We left the logs, and walked to Cornwall, and took a sloop down the
river. It was an American boat, bound for Quebec with
pipe-staves. It had put in at Cornwall when the storm began. The
captain said that the other sections of our raft had passed safely.
In the dusk of the early evening a British schooner brought us to.
"Wonder what that means?" said the skipper, straining his eyes in
the dusk,
A small boat, with three officers, came along-side. They climbed
aboard, one of them carrying a lantern. They were armed with
swords and pistols. We sat in silence around the cockpit. They
scanned each of us carefully in the light of the lantern. It
struck me as odd they should look so closely at our hands.
"Wha' d' ye want?" the skipper demanded. "This man," said one of
them, pointing to D'ri. "He's a British sailor. We arrest him--"
He got no farther. D'ri's hand had gone out like the paw of a
painter and sent him across the cockpit. Before I knew what was
up, I saw the lank body of D'ri leaping backward into the river. I
heard a splash and a stroke of his long arms, and then all was
still. I knew he was swimming under water to get away. The
officers made for their boat. My blood was up, and I sprang at the
last of them, giving him a hard shove as he was climbing over, so
that he fell on the boat, upsetting it. They had business enough
then for a little, and began hailing for help. I knew I had done a
foolish thing, and ran forward, climbing out upon the bowsprit, and
off with my coat and vest, and dived into the dark water. I swam
under as long as I could hold my breath, and then came up quietly,
turning on my back in the quick current, and floating so my face
only was above water. It had grown dark, and I could see nothing
but the glimmer of the stars above me. My boots were heavy and
dragged hard. I was going fast with the swift water, for at first
I had heard a great hubbub on the schooner; but now its voices had
grown faint. Other sounds were filling my ear.
After dark it is weird business to be swimming in strange
water--the throne of mystery, of a thousand terrors. It is as if
one's grave, full of the blackness of the undiscovered country,
were pursuing him and ever yawning beneath his body. And that big
river is the very tiger of waters, now stealing on pussy-footed,
now rushing with cat-like swiftness, hissing and striking with
currents that have in them mighty sinews. I was now companion of
those cold-mouthed monsters of the river bottom, many of which I
had seen. What if one should lay hold on me and drag me under?
Then I thought of rapids that might smother me with their spray or
dash me to hidden rocks. Often I lifted my ears, marvelling at the
many voices of the river. Sometimes I thought I heard a roaring
like that of the Sault, but it was only a ripple growing into
fleecy waves that rocked me as in a cradle. The many sounds were
above, below, and beside me, some weird and hollow and unearthly.
I could hear rocks rolling over in their sleep on the bottom, and,
when the water was still, a sound like the cropping of lily-pads
away off on the river-margin. The bellowing of a cow terrified me
as it boomed over the sounding sheet of water. The river rang like
a mighty drum when a peal of far thunder beat upon it. I put out
my hands to take a stroke or two as I lay on my back, and felt
something floating under water. The feel of it filled me with
horror. I swam faster; it was at my heels. I knew full well what
my hand had touched--a human head floating face downward: I could
feel the hair in my fingers. I turned and swam hard, but still it
followed me. My knees hit upon it, and then my feet. Again and
again I could feel it as I kicked. Its hand seemed to be clutching
my trousers. I thought I should never get clear of the ghastly
thing. I remember wondering if it were the body of poor D'ri. I
turned aside, swimming another way, and then I felt it no more.
In the dead of the night I heard suddenly a kind of throbbing in
the breast of the river. It grew to a noisy heart-beat as I
listened. Again and again I heard it, striking, plashing, like a
footfall, and coming nearer. Somehow I got the notion of a giant,
like those of whom my mother had told me long ago, striding in the
deep river. I could hear his boots dripping as he lifted them. I
got an odd fear that he would step on me. Then I heard music and
lifted my ears above water. It was a voice singing in the
distance,--it must have been a mile off,--and what I had taken for
a near footfall shrank away. I knew now it was the beat of oars in
some far bay.
