CHAPTER XX

OFF FOR A HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS

It was still dark when the boat started, and except Jack, Hugh, and Mr. James, all the passengers promptly disposed themselves to sleep for a time. The captain had promised to stop at Hope and let the two hunters off, and their bags and blankets were all piled near the gangplank to be rushed off at a moment's notice. In little more than an hour the boat whistled, slowed down, and drew up close to the bank; the wheel was reversed until the boat lay up close to the wharf, the gangplank was run out, Hugh and Jack shook hands with Mr. James and ran ashore, each carrying his bag and gun, while two of the deck-hands followed with their rolls of blankets, tossed them to them on the ground, and then rushed back. The gangplank was drawn in, the boat whistled and started up, soon disappearing around a bend.

Meanwhile, two white men and two Indians had approached them and accosted Hugh. The older of the two white men introduced himself as John Ryder, with whom Mr. Hunter had communicated the day before.

"Your animals are all ready, Mr. Johnson," he said; "and all we have to do is to buy provisions and pack the loads and start."

"Well," said Hugh, "that's just exactly what we want; and the sooner we get off the better it will please Mr. Danvers, here, and me. Where are your animals, and where can we get something to eat, and what time will the stores be open?"

"If you will come with me," said Ryder, "I will show you the hotel and the animals; and as soon as you have had your breakfast we can buy our supplies and start. These Indians here will carry up your things."

"Very good," said Hugh, "they may as well take the blankets to the corral, wherever that is; and we'll take the bags and guns with us."

Ryder conducted them to the hotel where, as yet, no one was awake; and then, followed by Hugh and Jack went to the corral where there were a dozen horses. The outfit seemed a good one; the animals strong and fat. Ryder proposed to take six pack animals, three with saw bucks, and three with aparejos. Hugh and Jack looked over the riggings, which seemed in good order; and then they all returned to the hotel. After a talk with Ryder it was arranged that they should take Ryder, a boy to wrangle the horses, and an Indian who professed to know the hunting country. These with the six packs would make eleven animals.

"It's more than I counted on taking," said Hugh, "but perhaps it's better to take a horse or two extra rather than sit around for two or three days and fuss over it. We won't save in money and we'll lose quite a little time."

By ten o'clock the provisions had been purchased and made up into convenient packs. Ryder was to furnish a tent and cook-outfit, and got the things together at the corral. Then Hugh, Jack, and Ryder and his assistant in a very short time packed all the horses except those which were to carry the provisions. These were taken down to the store and left there, and before noon the packed train, with Ryder in the lead, went out of Hope and struck up across the divide between Nicolume and the head of the Skagit River. For some distance they followed the old wagon road which leads up between high steep mountains, through beautiful scenery. The cedars and firs were grand, the mountains towered high and were streaked with white dykes, and the gulches and ravines where deciduous trees grew, were bright with the red of the mountain maples. Toward night they reached a place called Lake House, a cabin on the edge of a wide meadow--marshy with some standing water and surrounded by willows and alders. Here Jack set up his rod and caught a few fairly good trout weighing nearly half a pound apiece, and many little ones which he threw back. Hugh came up to see how he was getting along; and soon they went back to the camp together.

In the morning everything was wet, for there had been a very heavy dew. They got off in good season and after stopping once or twice to tighten, as the ropes grew dry, they went on and made good time.

During the morning they passed two or three pack trains, the animals of which were loaded with long boxes whose contents neither Hugh nor Jack could guess; but at the first opportunity they asked Ryder, who explained to them what these boxes contained.

"You see," he said, "it seems that every Chinaman, when he dies wants to go back and be buried in his own country; and they make arrangements before they die that they shall be taken back. I believe one Chinaman here has the contract of sending back all British Columbian Chinese, and he sublets the job, it being understood that the various subcontractors will deliver the bodies at certain specified places. Sometimes a Chinese is shipped soon after he dies, sometimes not for three or four years. They seal them up in zinc cases about six feet long and two feet wide and put these cases in crates of wood. These they pack lengthwise of the horse, making for them a sort of platform which rests on an aparejo. The long cases project forward from the horse's neck and back over his hips, and are pretty hard on their backs; but they ride well enough after the ropes have been thrown over them."

