out. "What
reason does he give?"
"No reason," said Charley coolly. "Just talks foolish."
Hooliam added something with a great show of plausibility.
"Says he hasn't got room," said Charley with a laugh.
"Rubbish!" said Garth. "You tell him he takes the three of us or none!
Give it to him strong!"
Upon receipt of this ultimatum, Hooliam, shrugging, turned away; and the
three of them boarded the _Loseis_.
Running out two pairs of clumsy sweeps, which were no more than
good-sized trees a little flattened at one end, they laboriously pulled
out of the river. Before them the lake stretched to the horizon as
smooth and colourless as a lightly frosted pane. Loons, herons and
a little kind of gull; ducks in pairs and squadrons; flocks of brown
geese and shining white swans, wheeled, sailed and swam about them
in countless numbers.
When they had rowed upward of a mile into the lake a mighty discussion
suddenly arose amongst the crew. The oarsmen ceased their labours to
take part in it. Eight wetted brown forefingers were held aloft.
"They're scrapping about whether there is any wind," Charley explained.
To a white man's senses there was no sign of wind; nevertheless the
oars were run in, the cargo shifted, and the heavy mast, with infinite
labour, stepped amidships and guyed. Hooliam looked on indifferently
from the stern, idly swinging his great sweep back and forth. Finally
a dirty square sail was raised. It declined to belly or flap in the
slightest degree; but the breeds, satisfied with what they had done, lay
around the boat, preparing to enjoy themselves in luxurious ease. They
amused themselves by tempting the water-fowl close with imitations of
their cries; and popping at them ineffectively with their twenty-two
"trade-guns."
Garth stood it as long as he could.
"Look here!" he said at length to Charley. "Ask him how long this is
going to last."
Charley translated. Hooliam looked sagely astern, spat, and answered in
Cree.
"He says there'll be a breeze by and by," said Charley.
The scarcely veiled insolence of this reply caused Garth inwardly to
fume. However, reflecting that, after all, Hooliam ought to know more
about navigation than he, he possessed his soul in patience for another
half-hour. There was still no sign of wind; and it was growing very hot
in the sun. Garth, setting his jaw, drew out his watch.
"Tell him I'll give him just fifteen minutes longer," he said quietly.
"If we're not under way by that time, there's going to be trouble."
Hooliam received the message with apparent indifference. Garth held his
watch in his hand. Three minutes before the expiration of the time, he
had Charley convey a final warning to the breed. Hooliam suddenly became
voluble and expostulatory.
"He says the boys won't work when there's a breeze coming up," said
Charley.
"You tell him, then, that I will take command of this boat, and run her
myself," said Garth.
At the last moment the orders were hastily given. The mast was
reluctantly taken down, and hung over the side; the cargo was shifted
back, and the sweeps run out. The breeds rowed half-heartedly, with
furtive scowls for the _moon-i-yas_ who made them work.
After a couple of hours during which they covered a scant three miles,
a breeze _did_ spring up from astern; whereupon the whole business
of raising the mast was gone through with again. Little by little it
freshened, and the _Loseis_ began to forge ahead, making a pleasant
little murmur under her forefoot. The hearts of the three passengers
rose in unison.
But they had not sailed two miles more, when the exasperated Garth
discovered that Hooliam was slyly edging his craft inside a point of the
shore. At first the breed unblushingly denied any intention of stopping;
but when it became apparent that he could not round the point without
hauling down the sail, he coolly admitted that he was going to land.
"What for?" Garth demanded.
"They're going ashore to spell--to cook and eat," Charley explained.
"Hooliam says there is no other place to land in fifteen miles."
Garth was obliged to be content.
With the characteristic prodigality of the breeds, an enormous fire
was built on the shore, over which their tea was furiously boiled in an
iron pail, and their dried moose meat stewed a little less tough than
moccasins. At a little distance the three passengers made their own
preparations for lunch.
Natalie, serenely trusting in Garth, put aside all anxiety about the
outcome of their journey; and was frankly interested and amused.
"Mercy!" she exclaimed. "They'll all die of tannic poisoning! And look
what they eat! The bacon is as green as arsenic!"
She proved to be using her eyes and ears to good advantage on the way.
