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CHAPTER XXXI
THE LONG TRAIL
For four days Whaley lay between life and death. There were hours whenthe vital current in him ebbed so low that McRae thought it was thebeginning of the end. But after the fifth day he began definitely tomend. His appetite increased. The fever in him abated. The deliriumpassed away. Just a week from the time he had been wounded, McRae puthim on the cariole and took him to town over the hard crust of thesnow.
Beresford returned from Fort Edmonton a few hours later, carrying withhim an appointment for Morse as guide and deputy constable.
"Maintiens le droit," said the officer, clapping his friend on theshoulder. "You're one of us now. A great chance for a short life you'vegot. Time for the insurance companies to cancel any policies they mayhave on you."
Morse smiled. He was only a deputy, appointed temporarily, but itpleased him to be chosen even in this capacity as a member of the mostefficient police force in the world. "Maintiens le droit" was themotto of the Mounted. Tom did not intend that the morale of that bodyshould suffer through him if he could help it.
Angus McRae had offered his dog-train for the pursuit and Beresfordhad promptly accepted. The four dogs of the Scotch trapper were farand away better than any others that could be picked up in a hurry.They had stamina, and they were not savage and wolfish like most ofthose belonging to the Indians and even to the Hudson's Bay Company.
Supplies for the trip had been gathered by Morse. From the Crees hehad bought two hundred pounds of dried fish for the dogs. Their ownprovisions consisted of pemmican, dried caribou meat, flour, salt,tea, and tobacco.
All Faraway was out to see the start. The travelers would certainlycover hundreds and perhaps thousands of miles before their return.Even in that country of wide spaces, where men mushed far when therivers and lakes were closed, this was likely to prove an epic trip.
Beresford cracked the long lash and Cuffy leaned forward in thetraces. The tangle of dogs straightened out and began to move. AFrench voyageur lifted his throat in a peculiar shout that was halfa bark. Indians and half-breeds snowshoed down the street besidethe sled. At the door of the McRae house stood Angus, his wife, anddaughter.
"God wi' you haith," the trapper called.
Jessie waved a scarf, and Beresford, who had spent the previousevening with her, threw up a hand in gay greeting.
The calvacade drew to the edge of the woods. Morse looked back. A slimfigure, hardly distinguishable in the distance, still stood in frontof the McRae house fluttering the scarf.
A turn in the trail hid her. Faraway was shut out of view.
For four or five miles the trappers stayed with them. It was rather acustom of the North to speed travelers on their way in this fashion.At the edge of the first lake the Indians and half-breeds saidgood-bye and turned back.
Morse moved onto the ice and broke trail. The dogs followed intandem--Cuffy, Koona, Bull, and Caesar. They traveled fast over theice and reached the woods beyond. The timber was not thick. Beyondthis was a second lake, a larger one. By the time they had crossedthis, the sun was going down.
The men watched for a sheltered place to camp and as soon as theyfound one, they threw off the trail to the edge of the woods, drawingup the sledge back of them as a wind-break. They gathered pine forfuel and cut balsam boughs for beds. It had come on to snow, and theyate supper with their backs to the drive of the flakes, the hoods oftheir furs drawn over their heads.
The dogs sat round in a half-circle watching them and the frozen fishthawing before the fire. Their faces, tilted a little sideways, earscocked and eyes bright, looked anxiously expectant. When the fish werehalf-thawed, Morse tossed them by turn to the waiting animals, whomanaged to get rid of their supper with a snap and a gulp. Afterwardthey burrowed down in the snow and fell asleep.
On the blazing logs Beresford had put two kettles filled with snow.These he refilled after the snow melted, until enough water was inthem. Into one kettle he put a piece of fat caribou meat. The otherwas to make tea.
Using their snowshoes as shovels, they scraped a place clear andscattered balsam boughs on it. On this they spread an empty floursack, cut open at the side. Tin plates and cups served as dish.
Their supper consisted of soggy bannocks, fat meat, and tea. Whilethey ate, the snow continued to fall. It was not unwelcome, for solong as this lasted the cold could not be intolerable. Moreover,snow makes a good white blanket and protects against sudden drops intemperature.