A long time after I had ceased to hear it, something touched my
shoulder and put me in a panic. Turning over, I got a big mouthful
of water. Then I saw it was a gang of logs passing me, and quickly
caught one. Now, to me the top side of a log was as easy and
familiar as a rocking-chair. In a moment I was sitting comfortably
on my captive. A bit of rubbish, like that the wind had sown,
trailed after the gang of logs, I felt it over, finding a straw hat
and a piece of board some three feet long, with which latter I
paddled vigorously.
It must have been long past midnight when I came to an island
looming in the dark ahead. I sculled for it, stranding on a rocky
beach, and alighted, hauling the log ashore. The moon came out as
I stood wringing my trouser legs. I saw the island rose high and
narrow and was thickly wooded. I remember saying something to
myself, when I heard a quick stir in the bushes near me. Looking
up, I saw a tall figure. Then came a familiar voice:--
"Thet you, Ray? Judas Priest!"
I was filled with joy at the sight of D'ri, and put my arms about
him and lifted him off his feet, and, faith! I know my eyes were
wet as my trousers. Then, as we sat down, I told him how I had
taken to the river.
"Lucky ye done it!" said he. "Jerushy Jane! It is terrible lucky!
They 'd 'a' tuk ye sartin. Somebody see thet jack on the back o'
my hand, there 'n Cornwall, 'n' put 'em efter me. But I was bound
'n' detarmined they 'd never tek me alive, never! Ef I ever dew
any fightin', 't ain't a-goin' t' be fer England, nut by a side o'
sole-leather. I med up my mind I 'd begin the war right then an'
there."
"That fellow never knew what hit him," I remarked. "He did n't get
up for half a minute."
"Must 'a' swatted 'im powerful," said D'ri, as he felt his
knuckles. "Gol-dum ther picturs! Go 'n' try t' yank a man right
off a boat like thet air when they hain' no right t' tech 'im. Ef
I 'd 'a' hed Ol' Beeswax, some on 'em 'd 'a' got hurt."
"How did you get here?" I inquired.
"Swum," said he. "Could n't go nowheres else. Current fetched me
here. Splits et the head o' the island--boun' ter land ye right
here. Got t' be movin'. They 'll be efter us, mebbe--'s the fust
place they 'd look."
A few logs were stranded on the stony point of the island. We
withed three others to mine, setting sail with two bits of
driftwood for paddles. We pulled for the south shore, but the
current carried us rapidly down-river. In a bay some two miles
below we found, to our joy, the two sections of the big raft
undergoing repairs. At daybreak D'ri put off in the woods for home.
"Don't like the idee o' goin' int' the British navy," said he. "'D
ruther chop wood 'n' ketch bears over 'n St. Lawrence County.
Good-by, Ray! Tek care o' yerself."
Those were the last words he said to me, and soon I was on the raft
again, floating toward the great city of my dreams. I had a mighty
fear the schooner would overhaul us, but saw nothing more of her.
I got new clothes in Montreal, presenting myself in good repair.
They gave me hearty welcome, those good friends of my mother, and I
spent a full year in the college, although, to be frank, I was near
being sent home more than once for fighting and other deviltry.
It was midsummer when I came back again. I travelled up the river
road, past our island refuge of that dark night; past the sweeping,
low-voiced currents that bore me up; past the scene of our wreck in
the whirlwind; past the great gap in the woods, to stand open God
knows how long. I was glad to turn my face to the south shore, for
in Canada there was now a cold welcome for most Yankees, and my
fists were sore with resenting the bitter taunt. I crossed in a
boat from Iroquois, and D'ri had been waiting for me half a day at
the landing. I was never so glad to see a man--never but once.
Walking home I saw corn growing where the forest had been--acres of
it.
"D'ri," said I, in amazement, "how did you ever do it? There 's
ten years' work here."
"God helped us," said he, soberly. "The trees went over 'n the
windfall,--slammed 'em down luk tenpins fer a mild er more,--an' we
jes' burnt up the rubbish."