George T. Marsh

“ As she spoke of her life at Drowning River, with its short, magic summer, marked by the journey down the great Albany to the Bay; its winter, when, imprisoned in the white silence of the endless snows, she found her violin and books the sole comforters of the laggard days, the natural charm of the girl took deeper and deeper hold of the imagination of Stuart. Thrall to the magic with which she held him, the factor of Mamatawan, reticent with men, unconsciously revealed secret places of his nature hitherto inviolate. ”

“ But twenty miles away lay Fort Hope. He begged for his snow-shoes that the people there should not know his shame. Even the lean, harness-raw huskies—shadows of the great dogs that had left Albany and the Ghost—felt the excitement of the drivers and leaped whining into their collars at the signal for the start.
Up the lake trail, packed hard by the teams of Ojibways bound to the post for the Christmas revelry, hurried Esau, followed by the Crees. To the helpless sick man, lashed to the sled like a bag of pemican, never had winter morning seemed so beautiful. ”

“ No tepee smoke of storm-bound traveller rose above the silent spruce forest. The dogs had caught the scent of some animal on the near shore, and were excited. There might be moose or caribou in there stalled by the blizzard. The thought of fresh meat spurred him.
Unlashing his rifle in its skin case from the sled, he drove the team to the shore and, much against their protest, tied them with their traces to trees. In the deep, soft snow they would only hinder his hunting. Then he circled far back up-wind, hoping to strike a fresh trail. ”

“ Rupert House had suddenly wakened with life and color. By day the swarthy children of the forest traded their winter's hunt of fur for the supplies of the Great Company, or lounged around the trade-house, smoking and exchanging the gossip of the north. At twilight the laughter of women and the voices of children at play filled the air, for the dread moons of the long snow, with their cold and famine, were passed and the days of plenty at hand. ”

“ DAYS passed, and the people of Mamatawan were preparing for such a celebration of Christmas as the post had never known, for had not the Great Manitou given M'sieu' Stuart his life? The fur-hunters were gathering from the frozen valleys for the trade and revels. Daily the dog-teams from forest and muskeg jingled in to the post, and when the Crees learned how Black Jack Lafitte had met his deserts at the hands of Baptiste, and that the factor would live, tepee and trade-house rang with laughter and rejoicing. ”

“ At last the Christmas mail—given up as lost in the blizzard—was in from the Big Water. Men, women, and dogs rushed to the shore to greet those already mourned as victims of the long trail. To the eager ears of the excited Esau and Pierre floated the Ojibway welcome: "Bo-jo! Bo-jo!"
Pierre waved his hand, as Esau shouted in answer. "Quey! Quey!" the salutation of the Crees. The heart of the old man pounded in his breast, while the old fire inflamed his blood. The huskies, despite the blows of the Cree drivers, sprang forward upon the heels of the now delirious half-breed. ”

“ Beaching the canoe below the camp, Gordon started with Michel and his crew up the shore toward a group of Crees around a large fire. In the thickening dusk he stumbled over something soft. He stooped. It was a young Cree, dead drunk.
“By gar! Batoche, he lose no tam!” said Michel.
“There're plenty more of them lying around in the bush, no doubt, with nothing to show tomorrow for their winter's hunt but a headache. I guess we're too late to save this camp, Michel,” gloomily replied the factor as they continued on up the beach. ”

“ Turning to the dog, he cried:
"The matches went down with the sled, boy! We're done for! We'll never see Rupert now!"
As a last resort, he carefully explored the shack, but it had been unused for years, and he found no matches, but stumbled upon what the wood-mice had left of an old Company blanket. Again he searched the room for that which meant warmth and life, but in vain.
Then the desperate youth set to work banking in the walls of the cache with snow to make it wind-proof. This accomplished, he sealed the low doorway and prepared to fight through the bitter hours for his life. ”

