Gaut Gurley

D >> D. P. Thompson >> Gaut Gurley

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

"Yes, here is one," answered Phillips, pointing to a tall,
sandy-complexioned, but good-looking man of about thirty, who, having
occupied the forward seat of the canoe, now quietly stepped ashore; "yes,
gentlemen," added the hunter, addressing himself to the Elwoods, standing
on the bank, as well as to the trapper, "I make you acquainted with Mr.
Carvil,--a man, if I ain't a good deal out in my reckoning, who might be
relied on in most any circumstances."

The customary salutations were then exchanged with the stranger; when the
hunter, instinctively understanding that often violated rule of true
politeness which requires of the introducer some accompanying remark,
giving a clue to the position and character of the introduced, so as to
gratify the natural curiosity felt on such occasions, and to impart more
freedom to the conversation, quickly resumed:

"Mr. Carvil is a Green Mountain boy, who loves hunting, partly for the
health it gives, and partly for the fun of it. His old range has usually
been round the Great Megantic, the other side of the highlands, in Canada,
where I have heard of him through the St. Francis Indians. But, having a
mind to see and try this side, he came on a few days ago, inquired me out,
and turned in with me. We from below have invited him to join our company;
are you all here agreed to that?"

"Certainly," said Mark Elwood, in his usual off-hand manner.

"Certainly," added Claud, more specifically, "I think we ought to be
gratified in such an acquisition to our company."

"And you, Codman?" said the hunter, turning inquiringly to the trapper. "It
is your turn to speak. But don't show the gentleman so many of your bad
streaks, to begin with, as to put him out of conceit of you before he has
time to find out your good ones."

"Well, I don't see but I must run the risk, then," said the trapper; "my
streaks always come out as they come up, I never pick any of them out as
samples for strangers. But to the question,--well, let's run him over
once, if he won't be mad: high cheek bones, showing him enough of the
Indian make to be a good hunter; a crank, steady eye, indicating honest
motives, and a good resolution, that won't allow a man to rest easy till
his object is carried out; and lastly, a well-put-together, wiry frame, to
bear fatigues, and do the work which so large a head must often lay out for
it. Yes, he passes muster with me bravely: let him in, with a welcome."

Carvil rewarded these good-natured running commentaries on his person and
supposed qualities, with a complacent bow; when the trapper turned to the
other canoe, which, with Gaut Gurley and the young Indian described in a
preceding chapter on board, now came within speaking distance, and sang
out:

"Hil-lo! there, you, captain, who made the big logs fly so like the
de-i-vel, the other day, whether the old chap had any hand in it or not,
what red genius is that you have brought along with you?"

"It's Tomah, the young red man from the Connecticut-river region, who
hunted some in this section last fall, I understand. I supposed you had met
him before," replied Gaut.

"O, ah, well, yes," responded Codman; "I bethink me, now, it is the young
Indian that went to college, but couldn't be kept there long enough to make
any thing else, though long enough, may be, to spoil him for a hunter."

"May be not, too," retorted Tomah, with a miffed air, which showed he did
not so readily appreciate the half-serious, half-sportive manner of the
trapper as the other stranger had done. "May be, when you out with me
catching beaver, one, two month, you no crow so loud."

"That's right," interposed the hunter; "the Indian gives you what you
deserve for your nonsense, Codman. But a truce to jokes. Let us all aboard,
strike out, and be on our way over the lake."

In compliance with this suggestion, those not already in the boats took to
their seats, handled their oars, pushed off, and, headed by the hunter and
his boat companion, and falling, one after another, into a line, rowed
steadily on across, the broadest part of the lake, taking a lofty pine,
whose attenuated top looked like a reed rising over the fog in the
distance, as a guide and landmark to the great inlet, where the most
arduous task of their expedition was to be encountered,--the surmounting of
the long line of rapids leading to the great lakes above. But that task,
after a pleasant rowing of a couple of hours had brought them to it, was,
by dint of hard struggles against the current, with oars as long as oars
could be made to prevail; with setting-poles when oars ceased to serve the
purpose; and with ropes attached to the boats and drawn from point to point
or rock to rock, when neither oars nor poles were of any avail; together
with the carrying both boats and baggage by land round the last and most
difficult ascent,--that task was at length accomplished, and, before one
o'clock in the afternoon, all the boats, with their loading, were safely
launched on the broad bosom of the wild and picturesque Molechunk-a-munk.

