Annette, the Metis Spy Part 20

Then came a sudden trampling; swords gleamed; eyes flashed in the dusk; and before the helpless girl could gather her routed senses, the beastly chief was sent sprawling from his horse with a sabre-blow; his followers were routed; and she was free.

"My own beloved," were the words whispered in her ear, and warm lips were pressed upon her mouth. "We no more part, my darling--never, never more."

They rode along through the night, he telling of his love, and fashioning the future; she listening with bright eyes, and a happiness too great for words.

"You have asked me, darling, why I love _you_ so? How it comes that of all the girls whom I have known, I should give my heart to you entire and for ever? Well, darling, I shall say naught of your heroism, which would alone make you ill.u.s.trious and beloved in our historic annals for all time to come; but I shall regard you as a maiden who has never seen the brunt of battle, or done a deed of warlike valour. You have still enough of sterling worth to win my heart ten thousand times. You are beautiful, dear, and you are good as you are beautiful. You are true, because in you there is naught of affectation or of desire _to act a part;_ and there is on your lips no speech that is not the true expression of your thought. This I conceive to be the highest tribute- gift that man can offer a woman."

After all the turmoil and the besetting dangers this was very sweet to her;--and it was sweet to him.

In a little the rebellion ended, and Stephens came to the house of Annette's aunt, and wedded his beloved there. Then he took her to wild, sweet places in the Territories; and after the lapse of a few weeks, went with her to the east, where both pleaded for the life of Colonel Marton. All men worshipped her when she came to our cities; and when she had obtained the boon for which she had come amongst us, she went away to the west again. She is happy now as woman can be, and my latest information is that Julie has prevailed upon her chief to change his place of abode and come with her to live, for the remainder of their days, close to the abode of her beloved mistress.

Annette is now the most popular woman in the North-West Territories.

Her beauty seems to have attained a fuller development since we knew her as a maiden. Her mole is a deeper brown, I really believe, and her dimple deeper. But best of all her happiness is as well a.s.sured as her beauty.

THE END.

NOTES.

The preceding story lays no claim to value or accuracy in its descriptions of the North-West Territories. I have never seen that portion of our country; and to endeavour to describe faithfully a region of which I have only a hearsay knowledge would be foolish.

I have, therefore, arranged the geography of the Territories to suit my own conveniences. I speak of places that no one, will be able to find upon maps of the present or of the future. Wherever I want a valley or a swamp, I put the same; and I have taken the same liberty with respect to hills or waterfalls, The birds, and in some instances the plants and flowers of the prairies, I have also made to order.

I present some fiction in my story, and a large array of fact. I do not feel bound, however, to state which is the fact, and which the fiction.

I have not aimed at dramatic excellence in this book. Change of scene, incident and colour are the points which I had in view. There is not any sham sentiment in the book.

I have introduced a few pa.s.sages, with little change from a small volume, ent.i.tled "The Story of Louis Riel." These pa.s.sages in no way effect the current of my story; but as I thought that they had some merit, I had no compunction in diverting them to present uses. The most notable authors have done this sort of thing; and chief amongst them I may mention Thackeray.

I beg likewise to say a word with respect to the book known as "The Story of Louis Riel." That volume has been quoted as history; but it is largely fiction. There is no historic truth in the story therein written by me that Louis Riel conceived a pa.s.sion for a beautiful girl named Marie; and that he put Thomas Scott to death, because the maiden gave her heart to that young white man. I have seen the story printed again and again as truth; but there is in it not one word of truth. This much I am glad to be able to say in justice to the memory of the miserable man, who has suffered a just penalty for his transgressions. I never intended that the work in question should be taken as history; and I should have made that point clear in an introduction, bearing my name, but that I was unwilling to take responsibility for the literary slovenliness, which was unavoidable through my haste in writing, and through Mr. D. A. Rose's hurry in publishing, the work. It occupied me only seventeen days; and I did not see my proofs.

Once more: one of the leading characters in that book, Mr. Charles Mair, is most unjustly treated. Him I held as one of the prime agents in the rebellion of 1869; but nothing could be further from the fact.

His pen and his voice had always advocated justice and generosity towards the Indians and the Metis. As to his sentiments respecting the Indians, I need but refer to the drama of his "Tec.u.mseh," which Canadians have received with such enthusiasm.

