CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
To Miki and Neewa, especially Neewa, there seemed nothing extraordinaryin the fact that they were together again, and that their comradeshipwas resumed. Although during his months of hibernation Neewa's body hadgrown, his mind had not changed its memories or its pictures. It hadnot passed through a mess of stirring events such as had made thewinter a thrilling one for Miki, and so it was Neewa who accepted thenew situation most casually. He went on feeding as if nothing at allunusual had happened during the past four months, and after the edgehad gone from his first hunger he fell into his old habit of looking toMiki for leadership. And Miki fell into the old ways as though only aday or a week and not four months had lapsed in their brotherhood. Itis possible that he tried mightily to tell Neewa what had happened. Atleast he must have had that desire--to let him know in what a strangeway he had found his old master, Challoner, and how he had lost himagain. And also how he found the woman, Nanette, and the little babyNanette, and how for a long time he had lived with them and loved themas he had never loved anything else on earth.
It was the old cabin, far to the north and east, that drew him now--thecabin in which Nanette and the baby had lived; and it was toward thiscabin that he lured Neewa during the first two weeks of their hunting.They did not travel quickly, largely because of Neewa's voraciousspring appetite and the fact that it consumed nine tenths of his wakinghours to keep full on such provender as roots and swelling buds andgrass. During the first week Miki grew either hopeless or disgusted inhis hunting. One day he killed five rabbits and Neewa ate four of themand grunted piggishly for more.
If Miki had stood amazed and appalled at Neewa's appetite in the daysof their cubhood and puppyhood a year ago, he was more than astoundednow, for in the matter of food Neewa was a bottomless pit. On the otherhand he was jollier than ever, and in their wrestling matches he wasalmost more than a match for Miki, being nearly again as heavy. He verysoon acquired the habit of taking advantage of this superiority ofweight, and at unexpected moments he would hop on Miki and pin him tothe ground, his fat body smothering him like a huge soft cushion, andhis arms holding him until at times Miki could scarcely squirm. Now andthen, hugging him in this embrace, he would roll over and over, both ofthem snarling and growling as though in deadly combat. This play,though he was literally the under dog, delighted Miki until one daythey rolled over the edge of a deep ravine and crashed in adog-and-bear avalanche to the bottom. After that, for a long time,Neewa did not roll with his victim. Whenever Miki wanted to end a bout,however, all he had to do was to give Neewa a sharp nip with his longfangs and the bear would uncoil himself and hop to his feet like aspring. He had a most serious respect for Miki's teeth.
But Miki's greatest moments of joy were where Neewa stood upman-fashion. Then was a real tussle. And his greatest hours of disgustwere when Neewa stretched himself out in a tree for a nap.
It was the beginning of the third week before they came one day to thecabin. There was no change in it, and Miki's body sagged disconsolatelyas he and Neewa looked at it from the edge of the clearing. No smoke,no sign of life, and the window was broken now--probably by aninquisitive bear or a wolverine. Miki went to the window and stood upto it, sniffing inside. The SMELL was still there--so faint that hecould only just detect it. But that was all. The big room was emptyexcept for the stove, a table and a few bits of rude furniture. Allelse was gone. Three or four times during the next half hour Miki stoodup at the window, and at last Neewa--urged by his curiosity--didlikewise. He also detected the faint odour that was left in the cabin.He sniffed at it for a long time. It was like the smell he had caughtthe day he came out of his den--and yet different. It was fainter, moreelusive, and not so unpleasant.
For a month thereafter Miki insisted on hunting in the vicinity of thecabin, held there by the "pull" of the thing which he could neitheranalyze nor quite understand. Neewa accepted the situationgood-naturedly for a time. Then he lost patience and surrenderedhimself to a grouch for three whole days during which he wandered athis own sweet will. To preserve the alliance Miki was compelled tofollow him. Berry time--early July--found them sixty miles north andwest of the cabin, in the edge of the country where Neewa was born.
