Besides the factor and the two clerks these were the only white people at the Fort, and naturally they grew to be close companions. The white men, too, were the only ones of the Post folk that could speak English, for the few Eskimos and Indians that lived on the reservation knew only their respective native tongue.
And so the time pa.s.sed until, at last, the middle of March came, with its lengthening days and stormy weather, and Bob was beginning to fear that Mr. MacPherson had abandoned the project of sending him out with a mail, for nothing further had been said about his going since the conversation on the day of his arrival. For two or three days he had been upon the lookout for a favourable opportunity to ask whether or not he was to go, and was thinking about it one Friday morning as he worked at the wood-pile, when "Secretary Bayard" hailed him:
"Hey, there, Bob! The boss wants you."
This was auspicious, and Bob hurried over to the factor"s inner office, where he found Mr. MacPherson waiting for him.
"Well, Ungava Bob," the factor greeted, "are you getting tired of Ungava and anxious to get away?"
"I"m likin" un fine, sir, but wantin" t" be goin" home wonderful bad,"
answered Bob.
"I suppose you are. I suppose you are. I remember when I was young and first left home, how badly I wanted to go back," he said, reminiscently. "That was a long while ago and there"s no one for me to go home to now--they"re all dead--all dead--and it"s too late."
He was silent for a little in meditation, and seemed to have quite forgotten Bob. Then suddenly bringing himself from the past to the present again, he continued:
"Yes, yes, you want to go home, and I"m going to start you on Monday morning. I"ll give you a packet of very important letters that you will deliver to Mr. Forbes, the factor at Fort Pelican, and I shall hold you responsible for their safe delivery. Akonuk and Matuk will go with you as far as Kangeva, where they will try to get two other Eskimos with a good team of dogs to take you on to Rigolet. But it may be they"ll have to go farther, to find drivers that know the way, and that will delay you some. You"ll have time to reach Rigolet, however, before the break-up if you push on. The Eskimos will lose some time visiting with their friends when they meet them on the way, and I"ve allowed for that. Now, be ready to start on Monday. The clerks will fix you up with what supplies you will need for the journey."
"Yes, sir. I"ll be ready, an" thank you, sir."
"Hold on," said the factor as Bob turned to go. "Here"s a rifle that I"m going to let you take with you, for you may need it." He picked up a gun that had been leaning against the wall beside him. "It"s a 44 repeating Winchester that I"ve used for three or four years, and it"s a good one. I"ve got a heavier one now for seals and white whales, and I"ll give you this if you take the letters through safely. Is that a bargain?"
Bob"s eyes bulged and his pleasure was manifest.
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I"ll not be losin" th" letters."
It was the first repeating rifle--the first rifle, in fact, of any kind--that he had ever seen, and as Mr. MacPherson explained and ill.u.s.trated to him its manipulation, he thought it the most marvellous piece of mechanism in the world.
"Now be careful how you handle it," cautioned the factor after the arm had been thoroughly described. "You see that when you throw a cartridge into the barrel by the lever action it c.o.c.ks the gun, and if you"re not going to discharge it again immediately you must let the hammer down. It shoots a good many times farther, too, than your old gun, so be sure there are no Eskimos within half a mile of its muzzle or you"ll be killing some of them, and I don"t want that to happen, for I need them all to hunt. Besides, if you killed one of them his friends would be putting you out of the way so you"d kill no more, and then my packet of letters wouldn"t be delivered. Now look out."
"I"ll be rare careful of un, sir."
"Very well, see that you are. Be ready to start, now, at daylight, Monday."
"I"ll be ready, sir."
Bob"s delight was little short of ecstatic as he strode out of the office with his rifle.
The next day (Sat.u.r.day) "Secretary Bayard," with voluminous comments and cautions in reference to the undertaking, the Eskimos and things in general, helped him and the two Eskimos that were to accompany him put in readiness his supplies, which consisted of hardtack, jerked venison, fat pork--the only provisions they had which would not freeze--tea, two kettles, sulphur matches, ammunition, and a reindeer skin sleeping bag. The Eskimos possessed sleeping bags of their own.
Blubber and white whale meat, frozen very hard, were packed for dog food.
An axe, a small jack plane and two snow knives were the only tools to be carried. This knife had a blade about two feet in length and resembled a small, broad-bladed sword. It was to be used in the construction of snow igloos. The jack plane was needed to keep the komatik runners smooth.
Instead of the runners being shod with whale-bone, as in many places in the North, the Eskimos of Ungava apply a turf--which is stored for the purpose in the short summer season--and mixed with water to the consistency of mud. This is moulded on the runners with the hands in a thick, broad, semicircular shape, and freezes as hard as gla.s.s. Then its irregularities are planed smooth, and it slips easily over the snow and ice.
Finally, all the preparations were completed, and Bob looked forward in a high state of excited antic.i.p.ation to the great journey of new experiences and adventures that lay before him to be crowned by the joy of his home-coming.
But a thousand miles separated Bob from his home and danger and death lurked by the way. Human plans and day-dreams are not considered by the Providence that moulds man"s fortune, and it is a blessed thing that human eyes cannot look into the future.
XIX
AT THE MERCY OF THE WIND
In the starlight of Monday morning Akonuk and Matuk harnessed their twelve big dogs. Fierce creatures these animals were, scarcely less wild than the wolves that prowled over the hills behind the Fort, of which they were the counterpart, and more than once the Eskimos had to beat them with the b.u.t.t end of a whip to stop their fighting and bring them to submission.