NANCY, THE LIGHT-KEEPER'S DAUGHTER.

BY EDMUND COLLINS.

"Yes, that is a picture of Grace Darling, but I can tell you a story of great bravery, too, which the world has never heard, about the daughter of a light-keeper who lived on the sh.o.r.e of one of our Canadian lakes." These words were spoken to me by an old Canadian fisherman in whose house I was spending a few nights while out for my autumn shooting.

"The girl's name was Nancy and her father was keeper of a small wooden light-house which stood chained to a ledge lying close to the harbour's mouth. The girl and her father lived alone upon the rock, but when the water was smooth they went every day to the mainland in their little boat. One day in the late autumn the keeper was obliged to make a journey to a distant town, and as he could not reach home again till some hours after dark, he left the lighting of the light to Nancy. The girl and a number of others went among the hills in the afternoon to pick bake-apples, and they remained till the sun was only "a hand high" in the west. Then the party turned their steps toward the coast.

"There will be a heavy gale to-night," the girl said, looking at the sky; for a ma.s.s of dark cloud resembling a ragged mountain had appeared up the coast and begun to roll rapidly toward the harbour.

It is only those who live near the lakes, that know how suddenly sometimes a terrible hurricane will come out of a sky which was the most peaceful of azure only a few moments before. The tempest first moved along the level sh.o.r.e, casting an awful shadow upon the landscape for miles before it; then it smote the sea in its full fury.

To describe the tumult of sound as the gale drove onward would be impossible. A sad cry would swell out like the voice of a mother wailing for her child; then, pitched in a low, loud key, would come a noise like the howling of a soul condemned; while above the confusing din could be heard shrill whistles and cross pipings as if a host of mad spirits were signalling one another through the storm.

Nancy hurried to the sh.o.r.e where lay her little boat, and several fishermen were gathered about the dock.

"Girl," said one, a hardy sailor who had been on the lakes in the roughest weather, "no boat would live now to reach the reef. Better wait till your father returns."

"But if some ship, unable to clear the land with this ingale, should be obliged to run for the harbour, she could never enter without the light."

"I was on the look-out a few moments ago, and there was nothing in sight. But, even if there was, it would be madness to launch a boat now. Look at these seas!"

The whole face of the gulf between the reef and the sh.o.r.e was a wilderness of raging water. The fisherman had hardly ceased speaking, when another of the coast people was seen hurrying down from the look- out.

"There is a ship about eight miles to the sou'west, with canvas close hauled; but I don't think that she will be able to weather the point."

"If she cannot, then she must run for the harbour, and there will be no light," Nancy exclaimed; and the colour faded out of her brown cheek. Then borrowing a telescope from one of the fishermen, she set out for the top of the look-out. While she held the gla.s.s in her trembling hands she saw the ship wear and turn her head toward the harbour. Gathering her plaid shawl hastily about her shoulders, she ran down the steep and returned to the dock.

"The ship is running for the harbour, and there _must_ be a light. Here, help me to launch my boat."

"Is the girl mad!" two or three voices exclaimed at once.

"Girl," said the old man who had spoken before, "no small boat that ever swam can reach yonder ledge now. Why do you want to throw away your life? It cannot save the ship."

"The boat is light," Nancy replied, "and the canvas covering will keep it from filling, if I can only manage always to meet the sea head on. If I had a pair of after oars as well as my own there would not be much difficulty." As she spoke these words, she looked at the group, as if calling for a volunteer: but n.o.body took her hint. They all cowered in the face of the gale, and some of them began to move away from the dock.

"Then I must go alone," the girl said, as she threw off her shawl, and hastily tied up her mane of soft, black hair. "You will surely help me to launch the boat." But no hand would help her. They saw the impetuous girl going to doom, and they would not be a party to her madness. Getting three or four round pieces of driftwood, which were slippery with water-slime, she laid them along the dock; two other billets she placed under the boat's keel. Then gathering her strength for one pull, she sent the boat into the churning surf. One of the fishermen advanced to detain her, but she waved him back with a gesture so determined and imperious that he hesitated. He then held consultation with his friends. Two or three now hurried down to the water's edge, but the boat had shot out beyond their reach, and was already rising like some great sea-bird over the mad waves. The girl had seized her oars and was rowing at a brisk rate toward the ledge.

