"Voici le temps et la saison, Voici le temps et la saison, Ah! vrai, que les journees sont longues, Ah! vrai, que les journees sont longues!"
CHAPTER X. THE KEEL BOAT
We were embarked on a strange river, in a strange boat, and bound for a strange city. To us Westerners a halo of romance, of unreality, hung over New Orleans. To us it had an Old World, almost Oriental flavor of mystery and luxury and pleasure, and we imagined it swathed in the moisture of the Delta, built of quaint houses, with courts of shining orange trees and magnolias, and surrounded by flowering plantations of unimagined beauty. It was most fitting that such a place should be the seat of dark intrigues against material progress, and this notion lent added zest to my errand thither. As for Nick, it took no great sagacity on my part to predict that he would forget Suzanne and begin to look forward to the Creole beauties of the Mysterious City.
First, there was the fur-laden keel boat in which we travelled, gone forever now from Western navigation. It had its rude square sail to take advantage of the river winds, its mast strongly braced to hold the long tow-ropes. But tow-ropes were for the endless up-river journey, when a numerous crew strained day after day along the bank, chanting the voyageurs" songs. Now we were light-manned, two half-breeds and two Canadians to handle the oars in time of peril, and Captain Xavier, who stood aft on the cabin roof, leaning against the heavy beam of the long, curved tiller, watching hawklike for snag and eddy and bar. Within the cabin was a great fireplace of stones, where our cooking was done, and bunks set round for the men in cold weather and rainy. But in these fair nights we chose to sleep on deck.
Far into the night we sat, Nick and I, our feet dangling over the forward edge of the cabin, looking at the glory of the moon on the vast river, at the endless forest crown, at the haze which hung like silver dust under the high bluffs on the American side. We slept. We awoke again as the moon was shrinking abashed before the light that glowed above these cliffs, and the river was turned from brown to gold and then to burnished copper, the forest to a thousand shades of green from crest to the banks where the river was licking the twisted roots to nakedness.
The south wind wafted the sharp wood-smoke from the chimney across our faces. In the stern Xavier stood immovable against the tiller, his short pipe clutched between his teeth, the colors of his new worsted belt made gorgeous by the rising sun.
"B"jour, Michie," he said, and added in the English he had picked up from the British traders, "the breakfas" he is ready, and Jean make him good. Will you have the grace to descen"?"
We went down the ladder into the cabin, where the odor of the furs mingled with the smell of the cooking. There was a frica.s.see steaming on the crane, some of Zeron"s bread, brought from St. Louis, and coffee that Monsieur Gratiot had provided for our use. We took our bowls and cups on deck and sat on the edge of the cabin.
"By gad," cried Nick, "it lacks but the one element to make it a paradise."
"And what is that?" I demanded.
"A woman," said he.
Xavier, who overheard, gave a delighted laugh.
"Parbleu, Michie, you have right," he said, "but Michie Gratiot, he say no. In Nouvelle Orleans we find some."
Nick got to his feet, and if anything he did could have surprised me, I should have been surprised when he put his arm coaxingly about Xavier"s neck. Xavier himself was surprised and correspondingly delighted.
"Tell me, Xavier," he said, with a look not to be resisted, "do you think I shall find some beauties there?"
"Beauties!" exclaimed Xavier, "La Nouvelle Orleans--it is the home of beauty, Michie. They promenade themselves on the levee, they look down from ze gallerie, mais--"
"But what, Xavier?"
"But, mon Dieu, Michie, they are vair" difficile. They are not like Englis" beauties, there is the father and the mother, and--the convent."
And Xavier, who had a wen under his eye, laid his finger on it.
"For shame, Xavier," cried Nick; "and you are balked by such things?"
Xavier thought this an exceedingly good joke, and he took his pipe out of his mouth to laugh the better.
"Me? Mais non, Michie. And yet ze Alcalde, he mek me afraid. Once he put me in ze calaboose when I tried to climb ze balcon"."
Nick roared.
"I will show you how, Xavier," he said; "as to climbing the balconies, there is a convenance in it, as in all else. For instance, one must be daring, and discreet, and nimble, and ready to give the law a presentable answer, and lacking that, a piastre. And then the fair one must be a fair one indeed."
"Diable, Michie," cried Xavier, "you are ze mischief."
"Nay," said Nick, "I learned it all and much more from my cousin, Mr.
Ritchie."
Xavier stared at me for an instant, and considering that he knew nothing of my character, I thought it extremely impolite of him to laugh.
Indeed, he tried to control himself, for some reason standing in awe of my appearance, and then he burst out into such loud haw-haws that the crew poked their heads above the cabin hatch.