Here, however, the company decided on taking their mid-day's lunch, and an
hour's rest, before proceeding on their voyage. But, not deeming it
expedient to incur the trouble and delay which the building of fires and
the new cooking of provisions would require, they drew out only their bread
and cold meats, for the occasion; and these, as the company were seated in
an irregular circle on the rocks, were discussed and dispatched with that
keen relish which abstinence and a toil-earned appetite alone could have
brought them.

After they had finished their repast, they, at the suggestion of Phillips
and Codman, the only persons of the company who were familiar with the
lakes and country above, took up a question which they had before
discussed, without settling, but which, they were told by the persons just
named, must now, before proceeding any farther, be definitely settled and
understood. This question was that of the expediency of establishing a
general head-quarters for the season, by building a large, storm-proof
camp, and locating it at some central point on the shore of one of the two
great lakes opening still above the one on which they were now about to
embark. The object of this was to insure the company comfortable quarters,
to which they could resort in case of falling sick, or encountering long
storms, at which their furs could be collected and more safely kept, their
more cumbrous stores left, and from which their provisions could be
distributed, with the least trouble and travel, to the smaller and more
temporary camps that each of the company, or any two of them, might make at
the nearest terminations, on the neighboring waters, of the different
ranges of woods they should select for their respective fields of
operations. The main part of the question, that of the necessity of
establishing general head-quarters, was at once, and unanimously, decided
in the affirmative. The remaining part, that of the most eligible location
for these quarters, was then fully discussed, and finally settled by fixing
the point of location about midway of the eastern side of the
Mooseeluk-maguntic, the next great lake above, and, counting from the
south, the third in this unique chain of secluded lakes and widely
clustering lakelets, through which the far-spanning Androscoggin pours its
vast volume of wild waters to the distant bosom of the welcoming ocean.

"Wisely arranged," remarked the hunter, at the close of the discussion.
"The next object in view, then, is to reach there this evening, in season
to work up something in the shape of a camp, that will serve for the night,
and until the good one we propose to build can be completed."

"That can be done easily enough," said Codman, "that is, if we will tax our
marrow-bones a little extra in pulling at the oars. The distance over this
lake, up the narrows, or river, and across the end of the Maguntic to the
mouth of that second stream we have talked of, can't be much more than a
dozen miles, and all smooth sailing. Lord, yes! if we put in like decent
oarsmen, I warrant we make fetch come, so as to be there by the sun an hour
high, which will give time to build a comfortable camp, and for cooking up
the jolly good supper I'm thinking to have, to pay us for all these sweats
and hard pulls up these confounded rapids and over these never-ending
lakes."

"Well, let us put in, then, boys," responded Gaut Gurley. "I am as much for
the go-ahead principle as the best of you. Let us try the motion, and
_earn_ the good supper, whether we get it or not. But, to make the supper
quite the thing for the occasion, it strikes me we ought to have something
a little fresher than our salt junk."

"True, O King, and Great Mogul of the lubber-lifts," rejoined the trapper;
"thou talkest like one not altogether without knowledge of the good living
of the woods. That something fresher we will have, if it be only a mess of
fish, which I think I can take out of that stream in a short time after we
get there."

"That could be done as we go along, if these lakes are as well stocked with
large trout as they are reputed," observed Carvil, in the calm, deliberate
manner which characterized him on all occasions.

"But we mustn't stop for that," said the trapper.

"There is no need of stopping," quietly replied the former.

"That's a queer idea," said the trapper, evidently at fault. "How are we to
put in and wait for bites, without stopping, I would like to know?"