Sometimes a huge, green, glittering wave would arise and roll towards the sh.e.l.l, and the fishermen would close their eyes; but in response to the rower's quick wrist, the little skiff would turn and climb over the roaring crest of the terrible billow. Sometimes the boat was nowhere to be seen, and one of the spectators would say to another,

"It is all over!"

Presently, however, the c.o.c.kle would rise out of the trough and appear upon the summit of a breaking sea, looking like a large, crouching, sea-gull. On, steadily, the mite of a craft held its way, sometimes heading directly for the reef, again swerving to the right to mount a rampant billow. Smaller, and smaller grew the little figure, till it became a mere white speck away in the driving mist.

The fishermen still remained huddled together in the dock; and as one, with the telescope in his hand, announced that the girl was now within a cable's length of the reef, a great look of shame came into their faces, that not one had shown courage enough to go with her. As for Nancy, in the midst of the ravening turmoil, she was cool of head and steady of arm, pulling with a st.u.r.dy stroke, and constantly turning her face to note the waves to be met with the full front of the skiff. Sometimes the cross wash from a sea would smite the boat upon the quarter, and for a moment expose it to destruction; but in response to the girl's quick judgment and steady wrist, the bold little prow would be instantly brought again in the face of the tempest. In one continuous storm the spray drove over her, and the skiff was more than half full of water. It was growing dark, and she could barely distinguish the opposite sh.o.r.e. But the danger of the pa.s.sage was at last over, and her tiny craft was in the shelter of the gloomy reef.

There was a windla.s.s bolted to the rock, with which she drew the skiff beyond the reach of the waves. Nimbly then she climbed the reef till she reached the door of the tower. A few seconds later all the fishermen saw the warm, yellow glare of the light streaming over the turbulent water.

Nancy was happy now, and her large eyes strained through the lantern of the tower to catch sight of the ship. She had not long to wait.

Between the reef and the long stretch of eastern sh.o.r.e, a red light pulsed upon a wave, moving towards the harbour.

"Good!" the girl cried out, "she is midway in the channel and safe."

Then she descended to the bas.e.m.e.nt, where she brewed a cup of tea, and sat down to a supper of cold sea-fowl, and juicy, white bread of her own baking.

The sleeping rooms were upon the middle story, but the girl began to grow uneasy at the increasing violence of the hurricane, and would not go to bed. Taking a book, she went to the lantern and sat upon a box to read. The whistling of the wind around the gla.s.s and the dome of zinc, the booming of the sea against the rock, and the brawling of the waters around her produced such a tumultuous din that persons speaking in the tower would be unable to hear each other.

Then dawned a new terror; and she looked upon the floor with wide- opened eyes and blanched lips. Twice since its establishment, during winter gales, had the tower been swept off the rock. It is true the present structure was substantially built, and was firmly secured to long iron "stringers" bolted to the solid rock; yet the sea was already surging against the base of the tower, and at every blow the edifice quivered till the machinery of steel and bra.s.s rang like a number of little bells. Upon the grated, iron pathway running around the lantern inside, she took her stand, and, thence, looked out. The light streamed far beyond the ledge and revealed the full fury of the sea. The agitated waters would recede from the reef upon the windward side like a jumper who runs backward, that he may be able to leap with greater force; then gathered up to the stature of a hill and crowned with roaring foam, it would return with soft tread, but terrible might, scaling the rock, and flinging its white arms around the waist of the tower. Throughout the tumult, flocks of sea-birds, driven from the surface, and bewildered in the dense darkness of the storm, would fly for the light and smite the lantern; and then they would fall backward into the surf, as if struck with a thunderbolt.

Other creatures flew with more care; and Nancy shuddered as she saw the gleaming eyes of huge fish hawks outside, and beheld their dusky wings waving at the panes.

Many an hour of terror pa.s.sed with no employment for the trembling watcher, save when the lamps grew dim and she moved from her standing place to snuff the wick and turn more flame. Stepping nervously down to the bas.e.m.e.nt she found that it lacked only a quarter of four o'clock. In half an hour it would be dawn, and she was cheered by the thought as she re-ascended.