CHAPTER XI
MR. BARCLAY JOINS THE PARTY
When the boat brought up to her anchor the boys spent some timestraightening up her gear and pumping her out. The work put a littlewarmth into them, but they were glad to crawl into the cabin when it wasdone. There was scarcely room in it to sit upright, and with themoisture standing beaded everywhere it looked rather like the inside ofa well. Mr. Oliver had lighted the stove and a lamp was burning. By andby he took off a hissing kettle, and when they had made a meal they laydown in their wet clothes amidst a raffle of more or less dripping ropesand sails. Fortunately, the place was warm, and Frank was thankful tostretch himself out along the side of the boat. He was discovering thatmental strain of the kind he had undergone during the last few hours isas fatiguing as bodily labor.
But he did not immediately go to sleep. The craft rocked upon the longswell which worked in round the point, with now and then a sharp rattleas she plucked hard at her cable. Sometimes she swung suddenly aroundupon it as an eddying blast swept down from the rocks above, and thedrumming of the halliards against the mast broke continuously throughthe moan of the wind among the trees ashore and the deeper rumble of theground sea. At last, however, he fell into a heavy slumber, and it wasdaylight and Harry had put the spider on the stove when he awoke again.He made his breakfast before he went out on deck, to find that the windhad dropped a little and it was raining hard. The dim, slate-greenwater lapped noisily upon the wall of rock close by, and glancingseaward he saw nothing but a leaden haze and a short stretch of tumblingcombers. Mr. Oliver had gone out earlier and was standing on the decklooking about him.
"There's no great weight in the wind, though the sea's still ratherhigh," he said presently. "I think we can push on for Victoria."
Frank, who fancied they would not get there before that night, was by nomeans so keen about the sail as he had been on the previous day. He feltthat it would be considerably pleasanter to remain in the shelter of thepoint until the sun came out or the wind went down, and it seemed to himthat Harry shared his opinion. The dog also looked very draggled andmiserable and had evidently had enough of the voyage. They, however, setthe mainsail, leaving the reefs in, hauled up the anchor, and hoistedthe jib as the sloop stretched out across the waste of tumbling water,after which the boys went below to straighten up the breakfast things.Frank once or twice felt a little sick as he did so, and he noticed thatHarry wore a somewhat anxious look.
"It's not blowing as hard as it was when we ran in, but I don't thinkdad would have gone unless he'd some particular reason," Harry said atlength. "I wonder who the man is he expects to meet in Victoria, becauseI'm inclined to believe it's not the one who wants him to look at theland. The worst of dad is that he keeps such a lot to himself."
They crawled out again shortly afterward and found the seas gettinglonger and bigger. Once or twice a blur of something went by that mighthave been the end of an island, and Mr. Oliver changed his course alittle, but after that the dim, green water stretched away before themempty and only broken by smears of snowy froth, and the sloop drove onbefore the combers which came up out of the haze astern of her in longsuccession.
It was toward noon, and Mr. Oliver had gone into the cabin to get dinnerready, leaving Harry at the helm, when, glancing around, Frank saw anindistinct mass of something break out of the mist. It grew into theshadowy shape of a steamer while he watched it.
"There's a big vessel close by," he said, touching his companion's arm.
Harry glanced over his shoulder. "Sure," he nodded. "What's more, she'scoming right along our track. Get in some mainsheet while I luff her."
He changed the sloop's course a trifle, but in the meanwhile the steamerwas growing in size and distinctness with a marvelous rapidity. Hergreat bow seemed to be rising out of the water like a headland, overwhich Frank could just see the tiers of white deckhouses, one mast, andthe tall smokestack. Then he glanced forward at the sloop's wet deck andthe low strip of her double-reefed mainsail, looking very small amongthe tumbling seas, and it occurred to him that it would probably bedifficult for the steamer's lookout to see them. He felt rather anxiouswhen he glanced back astern.
"She still seems to be coming right down on us," he said.
Harry called his father, who hurried out and glanced at the vessel.
"Shall we get up and yell?" the boy asked.
"No," said Mr. Oliver curtly, "they couldn't hear you to windward. Lether come up farther."
