Under the Great Bear

by Kirk Munroe

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES.

  Only once during their tedious imprisonment had our lads receivedevidence that human beings existed in that desolate country, and afterthey gained this information they hardly knew whether to rejoice or toregret that it had come to them. One morning, some weeks after theirarrival in the basin, to which they had given the name of "LockedHarbour," Cabot, going on deck for a breath of air, made a discovery sostartling that, for a moment, he could hardly credit the evidence ofhis eyes. Then he shouted to White:

  "Come up here quick, old man, and take in the sight."

  As the latter, who had been lighting a fire in the galley stove, obeyedthis call, Cabot pointed to the beach, on which stood a row of humanfigures, gazing at the schooner as stolidly as so many graven images.

  "Indians!" cried White, "and perhaps we can get them to show us the wayto the nearest mission."

  "Good enough!" rejoined Cabot in high excitement. "Let's go ashore andinterview them before they have a chance to disappear as mysteriouslyas they have appeared. Where do you suppose they came from?"

  "Can't imagine, and doubt if they'll ever tell. Probably they arewondering the same thing about us. I suppose, though, they are ontheir way towards the interior for the winter. But hold on a minute.We must take them some sort of a present. Grub is what they'll be mostlikely to appreciate, for the natives of this country are alwayshungry."

  Acting upon his own suggestion, White dived below, to reappear a minutelater with a bag of biscuit and a generous piece of salt pork, which hetossed into the dinghy. Then the excited lads pulled for the beach onwhich the strangers still waited in motionless expectation.

  "Only a woman, a baby, and three children," remarked White, in a toneof disappointment, as they approached near enough to scrutinise thegroup. "Still, I suppose they can guide us out of here as well as anyone else if they only will."

  The strangers were as White had discovered--a woman and children, butone of these latter was a half-grown boy of such villainous appearancethat Cabot promptly named him "Arsenic," because his looks were enoughto poison anything. They were clad in rags, and were so miserably thinthat they had evidently been on short rations for a long time. White'sbelief that they were hungry was borne out by the ravenous manner withwhich they fell upon the provisions he presented to them.

  Arsenic seized the piece of pork and whipping out a knife cut it intostrips, which he, his mother, and his sisters devoured raw, as thoughit were a delicacy to which they had long been strangers. The hardbiscuit also made a magical disappearance, and when all were gone,Arsenic, looking up with a hideous grin, uttered the single word:"More."

  "Good!" cried Cabot, "he can talk English. Now look here, young man,if we give you more--all you can carry, in fact, of pork, bread, flour,tea, and sugar, will you show us the road to the nearestmission--Ramah, Nain, or Hopedale?"

  "Tea, shug," replied the boy, with an expectant grin.

  "Yes, tea, sugar, and a lot of other things if you'll show us the wayto Nain. You understand?"

  "Tea, shug," repeated the young Indian, again grinning.

  "We wantee git topside Nain. You sabe, Nain?" asked Cabot, pointing tohis companion and himself, and then waving his hand comprehensively atthe inland landscape.

  "Tea, shug, more," answered the young savage, promptly, while hisrelatives regarded him admiringly as one who had mastered the art ofconversing with foreigners.

  "Perhaps he understands English better, or rather more, than he speaksit," suggested White.

  "It is to be hoped that he does," replied Cabot. "Even then he mightnot comprehend more than one word in a thousand. But I tell you what.Let's go and get our own breakfast, pack up what stuff we intend tocarry, make the schooner as snug as possible, and come back to thebeach. Here we'll show these beggars what stuff we've brought, andgive them to understand that it shall all be theirs when they get us toNain. Then we'll start them up the trail, and follow wherever theylead. They are bound to fetch up somewhere. Even if they don't takeus where we want to go, we will have provisions enough to last us aweek or more, and can surely find our way back."

  "I hate to leave them, for they might skip out while we were gone,"objected White.

  "That's so. Well then, why not invite them on board? They'll be safethere until we are ready to go. Say, Arsenic, you all come with we allto shipee, sabe? Get tea, sugar, plenty, eat heap, you understand?"

  As Cabot said this he made motions for all the natives to enter thedinghy, and then pointed to the schooner.

  It was evident that he was understood, and equally so that the womandeclined his proposition, for she sat motionless, holding her baby, andwith the younger children close by her side. The boy, however,expressed his willingness to visit the schooner by entering the dinghyand seating himself in its stern.

  "That will do," said White. "The others won't run away without him,and he is the only one we want anyhow."

  So the boat was rowed out to the anchored schooner, while those left onthe beach watched the departure of their son and brother with the sameapathy that they had shown towards all the other happenings of thateventful morning.

  "Look at the young scarecrow, taking things as coolly as though he hadalways been used to having white men row him about a harbour," laughedCabot, "and yet I don't suppose he was ever in a regular boat before."

