Home > Authors Index > George Manville Fenn > To The West > This page
To The West, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
||
Chapter 29. "Look!" |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. "LOOK!" I can't describe my feelings towards Gunson. One hour he seemed to me coarse, brutal, and common; at another he was the very reverse, and spoke in conversation as we tramped along together about books and languages in a way which made me think that at one time he must have been a gentleman. At these moments his voice sounded soft and pleasant, and he quite won me to him. On the morning after our perilous passage through the gorge, he quite took me into his confidence, talking to me and consulting with me as if I were a man of his own age, while Esau hung aloof looking jealous and answering in a surly way whenever he was addressed. "You see," Gunson said, "the matter stands like this: along by the river, which is getting more and more to assume the character of a mountain torrent, the way must be difficult. It winds, too, terribly, so that we have to travel perhaps twice as far as we should if we made a straight cut for the Fort." "That sounds the easiest way," I said. "Yes; but we do not know the country; we have not the least idea where Fort Elk lies; we shall be met now and then by other rivers, which may be very hard to cross, perhaps impossible without making long journeys to right or left; lastly, we shall get into a wild country where probably there will be no Indians, or if there are, they may be a fierce hunting race, who will object to our going through their district. So you see that though we may save a good deal of walking if we can get an idea from some settler where the Fort lies, we may meet with a great many difficulties such as I have named. On the other hand, if we keep tramping on here, we are certain to hit the Fort if we can master the troubles of the way, while we are among a people who seem to live by fishing, and are as friendly as can be." "Yes," I said, thoughtfully, as I glanced at where the Indians were peaceably catching and drying the fish they speared. "Well, what do you say? I am ready to do either--perhaps to break away from the river would suit me best, for I should be coming across smaller streams such as I could examine for metals. You must not forget that I'm a prospector," he added, laughingly. "I do not," I said, "and I should like for you to go the way best suited for yourself. But surely you could find that way, and reach Fort Elk." "I am disposed to risk it, and yet we should be turning away from our supplies." "Yes," I said, for he looked at me questioningly; "I feel quite in despair sometimes about getting along this terrible way, but I think we ought to keep to it, for those people said we should find little settlements all the way along." "Yes; and we might find ourselves in a queer position without food unless we could get a guide, so forward's the word." He nodded to me and went off to the Indian camp to make the people a present before we started, and as soon as I was alone, Esau hurried up. "Has he been saying anything against me?" "No, of course not, you suspicious fellow," I cried. "There, come along and pack up. We start directly. I say, Esau, you don't want to go back now?" He turned sharply, and glanced at the beginning of the dark canon, and then said angrily-- "Needn't jump on a fellow because he didn't get along so well as you did. Here you, Quong, we're going on." "Velly nea leady," came back cheerily. "Don't seem to mind a bit," grumbled Esau. "I believe he'd go anywhere. He don't understand what danger is." "Ready?" said Gunson, coming back. "I can't make anything out of the Indians, but I suppose there is a way all along here." "Those settlers said there was." "Then let's try it if we can find our way. We can't come upon a worse bit to go along than that yesterday, and if we can't get along we must come back." We were on our way again directly after, Quong's load made more heavy by the addition of two goodly fish, an addition which did not trouble him in the least, for he showed them to me smiling and patting their rounded silvery sides as if he had an affection for them. Our way was very difficult, the traces of a trail being very few, and faintly marked. But in spite of the difficulties, we kept on steadily all through that day, and with no worse adventures than a few falls, with the accompaniments of bruises and scratches, we reached the patch of wood we selected for our resting-place that night. It was Quong, when in advance, who suggested it, by stopping suddenly, lowering his patiently borne load, and pointing out its advantages of shelter, fire-wood and water, and here we stayed for the night. The next day passed in a similar way, and the effect on me of our journey seemed precisely the same as on Esau and the