Wrecked but not Ruined, Robert Michael Ballantyne [book series for 10 year olds txt] 📗

creek or gully in wildest confusion. Some of these masses were as large as a small hut, but they were of all sizes as well as shapes. It was a weird scene, and forbidding; nevertheless some human being had seen fit to take up his abode there, as was made apparent by the light referred to by Le Rue.

Picking their way carefully among the boulders, the travellers at last reached a log-hut which was so small, weather-worn, and grey, that, from a short distance, it might have easily been mistaken, even in daylight, for one of the rocks by which it was surrounded.

The door stood wide open, and through it streamed the light of a roaring fire of wood. So powerful was the contrast between the ruddy light and the cold grey scene without, that to the approaching travellers it appeared as if the whole interior of the hut glowed with fervent heat.

In the small doorway stood the figure of a man who was so large as almost to fill up the entrance, and so black, by contrast with the glowing background, that neither feature nor form was distinguishable save his sharp outline. The outline, however, was a remarkably telling one. It told of a broad chest and square shoulders, of massive limbs, and an easy air, and a sturdy attitude, and suggested difficulty in the way of entering that hut without leave asked and obtained.

"Hallo!" exclaimed the outline, in a voice so deep that it must have been unfathomable.

"How d'ee do, Bellew?" cried Reginald Redding, as he drove into the stream of light, pulled up, and sprang from the sleigh.

"Hearty, sir, hearty, thank 'ee," replied the outline, advancing and becoming a little more visible on the surface as he did so. "Hallo! Le Rue, how are 'ee? Glad to see you both. Step in. A good fire on a coldish night is cheery--ain't it, Mister Redding?"

"Indeed it is, Bellew, especially when the night happens to be also darkish."

"Ha! oui," interposed Le Rue, bustling into the hut with the bear-rug, "it vas so darkish dat ve capsize under de cliff an' a'most knock de whole affair to smattoms--sleigh, cheval, an' peepil."

"I'm glad to see that the `peepil' is all right, however," said Bellew, glancing at his visitors with what may be called a grave smile; "it might have bin worse, for that's an ugly corner under the cliff, an' needs careful drivin' even in daylight."

"I've not come off quite scatheless, however," said Redding, rubbing the top of his head tenderly, "for here is a bump that would perplex the whole college of phrenologists."

"Skin broke, sir?" asked Bellew, advancing and examining the part. "No, all right. A good supper will be the best cure for it. If I was a phrenologist now, I'd name it the bump of top-heaviness. Sit down, sir; sit down, Le Rue, an' look after my kettle while I see to your nag."

So saying, their host went out and left his unexpected, but evidently welcome, guests to make themselves comfortable.

Although Jonas Bellew was a recluse, he was by no means an ascetic. He was marked by deep gravity of countenance coupled with a kindly humorous disposition. No one knew where he came from, or why he had taken up his abode in such a lonely spot. Many of the rough fellows who hang on the outskirts of the wilderness had tried as they said, to "pump" him on these points, but Jonas was either a dry well or a deep one, for pumping brought forth nothing. He gained a livelihood by shooting, fishing, trapping wild animals for their skins, and, sometimes, by doing what he called "odd jobs" in the settlements.

"Your home appears to me to grow wilder every time I see it," said Redding, as Bellew re-entered the hut, and busied himself in spreading on a rough deal table the materials of a plain but substantial meal.

"That seems to be the idea of most men who come here," replied the trapper, "but it's not many that favour me with a visit."

"Ha! vraiment, dat must be true," interposed the Canadian, "for no body vill com' here 'xcept them as do want hims legs broke."

"Well, I have seen a few damaged shins and broken heads since I came to this location," said Jonas, "but such accidents occur chiefly among the Canadian French, who seem on the whole to be a clumsy set."

"Not von half so clumsy as de Engleesh, or Irish, or Scosh," retorted Le Rue.

"Perhaps you're right, an' mayhap you're wrong, lad, anyway here is supper. The Frenchmen are always good at their victuals, so sit in an' go to work. Take the keg, Mister Redding. I've not found time yet to make chairs, but it's wonderful how well a man gets along without such luxuries."

"Especially when a man sits down to a venison-steak like this," said the fur-trader, taking the offered seat, while his man sat down on a block of wood set on end, and prepared to prove the truth of the trapper's assertion in regard to French capacity for food.

"'Taint venison," said Bellew, assisting his companions to the meat in question, "it's bear."

"Indeed? and not bad food for a hungry man," returned Redding, as he began supper. "Where got you him?"

"Down near Jenkins Creek, where the McLeods are setting up their saw-mill."

"The McLeods!" exclaimed Redding, looking up suddenly, "have you seen the McLeods?"

"Ay, I've bin helpin' them a bit wi' the mill. Goin' down again to-morrow. If this weather holds, the ice must give way soon, and then we'll be able to push ahead faster."

