At the edge of every frozen marsh and lake Ungava Bob paused to
reconnoitre for caribou, but always to be disappointed, and when he
and Shad halted at sundown to pitch their night camp, no living thing
had they seen.
Shad's small wedge tent was stretched between two trees, snow was
banked around it on the outside, and a thick bed of boughs spread upon
the snow within. Two short butts of logs were placed at proper
distance apart near the entrance and inside the tent, the tent stove
set upon them, and with an ample supply of wood cut and split, their
night shelter, with a roaring fire in the stove, was warm and cosy.
The days that followed were equally as disappointing. The smooth white
surface of the snow was unmarred by track of beast or bird. No living
creature stirred. No sound broke the silence. The frozen world was
dead, and the silence was the silence of the sepulchre.
"It's so quiet you can hear it," Shad remarked once when they halted
to make tea.
"Aye," said Bob, "'tis that, and they's no footin' of even rabbits. I
can't make un out."
On the afternoon of the third day after leaving the river tilt, they
came upon the southern shore of the Great Lake of the Indians, and
turning westward presently discovered Sishetakushin's wigwam.
The travellers received a warm welcome from the Indians. Sishetakushin
and Mookoomahn were indeed noisy and effusive in their greeting.
Manikawan radiated pleasure, but she and her mother, a large, fat
woman, as became their status as women, remained in the background.
The Indians had killed some caribou early in the season, and jerked
the meat. They had just killed a bear whose winter den they had
discovered, and over the fire was a kettle of stewing beaver meat,
upon which they feasted their visitors.
At the proper time Bob presented them with tea, Shad gave them each
some tobacco, and then Bob told them of his proposed trading project.
"My people will be glad," said Sishetakushin, "and you will have much
trade."
It developed in the course of conversation that the Indians were
preparing to move at once to the Lake of Willows (Petitsikapau), to
the northwest, in the hope of meeting caribou, for none had been seen
by them since those they had killed in early fall.
They were to cache some of their provisions near the Great Lake; and
when they had made a sufficient kill in the North to supply them with
food, were to return to their cache near the Great Lake to trap
martens, for in the more northerly country, where wide barrens take
the place of forests, martens are rarely to be found.
"Bob, here's a chance I've been hoping for," said Shad, when Bob
interpreted to him the Indians' plan. "Do you think they would be
willing to let me go with them until their return here, if I gave them
some tobacco?"
"They's no tellin', Shad, how long they'll be away," suggested Bob.
"But I want to go if they'll let me go. Please ask them," insisted
Shad.
"But they may not be findin' deer, an' if they don't find un they
won't be comin' back here till th' end o' winter. You don't want t' be
with un th' rest o' th' winter, Shad; 'twill be rougher cruisin' than
with us," Bob warned.
"Ask them. I'm going if they'll have me along;" and Shad displayed in
his tone a suggestion of resentment that Bob should question the
advisability of anything upon which he had determined.
The Indians discussed the matter at some length before finally giving
Bob an affirmative decision.
"They says you can go, Shad, but they'll not promise t' be back here
for two months, whatever, an' when they does they'll come t' th' river
tilt with you," said Bob.
"Good! It'll give me some change of experience, and the chance to
study their life and customs that I've wanted;" and Shad was elated
with the prospect.
Partly because of the earnest solicitation of his Indian friends, but
chiefly in the hope of dissuading Shad from his determination, Bob
remained in the Indian camp the remainder of the week. While they
still maintained a degree of reserve toward Shad, Bob was treated in
every respect as one of them.
Manikawan made him the object of her particular attention. She waited
upon him as the Indian women wait upon their lords, anticipating his
needs.
In expectation of his coming she had, after her return from the river
tilt, made for him a beautiful coat of caribou skins. The hair, left
on the skins, made a warm lining, while the outside of the coat,
tanned as soft and white as chamois, was decorated with designs
painted in colours. Attached to it was a hood of wolfskin.
Accompanying the coat was a pair of long, close-fitting buckskin
leggings, and a pair of buckskin moccasins, both decorated, and the
whole comprising the typical winter suit of a Nascaupee hunter.
Manikawan's attentions were extremely irritating to Bob, but he could
not well avoid them, and to have declined to accept the gift which she
had made especially for him in anticipation of his coming, would have
caused her keen disappointment. So he accepted them and donned them,
to her evident delight.
"Shad," said Bob, on the Sunday evening after their arrival "I has t'
start back in th' mornin', an' you better be goin' with me."
"No," insisted Shad, "I'll stick to the Indians for a while."
The following morning Bob bade them adieu.
"Take care of yourself, old man," said Shad. "I'll see you in a month
or so."
"I hopes so, Shad, an' you take care o' yourself, now. I'm fearin' t'
leave you, Shad."
"Oh, I know how to look out for myself," declared Shad. "Don't worry
about me."
Turning to Manikawan, who stood mutely waiting for the word of
farewell that she hoped Bob would bestow upon her, he said, in the
Indian tongue:
"White Brother of the Snow must go to his hunting grounds. He is
leaving behind him his friend. Will Manikawan minister to his friend
as she would to him? Will she see that no harm comes to him?"
"Manikawan will do as White Brother of the Snow directs," she
answered. "She will minister to his friend's needs. She will make for
his friend the nabwe. His friend will not be hungry. Manikawan will
care for him until White Brother of the Snow is weary of hunting and
comes again to Sishetakushin's lodge. She will do this because he is
the friend of White Brother of the Snow."
Then Bob turned into the white, frigid waste to the southward, and
Shad was alone with the Indians.