"Perhaps I may be able to demonstrate the matter, as we proceed on our way.
At all events, since the question is raised, I will try," replied Carvil,
drawing from his pocket a roll of small silk cord, to which a fish-hook,
without any sinker, was attached. "Can any of you handily get at your pork,
so as to cut off and throw me a small bit? There, that will do," he
continued, taking the proffered bit of meat, and baiting his hook with it.
"Now, the experiment I propose to try is what in my region we call
'troulling,' which consists of throwing out a baited hook and paying out,
as the boat moves on, a hundred feet, or so, of line, that is left to
trail, floating on the surface of the water behind; when most large fish,
like bass, or trout, especially if you make a sharp tack, occasionally, so
as to draw the line across an undisturbed portion of the water, will see,
and, darting up, sieze it, and hook themselves. And, if you have many large
trout _here_, and they are any related to those I have found in the Great
Maguntic, and other large bodies of fresh water, they will some of them
stand a pretty good chance to be found adding to our supper to-night."

"Sorry to hear it," said the trapper, "for I have always considered the
trout a sensible fish, and I should be sorry to lose my respect for them.
But, if they will do that, they are bigger fools than I took them to be.
But you'll find they just won't."

"Well, I don't know about that, now. I am not so sure but there may be
something in it," remarked the hunter, who had been listening to Carvil
with evident interest. "Though we have never tried that method in this
region, to my knowledge, yet my experience rather goes to confirm the
notion. I remember to have caught several fine trout, when I had laid down
my pole, and was moving off with my boat, but had left my line trailing
behind. Those great fellows are not very bashful about seizing any thing
they think they can eat, which they can see on the surface. I have known
them do a stranger thing than to come up and seize a piece of pork."

"What was that?" asked the trapper.

"Well, I don't know as you will believe the story," answered the other,
"but it will be equally true, if you don't. Some years ago I was out on the
Umbagog, for a mess of trout, but couldn't get a bite; and, seeing a flock
of black ducks in a neighboring cove, I hauled in my line, and rowed off
towards them, thinking I might get a shot, and so have something to carry
home, by way of mending my luck at fishing. But, before I got near enough
to count with much certainty on the effect of a shot, if I fired, they all
flew up, but one, which, though it seemed to be trying hard enough, could
not raise its body out of the water. As my canoe drifted in nearer, I once
or twice raised my rifle to fire at it; but it acted so strangely, flapping
the water with its wings, and tugging away at swimming, without appearing
to gain scarce a single foot, that I soon laid down my piece and concluded
I would try to take it alive, supposing it must have got fast tangled with
something, but with what, I was wholly unable to conceive. So, taking up my
oar, and gunning my canoe, so as to send it by within reach of the bird, I
gave two or three strong pulls, threw down the oar, put out my hand, and
sat ready for the grab, which the next moment I made, seizing the panting
and now sinking duck by one of its outspread wings, and pulling it in, with
a big trout fastened to its foot and leg so tight by the teeth that the
hold did not give way till the greedy fish was brought slapping over the
side, and landed safely in the bottom of the canoe. That trout, when I got
home, weighed just seven pounds and nine ounces."

"Wheugh! whiz! kak! ke-o-ho!" exclaimed, whistled, and crowed Comical
Codman.

"I do not doubt it in the least," said Carvil.

"Nor can I, of course, on Mr. Phillips' statement," added Mark Elwood;
"but, if I had not known his scrupulousness in matters of fact, I should
not have believed that so strange a circumstance had ever happened in the
world."

"So the story is voted gospel, is it?" rejoined the trapper. "Well, then, I
propose we commission its author to cruise along the coves this afternoon,
so that he may bring into camp to-night trout enough caught in that way to
make up what Mr. Carvil may miss taking by _his_ method, together with a
brace or two of nice ducks, which would be a still further fine addition to
our supper."

"Yes, ducks or some other kind of flesh, to go with the fish, we may now
safely count on being secured, by some of the various proposed methods,"
here interposed Claud Elwood, seriously. "And I second the motion of such a
cruise along the shores, by Mr. Phillips, who so seldom fails of killing
something. And if he, Mr. Carvil, and father, will agree to an exchange of
boat companions for the afternoon, I should like to go with him. I have
chosen him my schoolmaster in hunting, and I should have a chance for
another lesson before we go into the separate fields of our approaching
operations."