"The tall boy," she said, "the one that looks like an actor; he's the
humourist of the party. He keeps them in fits of laughter by giving
_moon-i-yas_ imitations. He mimics us to our very faces. Their idea of
us is too funny! The good-looking little one is his inseparable friend;
they hold hands when they're not working. The one with the whitey-blue
eyes is called by a very blasphemous name. I watched him turning over
the pages of some stove catalogues that dropped out of a crate, with
_such_ a serious air. And they were all exactly alike, but he didn't
know it, because he held some of them upside down! What do you suppose
he made of a picture of a self-feeder standing on its head?"
To Garth it seemed as if they took an interminable time to prepare and
eat their simple meal; and afterward there could no longer be any doubt,
from the way they loafed about, that they were soldiering, as a result
of Hooliam's low-voiced encouragement. They grinned with childish
impudence at the scowling _moon-i-yas_. At last Hooliam produced a
pack of cards and a game of "jack-pot" was started on the shore.
This constituted frank defiance; and Garth took instant action.
"Put up those cards!" he commanded.
The boys laughed and looked at Hooliam.
"Get on board the boat," Garth ordered, through Charley.
Hooliam's eyes bolted; but he made no move. With the sheer perversity
of a child or a savage, he insisted there was no wind, even while the
ripples were washing the stones at his feet.
Garth, thoroughly exasperated, picked up his rifle. His eyes glinted
dangerously. "There's something behind this nonsense!" he cried. "And
I'm going to stop it! You let him understand that if he opposes me any
further I have eleven cartridges in the magazine of this rifle, and I
would think as little of bringing him down as that wavy up there!"
A wild swan, most difficult of marks, was sailing high overhead. Garth,
as he spoke, took aim and fired; and the great bird dropped like a
plummet in the shallow water off shore.
Loud exclamations of admiration broke from the boys. Three of them
dashed enthusiastically into the water to contend for the honour of
bringing back the prize. Garth builded better than he knew. The boys
while scarcely understanding the threat, were instantly impressed with
the successful shot; and with it Garth established himself once and
for all in their eyes. They instinctively began to carry the things
on board as he had ordered; and in the end the scowling Hooliam was
obliged to follow them on board, or be left behind.
As they were getting under way again, Garth observed Hooliam busy with
the sail. When it was hoisted, it appeared he had taken a reef in it.
"Shake it out!" Garth commanded.
Hooliam shrugged and protested.
"He says the mast is not strong," Charley translated. "This heavy wind
will carry it away," he says.
"Just now he said there was no wind," Garth said. "Let her go; and if
anything breaks we'll mend it."
Hooliam in a long harangue, demanded to know through Charley, if Garth
would pay for the damage.
For answer Garth merely picked up his rifle; and the reef was let out in
a hurry.
In all this there was something more than mere savage perversity;
Hooliam, it was clear, had an urgent private reason for wishing to delay
the journey. He had not sufficient command of his features to hide his
chagrin at the failure of his several attempts. He sulked all afternoon.
Garth sat with his weapon across his knees; and his steady gaze never
wandered far from the steersman. Willy-nilly, Hooliam was compelled to
hold the _Loseis_ to her course; and by four o'clock, the wind holding
light and steady, they had covered about thirty miles of their journey.
About this time the mast of another boat was discovered sticking above
the bank of a creek on shore. The usual excited discussion arose--this
time as to the identity of the craft. Finally the _Loseis's_ prow was
turned toward the shore. Garth demanded an explanation. Hooliam, more
obsequious now, said that it was Phillippe's boat on the way out; and he
had messages to deliver him from their common employers at the Landing.
Garth suspected another excuse; but he was very reluctant to interfere
with the real business of the North; and since it was almost time to
spell for another meal, he decided to make no objections.
With true half-breed impetuosity they chose the worst place in miles on
which to beach the _Loseis_. Her forefoot was run on a bar fully two
hundred yards off shore; and communications were carried on by means of
laborious wading, waist-deep, to and fro. The moment she touched, the
entire crew and the skipper, dropping everything, dashed pell mell for
the beach and across the intervening sand to the camp of the other
boatmen on the shore of the creek. The passengers ferried themselves
ashore in the _Flat-iron_, which had been stowed, much against Hooliam's
will, on board the _Loseis_.
After supper, as time passed and there was no sign of the returning
crew, Garth sent Charley after Hooliam with a peremptory message.
