"I"m not going home," said Kate. "I"m not a "good girl"--I"m a wicked old maid, and I"m going to Bothwell. If you won"t lend us a tent we"ll go without--and sleep in the open--and our deaths will lie forever at your door. I"ll come back and haunt you, if you don"t lend me a tent.
I"ll camp on your very threshold and you won"t be able to go out of your door without falling over my spook."
"I"ve more fear of being accountable for your death if I do let you go," said Sergeant Baker dubiously. "However, I see that nothing but physical force will prevent you. What do you want?"
"I want," said Kate, "a cavalry tent, a sheet-iron camp stove, and a good Indian guide--old Peter Crow for choice. He"s such a respectable-looking old fellow, and his wife often works for us."
The sergeant gave us the tent and stove, and sent a man down to the Reserve for Peter Crow. Moreover, he vindicated his t.i.tle of friend by making us take a dozen prairie chickens and a large ham--besides any quant.i.ty of advice. We didn"t want the advice but we hugely welcomed the ham. Presently our guide appeared--quite a spruce old Indian, as Indians go. I had never been able to shake off my childhood conviction that an Indian was a fearsome creature, hopelessly addicted to scalping knives and tomahawks, and I secretly felt quite horrified at the idea of two defenceless females starting out on a lonely prairie trail with an Indian for guide. Even old Peter Crow"s meek appearance did not quite rea.s.sure me; but I kept my qualms to myself, for I knew Kate would only laugh at me.
It was ten when we finally got away from the M.P. outpost. Sergeant Baker bade us goodbye in a tone which seemed to intimate that he never expected to see either of us again. What with his dismal predictions and my secret horror of Indians, I was beginning to feel anything but jubilant over our expedition. Kate, however, was as blithe and buoyant as usual. She knew no fear, being one of those enviable folk who can because they think they can. One hundred and twenty miles of half-flooded prairie trail--camping out at night in the solitude of the Great Lone Land--rain--muskegs--Indian guides--nothing had any terror for my dauntless cousin.
For the next three hours, however, we got on beautifully. The trail was fair, though somewhat greasy; the sun shone, though with a somewhat watery gleam, through the mists; and Peter Crow, coiled up on the folded tent behind the seat, slept soundly and snored mellifluously. That snore rea.s.sured me greatly. I had never thought of Indians as snoring. Surely one who did couldn"t be dreaded greatly.
We stopped at one o"clock and had a cold lunch, sitting in our wagon, while Peter Crow wakened up and watered the ponies. We did not get on so well in the afternoon. The trail descended into low-lying ground where travelling was very difficult. I had to admit old Peter Crow was quite invaluable. He knew, as Kate had foretold, "all the dry spots"--that is to say, spots less wet than others. But, even so, we had to make so many detours that by sunset we were little more than six miles distant from our noon halting place.
"We"d better set camp now, before it gets any darker," said Kate.
"There"s a capital spot over there, by that bluff of dead poplar. The ground seems pretty dry too. Peter, cut us a set of tent poles and kindle a fire."
"Want my dollar first," said old Peter stolidly.
We had agreed to pay him a dollar a day for the trip, but none of the money was to be paid until we got to Bothwell. Kate told him this. But all the reply she got was a stolid, "Want dollar. No make fire without dollar."
We were getting cold and it was getting dark, so finally Kate, under the law of necessity, paid him his dollar. Then he carried out our orders at his own sweet leisure. In course of time he got a fire lighted, and while we cooked supper he set up the tent and prepared our beds, by cutting piles of brush and covering them with rugs.
Kate and I had a hilarious time cooking that supper. It was my first experience of camping out and, as I had become pretty well convinced that Peter Crow was not the typical Indian of old romance, I enjoyed it all hugely. But we were both very tired, and as soon as we had finished eating we betook ourselves to our tent and found our brush beds much more comfortable than I had expected. Old Peter coiled up on his blanket outside by the fire, and the great silence of a windless prairie enwrapped us. In a few minutes we were sound asleep and never wakened until seven o"clock.
When we arose and lifted the flap of the tent we saw a peculiar sight.
The little elevation on which we had pitched our camp seemed to be an island in a vast sea of white mist, dotted here and there with other islands. On every hand to the far horizon stretched that strange, phantasmal ocean, and a hazy sun looked over the shifting billows. I had never seen a western mist before and I thought it extremely beautiful; but Kate, to whom it was no novelty, was more c.u.mbered with breakfast cares.
"I"m ravenous," she said, as she bustled about among our stores.
"Camping out always does give one such an appet.i.te. Aren"t you hungry, Phil?"