Gaut Gurley started at the suggestion, and cast a few quick, searching
glances at Claud and the hunter, as if suspecting a concert of action
between them, for some purpose affecting his secret plans; but, appearing
to read nothing in either of their countenances to confirm such suspicions,
and seeing all the rest of the company readily falling in with the
proposal, he held his peace, and joined the others in handling the oars for
their immediate departure; which was now in a few minutes taken, the main
part of the company striking in a direct line across the middle of the lake
for their destination, leaving the hunter and Claud moving off obliquely to
the right, for a different and farther route among the intervening islands,
and along the indented shores beyond,--where it will best comport with the
objects of our story, we think, to accompany them in their solitary
excursion.

"Where away, as the sailors have it?" said Claud, after the two, each with
a single oar, had rowed on a while in silence; "where away, Mr. Phillips,
or in the line of what object in sight would you lay your course?"

"Why, I had proposed, in my own mind," replied the hunter, "to steer direct
across, so as to graze the east side of the great island you see yonder in
the distance; but, as we shall pass so near the cove which lies snuggled
away between two sharp, woody points here, a little ahead to the right, we
might as well, perhaps, haul in and take a squint round it."

"What shall we find there?"

"Perhaps nothing. It is the place, however, where I found that deer which I
killed when we were here before."

"Well, if you can count on another, we should turn in there now."

"We will; but a hunter, young man, must never talk of certainties when
going to any particular spot in search of such roving things as the animals
of the forest. He must learn to bear disappointment, and be prepared to
find nothing where he or others had before found every thing. He must have
patience. Loss of patience is very apt to be fatal to success in almost any
business, but especially so in hunting. You spoke of taking lessons of me
in the craft: this is the very first grand lesson I would impress on your
mind. But we are now close upon the point of land, which we are only to
round to be in the cove. If you are disposed to row the boat alone, now,
keep in or out, stop or move on, as I from to time give the word, I will
down on my knees in the bow of the boat, with cocked rifle in hand, ready
for what may be seen."

Readily complying, Claud carefully rowed round the point and entered the
dark and deep indenture constituting the cove, whose few acres of surface
were thrown almost wholly into the shade, even at sunny noonday, by the
thickly-clustered groups of tall, princely pines, which, like giant
warriors in council, stood nodding their green plumes around the
closely-encircling shores. Closely hugging the banks, now stopping behind
some projecting clump of bushes, now in some rock-formed nook, and now in
the covert of some low-bending treetop, to give the keen-eyed hunter a
chance to peer round or through these screening objects into the open
spaces along the shore beyond, he slowly pushed along the canoe till the
whole line of the cove was explored, and they reached the point
corresponding to the one at which they commenced their look-out for game,
and all without seeing a living creature.

"Pshaw! this is dull business," exclaimed Claud, as they came out into the
open lake, where he was left free to speak aloud. "This was so fine a
looking place for game that I felt sure we should see something worth
taking; and I am quite disappointed in the result."

"So that, then, is the best fruit you can show of my first lesson in
hunting, is it, young man?" responded the hunter, with a significant smile.

Claud felt the implied rebuke, and promised better behavior for the future;
when both seated themselves at the oars, and, as men naturally do, after an
interval of suppressed action, plied themselves with a vigor that sent
their craft swiftly surging over the waters in the line of their original
destination.

They now soon reached, and shot along the shore of, a beautifully-wooded
island, nearly a half-mile in extent, about midway of which the
hunter-rested on his oars, and, after Claud, on his motion, had done the
same, observed, pointing through a partial opening among the trees, along a
visible path that led up a gentle slope into the interior of the island:

"There! do you catch a glimpse of a house-like looking structure, in an
open and light spot in the woods, a little beyond where you cease to trace
the path?"

"Yes, quite distinctly. What is it?"

"That belongs to the chief, and might properly enough be called his
summer-house, as he generally comes here with his family to spend the hot
months. He raises fine crops of corn in his clearing on there beyond the
house, and saves it all, because the bears, coons, and squirrels, that
trouble him else-where, are so completely fenced out by the surrounding
water."

"Are the family there, now?"

"No; they have moved back to his principal residence, a mile or two
distant, on a point of land over against the opposite side of this island,
and not far out of our course."

"Indeed! what say you, then, to giving them a call as we pass by?"

"We shall not have time, which is a good reason for not calling now, if
there were not still stronger ones."

"What stronger reasons, or what other reasons at all?"

