Adrift in the Ice-Fields Part 11

"You're right, Charley," said Creamer; "that's what my father's uncle said, when he was a mate on board the Semyramsis, in the Ingy Ocean. The ship was lost in a harricane, sir, and only seven was saved in the captain's gig--six able-bodied seamen and one pa.s.senger, a fat little army ossifer. So my great-uncle, who were bosin, made an observation, and says he, 'There's just ten days' provision for seven men, and we're twenty days to looard of Silly Bes (Celebes), if we only row ten miles a day. Now, we must row twenty miles a day; an' to do that, we must have full rations an' somethin' to spare. Besides, the boat ort to be lighter to row well. So, as pa.s.sengers don't count along of able-bodied seamen, I move we just get rid of the major on economical principles. All in favor say "Ay;" and they all said "ay" except the major, an' he just turned as white as a sheet.' An' then my great-uncle asked him if he'd got anything to say why the resolution o' that meetin' shouldn't be carried out. Well, the major just grinned kind o' uggly, an' said that 'he liked to see things done methodistically, if it were a little irregular, an' he'd give his 'pinion after the rest.' So my uncle went on, an' said, 'All contrary say, "No."' Well, no one said 'no;' an' then my great-uncle said, 'Well, major, nothin' remains but to carry out our resolution; so please to vacate this boat; although, seein' as it's not dinner time for some hours yet, there's no need of hurry, unless you wish to have it over with.'

"'But,' says the major, 'your action is altogether unparlymentary. You haven't heard a word from _my_ friends.'

"'Friends! there ain't any one here on your side o' the question.'

"'You're mistaken, my friend,' said the major; an' he drew from his belt a long Indian dagger that had been hid under his coat; 'there's one, any how.'

"'That ain't much account against a boat-hook,' said one of the men, as he took one with a sharp spike from beneath the gunwale.

"'Lay that down, you beggar!' cried the little red-coat; and he pulled out of each side-pocket a four-barreled pistol,--for there were no revolvers in them days,--and the man laid down the boat-hook as quick as a flash. 'Now, men,' said the little ossifer, 'you'll see that we number at least ten, and there's only six of you. Ah, here's to make us a little more ekil;' and he just fired at a noddy that was flying over, and dropped him right into the stern-sheets. 'That'll help out our rations some,' says he; 'and besides, you don't see what I'm sittin'

on;' and, sure enough, he had histed into the boat a basket of port an'

a whole case of cap'n's biscuit. 'Now,' says he, 'reconsider your vard.i.c.k.'

"An' they all voted down the first resolution, and he gave them a bottle of port to mix with their water every day, and when they were drinking the last bottle, they made Silly Bes, and got ash.o.r.e all right; but my uncle always said that his calculations was right, and that it showed great weakness on the part of the men not to carry them out."

"Well, Hughie," said Ben, "you've kept us here a good half hour later than tea time, and Mrs. Lund will think we've done well to waste her time in listening to your stories."

"Well, we can see enough to a.s.sure us that the ice won't break up on the bar to-morrow," said Lund; "but you may get your ice-boats ready at once, for the next thaw, with a north-easter after it, will leave all clear along the ship channel to the harbor's mouth."

There was quite a pleasurable excitement among the stay-at-homes at the tea table, when the incipient breaking up of the ice was declared; for on the proximity of narrow feeding-grounds to the ice-houses depended the hopes of good sport of our adventurers. To be sure they had thus far had nothing to complain of; but the geese killed had been merely "flight" geese, weary with long migration, thin with want of food, and seeking among the treacherous lures only a rest from their long wandering in the safe companionship of their own kind.

Very shortly after supper the whole household retired, but, save the accustomed prayers, which few, either Catholic or Protestant, forget in that still "unsophisticated" land, it is to be feared that the Sabbath was to them little but a literal "day of rest," in its purest physical sense.

Monday morning a gla.s.sy look to the snow-crust induced the younger members of the party to use their skates in going to their stands, and as La Salle drew his from his feet to deposit them in his undisturbed stand, his eyes caught, amid the distant ice-spires, the mazy flight of what he took to be a flock of brent, headed in-sh.o.r.e.

Signaling to Davies to get under cover, he sprang into his own stand, and, crouching amid the straw, hastily drew over his black fur cap his linen havelock, and looking well to the priming of his gun, sought the whereabouts of the swift-flying birds.

Unlike the slower Canada geese, these birds seldom fly high above the surface of the water or ice when seeking food; and several times he lost sight of the flock, as it darted around a berg, or swung round the circle of some secluded valley of the ice-field.