others--for we reached our resting-place fagged, hungry, faint and low-spirited, with Esau grumbling horribly and wishing he was back on "old Dempster's" stool. Then Quong would prepare his fire, make cakes, boil the kettle, cook bacon or salmon, make a good cup of tea, and we all ate a tremendous meal, after which the beds were made in shelter, probably under the tree which produced what Esau called the feathers, that is the soft boughs. Then our blankets were spread ready, and we lay about watching the last rays of the sunlight on the snowy peaks of the mountains, or the bright stars, and listened to Gunson while he smoked his pipe and told us tales about his adventures in the Malay Archipelago, where he went up the country in search of gold, or in Australia; and as we sat listening, the weary low-spirited feeling passed away, we grew deeply interested, and soon after lay down to sleep, to wake at sunrise full of high spirits, life, and vigour, eager to continue our journey up the river. Then came days when we halted at settlers' huts, where we were made very welcome for the sake of the news we brought; then at Indian camps to be regaled with fish, and finding these people so friendly that we soon forgot to feel any fear of them. Then again we went up a side stream here and there for a few miles, to enable Gunson to try and discover metals, and though he was always disappointed, Quong was in ecstasies. "Why, he must have got enough gold in that bottle of his to make a wedding-ring as big as mother's old thin one," said Esau, with a chuckle. "I say, don't take much to make him happy." And all this time the weather had been lovely. We had had a few showers, after which the sun shone out more brightly than ever, and one night we had a tremendous thunderstorm, when, from our shelter under a ledge of rock, we could see the flashes of lightning darting in every direction, while the thunder rolled echoing along the valley. But that soon passed away, the stars came out as the clouds rolled off the sky, and the next day all was as beautiful as ever. Three nights after we came to a halt at the mouth of a shallow cave, and the day having been very hot and wearying we soon dropped off to sleep, from which I was aroused in the darkness by feeling a touch, and as I opened my eyes, I heard a curious shuffling noise, and felt hot breath fan my cheek. This was so momentary that I thought I must have been dreaming, and turned softly over to go to sleep again, for the rest after the heavy day's work was delicious. I suppose I must have dropped off once more, and must have been dreaming as I was touched again; then the touch was repeated, and in a drowsy way I sighed with satisfaction at not having to move myself, but having some one to move me, for a great hand readied over me, and drew me along a little way, and I dreamed that I was tumbling out of bed and Esau drew me back in my place. I lay perfectly still for a time, and then I was moved a little more, the big hand drawing me along very gently as if I was not quite in the right position; finally, after getting me straight, giving me a gentle thrust before leaving me quite at peace. All at once I was thoroughly aroused by a terrific yell, and I started up, but only to be knocked over. There was a rush of feet, followed by a rustling, and crackling of bushes, and this sound grew fainter and fainter till it died away. "What is it? Who shouted?" cried Gunson, jumping up. "It was me," cried Esau. "What for? Who was it ran away? Here; where is Gordon?" "I'm here," I said. "What's the matter?" "That's what I want to know," said Gunson. "Was it an Indian, Dean?" "No; it was a great pig as big as a bullock; he'd got one hoof on my chest, and was smelling me with his wet snout touching my face when I woke up and shouted, and he ran off." "Pig, eh?" said Gunson. "It must have been a bear." "A bear! What, touching me like that?" cried Esau, excitedly. "No doubt about it. But it does not matter. You frightened it more than it frightened you, and it has gone." "Ugh!" cried Esau, with a shudder. "Was it going to eat me?" "Probably," replied Gunson. "What!" "Well, it might have been. You are not bitten?" "I dunno," cried Esau, excitedly. "P'r'aps I am." "Are you scratched or clawed?" "Can't say, sir; very likely. Oh dear, oh dear, what a place to come to! I can't go to sleep again after this. But do you really think it was a pig, sir--I mean a bear?" "It must have been. The only other creature possible would be a bison or a deer, and it is not likely to have been one of them." Gunson took his rifle, and I heard the click of the lock as he cocked it, to step out of the shelter, and look round, but he stopped directly. "Where is Quong?" he cried. "Me velly safe up here," came in a high-pitched voice from somewhere over our heads in the darkness. "Did you see anything?" cried