CHAPTER XII
_In Which Old David Grey, Once of the Hudson Bay Company, Begins the Tale of How Donald McLeod, the Factor at Fort Refuge, Scorned a Compromise With His Honour, Though His Arms Were Pinioned Behind Him and a Dozen Tomahawks Were Flourished About His Head._
Archie Armstrong was presently established in a white little room inthe beaming Aunt "Bill's" little white cottage at Ruddy Cove. His twotrunks--two new trunks, now--were there established with him, ofcourse; and they contained a new outfit of caps, shoes, boots,sweaters, coats, gloves, and what not, suited to every circumstanceand all sorts of weather. Then began for Archie, Jimmie andBilly--with Bagg, of the London gutters, sometimes included--heartytimes ashore and afloat. It was Bagg, indeed, who proposed the cruiseto Birds' Nest Islands.
"I said I wouldn't go t' Birds' Nest Islands," said Billy Topsail,"an' I won't."
"Ah, come on, Billy," Archie pleaded.
"I said I wouldn't," Billy repeated, obstinately, "an' I won't."
"That ain't nothink," Bagg argued.
"Anyhow," said Billy, "I won't, for I got my reasons."[3]
David Grey, a bent old fellow, who was now long "past his labour," asthey say in Newfoundland, sat within hearing. Boy and man he had beenin the service of the Hudson Bay Company, as hunter, clerk, trader,explorer, factor; and here, on the coast where he had been born, hehad settled down to spend the rest of his days. He was not an ignorantman, but, on the contrary, an intelligent one, educated by service,wide evening study of books, and hard experience in the greatwildernesses of the Canadian Northwest, begun, long ago, when he was alad.
"You make me think of Donald McLeod," said he.
The boys drew near.
* * * * *
"It was long ago," David went on. "Long, long ago," the old manrepeated. "It was 'way back in the first half of the last century, forI was little more than a boy then. McLeod was factor at Fort Refuge, aremote post, situated three hundred miles or more to the northeast ofLake Superior, but now abandoned. And a successful, fair-dealingtrader he was, but so stern and taciturn as to keep both his helpersand his half-civilized customers in awe of him. It was deep in thewilderness--not the wilderness as you boys know it, where a man mightwander night and day without fear of wild beast or savage, but a vast,unexplored place, with dangers lurking everywhere.
"'Grey,' he said to me when I reported for duty, fresh fromheadquarters, 'if you do your duty by me, I'll do mine by you.'
"'I'll try to,' said I.
"'When you know me better,' said McLeod, with quiet emphasis, 'you'llknow that I stand by my word.'
"We dealt, of course, with the Indians, who, spring and fall, broughttheir furs to the fort, and never failed to remain until they hadwasted their earnings in the fashion that best pleased their fancy.
"Even then the Indians were degenerate, given over to idleness anddebauchery; but they were not so far sunk in these habits as are thedull, lazy fellows who sell you the baskets and beaded moccasins thatthe squaws make to-day. They were superstitious, malicious,revengeful, and they were almost in a condition of savagery, for theonly law they knew was the law our guns enforced. Some authority wasvested in the factor, and he was not slow to exert it when a flagrantoffense was committed near by.
"'There's no band of Indians in these parts,' I was told, 'that canscare McLeod. He'll see justice done for and against them as betweenman and man.'
"Fort Refuge was set in a wide clearing. It was built of logs andsurrounded by a high, stout stockade. Admittance to the yard was by agreat gate, which was closed promptly at sundown, and always stronglybarred. We had no garrison regularly stationed there to defend us. Inall, it may be, we could muster nine men--McLeod, two clerks, and anumber of stout fellows who helped handle the stores. Moreover, wereour gate to be closed and our fort surrounded by a hostile force, weshould be utterly cut off from communication with those quarterswhence relief might come. We had the company's wares to guard, and weknew that once we were overcome, whatever the object of the attack,the wares and our lives would be lost together.
"'But we can stand a long siege,' I used to think; and indeed therewas good ground for comfort in that.
"Our stockade was impregnable to an attack by force, no doubt; but asit soon appeared, it was no more than a paper ribbon before the wilystrategy of the Indians. One night, when I had shut the gates anddropped the bars, I heard a long-drawn cry--a scream, in which it wasnot hard to detect the quality of terror and great stress. It came, asI thought, from the edge of the forest. When it was repeated, near athand, my heart went to my mouth, for I knew that a band of Indians wasencamped beyond, and had been carousing for a week past. Then came aknocking at the gate--a desperate pounding and kicking.
"'Let me in! Open! Open!' I heard a man cry.
"I had my hands on the bar to lift it and throw open the gate whenMcLeod came out of his house.
"'Stop!' he shouted.
"I withdrew from the gate. He approached, waved me back, and put hisown hand on the bar.
"'Who's there?' he asked.
"'Let me in, McLeod. It's Landley. Quick! Open the gate, or I'll bekilled!'
"McLeod's hesitation vanished. He opened the gate. A man stumbled in.Then the gate was shut with a bang.
"'What's this about, Landley?' McLeod said, sternly. 'What troublehave you got yourself into now?'
"I knew Landley for a white man who had abandoned himself to ashiftless, vicious life with the Indians. He had sunk lower, even,than they. He was an evil, worthless, ragged fellow, despised withinthe fort and respected nowhere. But while he stood there, gasping andterror-stricken, I pitied him; and it may be McLeod himself wasstirred by the mere kinship of colour.
"'Speak up, man!' he commanded. 'What have you done?'
"'I've done no wrong,' Landley whimpered. 'Buffalo Horn's young sonhas died, and they put the blame on me. They say I've cast the evileye on him. They say I killed him with a spell. You know me, McLeod.You know I haven't got the evil eye. Don't turn me out, man. They'recoming to kill me. Don't give me up. You know I'm not blood-guilty.You know me. You know I haven't got the evil eye.'
"'Tush, man!' said McLeod. 'Is that all the trouble?'
"'That's all!' Landley cried. 'I've done no harm. Don't give me up tothem.'
"'I won't,' McLeod said, positively. 'You're safe here until theyprove you blood-guilty. I'll not give you up.'"
Old David Grey paused; and Jimmie demanded:
"Did they give un up?"
"Was they _wild_ Indians?" Bagg gasped.
David laughed. "You just wait and see," said he.
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[3] Billy Topsail's reasons were no doubt connected with an encounter with a gigantic devil-fish at Birds' Nest Islands, as related in "The Adventures of Billy Topsail."