by Farley Mowat
Awasin laughed outright.
“They will have a tale to tell their pups. Their den must be close by—perhaps in the esker. That is a favorite place for wolves to make their homes. Maybe in the morning we will have time to look.”
In the morning Jamie told Peetyuk and Angeline about the visitors, and Peetyuk grew most excited.
“Amow, the wolf, he my spirit-friend. All Eskimos have some kind animal for spirit-friend. Maybe wolf come visit me and I asleep. They think I poor kind of friend. I go look for house and tell I sorry.” And with that he scrambled to his feet and went loping up the steep side of the esker.
Half an hour later, when the rest of the party had broken camp and was ready to leave, Peetyuk reappeared. He was grinning broadly and in his arms was a gray bundle of fur that squirmed to be put down.
It was a wolf pup, and when Peetyuk put it on the ground the roly-poly beast scampered off on its short legs to sniff at Awasin’s feet. It was not the slightest bit afraid.
“You say hello to little amow,” Peetyuk told his companions. “He not stay long. Must go back to house. See? Old wolf watch.” He pointed to the crest of the esker where both adult wolves stood, nervously twitching their tails.
“My gosh! You’re taking an awful risk, Pete,” Jamie exclaimed. “Even a dog will go for you if you touch her young.”
“No fear, Jamie. Wolf and me all friends. They know we not hurt. Often Eskimo boy play with wolf pup at their houses.”
“He is so nice I would like to keep him,” Angeline said, getting down on her knees to fondle the pup’s ears.
“He more better stay in own country,” Peetyuk told her gently. “I take back now. You wait, I not gone long.”
Picking up the pup, which promptly began to chew at one of his ears, Peetyuk turned and began to climb the ridge. To Jamie’s amazement and alarm the wolves did not back away but waited until Peetyuk passed not more than two yards from them. Then they trotted close behind the Eskimo.
“I wouldn’t have believed that if I hadn’t seen it,” Jamie said in awe-struck tones. “If Pete can charm wolves like that, he could charm any kind of wild animal there is.”
Awasin grinned. “That is true, but I think he charms wild Cree girls best of all.”
Everyone was in a good mood as they all set off that morning. Jamie even risked making a small joke on the subject of curses, which had been a taboo topic between him and Peetyuk. As the canoes rounded a point after running a short rapid, he remarked amiably:
“Looks like our luck has changed, Pete. Unless you count the flies, we seem to have got out of range of old Elaitutna’s bad medicine.”
But this was a subject that Peetyuk was still not prepared to take lightly.
“We not come to Churchill yet,” he said shortly. “Better you keep eyes open and mouth shut.”
A sharp lookout was certainly essential on Big River, which was becoming more and more like a slalom slope. Rapid succeeded rapid all day long and it was seldom that the youngsters could relax for more than a few moments at a time. But they were becoming increasingly skillful and they were making such good time that instead of camping early they continued to run downstream until almost dusk. Jamie and Peetyuk were in the lead as they swung around a sharp bend and entered a steep, roaring chute at a point where the river narrowed. The rapid was a bad one, and the travelers would normally have halted to reconnoiter before attempting to run it, but they were full of confidence and Jamie elected to head straight into it.
He and Peetyuk had their hands full, for there was a ledge right across the river halfway down where a huge curling backwave reared up as a solid wall of water. Their canoe shot through this wall without mishap, although both boys were drenched. There was a deep pool below it, and here the two boys held the canoe in check while they waited for Awasin and Angeline, whose canoe was not far behind.
But as he approached the wall of white water, Awasin suddenly changed course, attempting to swerve to the left where the wall looked a little less fearsome. Before Angeline could grasp what her brother’s intentions were, the canoe had swung sideways. An instant later it was out of control and was flung up on the backwave broadside-to.
While Jamie and Peetyuk watched in helpless horror the canoe vanished in the boiling spume. Split seconds later it emerged below the ledge, but upside down and barely showing above the surface. To the watchers’ inexpressible relief they saw that both Angeline and Awasin were clinging to the wreck.
