OMENS OF THE LAW
The chief took the indicated place in Dunvegan's canoe with Flora and
her boy. These sat amidships. Wahbiscaw was in his place as bowsman.
Bruce himself occupied the stern. At a sign from him the whole brigade
floated off, the prows pointing up the swift-flowing Katchawan. Thus for
an hour the paddles dipped in rhythm. They threaded the river's island
channels and won through its rushing chutes. Where the rapids proved too
swift for paddles they poled the craft up with long spruce poles. Few
words were spoken. It was the custom to travel in silence. One reason
for this was that Nor'west traders might be lurking anywhere. Another
was that game might be encountered around any of the many river bends.
But the brigade left the Katchawan without a sight of game and entered
the mouth of Lake Lemeau. Maskwa, the Ojibway fort runner, stood erect,
sentinel-like, in the canoe behind Dunvegan, his keen eyes searching the
lake waters for sign of friend or foe. Quite suddenly he sat down.
"Canoe, Strong Father," he grunted gutturally.
"Where?" the chief trader asked.
"Below Bear Island."
Quietly Dunvegan shifted his bow till the canoe bore a course which
would bring them directly in the path of the strange craft. He had no
idea whose it might be. It might belong to some trapper or to some
Indian of their own Company. It might belong to the Nor'westers. It
might carry free traders. Whatever it was, it was his duty to find out.
Warm yellow the bark shone as the distance lessened. Sapphire glints
flashed out as the paddles flickered after each plunge. Soon the men of
the brigade could see that the craft contained four figures, but it was
Maskwa's long-range vision which discerned their nationalities.
"Ojibways, two; white men, two," he announced. "Good paddlers."
And so it proved when they drew near. Dunvegan saw, seated behind the
native bowsman, a keen-visaged, lean, athletic man of forty. He had a
smooth face, sandy hair, eyes of a cold, hard blue, a beak nose, and
great, sinewed arms. About him was the stamp of the frontier.
Instinctively at first glimpse the chief trader catalogued him as one
who had seen much frontier fighting, who had handled guns and bad men
running amuck with guns.
Fit mate for him looked the one sitting toward the stern. He was
abnormally broad of shoulder, stocky, powerful, black-bearded,
black-eyed. The sun had smoked him till he was as swarthy as the Ojibway
steersman. Of the two white men he looked the more dangerous, for there
was no humor in his steady eyes. His companion's gaze, cold and hard as
it was, held something of a quizzical gleam. Perhaps it was the hollows
under those eyes that gave him that appearance.
As Dunvegan's craft met the other almost bow to bow and slipped ahead,
the gunwales grated gently. Bruce closed a hand on the gunwales of the
other and the two canoes drifted as one.
The sandy-haired man's semi-humorous eyes flashed a quick look aboard,
and then he smiled. "You sure couldn't do that, stranger, if my pardner
and me hadn't decided to speak to you," he observed.
"Couldn't I?" challenged Dunvegan. He scrutinized men and outfit. "Free
traders, I suppose?"
"Guess again."
"Nor'westers, eh?"
"You got another guess coming yet."
"Oh, quit it, Granger," the black-bearded man broke in, stirring
impatiently among the dunnage bags. "You're wasting time. Show him the
star."
The sandy-haired one twisted his suspender band. Dunvegan saw the badge
of a United States Marshal.
"It's genuine, stranger. And we're sure not here for our health. Are we,
Garfield?"
"No," growled the black-bearded marshal. "A show-down's the thing that
we're after."
"You fooled me," laughed Dunvegan. "But you had better exhibit your
papers. My Factor is death on free traders; and I have to report to him,
you know."
"Who's your Factor?" the smooth-faced marshal asked as he dived into the
pocket of his buckskin coat that was stuffed under the forward thwart.
"Macleod, of Oxford House."
"Macleod, eh? Macleod!" rumbled Granger while he searched. "Don't know
him. But we sure will when we get to his post. We've been up around the
Bay forts. When we've done Norway House and the posts out that way we'll
be across to Oxford. See you again, then. Hello, here's the papers!"
