Chapter 14

The boys, always ready enough when there was game to be seen, secured their rifles and took their stand at the front rail of the cabin-deck, ready for anything which might appear.

"I don't see how you can shoot off this boat," said Jesse, trying to sight his rifle. "It wobbles all the time when the engine goes."

Alex gave him a little advice. "I think you'll find it better to stand with your feet pretty close together," said he, "and keep your hands as close together as you can on your rifle, too. Then, when you catch sight of your mark as you swing by, pull, and don't try to hold dead on."

For some time they saw nothing, and, leaning their rifles against the cabin walls, were talking about something else, when all at once they heard the whistle of the steamer boom out above them. At about the same time, one of the deck-hands at the bow deck below picked up a piece of plank and began to beat loudly with it upon the side structure of the boat.

"What's the matter?" asked Rob. "Has everybody gone crazy, Alex?"

"No; they're just trying to beat up the game," said Alex, smiling. "You see that island below? It nearly always has bears feeding on it, where the berries are thick. When the boat comes down above them the men try to scare the bears out into the river. Just wait a minute, and perhaps you'll see some of the strangest bear hunting you ever heard of in your life."

Almost as he spoke they all heard the crack of a rifle from the pilot-house above them, and saw the spit of a bullet on the water many hundreds of yards below them.

"I see him," said Rob, "I see him--there he goes! Look at that little ripple on the water."

"Yes," said Alex, quietly, "there was one on the island, as I supposed there would be. He is swimming off now for the mainland. Too far yet, I should say. Just take your time, and let Showan waste his ammunition."

It was all the boys could do to hold their fire, but presently, since almost every one else on the boat began to shoot, Alex signaled to his young charges to open up their battery. He knew very well that the rifles they were using were more powerful than the carbines which made the usual arm in that country.

"Be careful now, young men," said he, "and watch where your bullets go."

For the first few shots the boys found the difficulty which Jesse had prophesied, for shooting from an unstable platform is always difficult. They had the added advantage, however, of being able to tell where their bullets were falling. As they were all firing close together, and were using rifles of the same caliber, it was difficult to tell who really was the lucky marksman, but, while the little triangle of moving water still seemed two or three hundred yards below the boat, suddenly it ceased to advance. There lay upon the surface of the water a large oblong, black mass.

"Through the head!" said Alex, quietly. "I don't know which one."

All the deck-hands below began to laugh and shout. The captain of the boat now came forward. "I don't know which one of you to congratulate," said he, "but that was good work. Now my men will have plenty of meat for the trip down, that's sure."

He now passed down to the floor of the deck, and under his instructions one of the deck-hands picked up a long, stout pole which had a hook fastened on the end of it.

"Look down there below now, young gentlemen," said Alex, "and you'll see something you never will see anywhere but here. We gaff a bear here, the same as you do a salmon."

This literally was true. The engineer now shut off his engines, and the great boat drifted slowly down upon the floating body of the dead bear, with just steerageway enough to enable the pilot to lay her alongside. At last the deck-hand made a quick sweep with his gaff-hook, and calling two of his fellows to hold onto the pole with him, and so stopping the tremendous pull which the body of the bear made on the pole, they finally succeeded in easing down the strain and presently brought the dead bear close alongside. Then a noose was dropped over its neck and it was hauled aboard. All this time the boys were excitedly waiting for the end of their strange hunt, and to them this sort of bear hunting seemed about the most curious they had ever known.

The deck-hands now, in obedience to a word in their own language from the captain, rapidly began to skin and quarter the dead bear.

Moise explained to them that his young hunters wanted the skin saved for them, with the claws and the skull, so that they were more particular than they usually are in skinning a bear which they intend to eat. Truth to say, the carcass of this bear scarcely lasted for the rest of the voyage, for black bear is a regular article of diet for these people, although they will not often eat the grizzly.

These operations were scarcely well advanced before once more the whistle began to roar, and once more the rifle-fire began from Showan's place up in the pilot-house. This time they all saw a big bear running up the bank, but perhaps half a mile away. It made good speed scrambling up over the bare places, and was lost to sight from time to time among the bushes. But it had no difficulty in making its escape unhurt, for now the boys, although they fired rapidly at it, could not tell where their bullets were dropping, and were unable to correct their aim.

"I don't care," said Rob, "if it did get away. We've got almost bears enough now, and besides, I don't know whether this is sportsmanlike or not, shooting bears from a boat. Anyhow, when an animal is swimming in the water and can't get away, I don't see the fun in killing it. Let's wait on the next one and let the pilot shoot it."