It was only a matter of moments for Jamie and Peetyuk to reach the waterlogged canoe, grab it by the bow, and haul it to the shore of the eddy pool where Awasin and Angeline struggled ashore, gasping for breath and looking like drowned rats. Then all four grabbed the swamped canoe and hauled it high and dry.
Angeline and Awasin were nearly paralyzed with cold. Peetyuk rushed to get a fire going, using a supply of dry wood brought with them from the previous campsite. Meanwhile Jamie hastily unrolled his and Peetyuk’s bedding so that the boy and girl were able to shed their soaking clothes and cover themselves with something dry and warm.
Then Jamie and Peetyuk turned to the task of rescuing the contents of the swamped canoe. Sleeping robes and clothing were spread out to dry on paddles propped up beside the fire. The precious bundle of Viking relics was examined and it was with great relief the boys found it had proved watertight and had suffered no damage. The canoe itself had a ten-inch gash along one side, but this was something which could easily be repaired with a strip of birch bark and some melted resin. All in all it appeared that the youngsters had come off lightly from what might well have been a fatal accident.
Relief at their narrow escape made everyone a little light-headed. Awasin was even trying to make a joke about his foolishness in trying to alter course when Peetyuk interrupted him.
“I not see rifle anywhere,” he said quietly.
There was a moment of stunned silence.
“It was in the bottom of the canoe,” Awasin cried in a stricken tone of voice. “I untied it when I thought I saw some caribou on the riverbank ahead of us…and I forgot to lash it down again…”
Full realization of what the loss of the rifle might mean was slow in coming. It was Angeline who finally put it into words.
“Without the rifle we can get no more meat. And we have so little food with us that we must have meat!”
Peetyuk nodded his head gloomily.
“If we not able shoot deer, soon we starve. Only food left in grub-box for two, three day.”
“Look,” Jamie said desperately, “that pool below the rapid can’t be very deep. And the water’s clear as glass. Come on, Pete! It’s still light enough to see. Maybe we can spot the rifle and dredge it up somehow.”
Quickly the two boys shoved off in the undamaged canoe and paddled to the center of the pool, directly below the backwave. Jamie leaned over, staring into the water and probing with his paddle.
“It’s no good,” he said at last. “I can’t see bottom, and I can’t reach it with the paddle. Pete! Tie the hatchet on the end of the mooring line and drop it overboard.”
Peetyuk lowered the hatchet over the side and when it hit bottom he hauled back the line, measuring it in arm’s lengths as he did so.
His face was bleak.
“It more than ten feet deep, Jamie. I think we never find rifle down there.”
Gloomily they paddled back to shore and told the others what they had discovered. The situation seemed hopeless. Neither Awasin nor Peetyuk could swim well enough to risk themselves on the surface of the rapid current, let alone underneath it at a depth of ten feet. And although Jamie was a strong swimmer he was not able to dive, for he had suffered from mastoiditis as a child and pressure on his eardrums gave him agonizing pain. Things looked very black indeed until Angeline spoke.
“I will dive for the rifle,” she said. “It was partly my fault we lost it. If I had been quicker when Awasin turned we would not have upset. I am a good swimmer and I can dive very deep.”
For an instant hope flared in Jamie’s heart, then it died again.
“No, it wouldn’t work, Angeline. That water’s far too cold. You could never stand it.”
Angeline’s eyes blazed. “Perhaps it is too cold for you. But it is not too cold for me. I am a Cree!”
“My sister swims and dives like an otter,” Awasin interjected. “But you are right, Jamie, it is too cold and too swift.”
Angeline rounded sharply on her brother.
“Would you rather we all starve then? I tell you I can do it. I will do it!” She turned to Peetyuk who had been standing silent, undecided what to say. “Peetyuk. You believe I can do it. Tell them I can do it!”
Full of admiration for her spirit, yet convinced that the others were right, poor Peetyuk could do nothing but mumble inarticulately. For a moment Angeline stared at him coldly, then with a rapidity which left the boys helpless to stop her she flung off the sleeping robe and raced for the riverbank. Awasin gave an angry shout and started after her but he was too late. For a moment the girl stood slim and poised on the high cutbank, then she dived cleanly into the river.