They changed their moccasins and duffles and pulled on as night-wearlong buffalo-skin boots, hood, mufflers, and fur mits. A heavy furrobe and a blanket were added. Into these last they snuggled down,wrapping themselves up so completely that a tenderfoot would havesmothered for lack of air.
Before they retired, they could hear the ice on the lake cracking likedistant thunder. The trees back of them occasionally snapped from thecold with reports that sounded like pistol shots.
In five minutes both men were asleep. They lay with their headsentirely covered, as the Indians did. Not once during the night didthey stir. To disarrange their bedding and expose the nose or thehands to the air would be to risk being frozen.
Morse woke first. He soon had a roaring fire. Again there were twokettles on it, one for fat meat and the other for strong tea. Nofish were thawing before the heat, for dogs are fed only once a day.Otherwise they get sleepy and sluggish, losing the edge of theirkeenness.
They were off to an early start. There was a cold head wind that wasuncomfortable. For hours they held to the slow, swinging stride of thewebs. Sometimes the trail was through the forest, sometimes in and outof brush and small timber. Twice during the day they crossed lakes andhit up a lively pace. Once they came to a muskeg, four miles across,and had to plough over the moss hags while brush tangled their feetand slapped their faces.
Cuffy was a prince of leaders. He seemed to know by some sixth sensethe best way to wind through underbrush and over swamps. He wasmaster of the train and ruled by strength and courage as well asintelligence. Bull had ideas of his own, but after one sharp brushwith Cuffy, from which he had emerged ruffled and bleeding, the nativedog relinquished claim to dominance.
The travelers made about fifteen miles before noon. They came to asolitary tepee, built on the edge of a lake with a background ofsnow-burdened spruce. This lodge was constructed of poles arrangedcone-shaped side by side, the chinks between plastered with mosswedged in to fill every crevice. A thin wisp of smoke rose from anopen space in the top.
At the sound of the yelping dogs a man lifted the moose-skin curtainthat served as a door. He was an old and wrinkled Cree. His face wasso brown and tough and netted with seams that it resembled a piece ofalligator leather. From out of it peered two very small bright eyes.
"Ugh! Ugh!" he grunted.
This appeared to be all the English that he knew. Beresford tried himin French and discovered he had a smattering of it. After a good manyattempts, the soldier found that he had seen no white man with adog-train in many moons. The Cree lived there alone, it appeared, andtrapped for a living. Why he was separated from all his kin and tribalrelations the young Canadian could not find out at the time. Later helearned that the old fellow was an outcast because he had once shownthe white feather in a battle with Blackfeet fifty years earlier.
Before they left, the travelers discovered that he knew two more wordsof English. One was rum, the other tobacco. He begged for both. Theyleft him a half-foot of tobacco. The scant supply of whiskey they hadbrought was for an emergency.
Just before night fell, Morse shot two ptarmigan in the woods. Thesemade a welcome addition to their usual fare.
Though both the men were experienced in the use of snowshoes, theirfeet were raw from the chafing of the thongs. Before the camp-firethey greased the sore places with tallow. In a few days the irritationdue to the webs would disappear and the leg muscles brought intoservice by this new and steady shuffle would harden and grow fit.
They had built a wind-break of brush
beside the sled and covered theground with spruce boughs after clearing away the snow. Here theyrested after supper, drying socks, duffles, and moccasins, which werewet with perspiration, before the popping fire.
Beresford pulled out his English briar pipe and Tom one picked fromthe Company stock. Smoke wreathed their heads while they loungedindolently on the spruce bed and occasionally exchanged a remark. Theyknew each other well enough for long silences. When they talked, itwas because they had something to say.
The Canadian looked at his friend's new gun-case and remarked with agleam in his eye:
"I spoke for that first, Tom. Had miners on it, I thought."
The American laughed sardonically. "It was a present for a good boy,"he explained. "I've a notion somebody was glad I was mushin' with youon this trip. Maybe you can guess why. Anyhow, I drew a present out ofit."
"I see you did," Beresford answered, grinning.
"I'm to look after you proper an' see you're tucked up."
"Oh, that's it?"
"That's just it."
The constable looked at him queerly, started to say something, thenchanged his mind.