"Michie Reetchie," said Xavier, and again he burst into laughter that choked further speech. He controlled himself and laid his finger on his wen.
"You don"t believe it," said Nick, offended.
"Michie Reetchie a gallant!" said Xavier.
"An incurable," said Nick, "an amazingly clever rogue at device when there is a petticoat in it. Davy, do I do you justice?"
Xavier roared again.
"Quel maitre!" he said.
"Xavier," said Nick, gently taking the tiller out of his hand, "I will teach you how to steer a keel boat."
"Mon Dieu," said Xavier, "and who is to pay Michie Gratiot for his fur?
The river, she is full of things."
"Yes, I know, Xavier, but you will teach me to steer."
"Volontiers, Michie, as we go now. But there come a time when I, even I, who am twenty year on her, do not know whether it is right or left. Ze rock--he vair" hard. Ze snag, he grip you like dat," and Xavier twined his strong arms around Nick until he was helpless. "Ze bar--he hol" you by ze leg. An" who is to tell you how far he run under ze yellow water, Michie? I, who speak to you, know. But I know not how I know. Ze water, sometime she tell, sometime she say not"ing."
"A bas, Xavier!" said Nick, pushing him away, "I will teach you the river."
Xavier laughed, and sat down on the edge of the cabin. Nick took easily to accomplishments, and he handled the clumsy tiller with a certainty and distinction that made the boatmen swear in two languages and a patois. A great water-logged giant of the Northern forests loomed ahead of us. Xavier sprang to his feet, but Nick had swung his boat swiftly, smoothly, into the deeper water on the outer side.
"Saint Jacques, Michie," cried Xavier, "you mek him better zan I thought."
Fascinated by a new accomplishment, Nick held to the tiller, while Xavier with a trained eye scanned the troubled, yellow-glistening surface of the river ahead. The wind died, the sun beat down with a moist and venomous sting, and northeastward above the edge of the bluff a bank of cloud like sulphur smoke was lifted. Gradually Xavier ceased his jesting and became quiet.
"Looks like a hurricane," said Nick.
"Mon Dieu," said Xavier, "you have right, Michie," and he called in his rapid patois to the crew, who lounged forward in the cabin"s shade.
There came to my mind the memory of that hurricane at Temple Bow long ago, a storm that seemed to have brought so much sorrow into my life. I glanced at Nick, but his face was serene.
The cloud-bank came on in black and yellow ma.s.ses, and the saffron light I recalled so well turned the living green of the forest to a sickly pallor and the yellow river to a tinge scarce to be matched on earth.
Xavier had the tiller now, and the men were straining at the oars to send the boat across the current towards the nearer western sh.o.r.e. And as my glance took in the scale of things, the miles of bluff frowning above the bottom, the river that seemed now like a lake of lava gently boiling, and the wilderness of the western sh.o.r.e that reached beyond the ken of man, I could not but shudder to think of the conflict of nature"s forces in such a place. A grim stillness reigned over all, broken only now and again by a sharp command from Xavier. The men were rowing for their lives, the sweat glistening on their red faces.
"She come," said Xavier.
I looked, not to the northeast whence the banks of cloud had risen, but to the southwest, and it seemed as though a little speck was there against the hurrying film of cloud. We were drawing near the forest line, where a little creek made an indentation. I listened, and from afar came a sound like the strumming of low notes on a guitar, and sad.
The terrified scream of a panther broke the silence of the forest, and then the other distant note grew stronger, and stronger yet, and rose to a high hum like unto no sound on this earth, and mingled with it now was a lashing like water falling from a great height. We grounded, and Xavier, seizing a great tow-rope, leaped into the shallow water and pa.s.sed the bight around a trunk. I cried out to Nick, but my voice was drowned. He seized me and flung me under the cabin"s lee, and then above the fearful note of the storm came cracklings like gunshots of great trees snapping at their trunk. We saw the forest wall burst out--how far away I know not--and the air was filled as with a flock of giant birds, and boughs crashed on the roof of the cabin and tore the water in the darkness. How long we lay clutching each other in terror on the rocking boat I may not say, but when the veil first lifted there was the river like an angry sea, and limitless, the wind in its fury whipping the foam from the crests and bearing it off into s.p.a.ce. And presently, as we stared, the note lowered and the wind was gone again, and there was the water tossing foolishly, and we lay safe amidst the green wreckage of the forest as by a miracle.
It was Nick who moved first. With white face he climbed to the roof of the cabin and idly seizing the great limb that lay there tried to move it. Xavier, who lay on his face on the bank, rose to a sitting posture and crossed himself. Beyond me crowded the four members of the crew, unhurt. Then we heard Xavier"s voice, in French, thanking the Blessed Virgin for our escape.