"Well, perhaps there are none. But, supposing two of the company we left
behind, who might happen to conceive they have some secret interest at
stake, should ever suspect that your leading object in leaving them was to
make the very visit you are now proposing, would you not prefer that we
should have it in our power to set their minds at rest, when we join them
to-night, by telling them all the places we _did_ touch at?"

"It is possible I should, in such a case," replied Claud, looking surprised
and puzzled; "but, 'suspected,' did you say? _Why_ should they suspect? and
what if they do?"

"Three questions in a heap, when one is more than I could wisely attempt to
answer," evasively answered the cautious hunter.

"But you must have some reasons for what you said," persisted the other.

"Reasons founded upon guesses are poor things to build a statement on,"
rejoined the hunter. "Half the mischief and ill-feeling in the world comes
from statements so made. And, guessing aloud is often no better. I rather
think, all things considered, we had better not stop at the chief's, this
time. I can show you where he lives, as we pass; and, if that will do, we
will now handle oars, and be on our way."

Much wondering at the enigmatical words of the other, Claud, without
further remark, put in his oar and thoughtfully rowed on, till they had
passed round the head of the island; when, on the indication of the hunter,
they stretched away towards a distant promontory, on the northeastern shore
of the lake. A steady and vigorous rowing of half an hour brought them
within a few hundred yards of the headland, for which they had been
steering; when the hunter lifted his oar, and said:

"There! let the canoe run on alone, a while, and give me your attention.
Now, you see," he continued, pointing in shore to the right, "you see that
opening in the woods, yonder, on the southern slope extending down near the
lake, eighty rods or such a matter off, don't you? Well, that, and divers
other openings, where the timber has been cut down and burnt over, for
planting corn, scattered about in the woods in different places, as well as
a large tract of the surrounding forest-land, are the possessions of the
chief."

"But where is their house?"

"Down near the lake, among the trees. You can't see much of it, but it is a
smart, comfortable house, like one of our houses, and built by a carpenter;
for the chief used formerly to handle considerable money, got by the furs
caught by himself, and by the profits on the furs he bought of the St.
Francis Indians, who came over this way to hunt. But stay: there are some
of the family at his boat-landing. I think it must be Fluella and her
Indian half-brother. She is waving a handkerchief towards us. Let us wait
and see what she wants."

The female, whose trim figure, English-fashioned dress, and graceful
motions went to confirm the hunter's conjectures, now appeared to turn and
give some directions to the boy, who immediately disappeared, but in a few
minutes came back, entered a canoe, and put off towards the spot where our
two voyagers were resting on their oars. In a short time the canoe came up,
rowed by an ordinary Indian boy of about fourteen, who, pulling alongside,
held up a neatly-made, new, wampum-trimmed hunting pouch, and said:

"The chief send this Mr. Claud Elwood,--gift. Fluella say, wish Mr.
Phillips and Mr. Claud Elwood good time."

And so saying, and tossing the article to Claud, he wheeled his canoe
around, and, without turning his head or appearing to hear the compliments
and thanks that both the hunter and Claud told him to take to the chief and
his daughter, sped his way back to the landing.

"There, young man!" exclaimed the obviously gratified hunter, "that is a
present, with a meaning. I would rather have it, coming as it does from an
Indian, and that Indian such a man as the chief,--I would rather have it,
as a pledge of watchfulness over your interests in the settlement, whether
you are present there or absent,--than a white man's bond for a hundred
dollars; and I would also rather have it, as a token of faith, given when
you are roaming this northern wilderness, than a passport from the king of
England. The chief's _Totem_, the bald eagle, is woven in, I see, among the
ornaments. Every Indian found anywhere from the great river of Canada to
the sea eastward will know and respect it, and know, likewise, how to treat
the man to whom it was given."

"But how," asked Claud, "could stranger Indians, whom I encountered, know
to whom it was given, or that I did not find, buy, or steal the article?"

"Let an Indian alone for that. You have but three fingers on your left
hand, I have noticed."

"True, the little finger was accidentally cut clean off by an axe, when I
was a child; but what has that to do with the question?"

"Enough to settle it. Do you notice something protruding as if from under
the protecting wing of the eagle of the _Totem_, there?"

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28