CHAPTER IX
HOW THE GREAT BULL FLED FOR HIS LIFE
All the afternoon they laboured on and on, and by degrees two thingscame to pass. The woods thinned, there were open spaces, the banks grewlower and more open. They were coming to the lake.
The other obvious change was in the wind. It had veered to the north andblew bitterly cold, while fine particles of frozen snow began to strikethe travellers faster and faster. As it grew dusk the air was freezinghard, and that wind from the north was getting up.
Then, also in a moment, the white expanse of the lake spread beforetheir eyes--dim and shadowy, lost in the distance.
Nell's heart sank a bit at that moment. It was all so fearfully drearyand exposed. The forest they had passed through seemed a friendlyshelter beside this! But it had to be faced. The river passed throughit and the journey must be taken up again--away over there in thefar-away dimness--where the stream poured out, wider, going east to jointhe Moose River.
"I suppose," said Nell, looking round with carefully assumedindifference, "we'd better camp here. It's getting dark."
"Not much shelter," David suggested. "Hope it isn't going to work up ablizzard."
His sister was sure it was late in the year for a blizzard. She saidthat, but in her heart she knew that April was an uncertain monthalways. She stood looking and looking, while the blowing fur tails hidthe troubled expression of her face.
"Come along," she said at last, "round by the north bank, we'llgo--there," she pointed some distance along to the left with herfur-mittened hand.
David asked why not straight across--it was level and easier.
"Is it because of the trail?" he asked. "The snow will cover that.Just look how it's coming down."
Nell said it was because of the river stream. She was a little afraid ofice bridges, or holes under the snow. The stream in the middle would beswifter than the sides. You never know how the surface freezes, orwhere the strong stream begins to make its way beneath. The girl thoughtof all that, because she had been here with her father and he had shownher what to beware of as the spring thaws approached. This wasimportant, while David's mention of their trail was also a point. Shedecided that they would not go on to the lake, at present. They wouldfollow a more difficult way around the north side and make a camp whenthey had put some distance between themselves and the place where theriver entered the lake.
With this intention then they first did some confusing work. Theystruck out straight ahead over the snow; then, having gone some distancecame back on their own tracks to the starting-place, took off theirsnowshoes and climbed the bank, lifting the sled over obstacles. It wasstrenuous work, but it could be done for a yard or two, and all theywanted was to hide their start. Having reached a bare stretch beyondbrushwood clumps, Nell went back to obliterate the trail. In this shewas helped by the wind, which, blowing harder and harder in icy gusts,whirled the snow round about in eddies, scattering it afresh in finestpowdery flakes.
"All the better," said Nell, panting a little as she climbed the slopeagain. "Now then, Da, 'on, on we go,' as our old spelling booksaid--next thing is a camp. This blizzardy wind is beastly, but it'shelping us all the time."
David agreed as he always did, bravely coming up to the scratch at alltimes in his sister's steps. All the same, he had never in his life feltworse--that is to say, more exhausted and despondent. The thought ofhaving to set to again and make a camp, and a fire, if it would burn,and then face the night almost unprotected, was not cheering. However,Nell was right about the blizzard; the advantages made up for themisery.
As long as they could they went along the north shore of the lakeitself, close to the bank. They returned to it, because of the mucheasier going, of course, after they had confused the trail by a landtramp of perhaps half a mile. That was awfully hard and could not havecontinued much longer, as their strength was giving out owing to theobstacles.
Presently, when it became increasingly difficult to see, Nell pulled upat a place where the shore formed some small protection, because theland rose in a slope with trees on the higher part. They could not campon the ice here, so they landed in a likely place, hopeful of shelterfrom the snow-laden bushes, and began to make what preparation theycould.
To tell the truth, even Nell could have cried at that moment. But thereis a great deal in being responsible "boss" of anything! You can't letyourself go if you have real grit, and she had plenty.
They scraped and scraped at the snow till they reached down to thefrozen bank and made a sort of barrier. A great deal of it blew backagain, but that had to be borne. Fortunately the fire was kind enoughto burn--the worst of the storm had not come then--and they were able toget a meal of hot tea and bacon. It made a great difference. Then,protected in a small measure by the upturned sled and the bundles, thebushes, and the heaped up snow, they got ready for "bed." At the lastmoment Nell did rather a clever thing. She scraped the fire off itsfirst place lower down, making it up again with a good bundle of wood.Then she and David lay down in their bags on the hot, dried ground wherethe fire had just been built. It answered so well that they both fellasleep at once in spite of the increasing storm.
Nell was very weary indeed. The burden was a growing one, because shehad had so little rest in forty-eight hours of strenuous work.Therefore a cry from David close to her ears seemed to ring in her headfor hours before she realised that he was shaking her shoulder andcalling to her in rather an agitated voice, for him. Then she was awakeon the instant. Wide awake and throwing sticks on the dying embers, forthe one thing necessary at that instant was obviously a fire.