“ In the rear Esau, flicking the ear of a lagging husky with his long whip, or calling to the lead-dog, already dreamed of the good cheer that awaited them three hundred miles away at Fort Hope. In fancy he tasted the boiled salt goose and the juicy caribou steak of their Christmas dinner, and a smile lit his swarthy features as he pictured himself swinging the dusky Ojibway girls at the New Year's revelry. Suddenly the yelp of the lead-dog and the stopping of the sled roused him. Looking up he saw the huskies nosing the prostrate figure of his companion. ”

“ Crawling into the tepee, Narcisse turned back the blankets from the huddled body. A mat of long gray hair and beard obscured the sunken features of an old half-breed. Hurriedly he examined the body for signs of life. Detecting a faint flutter of the heart, the Company man vigorously set to work in a struggle with the white death for the life of the man he had found.
Bringing up his sled, he soon had a fire going under kettles of tea and pemican. Then he started in to rub the circulation back into the shrivelled limbs of the old breed. ”

“ Slowly the driver got up from the sled, and reeling forward struck the dog savagely on the head with the butt of the whip, then, carried off his balance by the blow, fell headlong to the snow at the dog's side. Like a flash the husky turned, and before the man could regain his feet lunged at his throat, forcing him, struggling, backward upon the trail. Once, twice, three times the fangs of the maddened brute tore at the throat of the helpless driver. Then, while the infuriated beast still worried the crumpled figure in the snow, Bruce reached them. ”

“ Unknown to Gordon, who had made little of his defeat of the plans of Monsieur Bruette to his friend Captain Freakley of the steamer, Michel spent one entire July evening in regaling the delighted crew with the details of the affair, and furthermore hinted strongly that the Northwest in vain had offered fabulous sums for the services of the factor of Whale River.
The Northern summer waned and died on the east coast. Vanguards of the swift autumn, the snowy geese swept back to join the gray hosts already at the fall rendezvous on yellowing south-coast marshes. ”

“ Leaving Baptiste and Esau at the trade-house, where Black Jack Lafitte was conspicuous by his absence, Stuart went to the factor's quarters. Kicking off his snowshoes and beating the snow from capote and moccasins, he knocked. The door was opened by an Indian woman, who took his coat and led him to the living-room.
So this, he thought as he pushed back from his forehead the yellow hair wet from melted snow, was her home! Everywhere the room was eloquent with the feminine touch. ”

“ On the following day the rising sun overtook two dog-teams hurrying westward on the Fort Hope trail. Miles behind them still smouldered the camp-fire in the spruce. Ahead of the teams swung a tall Cree, breaking trail, while at the gee-pole of each sled a caribou-skin-clad driver with long dog-whip urged on the huskies. But lashed to the second sled lay the blanketed form of one whose voyaging days over white winter trails and wind-whipped lakes of summer were forever ended. ”

“ Never in the many moons we have journeyed by canoe and dog-team have you asked me what trouble eats at my heart. The sternman from Fort Hope, some day, I will kill as the gray wolf kills the moose that is weak from age and hunger. ”

“ Stunned, or too weak to rise, the snow-blind stranger lay where he fell, while the dog nosed the prostrate form. Then the husky threw back his head and roused the dogs of Rupert House with a long howl.
Cristy and a post half-breed were rapidly approaching when the fallen man, with an effort, got to his feet and, clinging to a trace that circled the dog's neck, again staggered forward. The big husky, excited by the answering howls of the post dogs appearing from all directions, dragged his reeling master up the trail. ”

“ Through the desolate cliff country, where the river winds like a huge reptile between towering, timberless shores behind which the sun sets almost at noon; on past the thousand islands where, in summer, the trout and dore lie below a hundred silver cascades; up the great lake that the Ojibways call "The Charmed Water," where the river sturgeon breed; over three hundred miles of subarctic winter trail they toiled, that the factor at Hope might open his mail from Scotland on Christmas day, and a half-breed keep his word. ”

