THE CARIBOU HUNT
The mutinous dogs eyed Toby's whip. They feared the whip, but no fear of it could induce them to advance farther, in the face of the storm, upon the unstable ice.
"What can we do now?" asked Charley in an appealing tone.
"I'm not knowin' what's ailin' the dogs," answered Toby rather uncertainly. "I can't make un go ahead, and we can't bide here, whatever. I'm fearin' with the way the ice heaves she's gone abroad at the narrows. 'Tis no worse to the east'ard than 'tis here, and that's the way the dogs wants to go. I'm thinkin' to let un go that way."
"But that will be going out to sea!" exclaimed Charley in alarm.
"Aye, but the mouth of the bay is quite a bit out past Deer Harbour, and we're a good bit inside Deer Harbour P'int now," Toby explained. "Till we gets beyond the mouth of the bay I'll be hopin' to get ashore. We'll turn back before we goes too far, unless the ice floats us out."
"Let's get farther from the edge of the ice anyhow," said Charley, as a great heave of the ice under his feet nearly threw him down.
"Aye, 'tis like to break up here any time. We'll let the dogs have their will," agreed Toby, but not hopefully.
With that he commanded the dogs to rise, which they did readily, and breaking the komatik loose he gave them the order to the right, and away they went with a will, and with apparent satisfaction that they had won their way in facing toward the eastward.
Now, with the wind nearly behind them, the animals traveled steadily, and with no urging. It was much less trying, too, for Toby and Charley as well as for the dogs.
"The ice has about stopped its roll," said Charley presently, and with fresh hope. "It's a lot steadier."
"She is that," admitted Toby. "I were just thinkin' that the dogs knows more than we does about un."
And so it proved. Following the ice that bounded the open water along the north shore of the bay, they observed that the chasm of water separating the ice from the land was narrowing. Presently, to their great joy, the open water came to an abrupt end, with the ice firmly connected with the shore.
"We're just across from the p'int outside Deer Harbour," said Toby. "We can make un to Deer Harbour now, and bide there till the storm passes. We'll be findin the Deer Harbour ice fast, I'm not doubtin'."
"But we'll keep close to shore!" suggested Charley cautiously.
"Aye, we'll do that," agreed Toby. "We'll be takin' no more chances with the ice."
An hour later they again drove up to Skipper Cy Blink's trading store, and received a hearty welcome from the Skipper.
"I'm wonderful glad to see you! Wonderful glad!" greeted the Skipper. "I've been blamin' myself ever since you goes for lettin' you start with the wind the way she were, and fearin' all the time you'd be gettin' caught in a break up."
Skipper Cy Blink made much of the bear that Charley had killed with his new rifle, and admitted that such game would surely have made him forget, quite as readily as it had the boys, about the danger of the ice going abroad.
"'Twere fine you knocks he over," enthused the Skipper. "I never could have let a white bear pass without tryin' to knock he over, whatever. You lads bide here in comfort till the storm passes. 'Twill be a short un. I'm thinkin' 'twill clear in the night, and the wind'll shift nuth'ard before to-morrow marnin', and before to-morrow evenin' the ice'll be fast again on the bay."
And, as Skipper Cy had said, so it came to pass, and on the second morning after their return Toby and Charley turned again toward Pinch-In Tickle and Double Up Cove, with the ice beneath them as firm and solid and safe as ever it was.
How glad the boys were to reach Pinch-In Tickle! There would be no more danger of bad ice to face, and the difficult ballicaders were behind them, a fact that was particularly appreciated by Charley.
They made a rousing fire in the stove, and fried some bear's meat to satisfy a hunger that had been accumulating since they had left Deer Harbour in the morning. Then a fishing net that needed repairs was made ready to lash upon the komatik with the load in the morning, the dogs were fed, and they settled for a cozy evening while they talked over their adventures, and Charley's new rifle.
"'Tis the finest shootin' rifle I ever sees," declared Toby, adding wistfully: "I wishes I had one like she. Maybe with the silver fox Dad'll be lettin' me have un."