"It's _wolves_," David was saying. "But, Nell, they stop up north as arule, don't they? I say, what a beastly row."
Nell was loading the little Winchester. She heard the "beastly row"very clearly, but did not show agitation.
"They are after something," she said. "Don't you remember once beforewhen we heard them at home Dad said they'll follow some animal that istrying to escape for miles--a hundred miles--any distance till it isexhausted. They are so persistent when they are hungry, I expect it's adeer, poor thing!"
"Bucks are awfully clever at confusing their own trails though," urgedDavid, who hated to think of wolves succeeding, "they'll jump thirtyfeet sideways bang into bushes to throw those beasts off the scent. Ido think they are clever. I say, Nell, there's one good thing!"
"What?"
"Why the wind. It's blowing hard from them to us. That's why we hearthem so plainly--don't you see? If it was the other way they'd getscent of us. Jolly thing they can't!"
"It is," said Nell decidedly, inwardly praying that the wolves wouldstay on the north side, but that depended on which way the huntedcreature fled.
The two crouched low under the snow wall, waiting and listening to thosehowls that had roused David. It was a dreadful sound--the howling ofthe wolf pack in full cry after its flying prey. The weird shriek of itcame down the wind in gusts. Perhaps the horrible brutes were at fault!Nell hoped so. David said so, he was anxious to help the deer if thatwere possible, but his sister preferred to remain entirely apart! Onedoes not want to get mixed up with wolves on such a night.
The noise of the howling grew louder, and Nell threw a good armful ofdead wood on the blaze to rouse a high flame. She and David werestanding up gazing anxiously over their snow wall up the slope of theshore, when suddenly they received a shock that was very startling.
Out of the driving whiteness of the blown snow loomed a huge plungingshape. It was lurching down the bank directly on to them--like anightmare in a very horrid dream--when apparently it saw the fire, andchecked. For a moment the two in the camp were aware of amazing antlersand a long distorted face, then the creature swerved with a fine effort,bounded aside with a loud blowing snort, and took to the lake some yardsbeyond, higher up.
"Did you see--did you see?" David was shaking his sister's arm inexcitement.
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br /> "Don't, Da, I've got the rifle. Put more wood on the fire, quick. Harkto the others!"
"Poor old chap, he's got a start," said the boy, piling on wood andglancing back up the hill. "I wish you could kill the lot, Nell."
Nell laughed in spite of everything.
"I! Let's hope they won't notice us, if they're hot on the old bull'strail."
The weird howling drew nearer, till the bitter blast of the north windseemed full of it, and then--sudden as the appearance of the desperatebull moose--shadows flitted over the rise as though they were part ofthe snowstorm.
Nell fully expected one or more of the wolves to come over the barrier,though she knew the fire would frighten them, but the pack, about eightor ten at the outside, were running close together on the hot scent ofthe big moose. Perhaps the fire did scare them aside, as it had scaredhim. The darkness swallowed them, and the fierce long-drawn cry of thehowl lessened as the wind caught it. They were gone, over the lake.
When Nell felt Robin's coat she noted that his hackles were stiff andhis throat quivering with deep growls. Robin could put up with most ofthe wild folk--after a fashion--but wolves made him furious! All threeof the party sat down again close to the fire, and comforted themselveswith hot tea and dried meat.
"Something happens every night," commented David thoughtfully; "this wasthe queerest. Who'd have thought of a bull moose down here--and wolves!"
"How can we tell how far they'd come," said Nell. "He looked awfullydone. Da, his antlers were jolly fine--all of seven feet across. Iexpect he was an old bull and that they singled him out of the herd andkept him back from the others--that's the way they do."
"I do hope he got away," said the boy again.
Nell hoped so, too, but she didn't think it likely. Wolves arefearfully persistent.
After a bit they went back to bed and actually slept till a faint, faintpink light spread over the flatness of the lake.
The wind was less keen, but it still blew the snow about in eddies, andNell was very eager to be off while this help was on their side.
She looked back towards the river and the far woods. Nothing showed.They struck camp very quickly indeed, for her hurry was infectious. Shefelt unsafe out here in the open, for figures show a long way upon cleansnow.
They kept to the edge more or less. Not quite the edge, because thereis always a good deal of rotten ice under the banks, but within a littleof it. It was easier going, and of course Nell was not quite sure wherethe river ran out of the lake and onward. She longed desperately forthat fresh start on the river road. It would be wonderful to havecrossed the lake and be actually on the straight track to Moose River.
All day they drove on and on, stopping once or twice in likely places onthe banks for a rest and food. This lake was not nearly so large as theAbbitibbi Lake, or several others--it was not so wide. Away over thesnow they could see the opposite--the southern--shore. But they couldnot see the end. It was probably twenty-five miles long from theentrance of the river at the west, to its exit in the east, and that's along, long way even on snowshoes, when you are on the trail with a sled,even a light sled.
Two on the Trail: A Story of Canada Snows Page 9