Gunson. "Was it a bear?" "Too dalk see anything," he replied. "Only hear velly much wood bleaking." All was quite still now, save Gunson's footsteps as he walked about our camp, and the roar of the falling waters down toward the river where the stream near us dropped in a cascade; and he was soon back. "I shall break my neck in the darkness," he said, as he joined us. "I can hear nothing, and I have nearly gone headlong twice." "Do you think it will come back?" I said, feeling no little trepidation. "No; Dean's yell was enough to scare a whole zoological garden. But lie down, lads, and finish your night's rest. I'll light my pipe and play sentry for the remainder of the night." "And I'll sit up with you," I said. "No; go to sleep," he replied, firmly. "I am used to this sort of thing." "But I want to get used to it," I said. "Afraid?" This came with a slightly sarcastic tone, which made me turn away from him, and go back into the shelter without a word. "Come, Esau," I said; and I wrapped my blanket round me, and lay down at once. "It's all very well to say 'Come, Esau,'" grumbled that gentleman. "You ain't been half torn to pieces by a bear." "But you are not hurt, are you?" "How do I know when it's so dark?" he said, petulantly. "But you could feel." "No, I couldn't. I've heard that people who have been half killed don't feel any pain at first; and there ain't a doctor nowhere." "But, Esau," I whispered, seriously, "has the brute hurt you?" "I keep on telling you I don't know. He pawed me about and turned me over, and smelt me and stood on me once. I say: how dark it is!" "Lie down," I said, "and try and go to sleep. I don't think you can be hurt, or you would feel some pain. I felt the bear touch me too, but I am not scratched." "Must I lie down?" "Yes; you would be better." "But suppose he came again?" "Gunson is watching. There is no fear." "But I'm sure I can't sleep. It's too horrid to be woke up and find wild beasts swarming all over you." "Yes, it was startling," I said, as I listened to the noise he made rolling himself in his blanket, and making the fir-boughs crackle as he turned about. "I was horribly scared at first, but I don't think I mind now." "I do," said Esau, with a groan, "and I never pretended to be as brave as you. It's of no use, I can't go to sleep." "Why, you haven't tried yet," I said, as I began to feel satisfied that his injuries were all fancy. "No use to try," he said, gloomily. "Fellow can't go to sleep expecting every moment to be seized by some savage thing and torn to bits." "Nonsense!" I said. "Don't make so much fuss." "That's right; jump on me. You don't behave half so well to me as I do to you, Mayne Gordon." I made no reply to this reproach, but lay gazing out into the gloom, where after a few minutes I heard a faint scratch, saw a line of light, and then the blaze of a match sheltered in Gunson's hands, and a flash made as he lit his pipe and threw the match away, after which at regular intervals I saw the dull glow of the tobacco in the bowl as our sentry kept patient watch over us. "Esau," I said at last, "do you feel any pain?" There was no reply. "Esau, can you feel anything now?" I said. Still no reply, and I began to be startled there in that intense darkness where it took so little to excite one's imagination. Had he after all been seriously hurt by the bear, and now sunk into a state of insensibility? "Esau!" I whispered again, but still there was no reply; so half rising I reached over to touch his face, which was comfortably warm, and I heard now his regular hard breathing. For a few minutes I could not feel satisfied, but by degrees I grew convinced Esau was sleeping heavily, and at last I lay down too, and dropped off soundly asleep as he. How long I had been in the land of dreams I did not know till next day, when I found from Gunson that it must have been about a couple of hours, and then I awoke with a start, and the idea that the bear had come back and seized me, till the voice of our companion bidding me get up relieved me of that dread. "What is the matter?" "Look," he cried. I was already looking at a blaze of light, and listening to a fierce crackling noise. There before me was one of the great pine-trees with the lower part burning, and clouds of smoke rolling up. "But how--what was it set it on fire?" "Ask Quong," said Gunson gruffly, as he stood by me with the glow from the fire lighting him up from top to toe, and bringing the trees and rocks about us into view. "Me only put fire light when bear go, leady for make water velly hot," said the little Chinaman, dolefully; "fire lun along and set alight." "Yes, you couldn't help it," said Gunson. "The dry fir-needles must have caught, and gone on smouldering till they reached a branch which touched the ground, and then the fire ran along it like a flash." "But can't we put it out?" I