Baptiste Warder was immoveable; it ended in his going off in the cariole with Lambert to inform the governor of the colony, who was also chief of the Hudson"s Bay Company in Red River, and to rouse the settlement.
They had to pa.s.s the cottage of Angus Macdonald on the way.
"Oh! wow!" cried that excitable old settler when he heard the news.
"Can it pe possible? So many tead an" tying. Oh! wow!--Here, Martha!
Martha! where iss that wuman? It iss always out of the way she iss when she"s want.i.t. Ay, Peegwish, you will do equally well. Go to the staple, man, an" tell the poy to put the mare in the cariole. Make him pe quick; it"s slow he iss at the best, whatever."
Lambert did not wait to hear the remarks of Angus, but drove off at once. Angus put on his leather coat, fut cap, and mittens, and otherwise prepared himself for a drive over the snow-clad plains to Fort Garry, where the Governor dwelt, intending to hear what was going to be done, and offer his services.
With similarly benevolent end in view, old Ravenshaw harnessed his horse and made for the same goal, regardless alike of rheumatism, age, and inclement weather. At a certain point, not far from the creek, the old trader"s private track and that which led to the house of Angus Macdonald united, and thereafter joined the main road, which road, by the way, was itself a mere track beaten in the snow, with barely room for two carioles to pa.s.s. Now, it so happened that the neighbours came up to the point of junction at the same moment. Both were driving hard, being eager and sympathetic about the sufferings of the plain-hunters.
To have continued at the same pace would have been to insure a meeting and a crash. One _must_ give way to the other! Since the affair of the knoll these two men had studiously cut each other. They met every Sabbath day in the same church, and felt this to be incongruous as well as wrong. The son of the one was stolen by savages. The son of the other was doing his utmost to rescue the child. Each regretted having quarrelled with the other, but pride was a powerful influence in both.
What was to be done? Time for thought was short, for two fiery steeds were approaching each other at the rate of ten miles an hour. Who was to give in?
"I"ll see both carioles smashed to atoms first!" thought Ravenshaw, grinding his teeth.
"She"ll tie first," thought Angus, pursing his lips.
The instinct of self-preservation caused both to come to a dead and violent halt when within six yards of the meeting-point. A happy thought burst upon Angus at that instant.
"Efter you, sir," he said, with a palpable sneer, at the same time backing his horse slightly.
It was an expression of mock humility, and would become an evidence of superior courtesy if Ravenshaw should go insolently on. If, on the other hand, he should take it well, a friendly reference to the roads or the weather would convert the sneer into a mere nasal tone.
"Ah, thanks, thanks," cried Mr Ravenshaw heartily, as he drove past; "bad news that about the plain-hunters. I suppose you"ve heard it."
"Ay, it iss pad news--ferry pad news inteed, Mister Ruvnshaw. It will pe goin" to the fort ye are?"
"Yes; the poor people will need all the help we can give them."
"They wull that; oo ay."
Discourse being difficult in the circ.u.mstances, they drove the remainder of the way in silence, but each knew that the breach between them was healed, and felt relieved. Angus did not, however, imagine that he was any nearer to his desires regarding the knoll. Full well did he understand and appreciate the unalterable nature of Sam Ravenshaw"s resolutions, but he was pleased again to be at peace, for, to say truth, he was not fond of war, though ready to fight on the smallest provocation.
Baptiste Warder was right in expecting that the Company would lend their powerful aid to the rescue.
The moment the Governor heard of the disaster, he took immediate and active steps for sending relief to the plains. Clothing and provisions were packed up as fast as possible, and party after party was sent out with these. But in the nature of things the relief was slow. We have said that some of the hunters and their families had followed the Indians and buffalo to a distance of between 150 and 200 miles. The snow was now so deep that the only means of transport was by dog-sledges. Dogs, being light and short-limbed, can travel where horses cannot, but even dogs require a track, and the only way of making one on the trackless prairie, or in the forest, is by means of a man on snow-shoes, who walks ahead of the dogs and thus "beats the track." The men employed, however, were splendid and persevering walkers, and their hearts were in the work.
Both Samuel Ravenshaw and Angus Macdonald gave liberally to the cause; and each obtaining a team of dogs, accompanied one of the relief parties in a dog-cariole. If the reader were to harness four dogs to a slipper-bath, he would have a fair idea of a dog-cariole and team.
Louis Lambert beat the track for old Ravenshaw. He was a recognised suitor at Willow Creek by that time. The old gentleman was well accustomed to the dog-cariole, but to Angus it was new--at least in experience.
"It iss like as if she was goin" to pathe," he remarked, with a grim smile, on stepping into the machine and sitting down, or rather reclining luxuriously among the buffalo robes.
The dogs attempted to run away with him, and succeeded for a hundred yards or so. Then they got off the track, and discovered that Angus was heavy. Then they stopped, put out their tongues, and looked humbly back for the driver to beat the track for them.
A stout young half-breed was the driver. He came up and led the way until they reached the open plains, where a recent gale had swept away the soft snow, and left a long stretch that was hard enough for the dogs to walk on without sinking. The team was fresh and lively.
"She"d petter hold on to the tail," suggested Angus.
The driver a.s.sented. He had already left the front, and allowed the cariole to pa.s.s him, in order to lay hold of the tail-line and check the pace, but the dogs were too sharp for him. They bolted again, ran more than a mile, overturned the cariole, and threw its occupant on the snow, after which they were brought up suddenly by a bush.