The trapper said this quietly, and without looking up from the bear-steak with which he was busy, so that Redding's look of surprise appeared to be lost on him. The fur-trader and his man exchanged glances.

For a few minutes the process of mastication completely engrossed the trio, but the thoughts of the fur-trader were busy, for he was disappointed to find that one whom he respected so much as Jonas Bellew should thus coolly state that he was aiding the interlopers.

Presently he laid down his knife and fork, and said:--

"Are you aware, Bellew, that these McLeods have settled themselves on the Company's reserve lands?"

"No, sir, I wasn't aware of it."

"Well, then, I now tell you that they have," said Redding, who, unfortunately for himself and others, possessed an easily-roused spirit and was apt to become irascible when the rights--real or supposed--of the Company which he represented appeared in danger of violation. "At least," he continued, in a less positive tone, "I have reason to believe that such is the case, and I am now on my way to--"

He paused abruptly, feeling the impropriety of revealing his plans to one who, although a quiet and sensible man, and not given to talk too much, was, nevertheless, by his own admission, an aider and abettor of the enemy.

"Whereabouts is the boundary line?" asked Bellew, after a short silence.

"At Jenkins Creek--_that_ creek is the boundary," answered the fur-trader. "On which side of the creek have they begun to build the mill?"

"They haven't begun yet, sir, but I believe they intend to commence on the south side."

"So far well," replied Redding, "but if I find that they have raised a stone or planted a stake on the _north_ side of the creek, I'll--"

Here feeling that he was about to give way to a boastful spirit, he got himself out of the difficulty of having to finish the sentence by making a sudden and somewhat stern demand for "more bear-steak."

"Vid pleasieur, Monsieur," said Le Rue, placing a huge slice on his master's plate.

"Well, sir, I hope you'll find that they haven't overstepped the boundary," said Bellew, "because the McLeods look as if they'd be troublesome customers to deal with."

The fur-trader made no reply. He felt indignant at the bare idea of his being checked in doing his duty by any man, or men, who were "troublesome," by which expression he understood Bellew to mean that they were resolute and physically powerful in opposition; he therefore thought it best to avoid any further tendency to boast by holding his tongue.

Not so his volatile retainer, who stuck his fork into a lump of meat vindictively, as if it had been the body of a McLeod, and exclaimed:--

"Hah! vat you say? troblesom, eh? who care for dat? If de Macklodds do touche, by von small hinch, de lands of de Companie--ve vill--hah!"

Another stab of the fork was all that the savage Le Rue vouchsafed as an explanation of his intentions.

In this frame of mind Reginald Redding and his man started off next morning on foot at an early hour, slept that night at a place called Sam's hut, and, the following evening, drew near to the end of their journey.


CHAPTER THREE.


A BRIEF BUT AGREEABLE MEETING.

The little outskirt settlement of Partridge Bay was one of those infant colonies which was destined to become in future years a flourishing and thickly-peopled district of Canada. At the period of our story it was a mere cluster of dwellings that were little better than shanties in point of architecture and appearance. They were, however, somewhat larger than these, and the cleared fields around them, with here and there a little garden railed in, gave them a more homelike aspect than the dwellings of the wood-men.

The valley in which the settlement stood was one of those magnificent stretches of primeval forest which used to be the hunting-grounds of the red man, and from which he had not at that time been thrust by the "paleface," for, here and there, his wigwam might still be seen sending its wreath of blue smoke above the tree-tops.

It was evening--a calm, sunny, glorious, spring evening--when Redding and his man overtopped the heights that enclosed the vale, and paused as well to gaze upon the scene as to recover breath. Far below them lay the hamlet, a cluster of black dots on a field of pure snow. Roseate lights on undulations, and cold blue shadows in hollows, were tamed down in effect by the windows of the hamlet which shot forth beams of blazing fire at the setting sun. Illimitable space seemed to stretch away to the place where the horizon would have been if it had not lost itself in a golden glory, and this vast reach was a varied irregular network of dark pines and fields of snow--the pines tipped everywhere with sparkling snow-wreaths, the fields streaked everywhere with long shadows. Little winding lines of a grey colour which radiated from the hamlet indicated the tracks where the settlers drove their sleighs and wood-sledges. Many of these were seen moving along the far-off tracks like insects, while the tinkle of the sleigh-bells floated upwards like fairy music.

"Yes, I shall take up my abode there," murmured Redding, as he gazed in rapt admiration on the beautiful scene.

"Monsieur?" said his companion.

"I say that I should like to dwell there," answered Redding. "It is a splendid country, and will be better known in days to come."

"Vraiment, truly, a magnifircent kontry," returned Le Rue, "gorgeows, magnifique! I vould giv moche, ver moche, to