He handed Dunvegan two frayed documents. As he scanned them the chief
trader saw they were genuine enough. The first was an order of the
chief district factor of the Hudson's Bay Company declaring all forts
open to the bearers. The second was a similar mandate of the Northwest
Fur Company for use in their posts and issued from the headquarters in
Montreal.
"These are through passes," smiled Dunvegan, handing them back. "I know
the chief district factor's signature. And it seems you are equipped for
a hunt in Nor'west country as well. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"You've done all you can do--let us see you and your men," grinned
Granger. "That's all we wanted. Eh, Garfield?"
"That's all," Garfield agreed, condescending to laugh so that his
gleaming white teeth split his black beard. "Hit her up there, you
bucks," he commanded the Ojibways.
The Indians seized their paddles. Dunvegan let go the gunwales. "Good
luck," he nodded.
"Hold on," yelled Granger suddenly. "Maybe I ought to say more. A hint
from you would sure save us some miles. Here, look at this!"
He dived again into the buckskin coat and handed a photograph across the
water gap.
"Do you know him?" he demanded, keenly reading the chief trader's face.
"Mind, I don't say he's what we're after. I don't say he's done
anything. Do you know him? He's in the service of one of these fur
companies."
The picture Dunvegan looked at was that of a bare-faced man in robust
health, a strong man who was in the super-strength of his prime. The
eyes were vivid, clear as crystal, sharp as steel. The chief trader felt
that the glance of the living original would cut like a knife. These
eyes puzzled him with a sense of vague familiarity, but the face he
scanned was the face of no one in his memory-gallery.
He shook his head, and oddly enough he felt a reluctance, a
disappointment in denial. "I don't know him," he decided, and handed the
photograph back.
Like a hawk Granger had watched his face. He read truth in it. "Oh,
well!" he exclaimed whimsically. "The way of the transgressor and the
marshal is sure hard." Once more his quizzical expression flashed forth
as he twirled his paddle aloft in good-by.
"Shake, stranger," he threw back in final farewell, while the long craft
leaped under the Ojibways' strokes. "Shake! Till I see you at Oxford
House!"
Flora Macleod watched the solitary canoe drop away out of sight. Then,
when it was gone, she leaned forward to the chief trader's shoulder.
"Was that last answer of yours lie or loyalty?" she asked with strange
timidity.
Dunvegan turned a surprised face. "It was ignorance," he amended. He saw
Flora's cheeks pale, her eyes full of a haunting fear.
"What's wrong?" he demanded in astonishment.
"That picture--I--I saw it, too."
"Well?"
"It was my father's!"
Dawn set a wall of flame on Oxford Lake. Out of this solar furnace
drifted a fleet of canoes black as charred logs against the cardinal
blaze. Clement Nemaire, sentinel at the stockade gates of Oxford House,
caught sight of the craft in the immense distance advancing with a
motion which, though scarcely discernible, nevertheless brought them
gradually into large perspective. His black eyes, keen as lenses,
steadily watched the approaching flotilla while it breasted Caribou
Point and crossed the outer rim of the Bay. When the fleet drew opposite
Mooswa Hill, the mighty rampart upon whose crest a brushwood beacon
stood always piled ready for firing by the Hudson's Bay fort runners as
a warning message of impending Nor'west attacks, Clement made out the
sharp, black line of a flagstaff in the bow of the foremost canoe. From
the staff's tip a long standard bellied like a sail in the cross wind,
its vivid hue blending with the fiery background, and Nemaire knew the
familiar blood-red banner of his Company.
"De brigade!" he shouted for all the post to hear. "_Holá!_ De beeg
brigade!"
Every soul of Oxford House sprang forth at his cry. In a heterogeneous
crowd the people spread to the landing at the lake-shore. White traders,
fair-skinned women, full-blooded Indians, halfbreeds, squaws, papooses,
huskies,[1] all mingled in polyglot confusion. Curs barked; children
squealed; native tongues chattered in many languages. Eager expectancy,
intense interest, was the sensation of each human being or animal that
waited on the beach. Their wild hearts, keyed to a love of the vast
places, to a worship of all the attributes of wilderness life, could
never welcome a brigade unmoved. That distinct institution of the
Hudson's Bay Company was a thing which they idolized and revered. The
crowd in a fever of joyous excitement pressed to the very water's edge
and shifted the length of the landing. Each minute of waiting they
filled with clamor and gesticulation, the hum of voices growing to a
roar as Dunvegan's brigade approached within hailing distance.