"When I get home I'll have my Dad send you one, Toby," Charley promised impulsively. "Don't say a thing to your father about it and I'll send you one and him one too. I'd let you have mine, only it's the first one I ever owned, and I shot the bear with it."
"Charley, you're wonderful kind!" and Toby's face beamed with pleasure. "But," he added seriously, "'twould be too much, Charley. You mustn't send un."
"No it won't be too much," insisted Charley. "I want to do it. It will make me feel happy."
It was late the following afternoon when they reached Double Up Cove. The komatik was laden much more heavily than on the outward journey, and the dogs, perforce, traveled much more slowly.
When they had unloaded the komatik, and carried the meat and other cargo into the cabin, they brought in the komatik box, but before they unpacked it Mrs. Twig and Violet must needs see Charley's new rifle, and he exhibited it with due pride to be admired with real appreciation.
The komatik box was then opened, and Charley drew forth the shawl and presented it to Mrs. Twig.
"Oh, Charley, lad!" she exclaimed, holding it up. "I been wantin' a shawl all my life and never has un, and this un is a rare fine shawl. 'Twere wonderful kind o' you to think o' me and get un!"
Violet was standing wistfully by, and she hugged her mother to show how deeply she shared her mother's pleasure.
In the meantime Charley was delving into the depths of the komatik box, and now he brought forth another package, which he presented to Violet, remarking:
"There's something for you, Violet. I hope you'll like it."
Skipper Blink had packed the doll most carefully in a box, that its dainty dress might not be soiled. In great eagerness of anticipation Violet removed the wrappings one by one. When at last the doll was disclosed, she gasped for a moment, then caught her breath, and then in a spasm of joy hugged it to her breast with eyes brimming with tears.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! How pretty! How wonderful pretty!" she cried in ecstasy. "I loves un! I loves un! Oh, Charley!" and with one arm hugging the doll, she flung the other arm around Charley's neck in unrestrained joy, and kissed his cheek. "Charley, you brings me the first doll I ever has in my life!"
It was the most sincere exhibition of appreciation and pleasure Charley had ever witnessed, and the pathos of it made him wink hard to keep back the tears that threatened to come into his own eyes.
In the kindlier land from which he came, where dolls and other toys are lavished upon the children, and they accept them as a matter of course, and soon cast the old ones aside for the new, no such joy as that which Violet experienced is possible. She was at that moment certainly the happiest little girl in all The Labrador, and perhaps in all the world. And for many years to come that doll was to be her most precious possession. No other could ever take its place. She talked to it and loved it as though it were human, and alive, and to her it was indeed a living thing. She told it all her joys, and went to it for comfort in all her sorrows.
What exclamations of appreciation there were when Toby produced the ancient "sweets" that he had purchased from Skipper Blink! They were as hard and ordinary and stale as ever candies could be, and at home Charley could not have been tempted to taste them. But here even he pronounced them excellent, and to the others they were indeed a rare treat.
Just as Mrs. Twig announced supper one evening a week after the boys had returned from their trip to Deer Harbour and their adventure with the bear and on the ice, the door unexpectedly opened and there stood Skipper Zeb in the lamplight, laughing heartily at the fine surprise he had given them.
Violet ran to him and threw her arms around him, and every one gathered about him in joyful welcome, while he picked ice from his eyelashes and his beard, and chuckled contentedly:
"Well, now! Here we be, safe and sound and snug! Everybody well and happy! 'Tis wonderful fine to be back."
"'Tis wonderful fine to have you back!" Mrs. Twig declared, and everybody echoed the sentiment.
When he had taken his things off, and properly greeted every one, and Toby and Charley had unpacked his toboggan and carried into the house his winter's catch of pelts and his traveling equipment, he turned to Charley.
"Well, now!" said he. "You looks like a Labradorman! And how does you like livin' at Double Up Cove? 'Twere a proper way to get out of that fix you gets in when the mail boat leaves you, I'm thinkin', from the way you looks! Rugged and well! And everybody happy!"
