“You must be mistaken,” I said. “I never had any dealings with you.”
“But I had with you,” he answered. “And so this meat is yours.”
Being unacquainted with the man, I asked him to tell me who he was, and how he made it out that this meat belonged to me.
Said he, “Did you not go to Nelson River with dogs and Indians about two moons ago?”
“Yes,” I replied, “I did.”
“Well, I was out hunting deer, but I did not have much luck. The snow was deep, the deer were very shy, and I had no success. One day, when very hungry, for I had only taken a little dried rabbit meat with me from my wigwam, I came across your trail, and I found where your Indians had made a cache, that is, a big bundle of provisions and other things had been tied up in a blanket, and then a small tree had been bent down by your men, and the bundle fastened on the top, and let spring up again to keep it from the wolves. I saw your bundle hanging there, and as I was very hungry I thought, ‘Now if the kind-hearted Missionary only knew the poor Indian hunter was here looking at his bundle of food, he would say, “Help yourself;”’ and that was what I did. I bent down the tree, and found the large piece of pemmican. I cut off a piece big enough to make me a good dinner, then I tied up the bundle again, and let it swing up as you had it. And now I have brought you this venison in place of what I took.”
I was pleased with his honesty, and had in the incident another example of the Indian quickness to read much where the white man sees nothing.
The reason why we had made the cache which the Indian had discovered was, that we had taken a large quantity of pemmican for our food, as the people we wore going to see were poor, and we did not wish to be a burden to them; but we had been caught in a terrible storm, and as the snow was very deep, making the travelling heavy, we were obliged to lighten our loads as soon as possible. So we left a portion, as the Indian has described, on the way.
When we returned to the cache, and my men pulled it down and opened the bundle, one of them quickly cried out, “Somebody has been at our cache.”
“Nonsense,” I replied; “nobody would disturb it. And then there were no tracks around when we reached here to-night.”