On the way the travellers pa.s.sed several others of the wealthy settlers who were going personally to the rescue. Sympathy for the plain-hunters was universal. Every one lent a willing hand. The result was that the lives of hundreds were saved, though many were lost. Their sufferings were so great that some died on their road to the colony, after being relieved at Pembina. Those found alive had devoured their horses, dogs, raw hides, leather, and their very moccasins. Mr Ravenshaw and his neighbour pa.s.sed many corpses on the way, two of which were scarcely cold. They also pa.s.sed at various places above forty sufferers in seven or eight parties, who were crawling along with great difficulty. To these they distributed the provisions they had brought with them. At last the hunters were all rescued and conveyed to the settlement--one man, with his wife and three children, having been dug out of the snow, where they had been buried for five days and nights. The woman and children recovered, but the man died.
Soon after this sad event the winter began to exhibit unwonted signs of severity. It had begun earlier, and continued later than usual. The snow averaged three feet deep in the plains and four feet in the woods, and the cold was intense, being frequently down to forty-five degrees below zero of Fahrenheit"s scale, while the ice measured between five and six feet in thickness on the rivers.
But the great, significant, and prevailing feature of that winter was snow. Never within the memory of man had there been such heavy, continuous, persistent snow. It blocked up the windows so that men had constantly to clear a pa.s.sage for daylight. It drifted up the doors so that they were continually cutting pa.s.sages for themselves to the world outside. It covered the ground to such an extent that fences began to be obliterated, and landmarks to disappear, and it weighted the roofs down until some of the weaker among them bid fair to sink under the load.
"A severe winter" was old Mr Ravenshaw"s usual morning remark as he went to the windows, pipe in hand, before breakfast. To which his better half invariably replied, "Never saw anything like it before;" and Miss Trim remarked, "It is awful."
"It snows hard--whatever," was Angus Macdonald"s usual observation about the same hour. To which his humble and fast friend Peegwish--who a.s.sisted in his kitchen--was wont to answer, "Ho!" and glare solemnly, as though to intimate that his thoughts were too deep for utterance.
Thus the winter pa.s.sed away, and when spring arrived it had to wage an unusually fierce conflict before it gained the final victory over ice and snow.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
VICTORY!
But before that winter closed, ay, before it began, a great victory was gained, which merits special mention here. Let us retrace our steps a little.
One morning, while Ian Macdonald was superintending the preparation of breakfast in some far-away part of the western wilderness, and Michel Rollin was cutting firewood, Victor Ravenshaw came rushing into camp with the eager announcement that he had seen the footprints of an _enormous_ grizzly bear!
At any time such news would have stirred the blood of Ian, but at that time, when the autumn was nearly over, and hope had almost died in the breast of our scholastic backwoodsman, the news burst upon him with the thrilling force of an electric shock.
"Now, Ian, take your gun and go in and win," said Victor with enthusiasm, for the youth had been infected with Rollin"s spirit of gallantry.
"You see," Rollin had said to Victor during a confidential _tete-a-tete_, "ven a lady is in de case ye must bow de head. Ian do love your sister. Ver goot. Your sister do vish for a bar-claw collar.
Ver goot. Vell, de chance turn up at last--von grizzly bar do appear.
Who do shot "im? Vy, Ian, certaintly. Mais, it is pity he am so "bominibly bad shot!"
Victor, being an unselfish fellow, at once agreed to this; hence his earnest advice that Ian should take his gun and go in and win. But Ian shook his head.
"My dear boy," he said, with a sigh, "it"s of no use my attempting to shoot a bear, or anything else. I don"t know what can be wrong with my vision, I can see as clear and as far as the best of you, and I"m not bad, you"ll allow, at following up a trail over hard ground; but when it comes to squinting along the barrel of a gun I"m worse than useless.
It"s my belief that if I took aim at a haystack at thirty yards I"d miss it. No, Vic, I must give up the idea of shooting altogether."
"What! have you forgotten the saying, `Faint heart never won fair lady?"" exclaimed Victor, in surprise.
"Nay, lad, my memory is not so short as that, neither is my heart as faint as you seem to think it. I do intend to go in and win, but I shall do it after a fashion of my own, Vic."
Rollin, who came up at the moment and flung a bundle of sticks on the fire, demanded to know what "vas the vashion" referred to.
"That I won"t tell you at present, boys," said Ian; "but, if you have any regard for me, you"ll make me a solemn promise not in any way to interfere with me or my plans unless you see me in actual and imminent danger of losing my life."
"Jus" so," said Rollin, with a nod, "ye vill not step in to de reskoo till you is at de very last gasp."
Having obtained the requisite promise, Ian set off with his comrades to examine the bear"s track. There could be but one opinion as to the size of the grizzly which had made it. As Victor had said, it was enormous, and showed that the animal had wandered about hither and thither, as if it had been of an undecided temperament. Moreover the track was quite fresh.
Of course there was much eager conversation about it among the friends; carried on in subdued tones and whispers, as if they feared that the bear might be listening in a neighbouring bush. After discussing the subject in every point of view, and examining the tracks in every light, they returned to the camp, at Victor"s suggestion, to talk it over more fully, and make preparations for the hunt. Ian, however, cut short their deliberations by reminding his comrades of their promise, and claiming the strict fulfilment of it.
"If this thing is to be undertaken by me," he said, "I must have it all my own way and do the thing entirely by myself."