cried, excitedly, as the boughs of the huge green pyramid began to catch one after the other. "Put it out!" he said, with a half laugh. "Yes; send Dean there for the nearest fire-engine. There's plenty of water. I did try at first while you were asleep, and burned myself." "But--" "Oh, let it burn," he said, carelessly. "It stands alone, and a tree more or less does not signify in these regions. A hundred more will spring up from the ashes." I stood silently gazing at the wondrous sight, as the huge fire began more and more to resemble a cone of flame. High up above the smoke which rolled like clouds of gold, and the tongues of fire which kept leaping up and up to the high branches, there was still a green spire dark and dimly seen as it rose to some two hundred and fifty feet above where we stood. But that upper portion was catching alight fast now, and the hissing crackle of the burning was accompanied by sharp reports and flashes, the heat growing so intense that one had to back away, while quite a sharp current of cold air began to rush past our ears to sweep out and fan the flames. "What a pity!" I said at last, as I turned to Esau, who stood there with his eyes glowing in the light, Quong being seated on a stone holding his knees, as he crouched together, his yellow forehead wrinkled, and little black eyes sparkling the while. "Yes, I s'pose it's a pity," said Esau, thoughtfully. "My! how it burns. I s'pose there's tar and turpentine and rosin in that big tree?" "Why, Esau," I said suddenly, as a thought struck me, "how about the bear?" "Bear? Where?" he cried, grasping my arm. "Not here," I said with a laugh. "No wild beast would come near that fire. I mean how about your hurts?" "My hurts?" he said, beginning to feel his arms. "Oh, I'd forgotten all about them." "No fear of its catching any other tree," said Gunson, returning to where we stood after being away, though I had not missed him. "I've been all round it, and there isn't another for twenty yards." "But it will set light to them when it falls," I said. "No, my lad. That tree's enormous at the bottom, but the boughs grow smaller and smaller till the top is like a point. Look, the fire is reaching it now, and it will go on burning till the trunk stands up half burned down, and then gradually go out, leaving a great pointed stick of charred wood. No fear of its falling either upon us. I should have been sorry for us to have started a forest fire, that might have burned for weeks." He ceased speaking, and we all stood gazing in awe at the magnificent spectacle as the flames rushed higher and higher, till from top to bottom there before us was a magnificent cone of roaring fire, which fluttered and scintillated, and sent up golden clouds of tiny sparks far away into the air, while a thin canopy of smoke spread over us, and reflected back the glow till the valley far around looked almost as light as day, and the green pines stood out gilded, though sombre in their shades, and the water flashed and sparkled where it rushed along. It was a wonderful sight, impressing even Quong, and for a long time no one spoke. It was Gunson who broke the silence. "Well, Quong," he cried, "what do you think of your work?" "Velly solly," said the little fellow, dolefully. "Ah," said Gunson, "it is a bad job. All the King of China's horses and men could not build that up again--eh, Gordon?" "No," I said, sadly; for there seemed to me to be something pitiful in that grand forest monarch, at whose feet we had supped the past night, being destroyed. "But one of the seeds out of a cone hidden under the ground will produce another," he said, "in a hundred or two years. And we shan't wait to see it, Gordon." I looked at him wonderingly. "And that's how the world goes on, boy; fresh growth makes up for the destruction, and perhaps, after all, we have done some future settler a good turn by helping to clear the ground for him, ready for his home. Now then, will you lie down and have another nap?" "What, with that tree burning?" I cried; and Esau uttered a grumbling sound expressing dissent, in which I fancied I detected words which sounded like fire and bears. "Well, it is hardly worth while," said Gunson. "Look sharp, Quong--tea. We'll get breakfast over, and make a fresh start." "What, so soon?" I cried. "Soon? Yes--look!" He pointed upward, and to my astonishment I saw what seemed to be another huge pine-tree on fire far away in the distance; but realised directly after that it was the icy point of a mountain touched by the first rays of the rising sun, long before it illumined the lower earth. For morning was close at hand, and Quong began piling up sticks on our little fire, from which soon after we could trace the black path of burnt needles away to where, as Gunson said, some branch must have touched the ground, as was the case in many directions near. _ |
||