But there were few berries that summer of bebe nak um geda (the summerof drought and fire). As early as the middle of July a thin, gray filmbegan to hover in palpitating waves over the forests. For three weeksthere had been no rain. Even the nights were hot and dry. Each day thefactors at their posts looked out with anxious eyes over their domains,and by the first of August every post had a score of halfbreeds andIndians patrolling the trails on the watch for fire. In their cabinsand teepees the forest dwellers who had not gone to pass the summer atthe posts waited and watched; each morning and noon and night theyclimbed tall trees and peered through that palpitating gray film for asign of smoke. For weeks the wind came steadily from the south andwest, parched as though swept over the burning sands of a desert.Berries dried up on the bushes; the fruit of the mountain ash shriveledon its stems; creeks ran dry; swamps turned into baked peat, and thepoplar leaves hung wilted and lifeless, too limp to rustle in thebreeze. Only once or twice in a lifetime does the forest dweller seepoplar leaves curl up and die like that, baked to death in the summersun. It is Kiskewahoon (the Danger Signal). Not only the warning ofpossible death in a holocaust of fire, but the omen of poor hunting andtrapping in the winter to come.
Miki and Neewa were in a swamp country when the fifth of August came.In the lowland it was sweltering. Neewa's tongue hung from his mouth,and Miki was panting as they made their way along a black and sluggishstream that was like a great ditch and as dead as the day itself. Therewas no visible sun, but a red and lurid glow filled the sky--the sunstruggling to fight its way through the smothering film that had grownthicker over the earth. Because they were in a "pocket"--a sweep oftangled country lower than the surrounding country--Neewa and Miki werenot caught in this blackening cloud. Five miles away they might haveheard the thunder of cloven hoofs and the crash of heavy bodies intheir flight before the deadly menace of fire. As it was they madetheir way slowly through the parched swamp, so that it was midday whenthey came out of the edge of it and up through a green fringe of timberto the top of a ridge. Before this hour neither had passed through thehorror of a forest fire. But it seized upon them now. It needed no pastexperience. The cumulative instinct of a thousand generations leaptthrough their brains and bodies. Their world was in the grip ofIskootao (the Fire Devil). To the south and the east and the west itwas buried in a pall like the darkness of night, and out of the faredge of the swamp through which they had come they caught the firstlivid spurts of flame. From that direction, now that they were out ofthe "pocket," they felt a hot wind, and with that wind came a dull andrumbling roar that was like the distant moaning of a cataract. Theywaited, and watched, struggling to get their bearings, their mindsfighting for a few moments in the gigantic process of changing instinctinto reasoning and understanding. Neewa, being a bear, was afflictedwith the near-sightedness of his breed, and he could see neither theblack tornado of smoke bearing down upon them nor the flames leapingout of the swamp. But he could SMELL, and his nose was twisted into ahundred wrinkles, and even ahead of Miki he was ready for flight. ButMiki, whose vision was like a hawk's, stood as if fascinated.
The roaring grew more distinct. It seemed on all sides of them. But itwas from the south that there came the first storm of ash rushingnoiselessly ahead of the fire, and after that the smoke. It was thenthat Miki turned with a strange whine but it was Neewa now who took thelead--Neewa, whose forebears had ten thousand times run this same wildrace with death in the centuries since their world was born. He did notneed the keenness of far vision now. He KNEW. He knew what was behind,and what was on either side, and where the one trail to safety lay; andin the air he felt and smelled the thing that was death. Twice Mikimade efforts to swing their course into the east, but Neewa would havenone of it. With flattened ears he went on NORTH. Three times Mi
kistopped to turn and face the galloping menace behind them, but neverfor an instant did Neewa pause. Straight on--NORTH, NORTH, NORTH--northto the higher lands, the big waters, the open plains.
They were not alone. A caribou sped past them with the swiftness of thewind itself. "FAST, FAST, FAST!"--Neewa's instinct cried; "but--ENDURE!For the caribou, speeding even faster than the fire, will fall ofexhaustion shortly and be eaten up by the flames. FAST--but ENDURE!"
And steadily, stoically, at his loping gait Neewa led on.
A bull moose swung half across their trail from the west, wind-gone andpanting as though his throat were cut. He was badly burned, and runningblindly into the eastern wall of fire.
