"The compliments of the morning to you. And I trust you rested well!" M.
Radisson called out.
Ben wished that he might be cursed if any man could rest well on bare boards rimed with frost like curdled milk.
"Cheer up, man! Cheer up!" encourages Radisson. "There"s to be a capture to-day!"
"A capture!" reiterates Ben, glowering black across the table and doffing his cap with bad grace.
"Aye, I said a capture! Egad, lad, one fort and one ship are prize enough for one day!"
"Sink my soul," flouts Gillam, looking insolently down the table to the rows of ragged sailors sitting beyond our officers, "if every man o" your rough-scuff had the nine lives of a cat, their nine lives would be shot down before they reached our palisades!"
"Is it a wager?" demands M. Radisson.
"A wager--ship and fort and myself to boot if you win!"
"Done!" cries La Chesnaye.
"Ah, well," calculates M. Radisson, "the ship and the fort are worth something! When we"ve taken them, Ben can go. Nine lives for each man, did you say?"
"A hundred, if you like," boasts the New Englander, letting fly a broadside of oaths at the Frenchman"s slur. "A hundred men with nine lives, if you like! We"ve powder for all!"
"Ben!" M. Radisson rose. "Two men are in the fort now! Pick me out seven more! That will make nine! With those nine I own your fort by nightfall or I set you free!"
"Done!" shouts Ben. "Every man here a witness!"
"Choose!" insists M. Radisson.
Sailors and soldiers were all on their feet gesticulating and laughing; for G.o.defroy was translating into French as fast as the leaders talked.
"Choose!" urges M. Radisson, leaning over to snuff out the great breakfast candle with bare fingers as if his hand were iron.
"Shiver my soul, then," laughs Ben, in high feather, "let the first be that little Jack Sprat of a half-frozen Battle! He"s loyal to me!"
"Good!" smiles M. Radisson. "Come over here, Jack Battle."
Jack Battle jumped over the table and stood behind M. Radisson as second lieutenant, Ben"s eyes gaping to see Jack"s disguise of bushranger like himself.
"Go on," orders M. Radisson, "choose whom you will!"
The soldiers broke into ringing cheers.
"Devil take you, Radisson," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.es Ben familiarly, "such cool impudence would chill the Nick!"
"That is as it may be," retorts Radisson. "Choose! We must be off!"
Again the soldiers cheered.
"Well, there"s that turncoat of a Stanhope with his fine airs. I"d rather see him shot next than any one else!"
"Thank you, Ben," said I.
"Come over here, Ramsay," orders Radisson. "That"s two. Go on! Five more!"
The soldiers fell to laughing and Ben to pulling at his mustache.
"That money-bag of a La Chesnaye next," mutters Ben. "He"s lady enough to faint at first shot."
"There"ll be no first shot. Come, La Chesnaye! Three. Go on! Go on, Ben! Your wits work slow!"
"Allemand, the pilot! He is drunk most of the time."
"Four," counts M. Radisson. "Come over here, Allemand! You"re drunk most of the time, like Ben. Go on!"
"G.o.defroy, the English trader--he sulks--he"s English--he"ll do!"
"Five," laughs M. Radisson.
And for the remaining two, Ben Gillam chose a scullion lad and a wretched little stowaway, who had kept hidden under hatches till we were too far out to send him back. At the last choice our men shouted and clapped and stamped and broke into s.n.a.t.c.hes of song about conquerors.
CHAPTER XV
THE BATTLE NOT TO THE STRONG
M. Radisson turned the sand-gla.s.s up to time our preparations. Before the last grain fell we seven were out, led by M. Radisson, speeding over the snow-drifted marsh through the thick frosty darkness that lies like a blanket over that northland at dawn. The air hung heavy, gray, gritty to the touch with ice-frost. The hard-packed drifts crisped to our tread with little noises which I can call by no other name than frost-shots. Frost p.r.i.c.ked the taste to each breath. Endless reaches of frost were all that met the sight. Frost-crackling the only sound.
Frost in one"s throat like a drink of water, and the tingle of the frost in the blood with a leap that was fulness of life.
Up drifts with the help of our muskets! Down hills with a rush of snow-shoes that set the powdery snow flying! Skimming the levels with the silent speed of wings! Past the snow mushrooms topping underbrush and the snow cones of the evergreens and the snow billows of under rocks and the snow-wreathed antlers of the naked forest in a world of snow!
The morning stars paled to steel pin-p.r.i.c.ks through a gray sky.
Shadows took form in the frost. The slant rays of a southern sun struck through the frost clouds in spears. Then the frost smoke rose like mist, and the white glare shone as a sea. In another hour it would be high noon of the short shadow. Every coat--beaver and bear and otter and racc.o.o.n--hung open, every capote flung back, every runner hot as in midsummer, though frost-rime edged the hair like snow. When the sun lay like a fiery shield half-way across the southern horizon, M. Radisson called a halt for nooning.
"Now, remember, my brave lads," said he, after he had outlined his plans, drawing figures of fort and ship and army of seven on the snow, "now, remember, if you do what I"ve told you, not a shot will be fired, not a drop of blood spilled, not a grain of powder used, and to every man free tobacco for the winter--"
"If we succeed," interjects G.o.defroy sullenly.
"_If_," repeats M. Radisson; "an I hear that word again there will be a carving!"
Long before we came to the north river near the Hudson"s Bay Company"s fort, the sun had wheeled across the horizon and sunk in a sea of snow, but now that the Prince Rupert had foundered, the capture of these helpless Englishmen was no object to us. Unless a ship from the south end of the bay came to rescue them they were at our mercy. Hastening up the river course we met Governor Brigdar sledding the ice with a dog-team of huskies.
"The compliments of the season to Your Excellency!" shouted Radisson across the snow.
"The same to the representative of France," returned Governor Brigdar, trying to get away before questions could be asked.
"I don"t see your ship," called Radisson.