Not long after leaving the Lake House the wagon road came to an end, and then for a while the trail followed down the Skagit River. All day the way led through the mountains, and all day the trail kept climbing higher, so that when they camped that night Ryder said that the altitude was about five thousand feet. All day long every one was busy hurrying the horses along, and no time was taken for hunting. That night there was a heavy frost, and when they awoke the next morning, it was very cold. Five of the horses were lost, and it took some time to recover four of them, and then they moved on, leaving one behind, which, however, turned up later and was brought along. This also was a day of climbing, for they passed over a mountain about seven thousand feet high. Several times Jack and Hugh heard the familiar call of the little chief, or rock hare, so familiar an inhabitant of the slide rock of all the mountains of the main divide.

That night they camped on a creek called Whipsaw, and as there was no grass at the camp for the horses, they were turned out to the mountain side to feed. After they had got into camp, Ryder told Jack that on the creek, a couple of miles below the trail, there was a deer lick; and suggested that they should go down and try to kill a deer, as fresh meat was needed. They went down and found a spot where animals had evidently been at work gnawing and licking the saline clay; but, though there were abundant signs all about, no deer were seen.

The next day after passing through a beautiful open country dotted with great pines, whose cinnamon-colored trunks rose fifty to sixty feet from the ground without a branch, they reached Alison's on the Smilkameen. Here they stopped for a little while. Mrs. Alison, a very intelligent and kindly woman, took great pride in showing Jack and Hugh the children's pets--a great horned owl, a sparrow hawk just from the nest, some attractive green-winged teal and mallards caught young, and a tame magpie which talked remarkably well and spoke the names of two of the children--"Alfreda" and "Caroline"--very plainly.

Keeping on down the river, they camped below Alison's. The way down the river was beautiful, for on either hand rose high, steep, slide rock mountains, marked with sheep and goat trails, criss-crossing in every direction. Here and there along the stream stood an Indian cabin.

"I tell you, son," said Hugh, "We're in a game country now, or what has been a game country. In times past there have been a heap of sheep on these mountain sides here. You see their trails running everywhere. Of course, when a sheep trail is once made in the slide rock it lasts just about forever, unless there is some slip of rock on a mountain side and the rocks roll down and cover it up."

That night the Indian, Baptiste, confirmed what Hugh had said. Ryder interpreted for him, saying that sheep and goats were plenty near here and that to-morrow they would hunt.

"In spring," Baptiste said, "when ploughing the land, I often see goats far down on the cliffs close to the river, but as summer advances and it grows warm and the flies become troublesome, the goats gradually work up to the tops of the mountains. There they paw holes in the earth, in which they stand and stamp; and sometimes wallow and roll to get rid of the flies."

"All right," said Hugh, "we will see what Baptiste can show us to-morrow."

"The way that Indian talks," he added, "sounds to me just like Kutenai. I have heard a lot of Kutenais talk in the Blackfeet camps, and elsewhere, and I would like to know if this Baptiste is a Kutenai."

"I guess not," said Ryder; "he's a Smilkameen."

"Ask him," said Hugh, "if the Smilkameens and Kutenais are relations."

The answer, given through Ryder, was "No."

"Ask him," said Hugh, "if their languages are alike."

Baptiste replied: "Yes, the two languages are not quite the same, but they sound alike." He added: "In the same way the tongue spoken by the Okanagan Indians is much like my language."

Hugh shook his head and said: "That may be so, but I don't feel a bit sure about it. Often it's very hard to make an Indian understand what you're trying to get at, even if you can speak his own language; but after it has to go through two or three interpreters there's a big chance of a misunderstanding somewhere."

"Well, Hugh," said Jack, "what shall we do to-morrow? Go on farther or stop here and hunt? I understand that Baptiste says that there are plenty of goats hereabouts, and if we want some we can easily get them."

"Well," said Hugh, "we need some meat and we might just as well stop here for a day if you think best and see whether we can kill a kid or two, or a dry nanny. You know I don't think much of goat meat; and yet, of course, it's meat, and good for a change from bacon. I'll ask Baptiste what the prospects are."

Calling up Ryder, Hugh had begun to question Baptiste, when, out of the darkness, another Indian stepped up to the fire and saluted the white men in pretty fair English. A little talk with him developed that he was Tom, a brother of Baptiste. After a few questions Baptiste and Tom both agreed that there was every opportunity to kill goats here. Tom said that in the early summer he often saw them from the trail, as he was travelling back and forth. It was finally decided that they should stop here for one day and make a hunt and then proceed to the sheep country.

