XII BY CART TRAIN TO PEMBINA
Louis slept with friends on the other side of the river, Walter remainingwith his country people. The weather was sharp and cold, but GovernorMcDonnell's promise of fuel and food was fulfilled. After a hearty meal,the newcomers, in spite of their disappointment, passed a morecomfortable night than many they had endured during the long journey.They were somewhat disturbed, however, by the sounds of revelry borne onthe wind from Fort Douglas. That the voyageurs and their friends wouldcelebrate hilariously, the Swiss had expected, but not that such wildrevels would take place within the fort walls, where lived the Governorand his household.
"The Colony is short of food, so they say," Matthieu the weavercomplained bitterly, "but the folk in the fort must have plenty to eatand drink and make merry with."
Walter clung to the hope that the departure for Pembina might be delayeduntil after the arrival of the second boat brigade. But early in themorning word came from Fort Douglas that the Swiss must make ready toleave at once. The boy resolved to ask the Governor to let him remain. Hewent up to the fort, and felt encouraged when he was admitted at the gatewithout question, but his request to see the Governor met with flatrefusal. The Governor was busy and could not be disturbed. He had givenhis orders and those orders must be obeyed. Walter was well and strongand able to travel. He had no friends in the settlement to take him in.Well, then, he must go on to Pembina.
Finding it useless to plead his cause to the Governor's underlings andimpossible to get to McDonnell himself, the angry, discouraged lad leftthe fort. He found Louis Brabant at the Swiss camp, and poured out hisstory wrathfully. "I have a notion to stay here anyway," he concludedstubbornly. "I can find someone who will give me lodging for a few days."
"Yes," Louis admitted. "At St. Boniface, across the river, I can ask myfriends to take you in, but if the Governor learns you have disobeyed hiscommand he will be most angry."
"What can he do to me? I have a right to be here."
"Perhaps, but when the Governor is angry, he does not think of the rightsof others. You would have to go anyway, tied in a cart as a prisoner, orhe would shut you up in the fort, or send you out of the Colony."
"Where could he send me except to Pembina?" Walter questioned, stillunconvinced.
"To Norway House,--to be taken to Fort York in the spring and sent backto Europe in a ship," was the startling reply. "Oh, yes, as Governor ofthe Colony, he could do all that."
"But surely he wouldn't do it, for such a little thing?"
"Governor 'Sauterelle' does not think it a little thing when he isdisobeyed. He is not gentle to one who opposes his will. No, no, Walter,you must not think of it. At Pembina you will be far enough away to do asyou please, but not here. Come, you shall stay at my home, and we willfind a place for your friends and make all ready for them. It won't belong until they join you."
Reluctantly Walter yielded to the Canadian boy's advice. He did not wantto yield, but, if what Louis said of the Governor was true, the risk ofdisobedience was too great. He himself had seen enough already ofAlexander McDonnell to realize that he was not the kind of man to belenient with anyone who disobeyed his orders. So the Swiss boy set aboutgetting his own scanty belongings ready for the journey. He had taken forgranted that the party would travel by boat, but he had returned to thecamp on the river bank to find his companions' baggage being loaded intocarts.
Clumsy looking things were those carts,--a box body and two great wheelsat least five feet tall, with strong spokes, thick hubs, and wooden rimsthree inches wide and without metal tires. Between the shafts, which werestraight, heavy beams, a small, shaggy, sinewy pony, harnessed withrawhide straps, stood with lowered head and tail and an air of dejectionor sleepy indifference.
"What queer vehicles," Walter exclaimed. "Are we to travel overland?"
"Yes, the journey is much shorter that way. By water, following the bendsof the river, is almost twice as far. You never saw carts like thesebefore? No, I think that is true. The _bois brules_ of the Red Riverinvented this sort of cart. It is made all of wood, not a bit of metalanywhere. Every man makes his own cart. All the tools he needs are anaxe, a saw, and an auger or an Indian drill. I have a cart at home I mademyself, and it is a good one. In this country you must make things foryourself or you have nothing."
Examining one of the queer contrivances, Walter found that Louis hadspoken the simple truth. No metal had been used in its construction.Wooden pegs and rawhide lashings took the place of nails and spikes. Eventhe harness was guiltless of a buckle. The carts were far from beautiful,but they were strong and serviceable. The Swiss boy, who knew somethingof woodworking, admired the ingenuity and skill that had gone into theirmaking. Enough vehicles had been supplied to transport the few belongingsof the Swiss and to allow the women and children to ride. Now othercarts,--with the families and baggage of the Scotch settlers who wereleaving for Pembina,--began to arrive at the rendezvous, the discordantsqueaking and screeching of their wooden axles announcing their approachsome time before they came in sight.