Behind and on either side, where the flames were rushing on with thepitiless ferocity of hunnish regiments, the harvest of death was a vastand shuddering reality. In hollow logs, under windfalls, in the thicktree-tops, and in the earth itself, the smaller things of thewilderness sought their refuge--and died. Rabbits became leaping ballsof flame, then lay shrivelled and black; the marten were baked in theirtrees; fishers and mink and ermine crawled into the deepest corners ofthe windfalls and died there by inches; owls fluttered out of theirtree-tops, staggered for a few moments in the fiery air, and fell downinto the heart of the flame. No creature made a sound--except theporcupines; and as they died they cried like little children.
In the green spruce and cedar timber, heavy with the pitch that madetheir thick tops spurt into flame like a sea of explosive, the firerushed on with a tremendous roar. From it--in a straight race--therewas no escape for man or beast. Out of that world of conflagrationthere might have risen one great, yearning cry to heaven:WATER--WATER--WATER! Wherever there was water there was also hope--andlife. Breed and blood and wilderness feuds were forgotten in the greathour of peril. Every lake became a haven of refuge.
To such a lake came Neewa, guided by an unerring instinct and sense ofsmell sharpened by the rumble and roar of the storm of fire behind him.Miki had "lost" himself; his senses were dulled; his nostrils caught noscent but that of a world in flames--so, blindly, he followed hiscomrade. The fire was enveloping the lake along its western shore, andits water was already thickly tenanted. It was not a large lake, andalmost round. Its diameter was not more than two hundred yards. Fartherout--a few of them swimming, but most of them standing on bottom withonly their heads out of water--were a score of caribou and moose. Manyother shorter-legged creatures were swimming aimlessly, turning thisway and that, paddling their feet only enough to keep afloat. On theshore where Neewa and Miki paused was a huge porcupine, chattering andchuckling foolishly, as if scolding all things in general for havingdisturbed him at dinner. Then he took to the water. A little farther upthe shore a fisher-cat and a fox hugged close to the water line,hesitating to wet their precious fur until death itself snapped attheir heels; and as if to bring fresh news of this death a second foxdragged himself wearily out on the shore, as limp as a wet rag afterhis swim from the opposite shore, where the fire was already leaping ina wall of flame. And as this fox swam in, hoping to find safety, an oldbear twice as big as Neewa, crashed panting from the undergrowth,plunged into the water, and swam OUT. Smaller things were creeping andcrawling and slinking along the shore; little red-eyed ermine, marten,and mink, rabbits, squirrels, and squeaking gophers, and a horde ofmice. And at last, with these things which he would have devoured sogreedily running about him, Neewa waded slowly out into the water. Mikifollowed until he was submerged to his shoulders. Then he stopped. Thefire was close now, advancing like a race-horse. Over the protectingbarrier of thick timber drove the clouds of smoke and ash. Swiftly thelake became obliterated, and now out of that awful chaos of blacknessand smoke and heat there rose strange and thrilling cries; the bleatingof a moose calf that was doomed to die and the bellowing, terror-filledresponse of its mother; the agonized howling of a wolf; the terrifiedbarking of a fox, and over all else the horrible screaming of a pair ofloons whose home had been transformed into a sea of flame.
Through the thickening smoke and increasing heat Neewa gave his call toMiki as he began to swim, and with an answering whine Miki plungedafter him, swimming so close to his big black brother that his muzzletouched the other's flank. In mid-lake Neewa did as the other swimmingcreatures were doing--paddled only enough to keep himself afloat; butfor Miki, big of bone and unassisted by a life-preserver of fat, thestruggle was not so easy. He was forced to swim to keep afloat. A dozentimes he circled around Neewa, and then, with something of thesituation driven upon him, he came up close to the bear and rested hisforepaws on his shoulders.
The lake was now encircled by a solid wall of fire. Blasts of flameshot up the pitch-laden trees and leapt for fifty feet into theblistering air. The roar of the conflagration was deafening. It drownedall sound that brute agony and death may have made. And its heat wasterrific. For a few terrible minutes the air which Miki drew into hislungs was like fire itself. Neewa plunged his head under water everyfew seconds, but it was not Miki's instinct to do this. Like the wolfand the fox and the fisher-cat and the lynx it was his nature to diebefore completely submerging himself.
Swift as it had come the fire passed; and the walls of timber that hadbeen green a few moments before were black and shrivelled and dead; andsound swept on with the flame until it became once more only a low andrumbling murmur.