They did not have half an hour to wait before they saw that very thing happen. The whistles once more stirred the echoes as they swung down to a group of two or three islands, and this time two bears started wildly across the channel for the mainland. Rob and his friends did not shoot at these, but almost every one else did. One escaped unhurt, but another, although it almost reached the bank, was shot dead with a bullet from Showan's rifle. Once more the manoeuvers of the gaff-hook were repeated, and once more a great black bear was hauled on board. In fact, they saw during the afternoon no less than six full-grown bears, none of which got away unsaluted, but only two of which really were "bagged," as Alex called it, by the men with the gaff-hook.

XXIX

A MOOSE HUNT

The great flues of the _Peace River_ devoured enormous quantities of the soft pine fuel, so that soon after noon of the second day they found it well to haul alongshore at a wood-yard, where some of the employés of the company had stacked up great heaps of cord-wood. It was the duty of the deck-hands to get this aboard the boat, an operation which would require perhaps several hours.

"You might prefer to go ashore here," said Alex, "while we're lying tied up. We'll blow the whistle in time to call you in before we cast off."

As Alex did not think there would be any hunting, he concluded to remain on the boat, but Moise volunteered to walk along the beach with the boys, to explain anything they might see, and to be of assistance in case they should happen to meet with any game, although no one suspected that such would be the case, since the arrival of the boat had necessarily made considerable disturbance.

"Maybe so we'll seen some of these mooses somewhere," said Moise after a time. "You'll seen his track on the sand all along."

"That's so," said Rob. "They look just like cattle, don't they? I should think all the game in the country must be coming down into this valley to see what's going on. Here's a wolf track, too, big as a horse's foot, almost. And what are all of these little scratches, like a cat, on the beach, Moise?"

"Some beevaire, he'll sweem across an' come out here. He'll got a house somewhere, I'll s'pose. Plenty game on this part of the river all tam. Plenty meat. My people he'll live here many year. I got some onkle over on Battle River, an' seven, five, eight cousin on Cadotte River, not far from here. All good honter, too."

"I can believe that, Moise, after seeing you," said John.

The happy-go-lucky Moise laughed light-heartedly. "If she'll don' hont on this land, she'll starve sure. A man he'll mus' walk, he'll mus' hont, he'll mus' portage, he'll mus' trap, he'll mus' walk on the track-line, an' know how for paddle an' pole, else he'll starve sure."

They walked on down along the narrow beach covered with rough stones, and showing only here and there enough of the sand or earth to hold a track. At length, however, Moise gave a sharp word of caution, and hurriedly motioned them all to get under cover at the bank.

"What is it, Moise?" whispered Rob, eagerly.

"Moose!" He pointed down the bank. For a long time the boys could discover nothing, but at last they caught sight of a little splash of water four or five hundred yards below, where a trickling stream entered the main river at a low place.

"He'll stood there an' fight the fly, maybe so," said Moise. "Ha-hum! Why he'll don' see us I don' know, me. Why the boat he'll not scare heem I'll don' know, me, too. How we'll get heem I don' know, me. But we'll try. Come!"

The boys now found that Moise was once more turned hunter, and rather a relentless and thoughtless one at that, for he seemed to pay no attention to the weakness of other members of his company. They scarcely could keep him in sight as he made his way through the heavy cover to an upper bench, where the forest was more open. Here he pointed to the steep slope which still rose above them.

"We must make surround," said he, in a whisper.

Not so bad a general was Moise, for, slight as was his chance to approach so wary an animal as a moose under these conditions, he used the only possible plan by which success might have been attained.

The little trickle of water in which the moose stood at the beach below came down out of a steep _coulée_, which at the point where they stood ran between deep banks, rapidly shallowing farther up the main slope. Fortunately the wind was right for an approach. Moise left John at a rock which showed on an open place pretty well up the hill, and stationed Jesse a little closer to the _coulée_. Moise and Rob scrambled across the steep slopes of the ravine, and hurried on as fast as they could go, to try to get below the moose in case it should attempt to take the water. Thus they had four rifles distributed at points able to cover the course of the moose should it attempt to escape up the bank, and close enough to hear it if it passed beneath in the forest growth.

Rob and Moise paused only long enough partly to get their breath before Moise motioned to Rob to remain where he was, while he himself hastened to the right and down toward the beach.

For some time the half-breed hunter remained at the edge of the cover, listening intently. Apparently he heard no sound, and neither he nor Rob could detect any ripple on the water showing that the moose was going to undertake escape by swimming. Thus for a time, for what indeed seemed several minutes, all the hunters continued in their inaction, unable to determine upon a better course than simply to wait to see what might happen.

What did happen was something rather singular and unexpected. Suddenly Rob heard a rifle-shot at the left, and turning, saw the smoke of Jesse's rifle, followed by a second and then a third report. He saw Jesse then spring to his feet and run up to the slope, shouting excitedly as he went and waving his cap. Evidently the hunt was over in very unexpected fashion. Moise, Rob, and John also ran up as fast as their legs and lungs would allow them.

