"We haven"t any waders," said Alex, "and I think you"ll find the water pretty cold, but you"ll soon get used it to. Come ahead, then."
They pushed their canoe into the cover of the reeds and gra.s.ses, and disembarking, waded on out toward the outer edge of the marsh, where the water was not quite so deep, yet where they could get cover in rushes and clumps of gra.s.s. Alex posted them in a line across a narrow quarter of the marsh, so that each gun would be perhaps a hundred yards from his neighbor, Jesse, the shortest of the party, taking the shallowest water nearest to the road beyond the marsh.
They had not long to wait, for the air seemed to them quite full of hurrying bands of fowl, so close that they could see their eyes dart glances from side to side, their long necks stretched out, their red feet hugged tight up to their feathers.
It is not to be supposed that any one of our young hunters was an expert wild-fowl shot, for skill in that art comes only with a considerable experience. Moreover, they were not provided with the best of guns and ammunition, but only such as the Post was accustomed to sell to the half-breeds of that country. In spite of all handicaps, however, the sport was keen enough to please them, and successful enough as well, for once in a while one of them would succeed in knocking out of a pa.s.sing flock one or more of the great birds, which splashed famously in the water of the marsh. Sometimes they were unable to find their birds after they had fallen, but they learned to hurry at once to a crippled bird and secure it before it could escape and hide in the gra.s.ses. Presently they had at their feet almost a dozen fine mallards. In that country, where the ducks abound, there had as yet been no shooting done at them, so that they were not really as wild as they are when they reach the southern lat.i.tudes. Neither were their feathers so thick as they are later in the season, when their flight is stronger. The shooting was not so difficult as not to afford plenty of excitement for our young hunters, who called out in glee from one to the other, commenting on this, the last of their many sporting experiences in the north.
They found that Alex, although he had never boasted of his skill, was a very wonderful shot on wild fowl; in fact, he rarely fired at all unless certain he was going to kill his bird, and when he dropped the bird it nearly always was stone-dead.
After a time Rob, hearing what he supposed to be the quacking of a duck in the gra.s.s behind him, started back to find what he fancied was the hidden mallard. He saw Alex looking at him curiously, and once more heard the quacking.
"Why, it"s _you_ who"ve been doing that all the time, Alex!" exclaimed Rob. "I see now why those ducks would come closer to you than to me--you were calling them!"
Alex tried to show Rob how to quack like a duck without using any artificial means, but Rob did not quite get the knack of it that evening. For a time, however, after the other boys had come over also, they all squatted in the gra.s.s near to Alex, and found much pleasure in seeing him decoy the ducks, and do good, clean shooting when they were well within reach.
At last Alex said, "I think this will do for the evening, if you don"t mind. It"s time we were getting on down to the steamer."
The boys had with them their string of ducks, and Alex had piled up nearly two dozen of his own.
"What are we going to do with all of these?" said Rob. "They"re heavy, and our boat"s pretty full right now."
"How many shall you want on the boat?" inquired Alex.
"Well," said Rob, "I don"t know, but from the number of ducks we"ve seen I don"t suppose they"re much of a rarity there any more than they are with you. Why don"t you keep these ducks yourself, Alex, for your family?"
"Very well," said Alex, "suppose you take half dozen or so, and let me get the others when I come back--I"ll pile them up on this muskrat house here, and pick them up after I have left you at the steamer. You see," continued he, "my people live about two miles on the other side of the town, closer to the Hudson Bay post. I must go back and get acquainted with my family."
"Have you any children, Alex?" asked Rob.
"Five," said Alex. "Two boys about as big as you, and three little girls. They all go to school."
"I wish we had known that," said Rob, "when we came through town, for we ought to have called on your family. Never mind, we"ll do that the next time we"re up here."
They paddled on now quietly and steadily along the edge of the marshes, pa.s.sed continually by stirring bands of wild fowl, now indistinct in the dusk. At last they saw the lights of the steamer which was to carry them to the other extremity of Little Slave Lake.
And so at last, after they had gone aboard, it became necessary to part with Alex in turn. Rob called his friends apart for a little whispered conversation. After a time they all went up to Alex carrying certain articles in their hands.
"If you please, Alex," said Rob, "we want to give your children some little things we don"t need any more ourselves. Here"s our pocket-knives, and some handkerchiefs, and what toffy John has left, and a few little things. Please take them to your boys, and to the girls, if they"ll have them, and say we want to come and see them some time."
"That"s very nice," said Alex. "I thank you very much."
