Whether it was that the prospect of getting about, or the diversion of
the dog was responsible for the change, Dick's cheerfulness markedly
increased in the next few days. For hours he would fool with the animal,
whom he had named Billy, after a hunting companion, teaching him to
shake hands, to speak, to wrinkle his nose in a doggy grin, to lie down
at command, and all the other tricks useful and ornamental that go to
make up the fanciest kind of a dog education. The mistakes and successes
of his new friend seemed to amuse him hugely. Often from the tent burst
the sounds of inextinguishable mirth. May-may-gwán, peeping, saw the
young man as she had first seen him, clear-eyed, laughing, the wrinkles
of humour deepening about his eyes, his white teeth flashing, his brow
untroubled. Three days she hovered thus on the outer edge of the renewed
good feeling, then timidly essayed an advance.
Unobtrusive, she slipped inside the teepee's flap. The dog sat on his
haunches, his head to one side in expectation.
"The dog is a good dog," she said, her breath choking her.
Apparently the young man had not heard.
"It will be well to name the dog that he may answer to his name," she
ventured again.
Dick, abruptly gripped by the incomprehensible obsession, uneasy as at
something of which he only waited the passing, resentful because of the
discomfort this caused him, unable to break through the artificial
restraint that enveloped his spirit, lifted his eyes suddenly, dead and
lifeless, to hers.
"It is time to lift the net," he said.
The girl made no more advances. She moved almost automatically about her
accustomed tasks, preparing the materials for what remained to be done.
Promptly on the seventh day, with much preparation and precaution, Dick
moved. He had now to suffer the girl's assistance. When he first stood
upright, he was at once attacked by a severe dizziness, which would have
caused a fall had not May-may-gwán steadied him. With difficulty he
hobbled to a seat outside. Even his arms seemed to him pithless. He sank
to his place hard-breathed, exhausted. It was some minutes before he
could look about him calmly.
The first object to catch his eye was the cardinal red of a moose-maple,
like a spot of blood on velvet-green. And thus he knew that September,
or the Many-caribou-in-the-woods Moon, was close at hand.
"Hi!" he called.
May-may-gwán came as before, but without the look of expectation in her
eyes.
"Bring me wood of mashkigiwáteg, wood of tamarack," he commanded; "bring
me mókamon, the knife, and tschì-mókamon, the large knife; bring the
hide of ah-ték, the caribou."
"These things are ready, at hand," she replied.
With the _couteau croche_, the crooked knife of the North, Dick laboured
slowly, fashioning with care the long tamarack strips. He was
exceedingly particular as to the selection of the wood, as to the taper
of the pieces. At last one was finished to his satisfaction. Slowly then
he fashioned it, moulding the green wood, steaming it to make it more
plastic, until at last the ends lay side by side, and the loop of wood
bowed above in the shape of a snow-shoe raquette. The exact shape Dick
still further assured by means of two cross-pieces. These were bound in
place by the strips of the caribou-skin rawhide wet in warm water, which
was also used to bind together the two ends. The whole was then laid
aside to dry.
Thus in the next few days Dick fashioned the frame of six snow-shoes. He
adhered closely to the Ojibway pattern. In these woods it was not
necessary to have recourse to the round, broad shape of the rough
bowlder-hills, nor was it possible to use the long, swift shoe of the
open plains. After a while he heated red the steel end of his rifle
cleaning-rod and bored holes for the webbing. This also he made of
caribou rawhide, for caribou shrinks when wet, thus tightening the
lacing where other materials would stretch. Above and below the
cross-pieces he put in a very fine weaving; between them a coarser, that
the loose snow might readily sift through. Each strand he tested again
and again; each knot he made doubly sure.
Nor must it be imagined that he did these things alone. May-may-gwán
helped him, not only by fetching for him the tools and materials, of
which he stood in need, but also in the bending, binding, and webbing
itself. Under the soft light of the trees, bathed in the aroma of fresh
shavings and the hundred natural odours of the forest, it was
exceedingly pleasant accurately to accomplish the light skilled labour.
But between these human beings, alone in a vast wilderness, was no
communication outside the necessities of the moment. Thus in a little
the three pairs of snow-shoes, complete even to the buckskin foot-loops,
hung from the sheltered branch of a spruce.