To the black and smouldering shores the live things slowly made theirway. Of all the creatures that had taken refuge in the lake many haddied. Chief of those were the porcupines. All had drowned.
Close to the shore the heat was still intense, and for hours the earthwas hot with smouldering fire. All the rest of that day and the nightthat followed no living thing moved out of the shallow water. And yetno living thing thought to prey upon its neighbour. The great peril hadmade of all beasts kin.
A little before dawn of the day following the fire relief came. Adeluge of rain fell, and when day broke and the sun shone through amurky heaven there was left no sign of what the lake had been, exceptfor the dead bodies that floated on its surface or lined its shores.The living things had returned into their desolated wilderness--andamong them Neewa and Miki.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
For many days after the Great Fire it was Neewa who took the lead. Alltheir world was a black and lifeless desolation and Miki would not haveknown which way to turn. Had it been a local fire of small extent hewould have "wandered" out of its charred path. But the conflagrationhad been immense. It had swept over a vast reach of country, and for ahalf of the creatures who had saved themselves in the lakes and streamsthere was only a death by starvation left.
But not for Neewa and his breed. Just as there had been no indecisionin the manner and direction of his flight before the fire so there wasnow no hesitation in the direction he chose to seek a live world again.It was due north and west--as straight as a die. If they came to alake, and went around it, Neewa would always follow the shore until hecame directly opposite his trail on the other side of the lake--andthen strike north and west again. He travelled steadily, not only byday but also by night, with only short intervals of rest, and thedawning of the second morning found Miki more exhausted than the bear.
There were many evidences now that they had reached a point where thefire had begun to burn itself out. Patches of green timber were leftstanding, there were swamps unscathed by the flames, and here and therethey came upon green patches of meadow. In the swamps and timber theyfeasted, for these oases in what had been a sea of flame were filledwith food ready to be preyed upon and devoured. For the first timeNeewa refused to stop because there was plenty to eat. The sixth daythey were a hundred miles from the lake in which they had sought refugefrom the fire.
It was a wonderful country of green timber, of wide plains and of manylakes and streams--cut up by a thousand usayow (low ridges), which madethe best of hunting. Because it was a country of many waters, with livestreams running between the ridges and from lake to lake, it had notsuffered from the drought like the countr
y farther south. For a monthNeewa and Miki hunted in their new paradise, and became fat and happyagain.
It was in September that they came upon a strange thing in the edge ofa swamp. At first Miki thought that it was a cabin; but it was a greatdeal smaller than any cabin he had known. It was not much larger thanthe cage of saplings in which Le Beau had kept him. But it was made ofheavy logs, and the logs were notched so that nothing could knock themdown. And these logs, instead of lying closely one on the other, hadopen spaces six or eight inches wide between them. And there was awide-open door. From this strange contraption there came a strong odourof over-ripened fish. The smell repelled Miki. But it was a powerfulattraction to Neewa, who persisted in remaining near it in spite of allMiki could do to drag him away. Finally, disgusted at his comrade's badtaste, Miki sulked off alone to hunt. It was some time after thatbefore Neewa dared to thrust his head and shoulders through theopening. The smell of the fish made his little eyes gleam. Cautiouslyhe stepped inside the queer looking thing of logs. Nothing happened. Hesaw the fish, all he could eat, just on the other side of a saplingagainst which he must lean to reach them. He went deliberately to thesapling, leaned over, and then!--
"CRASH!"
He whirled about as if shot. There was no longer an opening where hehad entered. The sapling "trigger" had released an over-head door, andNeewa was a prisoner. He was not excited, but accepted the situationquite coolly, probably having no doubt in his mind that somewhere therewas an aperture between the logs large enough for him to squeezethrough. After a few inquisitive sniffs he proceeded to devour thefish. He was absorbed in his odoriferous feast when out of a clump ofdwarf balsams a few yards away appeared an Indian. He quickly took inthe situation, turned, and disappeared.