[Footnote 1: Eskimo sledge dogs.]
But behind them a heavy step sounded on the veranda of the Factor's
house, and looking, they saw the square-set bulk of Malcolm Macleod. A
hush blanketed the confusion. Not a foot or tongue stirred by the
lake-edge. So deep was the stillness that the slight wash of the
plunging canoes could be heard distinctly. The Factor did not speak, but
his bushy eyebrows lowered and the piercing gaze of his steely, black
eyes was concentrated on the scene. His iron hands, symbols of the man,
gripped the railing tightly. Like the crowd, he waited; but while their
impelling motive was curiosity, Macleod's was judgment.
The fleet of canoes lined for the landing, the figures of the occupants
growing clear. The throng could now see that the chief trader and
Wahbiscaw, his bowsman, had two passengers in the foremost craft. When
they became recognizable as Flora Macleod and Running Wolf, whispers of
wonder and speculation began to circulate. Discussion ran like the
murmur of low waters from Father Brochet, the black-cassocked,
unobtrusive priest on the outer rim of the gathering, to rude Gaspard
Follet, the owl-faced, dwarf-shaped, half-witted fool who sat on the end
of the landing with bare feet in the water, that he might be closest to
the incomers.
Conversing in a little group beside Father Brochet stood Desirée Lazard,
the fairest of Oxford House; Pierre, her uncle, and Basil Dreaulond. As
the brigade touched the bank, the rushing people blotted it out. The
paddlers leaped ashore, stretched cramped limbs, and were swallowed up
in the throng. Presently the mighty figure of Bruce Dunvegan emerged,
leading Running Wolf and Flora Macleod from the landing toward the
Factor's house.
Contrary to his usual custom, Malcolm Macleod did not turn into his
council room to receive the report and do his questioning. The fact that
the runaway daughter appeared before him accounted for his coming down a
few steps to await the trio.
"You've succeeded," he growled unceremoniously, bending his angry
glance, not upon the chief trader, but upon Flora, who returned a stare
of equal intensity.
"Not altogether," complained Dunvegan. "Things are not as clear as I
could wish. I found the girl in Running Wolf's lodge. I understand Black
Ferguson deserted her near the Cree camp."
Macleod's habitually active brain seemed slow in comprehending the
statement. The tight lines of his mouth relaxed, and his jaws jarred
apart in an attitude of sheer amazement.
"Stern Father," Running Wolf hastened to add, "it is my wish and the
White Squaw's wish that she remain in my lodge. As for the sun and the
stars and the south wind is my worship for her. I have come for your
consent." He bowed in his brief oratorical delivery and smoothed his
medicine-maker's dress.
"Consent!--Squaw!" boomed Macleod, blank astonishment giving way under
the swift rush of his tremendous rage. "You d--d Cree demigod--that's my
consent!" And his strong hands hurled Running Wolf headlong from the
veranda steps almost to the rim of the gaping crowd.
The old warrior picked himself up in a frenzy of spirit and, forgetting
all traditions and restraints, rushed insanely at the Factor. But
Dunvegan blocked his path and grasped the uplifted hand.
"Don't do that, Running Wolf," he warned. "You can only work your own
ruin. A blow would mean your death!"
Chest heaving, eyes blazing, the Cree chieftain strained a moment after
his insulter. Dunvegan's strength forced him back and instilled some
substance of sanity. When he found his voice, his speech trembled with
hate.
"You are Stern Father now," he hissed in Cree, "but I can change it to
Soft Father----"
Macleod took a step forward as if on sudden impulse to crush once for
all a defiance flung in his teeth, but he caught the look of entreaty
for lenience in the chief trader's eyes. He halted. Yet Running Wolf was
not to be appeased. He glared vindictively into the very face of the
lord of Oxford House.