Frank helped drag some more mainsheet and then looked around again witha very unpleasant thrill of apprehension. The black bow seemed almostabove them, and the sea leaped against a wall of plates as the greatmass of iron swung slowly out of it and sank down again. Then fromsomewhere beside the smokestack a streak of white steam blew out and agreat reverberatory roar came hurtling about them. Mr. Oliver's anxiousface relaxed.
"They've seen us," he said. "Her helm's going over."
The bow drew out and lengthened into an increasing strip of side.Another mast became visible, with a double row of white deckhouses and atier of boats between. Here and there a cluster of diminutive figuresshowed up among them, and then the great ship sped by with the whole ofher size revealed. The sloop plunged madly on her screw-torn wake, butin another minute or two she had drawn away and was melting into thehaze again.
"A big boat," said Mr. Oliver. "She was very close to us. You had betterkeep your eyes open while I get dinner."
The rest of the dismal day passed uneventfully, but toward evening thehaze commenced to roll aside and they saw blurred black pines looming upahead of them. A little later they ran into Victoria harbor, and, hiringa Siwash to take them ashore, walked through the streets of what struckFrank as a very handsome city until they reached a hotel. Here theyordered supper, and after the meal was over the boys, who had changedtheir clothes, sat with Mr. Oliver in the almost deserted smoking room.He seemed to be expecting somebody, which somewhat astonished Frank, buthe noticed that Harry smiled meaningly when Mr. Barclay walked in. Hewas dressed in light-colored sporting garments, with a belt around hiswaist and a leather patch on one shoulder, and there were gaudy troutflies stuck in his little cloth cap. He threw the cap on the tablebefore he shook hands with Mr. Oliver and the boys, smiling as he caughtHarry's eye.
"Well," he asked, indicating the flies, "what do you think of them?"
Harry grinned again as he laid his finger on one.
"You're not going to get many trout with that fellow, unless they'vedifferent habits in British Columbia. They won't come on for quite awhile."
Mr. Barclay removed the fly and put it into a wallet.
"Thanks," he said. "It's some time since I did any fishing." Then heseemed to notice the manner in which the boy was surveying his clothing."It's a sport's get-up, but are you acquainted with any reason why aUnited States citizen shouldn't get a little innocent amusement catchingCanadian trout?"
"No, sir," answered Harry coolly. "Still, there are quite a few trout inthe rivers on the American side of the boundary. It makes one wonder ifyou had anything else in view besides fishing in coming to BritishColumbia."
Mr. Barclay regarded him with an air of ironical reproof.
"In a general way, young man, it's most unwise to blurt the thing rightout when you have a suspicion in your mind. It's better to let it staythere until you have good cause to act on it." He turned to Mr. Oliver."I'm inclined to doubt the advisability of leaving your sloop lyingwhere she is in full view of the wharf."
"Then you recognized her?"
"At a glance. The trouble is that there are one or two acquaintances ofyours who might do the same."
Mr. Oliver looked thoughtful.
"I've been considering that, but it was getting dark when we ran in, andwe had better move the first thing to-morrow. Now with this unsettledweather I'm not very keen on sailing up the west coast, which is open tothe Pacific, and the place we are bound for is rather a long way."
"Then go east," advised Mr. Barclay. "
There are a number of inlets onthat side of the island within easy reach of the railroad, and you oughtto reach the nearest of them in a few hours. I'll go on with the carsto-morrow, and if you don't get in at one of the way stations, I'll waitfor you at Wellington. Then we could cross to the west coast by theAlberni stage and hire a couple of Indians and a sea canoe. It wouldn'tbe a long run from there."
Mr. Oliver agreed to this, and getting up early next morning, theyslipped out of the harbor, and some hours afterward crept into aforest-girt inlet, where they left the sloop. There was a depot nearby,and getting on board the cars when the next train came in, they foundMr. Barclay awaiting them. Early in the afternoon they alighted at alittle wooden, colliery town, and next day they crossed the island inthe stage over a very rough trail which led through tremendous forests.Once they passed a wonderful blue lake lying deep-sunk between steepwalls of hills. Then they crossed a divide and came winding down into avalley with water flashing at the foot of it. It was evening when theyarrived at a straggling settlement on the banks of a riband of saltwater twisting away among the forest-shrouded hills, and found severalIndians there who had come up in their sea canoes.