They saw lying almost at the head of the _coulée_, which here had shallowed up perceptibly, a great, long-legged, dark body, with enormous head, tremendously long nose, and widely palmated antlers--the latter in the velvet, but already of extreme size.

For a time they could hardly talk for fatigue and excitement, but presently each could see how the hunt had happened to terminate in this way. The moose, smelling or hearing Moise when he got on the wind below, at the edge of the cover, had undertaken to make its escape quietly under the cover of the steep _coulée_ down which it had come. With the silence which this gigantic animal sometimes can compass, it had sneaked like a rabbit quite past Rob and almost to the head of the _coulée_. A little bit later and it might have gained the summit and have been lost in the poplar forest beyond. Jesse, however, had happened to see it as it emerged, and had opened fire, with the result which now was obvious. His last bullet had struck the moose through the heart as it ran and killed it almost instantly.

"Well, Jess," said Rob, "I take off my hat to you! That moose must have passed within a hundred yards of me and I never knew it, and from where you killed him he must have been three hundred yards at least."

"Those boy she'll be good shot," said Moise, approvingly, slapping Jesse warmly on the shoulder. "Plenty meat now on the boat, _hein_?"

"When I shot him," said Jesse, simply, "he just fell all over the hill."

"I was just going to shoot," said John, "but I couldn't see very well from where I was, and before I could run into reach Jesse had done the business."

"Well," said Moise, "one thing, she'll been lucky. We'll make those deck-hand come an' carry in this meat--me, I'm too proud to carry some more meat, what?"

He laughed now as he began to skin out and quarter the meat in his usual rapid and efficient fashion.

They had finished this part of their work, and were turning down the hill to return to the steamer when they were saluted by the heavy whistle of the boat, which echoed in great volume back and forth between the steep banks of the river, which here lay at the bottom of a trough-like valley, the stream itself several hundred yards in width.

"Don't hurry," said Moise; "she'll wait till we come, an' she'll like plenty moose meat on his boat."

All of which came out as Moise had predicted, for when they told Captain Saunders that they really had a dead moose ready to be brought aboard the latter beamed his satisfaction.

"That's better than bear meat for me!" said he. "We'll just lie here while the boys go out and bring in the meat."

"Now," said Rob to his friends, as, hot and dusty, they turned to their rooms to get ready for dinner, "I don't know what you other fellows think, but it seems to me we've killed about all the meat we'll need for a while. Let's wait now until we see Uncle Dick--it won't be more than a day or so, and we've all had a good hunt."

XXX

FARTHEST NORTH

As they had been told, our travelers found the banks of their river at this far northern latitude much lower than they had been for the first hundred miles below the Landing. Now and again they would pass little scattered settlements of natives, or the cabin of some former trading-station. For the most part, however, the character of the country was that of an untracked wilderness, in spite of the truth, which was that the Hudson Bay Company had known it and traded through it for more than a century past.

By no means the most northerly trading-posts of the great fur-trading company, Fort Vermilion, their present destination, seemed to our young friends almost as though it were at the edge of the world. Their journey progressed almost as though they were in a dream, and it was difficult for them to recall all of its incidents, or to get clearly before their minds the distance back of them to the homes in far-off Alaska, which they had left so long ago. The interest of travelers in new land, however, still was theirs, and they looked forward eagerly also to meeting the originator of this pleasant journey of theirs--Uncle Dick Wilcox, who, as they now learned from the officers of the boat, had been summoned to this remote region on business connected with the investigation of oil-fields on the Athabasca River, and had returned as far as Fort Vermilion on his way out to the settlements.

When finally they came within sight of the ancient post of Fort Vermilion, the boys, as had been the case in such other posts as they previously had seen, could scarcely identify the modest whitewashed buildings of logs or boards as really belonging to a post of the old company of Hudson Bay. The scene which they approached really was a quiet and peaceful one. At the rim of the bank stood the white building of the Company's post, or store, with a well-shingled red roof. Beyond this were some houses of the employés. In the other direction was the residence of the factor, a person of considerable importance in this neighborhood. Yet farther up-stream, along the bank, stood a church with a little bell; whereas, quite beyond the scattered settlement and in the opposite direction there rose a tall, two-story building with projecting smoke-stack. Rob inquired the nature of this last building, which looked familiar to him.

"That is the grist-mill," said Captain Saunders to him. "You see, we raise the finest wheat up here you'll find in the world."

"I've heard of it," said Rob, "but I couldn't really believe it, although we had good vegetables away back there at Peace River Landing."

"It's the truth," said Captain Saunders; "yonder is the Company's wheat-field, a hundred acres of it, and the same sort of wheat that took the first prize at the Centennial, at your own city of Philadelphia, in 1876. I'll show you old Brother Regnier, the man who raised that wheat, too. He can't speak any English yet, but he certainly can raise good wheat. And at the experimental farm you shall see nearly every vegetable you ever heard of."