"H-r-r-r-r-huk! H-r-r-r-r-huk!" Their barbarous clamor, insufficiently rendered in the foregoing, suddenly sounded close to leeward, and close up against the light north-wester then blowing came the beautiful quarry, their small, black heads and necks showing as glossy as a raven's wing, in contrast with the asheous hue of their wings, and the pure white of other parts of their plumage. With a wild, tumultuous rush, they circled in head-on over the decoys; and it was so quickly done, that they had swept on fifty yards before La Salle could realize that the leader of the flock was heading for Davies, and had no intention of surging around to his lures again.

"It will never do to let them get the first brent," muttered La Salle.

"She has a long-range cartridge in, and I'll try them."

Turning on his knees, he raised the ponderous gun until it "lined" the retreating flock, but elevated at least five feet above the birds, now nearly two hundred yards away. The heavy concussion reverberated across the ice, and the fatal cartridge tore through the distant flight, picking out two of the twelve which composed the flock; and some of the shot, as both Davies and Creamer afterwards averred, rattled smartly in among their decoys nearly four hundred yards away. The remaining birds, hurrying away from the dangers behind them, pa.s.sed within range of Davies and his companion, and left several of their number dead and dying on the ice; but the first brent of the season had fallen to La Salle's gun.

The day was mild and without wind, and as but few birds were flying, La Salle coiled himself down in the sunny corner of his stand, and drawing from his pocket the letter of which we have spoken in the last chapter, gave it a careful and deliberate perusal. As he closed, a smile, strangely expressing contempt, pity, and admiration, curled his lips, as in low but audible tones, as is often the habit of the solitary hunter or fisherman, he communed with his own heart.

"Ah, Pauline! time has brought no change to thy pa.s.sionate, impulsive, unreasoning heart; and what thy biting tongue may not say, the pen will utter, though lapse of years and the waves of the Atlantic roll between us. Is it not strange that a woman's letter to her betrothed, beginning with 'My own love,' and ending 'Until death,' can contain eight double-written pages of unreasonable blame, cruel innuendos, and despicable revenge on the innocent? Well, we are betrothed, and should have been married years ago, had not Fate or Providence stood in the way; and I suppose her life at home is far from pleasant, for her step-mother is not one to let a good marriage go by, without reminding poor Paulie of my general worthlessness; but I must say that my better financial and matrimonial prospects offer little hope of added happiness."

His eye lit up a moment, and an expression of keen and almost cruel intent contracted his gaze; then, with a look of disdain, he seemed to throw off some evil influence, and a look of pity softened his face.

"Yes, if I were to resent these affronts--for such they are--with one half the virulence which animates them, her pride would alienate us forever, and I should be free. There are few who would blame me, and many who would scorn to do aught else. In truth I am almost decided to answer this precious _billet-doux_ in the same vein in which it was written. Ah, it was not all delusion that made yonder madman think that evil spirits haunt these icy wastes. It was not thus I felt when together we voyaged across that summer sea; and the vows we plighted then may not lightly be broken. I will answer patiently, and as becomes the past. As to the future, it will bring due reward or punishment here or hereafter."

From these somewhat morbid self-communings, which we introduce for a purpose hereafter to be disclosed, La Salle started, seized his glittering skates, and taking his gun, glided with long, powerful strokes across the inner bay towards the ice-houses of the other party, which lay within the embouchure of Trois-Lieue Creek. The ice was almost perfectly level, save where a heavy drift had formed a small mound around which it was better to steer, although the sleety crust had frozen so hard that the broad-runnered Belgian skates would run almost anywhere. At the first ice-house he found Risk and Davies, who had done little or nothing for some days, and talked of going home at the end of the week.

"Indian Peter gets about all the geese that go through here, and there's little show for us," said Davies.

"Where is his ice-house?" asked La Salle.

"Just up the cove--the nearest of those two," answered Risk.

"I guess I'll have a look at his outfit, and then go and meet the boys at the block-house, for they have never been here before, and the track can't be very plain now." So saying, La Salle skated up to the Indian stand, almost half a mile distant.

"One-armed Peter," as he was commonly called among his tribesmen, had neither the means nor the inclination to deviate much from the traditionary usages of his tribe, and was found kneeling, or, rather, "sitting man-fashion," as the vernacular Micmac hath it, although we call it "tailor-fashion," within a circular, fort-like enclosure, some twelve feet in circ.u.mference, and with walls about three feet high.

The latter were composed of thick slabs of ice placed on edge, and cemented together by frozen water, while tiny apertures, cut here and there, enabled the crouching hunters to note every foot of the approach of their wary game. A few of the decoys were of pine wood, rudely carved out and _burnt_ to something like the natural coloring of the bird they were intended to represent; but a large proportion of them were "sea-weed" or "spruce" decoys; that is, bunches of the weather-bound sea-wrack, or bundles of evergreen twigs, made about the shape and size of the body of a goose.