"Soft Father you shall be," he declared. "I go to the French Hearts. We
will meet again before many moons. Then my hands shall hurl. My words
shall curse. You shall be as the broken pot of clay, as the water of
melting ice, as the pool of blood where the big moose falls."
The chief's momentarily-lost stoicism was regained. His dignity, which
the red man seldom loses, had returned.
Dunvegan, his hands still upon the Cree's arms, felt the change in him,
felt him straighten with pride. He released his grip.
Running Wolf stepped quietly back. "I go," he announced without emotion.
"I go, but when the French Hearts are climbing stockades and burning
posts about your ears, I will be with them. Then when I have rolled you
stiff in your blanket will I take the White Squaw to my wigwam!"
He whirled at the last word and stalked to the beach. Flora Macleod
looked upon him with eyes that lightened.
"You old fire-eater," she laughed hysterically, "I almost love you for
those words." Her glance shifted to Dunvegan who had grasped her arm
that she might not follow the Cree chieftain if she were so inclined.
"Don't you?" she asked.
"He is to be admired," the chief trader admitted.
But Malcolm Macleod swore a fearful oath in which there was no semblance
of admiration as they watched Running Wolf glide out upon Oxford Lake in
a canoe borrowed from some Crees formerly of his tribe on the Katchawan.
"Let the cursed traitor go over to the side of the Nor'westers!" he
cried. "Let him help Black Ferguson and his sneaking dogs! I have no
fear of them. I'm not afraid of man or devil. And why should I trouble
myself about a picket of ragged Frenchmen! Bah! I can handle them as I
handled the Cree. I'm lord of this country. Every man knows it. Every
man _must_ know it!"
As everyone at this and all the other northern posts understood, Malcolm
Macleod was ruled by twin passions: pride and hate. He paid homage to
no other emotion, idol, or deity. Fear could not touch his heart. Love
was long ago crushed out. The tentacles of greed never held him. He had
no dread of the evil machinations of hell. Neither did he recognize such
a thing as divine providence. His Bible that in his half-forgotten past
had been fingered nightly lay upon an unused upper shelf in his council
room, sepulchred in twenty years of dust.
Fallen into silent brooding, the Factor stared at the disappearing speck
upon the vast water, the speck which was Running Wolf and his craft.
Dunvegan had to arouse him.
"The woman and the child," he prompted. "What is to be done with them?"
Macleod wheeled. "See that she gets no canoe to leave the post," was his
curt order. "She goes out with Abbé DuCerne to the nunnery at Montreal
before the frost closes in."
As some fierce interpreter of high-latitude laws he pronounced the
judgment, and Flora Macleod's spirit crumpled under its weight. It came
suddenly--this most appalling thing that could happen to a lover of
liberty. For once in her life she had no defiant retort for the man she
accepted as her father. At the vision of veil, cowl, and white walls,
things some people loved, her eyes dilated in horror. The woman's heart
throbbed sickeningly. Her tongue refused its mission of protest. Her
knees gave way, letting her slip to the ground. There she lay, sobbing,
the boy clasped close in her arms.
"Don't lie there," the Factor commanded roughly. "Get that child ready
for the morning mass. I'll see that it is christened and given my own
name. There'll be no Fergusons among my kin."
Full of sympathy, Dunvegan raised Flora Macleod to her feet and urged
her to go inside, but she stubbornly refused to enter the house.
"Let her stay out then," cried her father, with a fresh burst of anger.
"Or let her find a better house."
"There is Basil's," ventured the chief trader.
"Aye, there is Basil's, if it suits her." Macleod shrugged his mighty
shoulders in bitter unconcern.
So Bruce told her to go to Dreaulond's cabin, where he knew she would be
well cared for by the courier's gentle wife. Then he turned again to the
moody Factor.
"I am afraid we have lost Running Wolf's trade," he observed.
"He will come back. He fears me, as they all do. And if he goes to the
Nor'westers, remember, we shall soon crush them. When they are swept out
of the country, where else can the old fool trade?"
"But he may fight with them," Bruce persisted.
"Perhaps. However, they will need more than Running Wolf's aid to rout
the Ancient and Honorable, the Hudson's Bay Company."