Mr. Oliver hired a couple of them, and they started after they hadpurchased a few stores. A light, pine-scented breeze was blowing downthe valley when they thrust the canoe off from the shingle. They had nosooner done so, however, when the dog arose with a deep growl whichindicated that he objected to the Indians going with them. As hisactions did not seem to have the desired effect he seized the nearestIndian by the leg, and it was only when Harry belabored him with apaddle that he could be induced to let go. Then he barked at themsavagely until Frank drew him down upon his knee with a hand about hisneck, while the Siwash raised two little masts. In the meanwhile the boywatched the men with interest, and decided that they had very little incommon with the prairie Indians he had seen in pictures and from thecars.
They were dressed neatly in clothes which had evidently been purchasedat a store, and though their faces were brown and their hair rathercoarse and dark there was nothing else unusual about them. They talkedwith Mr. Oliver and Mr. Barclay freely in what Harry said was Chinook, areadily learned lingua-franca in use on parts of the Pacific Slope. ThenFrank fixed his attention upon the canoe, a long, narrow, andbeautifully shaped craft with the usual tall, bird's-head bow. She wasrather shallow, but Harry said that this made her paddle fast. He addedthat though these canoes would sail reasonably well when the breeze wasfair the Indians usually drove them to windward with the paddle unlessthe sea was too heavy, in which case they generally made for the beachand pulled the craft out.
Frank remembered that this, or something like it, was the ancientpractice, and that it was only by slow degrees that man had discoveredhe could still make the wind propel his vessel to its destination whenit blew from ahead. Greek and Roman triremes, Alexandrian wheat ships,and Viking galleys, had made wonderful voyages, and they all carriedsail, but they set it only when the wind was fair. When it drew aheadthey stowed their canvas and thrashed the lean hull through the seaswith their long oars. Now, after perfecting his vessel's under-waterbody, inventing the center board, and learning how to make flat-settingsails, man was going back to the old-time plan, only that instead ofrelying upon the muscle of close-packed rowers he used improvedpropellers, tri-compound reciprocators and turbines.
One of the Siwash shook out the two spritsails which sat on a polestretching up to the peak from the foot of the mast, and when he had ledthe sheets aft his companion knelt astern with a paddle held over thegunwale. Slanting gently down to the faint breeze, the craft slid awaythrough the smooth, green water with a long ripple running back behindher. The log houses dropped astern and were lost among the trees, avalley filled with somber forest, and a rampart of tall hillside,slipped by, and as they crept on from point to point the strip of stillwater stretched away before them between somber ranks of climbing trees.
Frank had no idea how far they had gone when the light began to fail,though he fancied that the shallow craft, now slipping forward sosmoothly, was sailing a good deal faster than she seemed to be. Atlength one of the Siwash loosened the sheets and stowed the sails, whilehis companion turned the bows toward the beach. She slid in and groundedgently on a bank of shingle in a little cove, where a gigantic forestcrept down to the water. They got out and ran her up, filled theirkettle at a tinkling creek, hewed resinous chips from a fallen fir, andbuilt a fire. Then they cut armfuls of thin spruce branches with whichto make their beds, and presently sat down to an ample supper.
When it was over the Indians went down to the canoe, and Mr. Oliver andMr. Barclay drew a little apart from the boys. Frank, lying near Harrybeneath a big cedar, raised himself up on one elbow and watched thefirelight flicker upon the mighty trunks. On the one hand they were lostin the gloom of the dense mass of dusky foliage, but on the other theirgreat branches cut against the sky, which was still softly blue, and ablaze of silver radiance stretched across the water, for a half-moon hadjust sailed up above the opposite hill. Out of the silence there stole afaint whispering from the tops of the taller trees and the languidlapping of water among the stones, but there was no other sound, andonce more Frank was glad that he had not exchanged the stillness of thewilderness for the turmoil of the cities. He had now definitely decidedto become a rancher.
It grew colder by and by, and wrapping his blanket around him, hewriggled down closer among the yielding spruce twigs. The great trunksgrew dimmer and the smoke wisps which drifted among them became lessdistinct. By degrees they all grew mixed together--a confusion ofsliding vapor and spectral trees--and he was conscious of nothing more.