It took so long to gather the cart train together and make everythingready for departure, that Walter kept hoping for the appearance of theboat brigade. But not a craft, except a canoe or two, came into viewaround the bend of the river, and no songs or shouts of voyageurs wereheard in the distance. The boy, still determined to plead his cause, kepta lookout for Governor McDonnell, but he did not appear. He left thecarrying out of his commands to his assistants.
The start was made at last. At the sharp "_Marche donc!_" of the drivers,the sleepy looking ponies woke into life and were off at a brisk trot.The carts pitched and wobbled, each with a gait of its own, over therough, hard ground, the ungreased axles groaning and screeching in everykey. The discord set Walter's teeth on edge, as he walked with Louisbeside the vehicle the latter was driving.
At the head of the column the guide in charge, Jean Baptiste Lajimoniere,rode horseback, followed closely by the cart carrying his wife andyounger children. The whole family had come from Pembina a short timebefore to have the newest baby christened by Father Provencher, thepriest. Behind the Lajimonieres, the train stretched out across theplain, the two wheeled carts piled with baggage and household belongingsor occupied by the women and children sitting flat on the bottom, theirheels higher than their hips. The drivers sat on the shafts or walkedalongside. The Swiss men and boys went afoot, but some of the Scotch andCanadians rode wiry ponies and drove a few cattle. The riders useddeerskin pads for saddles and long stirrups or none at all. Spare carthorses ran loose beside their harnessed companions.
Not all of the Swiss were in the party. Several families, taken into thecabins of the DeMeurons, had been allowed to remain. Matthieu and hiswife also stayed behind. The baby was ill and Matthieu himself scarceable to travel. The Colony had started a new industry, the manufacture ofcloth from buffalo hair, and the weaver was to be given employment. WhenWalter learned that Matthieu was to remain, the boy entrusted to him aletter for Mr. Perier, explaining how he had been forced to go on toPembina.
Leaving Point Douglas, the cart train turned southeast, traveling alittle back from the west bank of the river, along a worn track acrossopen prairie. Beyond the narrow valley, scattered cabins could be seenamong the trees on the east side.
"That is St. Boniface settlement," Louis told his companion. "PereProvencher is building a church there."
About a mile south of Point Douglas, the carts approached the junction ofthe Assiniboine River with the Red, the place Louis called _LesFourches_, the Forks. On the north bank of the Assiniboine stood a smallHudson Bay post, and not far from it were piles of logs for a newbuilding or stockade.
"The Company is going to make a new fort," Louis explained. "M'sieu Garryand M'sieu McGillivray chose this spot. There was an old Northwest post,Fort Gibraltar, here, but five years ago M'sieu Colin Robertson, a HudsonBay man, seized it, and Governor Semple had it pulled down. The logs andtimbe
r were taken down river to Fort Douglas. Fort Gibraltar had beenhere a long time, and so has this trading house. Les Fourches is an oldtrading place. Men say there was a fort here a hundred years ago, whenall Canada and the fur country were French, but nothing is left of thoseold buildings now."
The cart train halted near the trading post, as some of the men hadbusiness there, and Louis asked Walter to go with him to see the ChiefTrader. "At Fort Douglas I told a clerk how our pemmican disappeared andabout _le Murrai's_ package of trade goods. _Le Murrai_ had received hispay and had left the fort. The clerk knew not where he had gone. He toldme to report the affair to M'sieu the Chief Trader here. Come with me,and we will tell what we know."
The men of the little post were busy outfitting boats to go up theAssiniboine with goods and supplies for stations farther west, but thetwo boys had a few minutes' conversation with the Chief Trader. Louistold the story and Walter corroborated it. The trader looked grave andshook his head perplexedly. The charge against Murray,--stealing suppliesand exchanging them for goods with which to trade on his ownaccount,--was a serious one. Could it be proved? The trader did not doubtthe story of the contents of the bundle, but Murray might have come bythe things honestly and for a legitimate purpose.
"He is due here to-day to go with the Assiniboine brigade," the traderexplained, "but I have seen nothing of him. You have no proof that hetook the pemmican and substituted the bag of clay. If he denies it, theonly thing I can do is to report the matter to Norway House at the firstopportunity. They ought to know whether anyone exchanged pemmican forgoods while your brigade was there. Of course Murray didn't make thebargain himself. Someone else did it for him. It won't be necessary tomention your names at present, to Murray I mean. You would find the BlackMurray a bad enemy."
"Yes," Louis agreed. "He does not love either of us now. I thank you,M'sieu."
"The thanks are due to you, from the Company, for reporting this matter.Don't you want to sign for the Assiniboine voyage? We can use you both."
Walter shook his head. He had had quite enough voyaging for the present.Louis answered simply, "No, M'sieu. I go to my mother at Pembina."