“She’s gone crazy!” Jamie yelled. “Grab the canoe, Pete!”
Leaving Awasin standing impotently on the bank, Jamie and Peetyuk flung themselves into the canoe and paddled frantically toward the middle of the pool. They gained on the sleek black head of the girl as she swam strongly for the backwave, but as Peetyuk leaned over to grab her she dived like a seal.
When she broke surface a few seconds later she was right under the lip of the falls. Before the boys could reach her she took a great gulp of air and again disappeared.
Awasin was desperate. He had waded out thigh-deep into the current and only Jamie’s angry shout prevented him from plunging in.
“Don’t be a fool, Awasin. You’ll drown too. I’m going in for her…Pete, steady the canoe…”
Jamie had slipped off his moccasin rubbers and his jacket when Peetyuk yelled:
“She’s up. Help me, Jamie!”
Almost capsizing the canoe, Jamie jumped to the bow. Peetyuk had hold of the girl by one arm but was unable to haul her up. Jamie leaned over and slipped his hands under both her arms. Pulling together, the two boys eased her up and over the gunwale. As she tumbled into the canoe there was a heavy thump against the wooden ribs. Clutched tightly in the girl’s right hand was the missing rifle.
Angeline was almost unconscious and they had to pry the rifle out of her hand, which was as cold as death. Minutes later they had carried her to the fire and covered her with sleeping robes, and Awasin was forcing hot tea between her blue lips. Uncontrollable paroxysms of shivering wracked her whole body. Nevertheless she managed to force a small smile. Her voice was no more than a whisper and the boys had to lean close to hear what she said.
“A Cree girl can do anything…you see?”
Dumbly Jamie nodded. But Peetyuk, his eyes glistening with something deeper than admiration, leaned down and clumsily took the girl’s hand in his.
“I see very good,” he muttered huskily. “And I think we never forget what Cree girl, she can do.”
CHAPTER 21
The Sea People
THE JULY DAYS SLIPPED PAST AND the travelers made steady progress to the east. Big River seemed to have settled down a little and although there were as many rapids as ever, most were passable—if barely so. Occasionally a really bad stretch necessitated a portage. The weather remained reasonably good and the voyagers were storm-bound only once, when a torrential rain and gale winds kept them in their tent for two days. Eventually they reached Edehon Lake—a mighty lake running thirty miles to the southeast. Carefully they coasted its indented shores searching for the outlet, which turned out to be on a hidden bay to the northwest. The search for Big River’s outlet had cost them another two days.
The emptiness of the country they were passing through had begun to have a depressing effect upon them. Since leaving the Deer’s Way they had come across no trace of human beings. There were no old campsites, nor even cuttings in the few spruce thickets they encountered. It was as if mankind had always avoided Big River, and the voyagers began to have an uneasy feeling that they had stepped out of the inhabited world into some lost wilderness.
But if there were no humans on Big River, there was other life along its banks. Several times they saw wolves, and almost every night their travel camp was visited by arctic foxes who were so fearless they would come right up to the campfire. On one occasion Angeline even coaxed a fox to take a piece of meat out of her hand.
Life on the river itself was abundant too. There were many geese and ducks, and the river held stranger beasts as well. One day, shortly after leaving Edehon, the travelers ran a steep rapid and emerged into a tiny lake across whose center ran a gravel bar. Jamie noticed three immense, shiny black rocks on this bar and he was about to draw Peetyuk’s attention to the peculiar appearance of the rocks when one of them suddenly humped itself to the water’s edge and vanished with an enormous splash.
They were still staring goggle-eyed at the place where the moving “rock” had vanished when Jamie realized what it was that they had seen. With a shout he headed his canoe toward the reef.
The remaining two seals waited until the canoes were less than a hundred feet away before they too humped their way into the water. Meantime Peetyuk had grabbed the rifle but he waited too long and the seals disappeared before he could shoot.