"I've had the best time this winter I ever had in my life," Charley declared.
"Well, now! That's the way to talk! That's the way to make the best of a bad job! 'Twere lookin' like a wonderful bad job you makes of un, and a wonderful bad fix you gets in, when the mail boat goes and leaves you. But you gets out of the fix and makes the best of what you finds and turns trouble into a good time! That's what I calls risin' above trouble," and Skipper Zeb slapped Charley upon the shoulder in hearty approval. "Now we'll set in and eat. I'm as hungry as a bear, and I could eat a bear if I had un to eat."
"'Twill be bear's meat you'll eat," smiled Mrs. Twig, placing a dish of meat on the table.
"Charley knocks un over, and 'twere a white bear," Toby announced. "And Charley fights a wolf pack, and knocks one of un over with an ax."
As they ate Skipper Zeb heard from Toby the stories of Charley's fight with the wolves and of the shooting of the bear, interrupting the narrative with many delighted exclamations.
"Now I wants wonderful bad to hear how you lads were makin' out to get back to Double Up Cove after you leaves the Black River tilt," said Skipper Zeb. "The wind comes to blow a gale before you has time to get to Swile Island, and I wonders and wonders about un, and I fears you gets in a wonderful bad fix. But they's no way I can be helpin', so I says, ''Tis no use to worry. To-day's to-day and to-morrow's to-morrow, and so I'll trust the Lard and the good sense o' the two lads to get un out o' any fix they gets in.'"
"Were you findin' the oars we caches on Swile Island?" asked Toby.
"Aye, I finds un, but I'm not findin' the boat," nodded Skipper Zeb, a puzzled look on his face. "I'm not knowin' what to think o' that. When I finds the oars this marnin' I says, 'The lads gets to Swile Island, whatever.' But when I'm not findin' fin or feather o' the boat, I'm not knowin' what to think about un. I figgers that they's no chanst to get away from Swile Island with the boat, whatever, with the storm and the high seas that's runnin' for a week or ten days, and I knows you'll be gettin' out o' grub."
Then Toby told him of his own and Charley's experiences, and while he listened admiringly he asked many questions.
"Well, now! With good sense and the Lard's help you pulls out of a wonderful bad fix. You does all you knows how, and then prays the Lard. That's the way! 'Tis no use wastin' time prayin' till you does your best first," and Skipper Zeb nodded his head approvingly. "Well, now!" and leaning back his head he looked at Charley approvingly. "When you shoots a deer I'll be namin' you a Labradorman! 'Tis the proudest name I'm thinkin' of, and that you'll be! There's a fine chance to knock over some deer right handy. I sees fine footin' this evenin'. A big band of deer's workin' down this way, and they're like to come out any time. 'Tis a wonderful big band. Some years they comes and some years they don't. This year they comes."
Skipper Zeb explained to Charley that at this season of the year the snow became so deep in the wooded interior that the caribou, or wild reindeer, had a great deal of digging to do with their hoofs to reach the thick beds of moss which covered the ground beneath the snow, and upon which the animals chiefly fed.
He also explained that each fall the caribou gathered in great bands or herds, and when food became hard to get, they would move or migrate to barren places, where the wind, its force unobstructed by trees, swept the greater part of the snow from the moss covered ground, and thus it was much easier for the animals to reach food. Such a barren was that where the wolf fight had taken place, and where Toby had caught his fox.
"This band, I'm thinkin', is on the barrens to the nuth'ard of the mesh, where you fights the wolves," said Skipper Zeb. "The footin' goes that way. We'll have a look in the marnin'."
Not a sign of caribou had Toby or Charley seen the whole winter, and Skipper Zeb's statement that a large herd was so near was exciting news. All winter they had been living upon rabbits, partridges and an occasional porcupine. Caribou venison would be a great treat, and the boys were keen for the hunt.
