The Law of the North.
by Samuel Alexander White.
CHAPTER I
THE BREED OF THE NORTH
Before Basil Dreaulond, the Hudson"s Bay Company"s courier, had won half the mile-long Nisgowan portage, the familiar noise of men toiling in pack-harness reached his ears. He stopped automatically and trained his hearing in mechanical a.n.a.lysis of the sound. This power had grown within him with every successive year of his wilderness life, and at once he was aware that a party of considerable size was packing across the boulder-strewn strip of woodland separating Kinistina Creek from Lac Du Longe.
The knowledge gave a wonderful quickness to the courier"s rigid, listening figure. Swinging the canoe from his bulky shoulders, he hid it swiftly in the tamarack thicket which skirted the blazed pa.s.sage. The tump-line was as suddenly slipped from his sweating forehead, and the pack-sack vanished likewise. Then Dreaulond himself disappeared with a spring into the green growth like a grouse seeking tangled cover. From the place of concealment sounded a metallic clink as he made ready his weapons against the chance of discovery.
The voyageur was doubtful whether the advancing men were from any of the Hudson"s Bay forts. They might well belong to some of the Northwest Fur Company"s posts. If this were the case, Basil knew it would not be conducive to his own safety or, what was more important, to the welfare of the dispatches he carried to encounter single-handed a body of Nor"westers. He made for his convenience a peep-hole among the pungent boughs and scrutinized the axe-hewn path where one had to stagger knee-deep among flinty rock fragments, spear-like stumps, and a chaotic jumble of logs.
Stooping to their burdens of canoes, dunnage, and arms, they came, thick-set giants with the knotted muscle, the clear vision, and the healthy skin that the strenuous northland life bestows. While they approached slowly, footing arduously, almost painfully, every step of the trying way and guarding against slips which meant fractures or six-month bruises, Dreaulond caught mingling gleams of color about their attire. As these bright glints took on definition and were resolved into sashes and leggings of red and blue, the hiding courier made out the dress of his own Company"s men. The cover, now no longer necessary, was brushed aside for a better view. In the lead he recognized the square shoulders and mighty breadth of Bruce Dunvegan from Oxford House, a man of superior education and chief trader to Malcolm Macleod, the Factor.
When Dunvegan with his hardy brigade of voyageurs came abreast the courier"s shelter, Dreaulond was seized with a sudden spirit of humor, and launched a long-drawn, far-carrying cry.
"_Vive le Nor"westaire!_" he bellowed.
As automatons, actuated by a single controlling spring, the men dropped whatever they bore and leaped to shelter behind perpendicular rocks, huge logs, or bullet-proof stumps, only the ends of their rifles showing grim and suggestive in silent menace. The discipline of defense which fell upon them naturally without preconcerted thought, without volition, was pleasing to a man who loved his Company"s interests as did Dreaulond. His eyes sparkled with satisfaction, although he was minded to keep up the artifice a little longer.
"La Roche! _Pour_ La Roche!" he shouted, using the watchword of the Nor"westers, the customary warning of dire and imminent trouble for Hudson"s Bay followers. While Basil raised the enemy"s alarm, he rolled quickly behind a jutting boulder, thereby protecting himself from any serious consequences that might follow his daring joke.
Dunvegan"s acute ear distinguished the rustling movement. A vivid tongue of flame leaped out of the shade from his rifle"s muzzle, and the missile, tw.a.n.ging sharply through the branches, smote Dreaulond"s shielding granite with a wicked thud. Following their leader"s cue, the men let loose a volley which filled the forest with uproar. Twigs whitened instantly to the bullet-scars. Chipped rocks split with a pop and scuffled through the underbrush. Dreaulond chuckled dryly.
"Hol" on dere, M"sieu"s," he advised. "Kip dat good powdaire."
"Who speaks?" shouted Dunvegan, the chief trader.
"Basil Dreaulond," came the laughing answer. "He wan fren", _aussi_."
Dunvegan knew the voyageur"s voice, and he and his band quitted their cover.
"Come out, Basil," he ordered. "What trick are you playing now?"
The courier"s face, a clean-cut mask of brown cunning, grinned at them from the fringing tamarack.