He shook each of them by the hand quietly, and then, dropping lightly into the _Jaybird_ as she lay alongside, paddled off steadily into the darkness, with Indian dignity now, saying no further word of farewell.
x.x.xII
LEAVING THE TRAIL
Continually there was something new for the travelers, even after they had finished their steamboat journey across the lake on the second day. Now they were pa.s.sing down through the deep and crooked little river which connects Slave Lake with the Athabasca River. They made what is known as the Mirror Landing portage in a York boat which happened to be above the rapids of the Little Slave River, where a wagon portage usually is made of some fifteen or sixteen miles. Here on the Athabasca they found yet another steamboat lying alongsh.o.r.e, and waiting for the royal mails from Peace River Landing.
This steamer, the _North Star_, in common with that plying on Little Slave Lake, they discovered to be owned by a transportation company doing considerable business in carrying settlers and settlers"
supplies into that upper country. Indeed, they found the owner of the boat, a stalwart and kindly man, himself formerly a trader among the Indians, and now a prominent official in the Dominion government, ready to accompany them as far as Athabasca Landing, and eager to talk further with Mr. Wilc.o.x regarding coming development of the country which Moise had called the Land of Plenty.
They found that the Athabasca River also flows to the northward in its main course, joining the water of the Peace River in the great Mackenzie, the artery of this region between the Rockies and the Arctics; but here it makes a great bend far to the south, as though to invite into the Far North any one living in the civilized settlements far below. Their maps, old and new, became objects of still greater interest to the young travelers, both on board the vessel, where they had talked with every one, as usual, regarding their trip and the country, and after they had left the steamer at the thriving frontier town of Athabasca Landing.
Here they were almost in touch with the head of the rails, but still clinging to their wish to travel as the natives long had done, they took wagon transportation from Athabasca Landing to the city of Edmonton, something like a hundred miles southward from the terminus of their water journey. At this point, indeed, they felt again that their long trail was ended, for all around them were tall buildings, busy streets, blazing electric lights, and all the tokens of a thriving modern city. Here, too, they and their journey became objects of newspaper comment, and for the brief time of their stay the young _voyageurs_ were quite lionized by men who could well understand the feat they had performed.
Mr. Wilc.o.x was obliged to remain in the north for some time yet in connection with his engineering duties, which would not close until the approach of winter. He therefore sent the boys off alone for their railway journey, which would take them first to Calgary, and then across the Rockies and Selkirks through Banff, and forward to Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle, from which latter point they were expected to take coast boats up the long Alaska coast to Valdez--a sea voyage of seven days more from Seattle.
Mr. Wilc.o.x gave them full instructions regarding the remaining portions of their journey, and at length shook hands with them as he left them on the sleeping-car.
"Tell the folks in Valdez that I"ll be back home on one of the last boats. So long! Take care of yourselves!"
He turned, left the car, and marched off up the platform without looking around at them even to wave a hand. His kindly look had said good-by. The boys looked after him and made no comment. They saw that they were in a country of men. They were beginning to learn the ways of the breed of men who, in the last century or so, have conquered the American continent for their race--a race much the same, under whatever flag.
Even on the railway train they found plenty of new friends who were curious to learn of their long journey across the Rockies. The boys gave a modest account of themselves, and were of the belief that almost any one could have done as much had they had along such good guides as Alex and Moise.
The Rockies and the Selkirks impressed them very much, and they still consulted their maps, especially at the time when they found themselves approaching the banks of the Columbia River.
"This river and the Fraser are cousins," said Rob, "like the Athabasca and the Peace. Both of these rivers west of the Rockies head far to the south, then go far to the north, and swing back--but they run to the Pacific instead of to the Arctic. Now right here"--he put his finger on the place marked as the Yellowhead Pa.s.s--"is the head of the Saskatchewan River, and the fur-traders used to cross here from the Saskatchewan to the Columbia just the way Mackenzie and Fraser and Finlay used to cross to the Peace from the Fraser. I tell you what I think, fellows. I"d like to come back next year some time, and have a go at this Yellowhead Pa.s.s, the way we did at that on the head of the Peace--wouldn"t you? We could study up on Alexander Henry, and Thompson, and all those fellows, just as we did on Fraser and Mackenzie for the northern pa.s.s."
"Well," said John, "if we could have Alex and Moise, there"s nothing in the world I"d like better than just that trip."
"That"s the way I feel, too," added Jesse. "But now we"re done with this trip. When you stop to think about it, we"ve been quite a little way from home, haven"t we?"
"I feel as though I"d been gone a year," said John.
"And now it"s all over," added Rob, "and we"re really going back to our own country, I feel as if it would be a year from here to home."
Jesse remained silent for a time. "Do you know what I am thinking about now? It"s about our "lob-stick" tree that our men trimmed up for us. We"ll put one on every river we ever run. What do you say to that?"
"No," replied Rob, "we can"t do that for ourselves--that has to be voted to us by others, and only if we deserve it. I"ll tell you what--let"s do our best to _deserve_ it first!"
The others of the Young Alaskans agreed to this very cheerfully, and thus they turned happily toward home.
THE END