"I don't understand it," said Rob; "we always thought of this country as being arctic--we never speak of it without thinking of dog-trains and snowshoes."

"The secret is this," said Captain Saunders. "Our summers are short, but our days are very long. Now, wheat requires sunshine, daylight, to make it grow. All right; we give it more hours of sunshine in a month than you do in a month in Dakota or Iowa. The result is that it grows quicker and stronger and better, as we think. It gets ripe before the nights become too cold. This great abundance of sunlight is the reason, also, that we raise such excellent vegetables--as I'm sure you will have reason to understand, for here we always lay in a supply for our return voyage. I am thinking, however," added the captain, presently, as the boat, screaming with her whistle, swung alongside of her landing-place, "that you'll see some one in this crowd here that you ought to know."

All along the rim of the bank there was rather a gaily-clad line of Indians and half-breeds, men and women, many of whom were waving salutations to members of the boat's crew. The boys studied this line eagerly, but for some time none of them spoke.

"I see him!" said Jesse at last. "That's Uncle Dick sitting up there on the bench."

The others also identified their relative and friend as he sat quietly smoking and waiting for the boat to make her landing. At length he arose and came to the staging--a rather slender, bronzed man, with very brown face and eyes wrinkled at the corners. He wore an engineer's garb of khaki and stiff-brimmed white hat.

The three boys took off their hats and gave a cheer as they saw him standing there smiling.

"How are you, Uncle Dick?" they all cried; and so eager were they that they could scarcely wait for the gang-plank to be run out.

Their uncle, Mr. Richard Wilcox, at that time employed in the engineering department of one of the Dominion railways, laughed rather happily as he bunched them in his arms when they came ashore. There was little chance for him to say anything for some time, so eager were the boys in their greeting of him.

"Well, you're all here!" said he at length, breaking away to shake hands with Alex and Moise, who smiled very happily also, now coming up the bank. "How have they done, Alex?"

"Fine!" said the old hunter. "Couldn't have been better!"

"This was good boys, all right," affirmed Moise. "We'll save her life plenty tam, but she's good boy!"

"Did you have any trouble getting across, Alex?" asked Uncle Dick.

"Plenty, I should say!" said Alex, smiling. "But we came through it. The boys have acted like sportsmen, and I couldn't say more."

"I suppose perhaps you got some game then, eh?"

All three now began to speak at once excitedly, and so fast that they could scarcely be understood.

"Did you really get a grizzly?" inquired Uncle Dick of Alex, after a while.

"Yes, sir, and a very good one. And a black bear too, and a moose, and some sheep, and a lot of small stuff like that. They're hunters and travelers. We gave them a 'lob-stick' to mark their journey--far back in the Rockies."

"Well, Alaska will have to look to its laurels!" said Uncle Dick, taking a long breath and pretending not to be proud of them. "It seems to me you must have been pretty busy shooting things, from all I can learn, young men."

"Oh, we know the country," interrupted Rob, "and we've got a map--we could build a railroad across there if we had to."

"Well, to tell the truth, I'm mighty glad you got through all right," said Uncle Dick. "I've been thinking that maybe I oughtn't to have let you try that trip, for it's dangerous enough for men. But everything's well that ends well, and here you are, safe and sound. You'll have to be getting out of here before long, though, in order to make Valdez in time for your fall school--you'd be running wild if I left you on the trail any longer.

"The boat will be going back to the Landing in a couple of days, I suppose," he added after a time, as he gathered their hands in his and started along the path up the steep bank; "but there are a few things here you ought to see--the post and the farms and grains which they have--wonderful things in their way. And then I'll try to get Saunders to fix it so that you can see the Vermilion Chutes of the Peace River."

"I know right where that is," said Rob, feeling in his pocket for his map--"about sixty miles below here. That's the head of navigation on the Peace, isn't it?"

"It is for the present time," said Uncle Dick. "I've been looking at that cataract of the Peace. There ought to be a lock or a channel cut through, so that steamboats could run the whole length from Chippewayan to the Rockies! As it is, everything has to portage there."

"We don't know whether to call this country old or young," said Rob. "In some ways it doesn't seem to have changed very much, and in other ways it seems just like any other place."

"One of these days you'll see a railroad down the Mackenzie, young man," said Uncle Dick, "and before long, of course, you'll see one across the Rockies from the head of the Saskatchewan, above the big bend of the Columbia."

"Why couldn't we get in there some time, Uncle Dick?" asked Jesse, who was feeling pretty brave now that they were well out of the Rocky Mountains and the white water of the rapids.

"Well, I don't know," said Uncle Dick, suddenly looking around. "It might be a good idea, after all. But I think you'd find pretty bad water in the Columbia if you tried to do any navigation there. Time enough to talk about that next year. Come on now, and I'll introduce you to the factor and the people up here at the Post."