  "No," agreed White, "I don't suppose he ever was."

  They did not allow Arsenic to enter the "Sea Bee's" cabin, but made himstay on deck, where, however, he appeared perfectly contented and athis ease. Here Cabot brought the various supplies for their proposedjourney and put them up in neat packages while White preparedbreakfast. The former had supposed that their guest would be greatlyinterested in what he was doing, but the young savage manifested theutmost indifference to all that took place. In fact he seemed to payno attention to Cabot's movements, but squatted on the deck, and gazedin silent meditation at the beach, where his mother and sisters couldbe seen also seated in motionless expectation.

  "I believe he is a perfect idiot," muttered Cabot, "and wonder that heknows enough to eat when he's hungry."

  Then White called him, and he went below to breakfast.

  "Do you think it is safe to leave that chap alone on deck with allthose things?" asked the former.

  "Take a look at him and see for yourself," replied Cabot.

  So White crept noiselessly up the companion ladder and peepedcautiously out. Arsenic still squatted where Cabot had left him,gazing idiotically off into space. At the same time a close observermight have imagined that his beady eyes twinkled with a gleam ofinterest as White's head appeared above the companion coaming.

  "I guess it is all right," said White, rejoining his friend.

  "Of course it is. He couldn't swim ashore with the things, and thereisn't any other way he could make off with them, except by taking themin the dinghy, and that chump couldn't any more manage a boat than acow."

  In spite of this assertion Cabot finished his meal with all speed, andthen hurried on deck, where he uttered a cry of dismay. A singleglance showed him that their guest, together with all the suppliesprepared for their journey, was no longer where he had left him. Asecond glance disclosed the dinghy half way to the beach, while in herstern, sculling her swiftly along with practised hand, stood thewooden-headed young savage who didn't know how to manage a boat.

  "Come back here, you sneak thief, or I'll fill you full of lead,"yelled Cabot, and as the Indian paid not the slightest attention hedrew his revolver and fired. He never knew where the bullet struck,but it certainly did not reach the mark he intended, for Arsenic merelyincreased the speed of his boat without even looking back.

  So angry that he hardly realised what he was doing, Cabot cocked hispistol and attempted to fire again, but the lock only snappedharmlessly, and there was no report. Then he remembered that he hadexpended several shots the day before in a fruitless effort to att
ractattention on board a distant vessel seen from the lookout, and hadneglected to reload.

  As he started for the cabin in quest of more cartridges he came intocollision with White hurrying on deck.

  "What is the matter?" inquired the latter, as soon as he regained thebreath thus knocked out of him.

  "Oh, nothing at sill," replied Cabot, with ironical calmness, "onlywe've been played for a couple of hayseeds by a wooden-faced youngheathen who don't know enough to go in when it rains. In his childishfolly he has gone off with the dinghy, taking our provisions along as asouvenir of his visit, and he didn't even have the politeness to lookround when I spoke to him. Oh! but it will be a chilly day for littleWilly if I catch him again."

  "I am glad you only spoke," remarked White. "When I heard you shoot Ididn't know but what you had murdered him."

  "Wish I had," growled Cabot, savagely. "Look at him now, and considerthe cheek of the plain, every-day North American savage."

  It was aggravating to see the young thief gain the beach and lift fromthe boat the provisions he had so deftly acquired. It was even moreannoying to see the embryo warrior's grateful family pounce upon theprizes of his bow and spear, and to be forced to listen to the joyouscries with which they greeted their returned hero. Filled now with abustling activity, the Indians quickly divided the spoil according totheir strength; and then, without one backward glance, or a single looktowards the schooner, they started up the narrow trail by thewaterfall, with the triumphant Arsenic heading the procession, and inanother minute had disappeared.

  As the last fluttering rag vanished from sight, our lads, who hadwatched the latter part of this performance in silent wrath, turned toeach other and burst out laughing.

  "It was a dirty, mean, low-down trick!" cried Cabot. "At the same timehe played it with a dexterity that compels my admiration. Now, whatshall we do?"

  "I suppose one of us will have to swim ashore and get that boat."

  "What, through ice water? You are right, though, and as I am thebiggest chump, I'll go."

  Cabot was as good as his word, and did swim to the beach, though, as heafterwards said, he did not know whether his first plunge was made intoice water or molten lead. Then he and White followed the trail oftheir recent guests to the crest of the bluffs, but could not discoverwhat direction they had taken from that point. So they returned to theschooner sadder but wiser than before, and wondered whether they werebetter or worse off on account of the recent visitation.

  "If they carry news of us to one of the missions we will be betteroff," argued Cabot.

  "But, if they don't, we are worse off, by at least the value of ourstolen provisions," replied White.