These were elevated on blocks of snow-ice, which strikingly imitated, at a little distance, the hue of the under feathers, and a fire-blackened stake set in the ice, at one end, with a collar of white birch bark at its junction, completed the rude but effective imitation. Such are the appliances which a hundred years ago brought the geese in thousands under the arrows of all the many tribes which range between the Straits of Canso and the most northern inhabited regions about Hudson's Bay.

Within the enclosure a few armfuls of fir branches--laid upon the hard ice, and kept carefully clear of snow, formed a soft floor, on which now sat three hunters, Peter, and Jacob, and Louis Snake, much younger men than he of the one arm. Each sat enveloped in the folds of a dingy blanket, and their guns rested against the icy walls--two of them rickety, long-barreled flint-locks; but Peter's new acquisition, a true "stub-twist," Hollis's double, was as good a fowling-piece as any sportsman needs.

True to their customs, the Indians were taciturn enough, although Peter thanked La Salle rather warmly for his new weapon.

"I find 'em good gun; not miss since I got 'em. Give t'other gun my nethew." And he pointed to the worst looking of the two antiquated weapons, as Cleopatra may have surveyed her rather costly drink-offering, with visible misgiving as to such reckless liberality.

"You were very kind, Peter. I suppose he has no family," said La Salle, smiling.

"Yes, me _berry_ kind my peeple," suavely responded the chief, a just pride beaming in his eyes. "That young man no family yet--only squaw now."

"It is evident that the average Indian doesn't understand a joke,"

muttered La Salle, as he said "Good by" to the motley trio, and darted off to meet a distant group, which he rightly judged to be the expected boys.

Twenty minutes later he had joined the little party, who were proceeding at a slow dog-trot around the sh.o.r.es, instead of taking the direct course across the ice, which, being deemed unsafe by them, had wisely been avoided; for no one can be too cautious on ice of which they know nothing.

George Waring, the only son of La Salle's employer, skated ahead of his companion, who was evidently of other than Caucasian origin, in part at least. The skater was a tall, fresh-complexioned, slender youth, of about seventeen, bold, active, and graceful in his movements, but having the appearance of one whose growth had been a little too rapid for an equal development of health and strength; and indeed it was only on condition that he should submit carefully to the directions of La Salle that his father had consented to the present expedition.

His companion was, perhaps, a year older, but rather short and thick-set, with features in which the high cheek-bones and coppery hue of the American showed very prominently. La Salle had fallen in with him at the Seven Islands, on the Labrador coast, the year before, and employed him as a pilot to the Straits of Belle Isle. He called himself Regnar Orloff, was of tremendous strength for one of his years, and although apparently lazy, and somewhat fleshy, could move quickly enough, and to purpose, in time of need.

Now, however, he rested one knee on the only unoccupied portion of a large, light sled, drawn by the third member of the party, a powerful dog of the Newfoundland species, which he was evidently training into some little excellence as a sledge-dog. It was only an added virtue, even if complete; for n.o.ble old Carlo had already excellences enough to canonize a dozen individual canines. He was strong, sagacious, peaceably inclined, but a terrible foe when aroused; could eat anything, carry a man in the water, watch any place, team, or article, hold a horse, beat for snipe or woodc.o.c.k, lie motionless anywhere you might designate, retrieve anywhere on land, water, or ice, and loved a gun as well as his young master, La Salle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "WELL, GEORGE, YOU'RE HERE AT LAST."--Page 127.]

"Well, George, you're here at last," cried La Salle, as he came up. "How is everything in town, and what's the news?"

"O, nothing out of the common. All are well. The governor gave a ball Wednesday, and the House dissolves next week. We've had plenty of geese to eat, but we wanted to kill some; and so here we are."

"How are you, Regnie? Getting tired of civilization, and wanting to get back to the ice?"

"Ha, ha, ha! Yes, master, just so. After I see Paris and Copenhagen, I do very well, keep quite satisfied. But when I shut up in large city like C., I think it too much. I feel lonesome, want to get back to the wild'ness."

"And how does Carlo learn sleighing?"

"O, he does well enough. He can't be taught right, for it would be too bad to use Greenland whip; but I make this little one, and can drive very well;" and as he spoke, he held up a wand of supple whalebone, tipped with a slender "snapper" of plaited leather, and lightly touching the n.o.ble animal with the harmless implement, the dog gave a playful bark, and started off on an easy trot.

"We strike off here for those black specks yonder," said La Salle; "but what is coming behind us, George?"

"O, that is Dolland, Venner, and that set; and I guess they'll have 'a high old time,' and no mistake."