Just below the place where Hubbard caught so many fish that day in August that we killed the geese, we stopped for a moment to rest.
Hardly had we halted when George grabbed Hubbard"s rifle, exclaiming, "Deer!" About four hundred yards below us, a magnificent caribou, his head held high, dashed across the stream and into the bush. He was on our lee and had winded us. No shot was fired. One fleeting glance, and he was gone. Our feelings can be imagined. His capture would have secured our safety.
We struggled on. At midday we ate our last grouse. At this stopping place George abandoned his waterproof camp bag and his personal effects that he might be able to carry Hubbard"s rifle. This relieved Hubbard of seven pounds, but he again failed before we reached our night camp.
It was like the previous evening. With jaws set he tottered grimly on until his legs refused to carry him farther, and he sank to the ground.
Again I helped him into camp, and returned for his pack.
We pitched the tent facing a big rock so that the heat from the fire, blazing between, might be reflected into the tent, the front of which was thrown wide open. Of course George and I did all the camp work.
Fortunately there was not much to do; our camps being pitched on the sites of previous ones, we had stakes ready to hand for the tent, and in this part of the country we were able to find branches and logs that we could burn without cutting. We still had one axe with us, but neither George nor I had the strength to swing it.
The night was cold and damp. For supper we had another piece of the caribou hide, and water from the much-boiled bones with what I believed was the last of the pea meal--about two spoonfuls that Hubbard shook into the pot from the package, which he then threw away. As we reclined in the open front of the tent before the fire, I again read from the Bible, and again a feeling of religious exaltation came to Hubbard. "I"m so happy, and oh! so sleepy," he murmured, and was quiet. He did not make his usual entry in his diary. In my own diary for this date I find:
"Hubbard"s condition is pitiable, but he bears himself like the hero that he is--trying always to cheer and encourage us. He is visibly failing. His voice is very weak and low. I fear he will break down at every step. O G.o.d, what can we do! How can we save him!"
On Sat.u.r.day (October 17th) threatening clouds overcast the sky, and a raw wind was blowing. It penetrated our rags and set us a-shiver. At dawn we had more water from the bones and more of the hide. Cold and utterly miserable, we forced our way along. Our progress was becoming slower and slower. But every step was taking us nearer home, we said, and with that thought we encouraged ourselves. At noon we came upon our first camp above the Susan River. There George picked up one of our old flour bags. A few lumps of mouldy flour were clinging to it, and he sc.r.a.ped them carefully into the pot to give a little substance to the bone water. We also found a box with a bit of baking powder still in it. The powder was streaked with rust from the tin, but we ate it all.
Then Hubbard made a find--a box nearly half full of pasty mustard.
After we had each eaten a mouthful, George put the remainder in the pot. He was about to throw the box away when Hubbard asked that it be returned to him. Hubbard took the box and sat holding it in his hand.
"That box came from Congers," he said, as if in a reverie. "It came from my home in Congers. Mina has had this very box in her hands. It came from the little grocery store where I"ve been so often. Mina handed it to me before I left home. She said the mustard might be useful for plasters. We"ve eaten it instead. I wonder where my girl is now. I wonder when I"ll see her again. Yes, she had that very box in her hands-in her hands! She"s been such a good wife to me."
Slowly he bent his head, and the tears trickled down his cheeks.
George and I turned away.
It was near night when we reached the point near the junction of the Susan River and Goose Creek where we were to cross the river to what had been our last camping ground in the awful valley, and which was to prove our last camp in Labrador. Hubbard staggered along during the afternoon with the greatest difficulty, and finally again sank to the ground, completely exhausted. George took his pack across the river.
While he crouched there on the trail, Hubbard"s face bore an expression of absolute despair. At length I helped him to his feet, and in silence we forded the shallow stream.
Our camp was made a short distance below the junction of the streams, among the fir trees a little way from the river bank. Here and there through the forest were numerous large rocks. Before one of these we pitched the tent, with the front of it open to receive the heat from the fire as it was reflected from the rock. More bone water and hide served us for supper, with the addition of a yeast cake from a package George had carried throughout the trip and never used. Huddling in the front of the tent, we counselled.
"Well, boys," said Hubbard, "I"m busted. I can"t go any farther--that"s plain. I can"t go any farther. We"ve got to do something."
In the silence the crackling of the logs became p.r.o.nounced.
"George," Hubbard continued, "maybe you had better try to reach Blake"s camp, and send in help if you"re strong enough to get there. If you find a cache, and don"t find Blake, try to get back with some of the grub. There"s that old bag with a little flour in it--you might find that. And then the milk powder and the lard farther down. Maybe Wallace could go with you as far as the flour and bring back a little of it here. What do you say, b"y?"