Hooliam returned, cap in hand, his whole attitude changed. He expressed
a willingness to start immediately; but deprecatingly pointed out that
a storm threatened; and apologized for the unseaworthy condition of the
_Loseis_. This time he had reason on his side; for angry clouds were
heaped about the setting sun; and the orb itself was peering luridly
between parted curtains of crimson rain. Garth, still suspecting him,
was yet taken at a disadvantage. He thought of Natalie on board the
shelterless _Loseis_ in a rainstorm; and finally announced his wish
to remain where they were for the night. Hooliam smirked demurely,
in ill-concealed satisfaction.
All returned to the _Loseis_ for what was needed during the night. The
preparations to secure the York boat against the threatening storm were
highly characteristic of her hit-or-miss crew. A stake was driven in the
sand of the lake bottom, at either side the stern, and the rudder-post
lashed between. This flimsy apparatus was designed to keep the boat
from being driven broadside on the bar. The practical Garth frowned
impatiently at its utter insufficiency; but the breeds could scarcely
contain their impatience to resume their gambling with the other crew;
and presently they dashed off, leaving the _Loseis_ to her fate.
Garth pitched his camp under the shelter of a line of willows, marking
the edge of higher ground along the wide waste of sand. The two crews
with their ceaseless tom-tom on the shore of the creek, were upward of
half a mile away. Natalie was made comfortable in her tent; and Garth
and Charley, collecting a pile of firewood, covered it with a tarpaulin,
against the coming rain. Charley, who had slept during the afternoon,
was to watch until two o'clock; and Garth, covering himself with a
piece of sail-cloth, lay down at the door of the tent.
It seemed to him he had no more than fallen asleep, when Charley shook
his shoulder to awaken him.
"It's one o'clock," the boy said. "I think something has happened in the
camp over there. They quieted down; but now they have started up again,
and have built up their fire. Looks to me as if somebody had arrived.
Thought I'd better wake you, while I sneaked over and took a look."
Charley was gone more than an hour. Returning, as soon as he had entered
the circle of the firelight, Garth saw by his face that something
important was in the wind.
"I was right," the boy said. "Nick Grylls has come. He arrived in a
canoe with a breed; and sent him back. Nick and Hooliam went outside the
camp, and talked by themselves. I listened from behind a willow bush.
Nick Grylls knows a lot more Cree than I do, and I couldn't understand
everything; but I got the gist of it. Nick was giving Hooliam hell all
around--first for making him paddle all night--it seems Hooliam ought
to have waited for him at that point where we spelled this morning--and
then for bringing me. That was the sorest touch; for Nick knows I
understand Cree. He said it upset all his plans."
"It was a mighty good thing for Natalie and me, that we had you to-day!"
Garth put in.
The boy blushed with pleasure.
"Go on," Garth said.
"Grylls was pretty mum about these plans of his," Charley continued. "I
guess he only lets Hooliam know part. I caught just a word or two. One
thing was clear; you are his mark. I made out there was to have been a
row at the point, and you were to have been put out of business, so you
couldn't keep on with this journey. Then Nick was to happen along as if
by accident; you were to be sent to the half-breeds at Swan river to
be taken care of, and Nick was going to do the friendly act, and help
Natalie on her way. I bet she never would have got there! In some way
Nick has learned all about Natalie; for he seems to know where she's
going; and what for. Anyway, you put his scheme to the bad by winning
over the boys; and he is hot.
"He acted queer, too," Charley went on. "The first thing he asked
was, if Natalie was well; and his voice sounded crying-like. Say,
he's changed altogether from the hearty old sport, that used to travel
through the country like a lord, handing out cigars. He's losing
flesh. I think he's a bit touched."
When the boy finished, Garth took a turn, breathing deeply; and finally
returning to the fire, sought that trusty counsellor, his pipe. "I'm
glad he's turned up," he said coolly. "This is more like fighting in the
open. And thanks to you, I'm well warned."
He smoked a while in silence. "I suspect I'll have my work cut out for
me to-morrow," he resumed reflectively. Presently he gripped Charley's
shoulder, and searched the boy's face. "I'll be damn thankful to have
you along, old fellow," he said. "But I don't think I have any right
to let you in for this. This man is very powerful in the country; and
he can spoil all your chances. You had better go back with Phillippe.
Neither Natalie nor I would ever blame you."
The boy turned away his head. "I--I can't talk about it," he faltered.
"If you go on that way you'll have me crying like a girl! You could talk
all night, and it wouldn't do any good! What do you think I am? I'm not
going to miss the fun!"
Garth laughed. "Turn in," he said briefly. "You'll need all the sleep
you can get."