“ Stuart handed the note to Scott, his heart pounding with an indescribable joy. He was going to her. She needed him. In a half-hour he would be with her, helping her, consoling her.
Scott read the note, while the narrow eyes of Baptiste searched questioningly the faces of the white men.
“Wait!” Scott turned quizzically to Stuart. “This can't be a trap of Black Jack's to get you down-river and shoot you up from the shore?”
“Why, man alive,” rasped the factor, “no one else at that post could write that hand.” He seized the paper. “No one but a woman of education—look at it!” ”

“ And the arm of Batoche was twisted in the grip of steel till the half-breed went pale with pain. The fight was out of him, for the strength of Michel was a tradition on Whale River.
“You, Jean Elkwan!” Gordon called to an old Cree on the outskirts of the throng. “You have traded with me for many snows. Do I speak the truth of the new company and their water of fire?”
“Always you have spoken with one tongue,” replied the old Cree. “The young men would not listen to us, but drank the stinging water. The next sun I go to the old fort to trade my fur.” ”

“ At the door of the mission stood the bearded priest awaiting them.
"My son, it gladdens my heart to see you," cried the father in Cree, gripping Narcisse's hand. "We feared for you when the northwester struck in. A dog-team was to go up-river to look for you in a day or two. But what have you here?" the priest asked, peering into the dusk at the blanketed form on the sled.
"Old Indian, starved out, father," replied the courier. "He was too weak to travel." Then under his breath: "He is a very old man, and I think will take the long trail soon." ”

“ Scraping and pounding the ice from the heavy coat of the Prince, who, owing to the thick under-fur of soft hair and the hardihood of his breed, was immune to cold, Cristy made the dog lie down, and wrapping the blanket around them, clasped the great beast closely to his own. Through the bitter hours the warmth of the dog's body alone kept the heart of his master beating and the blood moving in his feet and hands. ”

“ It will be a great help to have a white woman. The Crees know so little—”
She interrupted: “We shall make no trouble. Just one room for my servant and myself. You are veree kind.”
Then she said: “May I see Monsieur Stuart, onlee one moment?”
Scott led her to the bedroom, where the fever-racked factor lay bandaged and bound.
The clerk heard her catch her breath as the dim light from a lamp fell on the flushed features of the man to whom, but a few hours before, she had said: “We do not forget so soon, monsieur.”
Hortense Lecroix had kept her word; she had not forgotten. ”

“ Through the long afternoon and far into the twilight the voyageurs drove the canoe up the swift river, paddling, or poling where the current permitted, often compelled to track the boat from the shore with a long line. ”

“ Often before strong men had been loosed from the death-grip of the sullen winter trails, to creep into Fort Hope spent and broken.
When but a few strides separated him from the outstretched hand of the advancing factor, Pierre suddenly reeled in his tracks. Collecting himself, he again lurched forward, but before Esau could reach him, fell headlong to the trail. ”

“ The heart of the half-frozen youth sank. He thought of the family at Rupert that would not know his fate until the spring canoe from Mistassini reached the post with the news that he had left the lake in March. Or possibly the sled with the dogs would be washed ashore and found by the Nemiskau Crees on their way to the sirring trade. So he mused as his snow-shoes crunched the brittle crust.
Then he pulled himself together. Men had travelled in the north farther without food, and in midwinter, too, when the wind was worse, and the nights forty and fifty below. ”

“ Behind him fled the white miles, for his dogs were fast. At times, where the wind had beaten the snow from the ice, he rode on the sled, urging on the too willing huskies, who were as keen for the trail as a thoroughbred for the thrill of the race.
On the third day out of Matagami the Albany packet ran into the blizzard. Through the afternoon, before the snow had made deep enough for the drive and swirl of the northwester to block the trail with drifts, Narcisse forced the dogs, head on, into it. ”