The next morning Baptiste, Tom, Hugh, and Jack started on foot up a small creek which came out of the hills near Baptiste's house. The way was steep and narrow and they had followed the stream up two or three miles before any pause was made. Two or three times the glass revealed white objects, which close observations showed to be weather-beaten logs. Suddenly Tom stopped and declared that he saw a goat. The white men all looked through their glasses and declared that it was a stump, but after going a little further and looking at it again it appeared that the white men had been looking at the wrong object, and that Tom's goat was lying on the ledge in plain sight. After going a little farther along another goat was discovered high on the hillside, a little below the first and quite close to it. They were six or seven hundred yards away and close to the creek. To approach them it would be necessary to go up the stream to a point well above them, and then to climb the mountains on which they were, get above them, and then come down behind a point which would apparently be within shooting distance of them.

Before they reached the point where the creek must be crossed, Hugh said to Jack: "Now, son, you go with Tom and try to get these goats, and I will take Baptiste and go farther up the stream and climb that high hill you see. I may get a shot there, and you have a good chance here."

Jack crossed the stream with Tom and they tugged up the side of the mountain, which was very steep and much obstructed by fallen timber. Two or three times Jack had to sit down and puff for breath, for it was nearly a year now since he had done much in the way of climbing stiff mountains, but Tom seemed tireless. At last Tom declared that they had climbed high enough above the goats to make it safe to work along the mountain side to the point above them. The hillside was more or less broken with ravines and all of these were rough with slide rock and fallen timber. They had just reached the edge of one of these gulches and had stopped for a moment's rest when the highest of the goats, which they could now see below them, came running up out of the timber from below to where the other goat was lying. This one got up, and it was then seen that there were four goats, two old ones and two kids; and all began to move up the mountain side. Evidently something had frightened them. They had not seen Jack or Tom, nor smelt them, but were looking down into the valley. They moved off along the mountain side going up diagonally, and Jack and Tom watched them until they disappeared behind some ledges. Then the two set off after them as hard as they could go. It was pretty wild travelling across the gulches, but when they came out onto the ledges where the goats had gone, the footing was easier and the going better. They followed the ledges for some little distance, keeping to a goat trail. In this trail were seen now and then tracks where something had just passed along, but there were no hoof marks. The trail was too hard for that, but every now and then a place would be seen where some animal had stepped on a stone and partly turned it over, or where the moss was knocked from a stone where a hoof had struck it but a very short time before. They kept along the trail, passing through some low timber and presently came out again onto the ledges, and there--hardly forty feet away from them stood three goats. One of them was clambering up a little ravine and just about to disappear behind the rocks, the other two, a mother and her kid, stood on a rock, looking up the mountain side.

"Shoot!" said Tom, "Shoot!" Jack fired two shots at the nearest goat and kid, and both of them fell off the rock they had been standing on and began to roll down the hillside.

Tom gave a wild whoop of joy and shouted, "Good shoot! Good shoot!" and then asked Jack if he wanted to kill the other, but Jack said "No," these two were enough, and they started down the hill to get the game. The animals had rolled a long way, but at length they found them, took off the skins, and took what meat they needed. Tom went down the stream, and cutting some long shoots of a tough shrub, he worked them back and forth, partly splintering them, and made from them two rather stiff ropes which he tied together with a knot. With these he made up a pack of the skins and meat, put the load on his back, and they started for the camp. When they reached the trail down the valley they sat down for some time and waited for Hugh and Baptiste; but, as they did not come, after some hours' waiting, Tom took his pack on his back and they went on to the camp. While they were waiting, Jack inquired of Tom as to the names of the sheep and goats, and Tom said, as nearly as Jack could make out, that in the Smilkameen tongue, the male mountain sheep was called "_shwillops_," while the ewe was called "_yehhahlahkin_." The goat in Smilkameen was called "_shogkhlit_," while the Port Hope Indians called goat "_p'kalakal_."

Tom said that farther on, in the country to which they were going, there were many sheep.

An hour after Jack and Tom had reached camp, Hugh and Baptiste returned, bearing the skin of a two-year-old male goat, which had been killed on the other side of the mountain they had climbed. It had been a hard tramp and a long stalk.

That night as they talked about game and hunting, Baptiste said that at the head of the Okanagan Lake caribou were very plenty. The distance from where they were would be about eighty or ninety miles.