The load had already been lashed upon the komatik and the mud on the runners rubbed over with lukewarm water which had frozen into a thin glaze of ice that would slip easily over the snow.
Mr. MacPherson gave Bob the package of letters, with a final injunction not to lose them when at length the dogs were harnessed and all was ready. Good-byes were said and Bob and his two Eskimo companions were off.
The snow was packed hard and firm, so that neither the dogs nor the komatik broke through, and the animals, fresh and eager, started at a fast pace and maintained an even, steady trot throughout the day.
Occasionally there were hills to climb, and some of these were so steep that it was necessary for Bob and the Eskimos to haul upon the traces with the dogs, and now and then they had to lift the komatik over rocky places, and on one river that they crossed they were forced to cut in several places a pa.s.sage around ice hills, where the tide had piled the ice blocks thirty or forty feet high. But for the most part the route lay over a rolling country near the coast.
Only at long intervals were trees to be seen, and these were very small and stunted, and grew in sheltered hollows. At noon they halted in one of these hollows to build a fire, over which they melted snow in one of the kettles and made tea, with which they washed down some hardtack and jerked venison.
That night when they stopped to make their camp, sixty miles lay behind them. The going had been good and they had done a splendid day"s work.
Before unharnessing the dogs, which would have immediately attacked and destroyed the goods upon the sledge had they been released, the Eskimos went about building an igloo.
A good bank of snow was selected and out of this Akonuk cut blocks as large as he could lift and placed them on edge in a circle about seven feet in diameter in the interior. As each block was placed it was trimmed and fitted closely to its neighbour. Then while Matuk cut more blocks and handed them to Akonuk as they were needed, the latter standing in the centre of the structure placed them upon edge upon the other blocks, building them up in spiral form, and narrowing in each upper round until the igloo a.s.sumed the form of a dome. When it was nearly as high as his head, the upper tier of blocks was so close together that a single large block was sufficient to close the aperture at the top. This block was like the keystone in an arch, and held the others firmly in place. Akonuk now cut a round hole through the side of the igloo close to the bottom, and large enough for him to crawl through on his hands and knees.
When the Eskimos began building the snow house Bob commenced unloading the komatik, but Matuk called "Chuly, chuly,"--wait a little--to him, and said "tamaany,"--here--a suggestion that he would be more useful in helping to c.h.i.n.k up the crevices between the blocks of snow on the igloo after Akonuk placed them This he did, and in half an hour from the time they halted the igloo was completed and was so strongly built a man could have stood on its top without fear of breaking it down.
The tops of spruce boughs were now cut and spread within, after which they unlashed the komatik, and, covering the bed of boughs with deerskins, stored everything that the dogs would be likely to destroy safely inside the igloo. This done the dogs were unharnessed and fed, the men standing over the animals with stout sticks to prevent their fighting while they ravenously gulped down the chunks of frozen whale meat.
This function completed, a fire was made outside the igloo and tea brewed. With the kettle of hot tea the three crawled into the igloo, dragging after them a block of snow which Akonuk fitted neatly into the entrance and c.h.i.n.ked the edges with loose snow.
Matuk now brought forth an Eskimo lamp into which he squeezed the oil from a piece of seal blubber, first pounding the blubber with the axe head, and with moss to serve the purpose of a wick, the lamp was lighted. This lamp, which was made of stone cut in the shape of a half moon, was about ten inches long, four inches wide and an inch deep.
The moss that served as a wick was arranged along the straight side, and gave out a strong, fishy odour as it burned.
Besides the tea, hardtack and jerked venison, Bob ate pieces of the frozen fat pork which had been boiled before starting, and found it very delicious, as fat always is to a traveller in the far North. The Eskimos each accepted a small piece of it from him, but when he offered them a second portion they both said "Taemet,"--Thank you, enough--and instead helped themselves liberally to raw seal blubber, which they ate with an evident relish and gusto along with the jerked venison and hardtack.
Akonuk, the older of these men, was perhaps thirty-five years of age, nearly six feet in height and well proportioned. Matuk was not so tall, but like Akonuk was well formed. Both were muscular and powerful men physically, and both had round, fat faces that were full of good nature.
Intense as was the cold out of doors, the stone lamp soon made the igloo so warm within that all were compelled to remove their outer skin garments. The snow, however, was not melted, but remained quite hard and firm.
The Eskimos talked and smoked for a whole hour after supper, before stretching in their sleeping bags, but Bob crawled into his almost immediately, for he was very weary after his long day"s travel. His knowledge of their language was not sufficient for him to take part in the conversation, or, indeed, to understand much they said, and the constant talk soon became tiresome to him, though he kept his ears open with a view to adding to his Eskimo vocabulary whenever an opportunity offered.
""Tis a strange language an" I"m wonderin" how they understands un,"
he observed as he turned over to go to sleep.
Very early the next morning he heard Akonuk calling to Matuk to wake up. Then for a little while the two Eskimos conversed together and finally the lamp was lighted. Over this a snow knife was stuck into the side of the igloo and the kettle hung upon the knife in such a position that it was directly over the flame, and snow, cut from the side of the igloo near the bottom, was melted for tea, and thus the simple breakfast was prepared without going out of doors.
When Bob came out of his bag to eat he realized that a storm was raging outside, for he could hear the wind roaring around the igloo, and Akonuk made him understand that a heavy snow-storm was in progress and a continuation of the journey that day quite out of the question.