“ I've a right to choose my employer, and the Northwest is free to hire me when the trade is over this spring. Plenty of Hudson's Bay men have turned free-traders in the west. The Company does not own me.”
“Oh, I know, John, but it's disloyal. Other men have not received their just due, but they haven't deserted. It—it seems as if I couldn't ever respect you again if you went over to the Northwest just for the money.”
TWO days passed, and Gordon was no nearer the solution of his problem. Still, the battle between loyalty to the old company, the habit of a lifetime. ”

“ Then man and dog, side by side, started down the desolate river guarded by the pitiless hills, in the race against cold and starvation. Somewhere below, he knew there was an old Company cache. The bitter wind, drawing up-stream between the ridges, was strengthening. No man might face its stinging drive that night and save his face and hands. Already the blood was leaving his fingers in the frozen mittens. So he hurried to make the cache before the dusk.
White mile after mile the man and dog left behind them, but no sign of the cache. Cristy wondered if he had passed it, buried in the snow. ”

“ As the crew unloaded the long craft preparatory to turning it over on the shore, the factor spoke to him:
"Look here, Narcisse, you stick in camp to-night and don't go trailin' down-river after that Fort Hope crowd. You can't settle any old scores on this trip. If you're missing when we break camp to-morrow, there'll be trouble. Understand?"
But the silent Narcisse had no answer for his chief. Later, when the men sprawled around the fire after supper, the tall bowman sought the sullen youth, who sat apart, head in hands, gazing moodily between narrowed eyelids at the blazing birch logs. ”

“ The Crees' protests that their dogs were raw with harness-sores and that they themselves needed rest were of no avail with one in whose ears still echoed the words of the factor at Albany. So leg-weary men and dogs slaved on under the stars. But at last, in camp, the torture of "mal raquette" in the stiffened legs of Esau and the Crees ceased, when the drugged sleep of exhaustion claimed them, while Pierre of the broken heart lay with his grief far into the silent night. ”

“ One wild night in December, Stuart sat smoking with Andrew Scott in their quarters. Driven by the northwester, powdery crystals of snow beat like shot against the windows. Suddenly above the clamor of the storm the yelping of the post dogs caused the factor to look up from his book.
“What's the matter with the dogs, Andrew? No Cree is crazy enough to travel in this weather.”
“Maybe a packet from Albany,” suggested Scott “Queer, though, they couldn't wait for the Christmas mail!”
Soon the entire canine population of Mamatawan joined in the uproar. ”

“ As he listened, his black eyes wandered from one to another of the up-river crew. Finally, his gaze focussed momentarily on the grizzled sternman whose sharp features, and lighter color even under the tan, marked a strong strain of French blood. Presently the low sun warned the Company men of the necessity for seeking camp-grounds and the canoes parted.
The Fort Hope boat had left the freighter slowly bucking the current and was well down-stream, when the young breed in the Matagami canoe said, in Cree, to the bowman:
"The old man in the canoe from Hope—he is no Ojibway?" ”

“ But no yelp of fear or pain left the throat of the puppy as he closed in what would have been a death-grapple with his heavier and more skilful adversary, had not, at the instant that the white husky's superior weight bore him down, a gray streak shot through the air from behind, and a great slate-gray body catapulted into the white one, rolling it over and over, while punishing fangs slashed again and again into the white shoulders and chest, seeking the throat. ”

“ The boy started as if the cry were an omen of evil, but Pierre had but one thought. "De mail—she mus' go tru," he whispered painfully.
The boy did not protest. An Indian never does at orders he does not intend to obey. There had been a rupture of blood-vessels in the lungs, a not uncommon occurrence in the North among the red runners of the Company. If it proved to be a bad hemorrhage, Pierre would die; if not, he would be able later to travel back to Albany on the sled. There was nothing to do but wait. So he fed the dogs and made soup of the pemican for the sick man. ”

“ Buried up on the east coast, you doubtless haven't heard of Mademoiselle Lecroix; but let me tell you, she's the sole topic of conversation here and at Moose when Company men get together.”
“Daughter of the French factor at their Drowning River post, I suppose?” suggested Stuart
“Yes. Hortense Lecroix is her name. Pretty name isn't it? And that's all there is to the story, old man. You'll be lucky if you every get more than a long-distance look at her. Old Lecroix watches her like a wolf—wont mix with our people at all. ”