"I say it"s well," I answered. "We"ve got to do something at once."
"It"s the only thing to do," said George. "I"m willin", and I"ll do the best I can to find Blake and get help."
"Then," said Hubbard, "you"d better start in the morning, boys. If you don"t find the bag, you"d better go on with George, Wallace; for then there would be no use of your trying to get back here. Yes, boys, you"d better start in the morning. I"ll be quite comfortable here alone until help comes."
"I"ll come back, flour or no flour," I said, dreading the thought of his staying there alone in the wilderness.
We planned it all before Hubbard went to sleep. George and I, when we started in the morning, were to carry as little as possible. I thought I should be able to reach the flour bag and be back within three days.
We were to prepare for Hubbard a supply of wood, and leave him everything on hand that might be called food--the bones and the remainder of the hide, a sack with some lumps of flour sticking to it that I had recovered at this camp, and the rest of the yeast cakes.
George and I were to depend solely on the chance of finding game.
"I"m much relieved now," said Hubbard, when it had all been settled.
"I feel happy and contented. I feel that our troubles are about ended.
I am very, very happy and contented."
He lay down in his blanket. After a little he said: "B"y, I"m rather chilly; won"t you make the fire a little bigger."
I threw on more wood, and when I sat down I told him I should keep the fire going all night; for the air was damp and chill.
"Oh, thank you, b"y," he murmured, "thank you. You"re so good." After another silence, the words came faintly: "B"y, won"t you read to me those two chapters we"ve had before?--the fourteenth of John and the thirteenth of First Corinthians... I"d like to hear them again, b"y...
I"m very... sleepy... but I want to hear you read before... I go... to sleep."
Leaning over so that the light of the fire might shine on the Book, I turned to the fourteenth of John and began: ""Let not your heart be troubled"" I paused to glance at Hubbard. He was asleep. Like a weary child, he had fallen asleep with the first words. The dancing flames lit up his poor, haggard, brown face; but upon it now there was no look of suffering; it was radiant with peace.
George lay by his side, also asleep. Thus I began a night of weary vigil and foreboding. My heart was heavy with a presentiment of something dreadful. In the forest beyond the fire the darkness was intense. There was a restless stir among the fir tops; then a weary, weary sighing. The wind had arisen. I dozed. But what was that! I sat suddenly erect.
On the canvas above me sounded a patter, patter, patter. Rain!
Gradually the real and the seeming became blended. Beyond the fire-glow, on the edge of the black pall of night, horrid shapes began to gather. They leered at me, and mocked me, and oh! they were telling me something dreadful was going to happen. A sudden jerk, and I sat up and stared wildly about me. Nothing but the sighing tree-tops, and the patter, patter, patter of the rain. The fire had died down. I struggled to my feet, and threw on more wood.
Again the horrid shapes leered at me from out the gloom. Then I heard myself exclaiming, "No, no, no!" The nameless dread was strong upon me.
I listened intently for Hubbard"s breathing. Had it ceased? I crawled over and peered long and anxiously at his face--his face which was so spectral and wan in the uncertain firelight. Twice I did this. A confused sense of things evil and malicious, a confused sense of sighing wind and pattering rain, a confused sense of starts and jerks and struggles with wood, and the night wore on.
The black slowly faded into drab. The trees, dripping with moisture, gradually took shape. The day of our parting had come.
XVII. THE PARTING
It was a drizzling rain, and the sombre clouds hung low in the sky.
The wind appeared to be steadily increasing. The day was Sunday, October 18th. Presently George sat up, rubbed his eyes and gazed about him for a moment in bewilderment.
"Mornin", Wallace," he said, when he had collected his senses, "that blamed rain will make the travellin" hard, won"t it?"
He tied the pieces of blanket to his feet, and started for the river to get a kettle of water with which to reboil the bones. The movement aroused Hubbard, and he, too, sat up.
"How"s the weather, b"y?" he asked.
"It makes me think of Longfellow"s "Rainy Day,"" I replied. ""The day is cold, and dark, and dreary.""
"Yes," he quickly returned; "but
""Be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.""
I looked at him with admiration.
"Hubbard," I exclaimed, "you"re a wonder! You"ve a way of making our worst troubles seem light. I"ve been sitting here imagining all sorts things."
"There"s no call to worry, by," he smilingly said; "we"ll soon have grub now, and then we can rest and sleep--and get strong."
He arose from his blanket, and walked out of the tent to look at the sky. Slowly he returned, and sank wearily down.