Presently they saw, not far around the bend, a long dugout canoe pulled up on the beach. Near by was a little fire, at which sat two persons, an old man and a younger one. They did not rise as the visitors approached, but answered quietly when Alex spoke to them in Cree.
XIX
NEW PLANS
“
These men say,” interpreted Alex, as he turned to the boys, “that it’s sixteen to twenty miles from here to the end of the portage out of the hills, across the north bank, which cuts off the thirty miles of cañon that nobody ever tries to run. They say for a little way the river is wide, with many islands, but below that it narrows down and gets very bad. They’re tracking stuff up-stream from the portage to a surveyors’ camp which depends on their supplies. They say they will not sell their canoe, because they couldn’t get up-stream, but that if we can get east of the portage there’s a man, a sort of farmer, somewhere below there, who has a boat which perhaps he would sell.”
“What good would that do us?” demanded John. “A boat twenty or thirty miles east of here across the mountains isn’t going to help us very much. What we want is a boat now, and I don’t see how we can get along without it. Won’t they sell their canoe?”
“No, they don’t want to sell it,” said Alex; “they say they’re under employment, and must get through to the camp from Hudson’s Hope on time. We couldn’t portage a dugout, anyhow. But they say that we can go on up there with them if we like, and then come back and go around by the portage. What do you say, Mr. Rob?”