“ Kneeling on his snow-shoes, Cristy ran his fingers over the lumps and bruises on the great emaciated body that told the story of long months of slavery under brutal masters. Finding no broken bones, he turned to the dead man in the snow who had paid so dearly for every welt. For a moment, as Bruce gazed at the face, distorted in death, with glazed, sunken eyes staring sightless into the bitter night, pity held him ”

“ David said.
One afternoon, weeks later, a birch-bark was slowly poled up the rapids below Martin's Falls on the middle Albany. The lean face of the half-breed voyageur lighted with a smile as he turned a bend and recognized the buildings of the loneliest fur-post in Ontario, huddled on the high shore above the white water. Swiftly his long pole drove the light craft against the current, the practise of years making easy what would have been an impossible feat for one less skilled. ”

“ Always his reply had been a hoarse "Marche!" as he struck the lead-dog with an unwonted fierceness that Esau could not comprehend. But old Pierre had not deigned to voice the thoughts that consumed him, and the boy, Indian-like, did not question. So, forcing the huskies to the limit of their endurance and encouraging the lad, who already showed signs of the physical strain of the battle with wind and snow, the old Cree had pushed on and on.
"In canoe or on snow-shoes no better man has served the Company. But you're stiffening up and growing too old to take the winter mail to Fort Hope. ”

“ Bruce gripped the arm of the Cree. "There's only one dog on that sled, Jean! Come on!" Springing in front of the team, he ran up the trail.
At Cristy's approach the huddled figure on the sled gave no sign. At intervals an arm rose and fell, lashing the dog forward to the unequal task. Hardly a rifle-shot separated them when the exhausted dog, after repeated attempts to drag the sled through a drift, lay down on the trail. Again the whip rose and fell, rose and fell, but the husky did not move. ”

“ But the veteran who bore the scars of forty years of battling with the fury of the subarctic winter did not wait in camp for the storm to blow itself out. It was his last trip to Fort Hope and the mail should go through. The next long snow one of the young men might crack his whip over the Christmas mail-team, but he would need the heart and sinews of a king caribou to match the records that Pierre Grassette—known among the Fort Hope Ojibways as "Flying Feet"—had left for the long Albany trail. ”

“ Out into mid-river, where the going was good on the hard crust, swung Cristy, followed by his dogs. Then, as they left the foot of the rapids, without warning the ice sank under them, plunging driver and yelping dogs into the water.
With a few powerful strokes Cristy fought his way to the sound ice. Behind him, the Prince and the second dog struggled desperately against the drag of the sinking sled, holding the rear dogs under. Supporting himself with one arm, Bruce called to the panting husky, straining every nerve to reach his master. "Come on. Prince! Come on, Prince!" ”

“ Once his fame as a voyageur had travelled from Whale River, in lonely Ungawa, down to Norway House, far in the Ojibway country. Into the dark eyes of the old Cree there had flashed momentarily the fire of his lost youth, as he tossed his head with pride at the memories of his prowess in days long dead. Then the words of the factor had banished his dream. "Next year a younger man will go, for the mails must get through on time."
Never had Esau seen such a pace set on snow-shoes as Pierre had made that first clear day out of Albany. Inured to the winter trails though he was. ”

“ Then for a month the little settlement was marooned in the snow-swept solitudes, while the ice was making on the wide lakes and swift rivers, strong enough for men and dog-teams to travel. With the coming of the freezing November moon Bruce Cristy left the post with two dog-teams for the Sinking Lakes. Christmas found him still in the forests of the Labrador border, travelling from camp to camp of the Cree and Montagnais trappers who traded at Mistassini, searching for news of two half-breed strangers, and a big husky with star-emblazoned chest. ”