Half an hour later this Indian ran into a clearing in which were therecently constructed buildings of a new Post. He made for the Companystore. In the fur-carpeted "office" of this store a man was bendingfondly over a woman. The Indian saw them as he entered, and chuckled."Sakehewawin" ("the love couple"); that was what they had already cometo call them at Post Lac Bain--this man and woman who had given them agreat feast when the missioner had married them not so very long ago.The man and the woman stood up when the Indian entered, and the womansmiled at him. She was beautiful. Her eyes were glowing, and there wasthe flush of a flower in her cheeks. The Indian felt the worship of herwarm in his heart.
"Oo-ee, we have caught the bear," he said. "But it is napao (ahe-bear). There is no cub, Iskwao Nanette!"
The white man chuckled.
"Aren't we having the darndest luck getting you a cub for a house-pet,Nanette?" he asked. "I'd have sworn this mother and her cub would havebeen easily caught. A he-bear! We'll have to let him loose, Mootag. Hispelt is good for nothing. Do you want to go with us and see the fun,Nanette?"
She nodded, her little laugh filled with the joy of love and life.
"Oui. It will be such fun--to see him go!"
Challoner led the way, with an axe in his hand; and with him cameNanette, her hand in his. Mootag followed with his rifle, prepared foran emergency. From the thick screen of balsams Challoner peered forth,then made a hole through which Nanette might look at the cage and itsprisoner. For a moment or two she held her breath as she watched Neewapacing back and forth, very much excited now. Then she gave a littlecry, and Challoner felt her fingers pinch his own sharply. Before heknew what she was about to do she had thrust herself through the screenof balsams.
Close to the log prison, faithful to his comrade in the hour of peril,lay Miki. He was exhausted from digging at the earth under the lowerlog, and he had not smelled or heard anything of the presence of othersuntil he saw Nanette standing not twenty paces away. His heart leapt upinto his panting throat. He swallowed, as though to get rid of a greatlump; he stared. And then, with a sudden, yearning whine, he sprangtoward her. With a yell Challoner leapt out of the balsams withuplifted axe. But before the axe could fall, Miki was in Nanette'sarms, and Challoner dropped his weapon with a gasp of amazement--andone word:
"MIKI!"
Mootag, looking on in stupid astonishment, saw both the man and thewoman making a great fuss over a strange and wild-looking beast thatlooked as if it ought to be killed. They had forgotten the bear. AndMiki, wildly joyous at finding his beloved master and mistress, hadforgotten him also. It was a prodigious WHOOF from Neewa himself thatbrought their attention to him. Like a flash Miki was back at the pensmelling of Neewa's snout between two of the logs, and with a greatwagging of tail trying to make him understand what had happened.
Slowly, with a thought born in his head that made him oblivious of allelse but the big black brute in the pen, Challoner approached the trap.Was it possible that Miki could have made friends with any other bearthan the cub of long ago? He drew in a deep breath as he looked atthem. Neewa's brown-tipped nose was thrust between two of the logs andMIKI WAS LICKING IT WITH HIS TONGUE! He held out a hand to Nanette, andwhen she came to him he pointed for a space, without speaking.
Then he said:
"It is the cub, Nanette. You know--the cub I have told you about.They've stuck together all this time--ever since I killed the cub'smother a year and a half ago, and tied them together on a piece ofrope. I understand now why Miki ran away from us when we were at thecabin. He went back--to the bear."
To-day if you strike northward from Le Pas and put your canoe in theRat River or Grassberry waterways, and thence paddle and run with thecurrent down the Reindeer River and along the east shore of ReindeerLake you will ultimately come to the Cochrane--and Post Lac Bain. It isone of the most wonderful countries in all the northland. Three hundredIndians, breeds and French, come with their furs to Lac Bain. Not asoul among them--man, woman, or child--but knows the story of the "tamebear of Lac Bain"--the pet of l'ange, the white angel, the Factor'swife.
The bear wears a shining collar and roams at will in the company of agreat dog, but, having grown huge and fat now, never wanders far fromthe Post. And it is an unwritten law in all that country that theanimal must not be harmed, and that no bear traps shall be set withinfive miles of the Company buildings. Beyond that limit the bear neverroams; and when it comes cold, and he goes into his long sleep, hecrawls into a deep warm cavern that has been dug for him under theCompany storehouse. And with him, when the nights come, sleeps Miki thedog.
THE END
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