The next morning while Jack was preparing the goat skins for packing up, he was much surprised to find the ears of the goats full of wood ticks. In one of the ears he counted no less than twenty ticks, and some of them were so deep down in the ear that when he was skinning the head he saw the ticks as he cut off the ears. He wondered whether this might not account in some part at least for the apparent inattention of goats to sounds. He asked Baptiste about this, but got no particularly satisfactory answer to his question; and he thought perhaps the Indian did not understand him, but Baptiste did say distinctly that sometimes ticks got into ears of human beings and made them deaf.

While Jack was attending to his goat skins, Hugh and Tom went off to another mountain to look for sheep. A little bunch of seven were found lying down in an excellent position. There was no wind and a careful stalk was made; but just as the two got up to within shooting distance a light breeze began to blow from them to the sheep, and at the very instant that Hugh was pulling his trigger at a ram that was lying down, the bunch smelt them and sprang to their feet. It was too late for Hugh to hold his fire, and instead of killing the ram he cut a little tuft of hair from the brisket. In an instant the whole bunch of sheep were out of sight. Hugh came into camp much depressed and related his adventure to Jack.

"I expect, son," he said, "that that Indian thinks you can shoot all around me. All the way coming home, after I missed that sheep, he kept telling me what a good and careful shot you were. He said he had taken out many white men to hunt, but he never saw anybody that shot as straight and as carefully as you."

Jack laughed and said: "He little knows the difference between you and me, Hugh, in matters of shooting. Anybody could have hit those goats, for they gave me all the time there was, and they weren't more than forty yards away. It was like shooting at the side of a barn."

"Well," said Hugh, "of course if I had known that those sheep were going to jump up, I could easily have fired quicker but I thought I had all the time there was and I intended to shoot so that that ram would never get up; but I never could explain it to that Indian, you bet."

"Oh," said Jack, "he will have plenty of time to see you shoot later on, I expect."

The next morning the train was packed early and they started on. Baptiste led the way, Jack followed him, and Hugh and Tom came behind. Ryder brought up the rear and watched the animals. An hour or two after, two blue grouse were startled from the trail and flew up into the tall trees where they stood on the great limbs with outstretched necks.

"Hugh," said Jack, "give Tom an idea of your shooting."

"Why, what's the use," said Hugh, "wasting two cartridges on those birds. This kid meat is good enough."

"No," said Jack, "I want to have Tom see you cut those birds' heads off."

"Well," said Hugh, "all right, if you wish me to." Drawing his horse a little out of the trail, but not dismounting, he fired two shots which brought down the two grouse. Tom was sent for them, brought them in, and found that in each case the bullet had cut off the bird's neck. The Indian looked at the birds rather solemnly and then at Hugh, and then shook his head as if he could not understand how the man who could miss the sheep the day before should have been able to make these two shots. Jack laughed at him and said: "Good shot, eh, Tom?" Tom declared that the shot was good.

One day's journey brought the party to the Ashnola Country, a region of high rounded hills, over which farther back from the river rose still higher peaks and precipices of rocks. It is a country of beautiful scenery and abounded in game. A large lick, where animals had been licking and gnawing the earth until great hollows had been dug in it, was seen; and farther along as they travelled up the trail on the south side of the creek they saw a number of sheep working down on to a cut bank, which was evidently a lick. Before the sheep were noticed they had seen the party and there was then no opportunity to hunt them. The animals were only three or four hundred yards away and were not alarmed. Later in the day, on another cut bank, another band of fifteen sheep was seen at a lick and might have been easily approached but the party did not stop. All these sheep were ewes and lambs. That night the train climbed pretty well up a mountain and came on a little bench seven or eight hundred feet above the main stream, where they camped. The country seemed to be full of sheep, for Jack, going out to look for water, came across a band on a grassy hillside, but too far off to be shot at.

The camp was a pleasant one in a little group of pines with water not far off, and the hillsides covered with admirable grazing for the animals. After supper, Baptiste and Tom told them that three or four miles back in the hills were high rocky peaks where many sheep were to be found, and it was determined that the next day they should visit these hills. The Indians said that it was possible to get up there with horses, but that the trail was steep and hard. Jack and Hugh, after talking the matter over and counting up the days and realizing that two days later it would be necessary for them to start back to the coast, determined that instead of taking their animals they would carry their blankets on their backs and would visit these hills, camp there, and have a look at the country, and then would return to camp and thence to Hope.

The next morning they were off early, accompanied by the two Indians, while Ryder was left to look after the animals.