"Comfortably so," I admitted. "But where are our ponies? And where is Peter Crow?"
"Probably the ponies have strayed away looking for pea vines. They love and adore pea vines," said Kate, stirring up the fire from under its blanket of grey ashes. "And Peter Crow has gone to look for them, good old fellow. When you do get a conscientious Indian there is no better guide in the world, but they are rare. Now, Philippa-girl, just pry out the sergeant"s ham and shave a few slices off it for our breakfast. Some savoury fried ham always goes well on the prairie."
I went for the ham but could not find it. A thorough search among our effects revealed it not.
"Kate, I can"t find the ham," I called out. "It must have fallen out somewhere on the trail."
Kate ceased wrestling with the fire and came to help in the search for the missing delicacy.
"It couldn"t have fallen out," she said incredulously. "That is impossible. The tent was fastened securely over everything. Nothing could have jolted out."
"Well, then, where is the ham?" I said.
That question was unanswerable, as Kate discovered after another thorough search. The ham was gone--that much was certain.
"I believe Peter Crow has levanted with the ham," I said decidedly.
"I don"t believe Peter Crow could be so dishonest," said Kate rather shortly. "His wife has worked for us for years, and she"s as honest as the sunlight."
"Honesty isn"t catching," I remarked, but I said nothing more just then, for Kate"s black eyes were snapping.
"Anyway, we can"t have ham for breakfast," she said, twitching out the frying pan rather viciously. "We"ll have to put up with canned chicken--if the cans haven"t disappeared too."
They hadn"t, and we soon produced a very tolerable breakfast. But neither of us had much appet.i.te.
"Do you suppose Peter Crow has taken the horses as well as the ham?" I asked.
"No," gloomily responded Kate, who had evidently been compelled by the logic of hard facts to believe in Peter"s guilt, "he would hardly dare to do that, because he couldn"t dispose of them without being found out. They"ve probably strayed away on their own account when Peter decamped. As soon as this mist lifts I"ll have a look for them. They can"t have gone far."
We were spared this trouble, however, for when we were washing up the dishes the ponies returned of their own accord. Kate caught them and harnessed them.
"Are we going on?" I asked mildly.
"Of course we"re going on," said Kate, her good humour entirely restored. "Do you suppose I"m going to be turned from my purpose by the defection of a miserable old Indian? Oh, wait till he comes round in the winter, begging."
"Will he come?" I asked.
"Will he? Yes, my dear, he will--with a smooth, plausible story to account for his desertion and a bland denial of ever having seen our ham. I shall know how to deal with him then, the old scamp."
"When you do get a conscientious Indian there"s no better guide in the world, but they are rare," I remarked with a far-away look.
Kate laughed.
"Don"t rub it in, Phil. Come, help me to break camp. We"ll have to work harder and hustle for ourselves, that"s all."
"But is it safe to go on without a guide?" I inquired dubiously. I hadn"t felt very safe with Peter Crow, but I felt still more unsafe without him.
"Safe! Of course, it"s safe--perfectly safe. I know the trail, and we"ll just have to drive around the wet places. It would have been easier with Peter, and we"d have had less work to do, but we"ll get along well enough without him. I don"t think I"d have bothered with him at all, only I wanted to set Mother"s mind at rest. She"ll never know he isn"t with us till the trip is over, so that is all right.
We"re going to have a glorious day. But, oh, for our lost ham! "The Ham That Was Never Eaten." There"s a subject for a poem, Phil. You write one when we get back to civilization. Methinks I can sniff the savoury odour of that lost ham on all the prairie breezes."
"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these--it might have been,"
I quoted, beginning to wash the dishes.
"Saw ye my wee ham, saw ye my ain ham, Saw ye my pork ham down on yon lea?
Crossed it the prairie last night in the darkness Borne by an old and unprincipled Cree?"
sang Kate, loosening the tent ropes. Altogether, we got a great deal more fun out of that ham than if we had eaten it.
As Kate had predicted, the day was glorious. The mists rolled away and the sun shone brightly. We drove all day without stopping, save for dinner--when the lost ham figured largely in our conversation--of course. We said so many witty things about it--at least, we thought them witty--that we laughed continuously through the whole meal, which we ate with prodigious appet.i.te.
But with all our driving we were not getting on very fast. The country was exceedingly swampy and we had to make innumerable detours.
""The longest way round is the shortest way to Bothwell,"" said Kate, when we drove five miles out of our way to avoid a muskeg. By evening we had driven fully twenty-five miles, but we were only ten miles nearer Bothwell than when we had broken camp in the morning.