"You be waste dose b.a.l.l.s," he laughed. "Who you t"ink eet was? Black Ferguson, of de Nor"westaires, mebbe?"
"You rascal," reproved Dunvegan, "your jokes will some day get you a roasting over the wrong fire."
"_Non!_ I tak" de good care of maself. Black Ferguson an" hees men dey don" catch me wit" ma eyes shut."
He stepped forth from his hiding place, a swart, sinewy son of the North, sp.a.w.n of the wilderness, fit to face hazard and court risk in a land where danger rode round with the sun.
A single glance of the courier"s shrewd eyes took in every member of the group before him. One face was strange. Between tall Maskwa, the Ojibway fort runner and the most trusted Indian in the service, and Wahbiscaw, the Cree bowsman, stood the alien. Just the fraction of a minute Basil puzzled over him, then flashed his friendly grin at all his old friends.
"_Bo" jou", bo" jou"_," he greeted, in the northland fashion.
"_Bo jou"_, Dreaulond," they returned. "Good journey?"
"_Oui_," responded the courier. "I have no troubl" wit" de Nor"westaires. Dey too mooch busy get ready for de wintaire trade, mebbe."
"You"ve come over from Nelson House, have you?" questioned Bruce Dunvegan.
"_Vraiment_," Basil answered, tapping the dispatch packet at his belt.
"W"at you doin"?"
"Three things," the chief trader enumerated; "drafting a clerk from Norway House, selecting a site for a new post to hold Fort La Roche in check, and spying upon it and the other Northwesters" forts in hopes of locating Macleod"s daughter. We haven"t succeeded in placing her yet."
At which information Dreaulond"s twinkling eyes a.s.sumed an expression of deepest gravity.
"Ba gosh, dat"s fonny t"ing," he commented. "You hunt an" not find. I find wit"out huntin". I see dat girl in de Cree camp on de Katchawan."
"What?" Dunvegan cried in great surprise. "She is in Running Wolf"s camp? What foolery is that? Is Black Ferguson with her there?"
"_Non_, she be alone," the courier declared. "W"at she doin" I don"
know. W"en I try learn dat, she lak wan speetfire, yes! She have de mission education an" talk lak _diable_. She goin" have de Crees t"row me out de camp. I kip quiet den! You goin" see her?"
"At once!" exclaimed the chief trader, who, seemingly impelled by a sudden feverish unrest, gave swift, tart orders to his men to take up their burdens. "Why didn"t you tell me this before?"
"Dat for tell de Factor," Basil chided. "I no spik de idl" word lak wan old _femme_. How I know you be huntin" de girl?"
"That"s true," admitted Dunvegan. "You couldn"t know our errand. I am somewhat over-anxious, Basil, being in a hurry to finish this hunt and return to Oxford House."
"I believe dat," confided Dreaulond, with meaning in his smile. "_Mais_, who dis new clerk?"
The chief trader turned to his voyageurs, now shouldering their loads and pa.s.sing off in single file.
"Glyndon," he called, "come over. This is Basil Dreaulond, the Company"s finest courier. You may have heard of him at Norway."
"Indeed, yes," Glyndon confirmed, losing his slight, well-formed hand in Basil"s huge paw. "I heard him named with honor and with admiration."
"Ha! dat easy t"ing to say!" exclaimed Dreaulond. "You be Engleesh? You not for ver" long out?"
"I arrived from England on the last ship," Glyndon responded. "They told me there wouldn"t be another for a year." He laughed ingenuously, as if at something strangely outside his own experience.
"The vessel comes but once in twelve months," explained Dunvegan, "to bring supplies and carry back the furs to market. We get our yearly mail with the supplies."
"It seems very odd," the clerk ventured. "This is a tremendous country, and I have everything to learn about it. Perhaps Dreaulond will teach me the elementals!"
"At Oxford House he may," remarked the restive chief trader. "You can renew the acquaintance there. Just now we have something more important to do."
"At Oxford House, then," Glyndon concluded as he followed the rest of the brigade.
Dreaulond brought forth his canoe and pack-sack from the thicket. Before loading up he gazed shrewdly after the slender figure of the English clerk. He had not missed the lines of the aristocratic face; the large, hazel, womanish eyes; the cheek-marks of dissipation that even a lately-acquired tan failed to conceal.