"Bring now to me," said the young man, "poles of the hickory, logs of
gijik, the cedar; bring me wigwass, the birch-bark, and the rawhide of
mooswa, the moose."
"These things are at hand," repeated May-may-gwán.
Then ensued days of severe toil. Dick was, of course, unable to handle
the axe, so the girl had to do it under his direction. The affair was of
wedges with which to split along the grain; of repeated attempts until
the resulting strips were true and without warp; of steaming and tying
to the proper curve, and, finally, of binding together strongly with the
tough _babiche_ into the shape of the dog-sledge. This, too, was
suspended at last beneath the sheltering spruce.
"Bring me now," said Dick, "rawhide of mooswa, the moose, rawhide of
ah-ték, the caribou, wátab, the root for sewing."
Seated opposite each other, heads bent over the task, they made the
dog-harness, strong, serviceable, not to be worn out, with the collar,
the broad buckskin strap over the back, the heavy traces. Four of them
they made, for Sam would undoubtedly complete the team, and these, too,
they hung out of reach in the spruce-tree.
Now Sam returned from his longest trip, empty of information, but light
of spirit, for he had succeeded by his simple shrewdness in avoiding all
suspicion. He brought with him another "husky" dog, and a strong animal
like a Newfoundland; also some tea and tobacco, and an axe-blade. This
latter would be especially valuable. In the extreme cold steel becomes
like glass. The work done earned his approval, but he paused only a
day, and was off again.
From the inside of the teepee hung many skins of the northern hare which
May-may-gwán had captured and tanned while Dick was still on his back.
The woven blanket was finished. Now she lined the woollen blankets with
these hare-skins, over an hundred to each. Nothing warmer could be
imagined. Of caribou skin, tanned with the hair on, she and Dick
fashioned jackets with peaked hoods, which, when not in use, would hang
down behind. The opening about the face was sewn with bushy fox's tails,
and a puckering-string threaded through so that the wearer could
completely protect his features. Mittens they made from pelts of the
muskrat. Moccasins were cut extra large and high, and lined with fur of
the hare. Heavy rawhide dog-whips and buckskin gun-cases completed the
simple winter outfit.
But still there remained the question of sustenance. Game would be
scarce and uncertain in the cold months.
It was now seven weeks since Dick's accident. Cautiously, with many
pauses, he began to rest weight on the injured foot. Thanks to the
treatment of massage and manipulation, the joint was but little
stiffened. Each day it gained in strength. Shortly Dick was able to
hobble some little distance, always with the aid of a staff, always
heedfully. As yet he was far from the enjoyment of full freedom of
movement, but by expenditure of time and perseverance he was able to
hunt in a slow, patient manner. The runways where the caribou came to
drink late in the evening, a cautious float down-stream as far as the
first rapids, or even a plain sitting on a log in the hope that game
would chance to feed within range--these methods persisted in day after
day brought in a fair quantity of meat.
Of the meat they made some jerky for present consumption by the dogs,
and, of course, they ate fresh as much as they needed. But most went
into pemmican. The fat was all cut away, the lean sliced thin and dried
in the sun. The result they pounded fine, and mixed with melted fat and
the marrow, which, in turn, was compressed while warm into air-tight
little bags. A quantity of meat went into surprisingly little pemmican.
The bags were piled on a long-legged scaffolding out of the reach of
the dogs and wild animals.
The new husky and Billy had promptly come to teeth, but Billy had held
his own, much to Dick Herron's satisfaction. The larger animal was a
bitch, so now all dwelt together in amity. During the still hunt they
were kept tied in camp, but the rest of the time they prowled about.
Never, however, were they permitted to leave the clearing, for that
would frighten the game. At evening they sat in an expectant row,
awaiting the orderly distribution of their evening meal. Somehow they
added much to the man-feel of the camp. With their coming the atmosphere
of men as opposed to the atmosphere of the wilderness had strengthened.
On this side was the human habitation, busy at its own affairs, creating
about itself a definite something in the forest, unknown before,
preparing quietly and efficiently its weapons of offence and defence,
all complete in its fires and shelters and industries and domestic
animals. On the other, formidable, mysterious, vast, were slowly
crystallising, without disturbance, without display, the mighty opposing
forces. In the clarified air of the first autumn frosts this antagonism
seemed fairly to saturate the stately moving days. It was as yet only
potential, but the potentialities were swelling, ever swelling toward
the break of an actual conflict.