The great event of the evening was reserved until after they had eaten. Then Toby, with much dignity, opened a chest and brought forth the otter and marten skins, and, as a climax, the silver fox pelt. Skipper Zeb was quite overcome. His praise of the boys was unstinted.
"I makes a fine winter's hunt myself," said he, "but nary a silver has I ever caught. I has a rare fine catch of martens and minks, and one cross fox, three reds and seven whites, but I never catches a silver. 'Tis worth all the fox skins I gets three times over!"
"And now we'll be havin' a wonderful lot o' things we needs," Mrs. Twig smiled happily.
"Aye, that we will!" Skipper Zeb boomed heartily. "We can afford un now without stintin'. We'll have un! We'll have nigh to anything we're minded to buy!"
Breakfast the following morning was an exciting meal. The boys could scarce restrain their eagerness to be away to the barrens to look for caribou, and they could talk of nothing else.
"I'm thinkin'," suggested Skipper Zeb, "that if you lads had done a bit of huntin' back over the barrens after you sees the wolves that you'd have found some scatterin' deer there then. Wolves follows deer and kills un to eat, and there's not like to be wolves when there's no deer about."
As soon as breakfast was finished the dogs were harnessed, and day was just breaking when Skipper Zeb and Toby and Charley set forth on their caribou hunt. They had scarcely reached the marsh below the barrens when the dogs began to sniff the air, and to show much eagerness to go forward.
"See un sniff! See un sniff, now!" and Skipper Zeb grinned. "The wind's down from the barrens, and the dogs smells the caribou. We'll find un feedin' there, and there'll be aplenty of un."
At the edge of the barrens the komatik was stopped, and the dogs were secured that they might not interfere with the hunting. Then the three proceeded cautiously, with their rifles ready, over the slope of a knoll, Skipper Zeb in advance. On the summit of the knoll Skipper Zeb halted, and pointed to a moving mass nearly a mile away.
"See un?" said he. "There's hundreds of un! There's not much danger we'll startle they, with the wind nuth'ard. When deer are in big bands they don't startle easy. We'll get all we wants of un."
Gently rising knolls punctuated the barren plateau. Skipper Zeb, leading the way, set forward at an easy but rapid pace. As they approached the feeding herd, he practiced some caution, until at length he stopped, crouching behind a rock, until the boys joined him.
For some time, following depressions between the knolls, the caribou had been hidden from view. Now, peering over the rock, they saw the great herd directly before them. Hundreds upon hundreds of the sleek, graceful animals, spreading over the hills and knolls beyond, were pawing away the hard snow and eating the thick growth of moss that lay beneath it, with some old bucks strolling among them as sentinels.
"We're in fine shootin' range, and we'll be gettin' all we wants of un," said Skipper Zeb. "Go at un now!"
Charley was so excited that he could hardly hold his rifle, but he aimed and fired. Skipper Zeb and Toby fired at the same time, and the three continued to shoot into the herd until fourteen of the fine antlered beasts lay stretched upon the snow.
"That's enough of un!" directed Skipper Zeb. "'Twill be all we wants, and there'll be enough for Long Tom Ham, too. We'll knock down no more than we can use handy."
With the report of the rifles the animals had begun to move restlessly about. Some of the bucks were snorting, but because the wind was blowing down from the herd toward the hunters, no smell of their enemies reached the caribou. The sound of shooting and even the view of the hunter will often fail to startle a herd, unless they get the smell. But something had happened to some of their number, and the sentinels were on the alert.
Skipper Zeb, with Toby and Charley, stepped out from cover and approached their victims. Suddenly panic seized the herd. It is probable that in their sudden terror the animals did not see or realize that these were the enemies that had attacked them, but with one accord they started forward. Slowly at first the great herd moved, and then, in an instant, were in a wild stampede.
The three hunters stood directly in the pathway of the fear-blinded animals. On they came, the thousands of hoofs beating upon the frozen snow with an ominous roar like that of a great wind, and smashing everything before them.
"Run! Run! They'll trample us down!" yelled Skipper Zeb.
They turned and ran, but they could not run with half the speed of deer.