Jamie was much amused by Peetyuk’s expression of bewilderment.
“Seals aren’t caribou, you dope! They don’t swim on top of the water. Keep your eyes peeled now. They’ll pop up somewhere for another look at us.”
A few seconds later a bewhiskered, sleek, big-eyed head reappeared close by. Its appearance was so sudden that Peetyuk was caught off balance and came within an ace of pitching out of the canoe to join the seal. Before he could recover himself and level his rifle the seal was gone again.
Angeline could not contain herself and broke into a shout of laughter as a second seal, which had incautiously surfaced right beside Jamie’s canoe, went down again with such a powerful flurry that the spray flew into Peetyuk’s face and momentarily blinded him.
“Leave them be!” Jamie yelled, at the sight of the wildly waving rifle barrel. “You’ll shoot one of us. No use killing them anyway. They’ll sink and we won’t get them. Sit down and let’s just watch.”
Rather reluctantly Peetyuk sat down and laid the gun aside. The canoes drifted idly in the current and in a few moments all three seals had their heads out. They swam closer and closer, and occasionally one of them would lose his nerve. With a loud, wet whoof he would duck under until curiosity got the better of him and up he would come for another look.
Tiring of the show at last, the travelers took up their paddles and moved on—and so did the seals. They escorted the canoes the length of the little lake and left them only at the head of the next rapids, which was a particularly bad one.
“I read about ‘fresh-water’ seals once,” Jamie told his friends as they were preparing to portage this rapid. “They’re really harbor seals but some of them get a taste for fresh water and go way inland up rivers and lakes and never come down again. Scientists don’t know much about them, and not many white people have ever seen them in the north. I guess we’re lucky.”
“I glad I not shoot,” Peetyuk said. “They got face like funny old man. And they good sign. If seal come here, we maybe not too far from salt water.”
The next morning, the fifteenth day after leaving the Deer’s Way, they came out into the long westerly arm of a lake. As they were paddling under the lee of the rocky shore, Peetyuk began to wave his paddle wildly. Having caught everyone’s attention, he pointed to a low ridge just back from the shore where, in silent welcome, stood a cluster of three inukok—Eskimo stonemen.
“Not far now!” Peetyuk cried. “Sea People must make those. Ohoto tell me late summertime they come upriver and camp to meet tuktu. Spend
winter in country, and go back to sea in spring. We watch hard for camps.”
But it was not a camp which gave them their first contact with the Sea People. Later that day, as they were again entering the river, they saw a big white canoe upside down upon a sand ridge a few hundred yards back from the shore.
Beaching their own canoes, the youngsters climbed the ridge. There was no sign of a camp nearby and the canoe itself was very old. Most of its canvas had rotted away leaving the wooden planking to whiten in the sun and gales.
Peetyuk stared at it with a puzzled frown, but Awasin and Jamie began to examine it more closely.
“Something underneath, I think,” Jamie said. “Let’s turn it over.”
Both boys bent down and got a grip on the gunwale. They had to strain to lift it for this was no little river canoe—it was a twenty-two-foot sea-going one. With a sudden jerk they managed to raise it and at that instant Peetyuk yelled at them.
“No! No! Do not turn! Leave alone!”
He was too late. The big canoe teetered on its under gunwale and then fell right side up with a crackling sound.
“Not touch!” Peetyuk cried. “I fool. Not guess before. That sea man’s grave!”
There was no doubt that he was right. Under the canoe lay a shapeless bundle of rotted caribou hides. Foxes and lesser beasts had rummaged it thoroughly, and here and there could be seen the white bones of a human being. Next to the body was a wooden box without a lid in which could be seen stone pipes and other personal oddments. Alongside the body lay a badly rusted rifle, a long-handled fish spear, and two broken paddles.
“We put back quick!” Peetyuk said, and his voice was sharp with perturbation. “Eskimo in our country bury dead people on top of ground and put tools and weapons with him for next world. My people put rocks on top; but Sea People put canoe on top.”
