XVI LETTERS FROM FORT DOUGLAS
The white man and the half-breed were not caught. Had the thieves trustedmerely to speed in paddling, the men sent out from the post must haveovertaken them. Even down stream, canoemen, obliged to follow every bendand twist of the river, could not make as good time as mounted men ridingalong the bank. Probably the two had crossed to the other shore and hadconcealed themselves and their canoe until the search was over. There waslittle chance that Pembina settlement would see or hear anything more ofthem for a long time.
The Ojibwa being a skilful hunter whose goodwill was worth retaining, hewas supplied with another outfit. He went away contented with histreatment at the post, but seething with desire for vengeance on the menwho had robbed him.
When questioned, Father Dumoulin said that the white man, Kolbach, hadbrought him a letter from his superior, Father Provencher, at St.Boniface. "The Father said in his letter," Dumoulin explained, "thatKolbach had just come to tell him that he was going to Pembina. He askedif the Father had any message to send me. So Pere Provencher wrotehastily, while Kolbach waited. Kolbach is a DeMeuron, a German Swiss. Heis a wild, unruly fellow who comes but seldom to confession. I feltsurprised that he had taken the trouble to do Pere Provencher and myselfa kindness."
Louis and Walter had failed to find an unoccupied cabin that could bemade ready for the Periers. When Louis suggested that they set to work atonce to build one, his mother interposed. It would be better to wait, sheinsisted, until the Periers arrived. They could stay in her house for afew days. The cabin would be a little crowded to be sure, but there wouldbe room enough to make three extra ones comfortable. "Then M'sieu Periercan decide where he wishes his house and can help to build it," sheconcluded.
Walter rather doubted if the apothecary would prove of much help in cabinbuilding, but he yielded to Mrs. Brabant's decision. He knew she would doeverything in her power for the comfort of the homeless immigrants.
While he waited for the coming of his friends, Walter helped Louisprepare the Brabant home for winter. They put fresh mud chinking in theholes between the logs, mended the bark roof, cut firewood and hauled itin Louis' cart. The cart itself had to have one new wheel rim. The rim,which was about three inches thick, was made in sections, and puttogether without nails. Louis wanted a new dog sled, and Walter wouldneed snowshoes. For the sled, thin oak boards were bent at one end bysteaming them over the big kettle, and lashed together. Louis called theaffair a _tabagane_, the French version of an Indian word. Nowadays wespell it _toboggan_.
The snowshoe frames were of birch wood bent to the required racket form,the toes turned up a little to prevent tripping. The netting of sinew,Louis explained, must be put in with the greatest care. Where the weightof the foot would rest he used a fine mesh of _babiche_ or twisted sinew.The ankle and toe loops he was careful to make just the right size toslip on and off easily, yet not too loose to hold the foot in the properposition. Walter had been trained to use his hands, and he was deft andsure with them. He made one of the shoes himself, and did a workmanlikejob. Learning to walk with the awkward things might be more difficultthan making them, he thought.
Louis examined his dog harness and shook his head. "The beasts need a newharness truly," he said, "but that will have to wait until we can kill abuffalo, and get fresh _shaganappy_."
Though the buffalo hunt had been postponed, Walter found plenty ofopportunity to use his new gun. Migrating flocks of water fowl passedevery night, and many of them stopped to rest and feed by day along therivers and in the marshes. It was the boys' duty to keep up the foodsupply by shooting as many ducks and geese as possible. The weather wasnow cold enough so the birds could be kept several days. Those that theBrabant and MacKay families could not use were disposed of at Fort Daer.Neil MacKay and Raoul Brabant, who was almost as good a shot as his elderbrother, were included in the hunting party.
Every day Walter watched for the Periers. Whenever he heard the creakingof a cart, he hoped that another brigade was arriving from Fort Douglas.He never went a mile from the settlement without wondering if his friendswould be there when he came back. As the days passed, he grew more andmore anxious. Had disaster overtaken the boats of the second division?
One day, just at dusk, as the four hunters were returning along the bankof the Pembina, there came to their ears, faintly at first, from theprairie to the north, the screeching of ungreased axles. As the noisegrew louder, the boys realized that such a squawking and screaming couldnever come from two or three carts only. A whole brigade must beapproaching. Leaving the woods along the river, the lads started acrossthe prairie to meet the cart train. They could hear it much farther thanthey could see it in the gathering darkness.
Louis was the first to make out a line of black objects against the sky.He and Walter were some distance ahead of their companions when they metthe guide of the brigade riding in advance. Louis shouted a question andthe reply in Canadian French came promptly:
"We come from Fort Douglas. We bring some of the new colonists."
At the guide's words, Walter dropped his gun and his birds and rantowards the carts. He was too impatient to wait for them to come to him.The first vehicle belonged to the guide and his family, but walkingbeside the second was someone Walter knew, Johan Scheidecker. He and theScheidecker boys had shared the same tent at York Factory. As he greetedJohan, Walter looked eagerly around for some sign of his friends.
"Where is Monsieur Perier?" he demanded.
"He is not with us."
"Not with you? Why, what has happened?"
"Nothing,--to the Periers," was Johan's reassuring reply. "They remain atFort Douglas. A man named Kolbach has taken them into his house. I have aletter for you that will explain it all." He handed Walter a foldedpacket of coarse paper.
The boy was dumbfounded. The possibility that the Periers might not comeon to Pembina had never occurred to him. It was too dark to read hisletter, so he fell into step beside Johan and questioned him.
"Are they all right? How did they stand the trip? Are they well?"
"About as well as any of us."
Even in the darkness Walter could see that Johan was very thin. His voicewas husky, and he plodded along with drooping shoulders and bent head."We were all nearly starved, and some of us were sick, when we reachedFort Douglas," he explained. "Elise and Max were as well as any, butPerier himself had a bad cough. One of the soldiers who live above thefort, a Swiss, took them into his house. My sister Marianne stays behindtoo. She was married to one of those soldiers the morning we left. Tellme, can we get food at Fort Daer?" he asked abruptly.
"Oh, yes. Wait a moment." Walter had remembered his gun and birds. He ranto where they lay, and, returning, thrust the two fat geese into Johan'shands. "Take them," he cried. "They are good eating and we have more."
Walter did not accompany the cart train to Fort Daer. He and the Brabantboys made speed to the cabin, where, by the light of a candle of buffalotallow, he read his letters. There were two, one from Mr. Perier, theother from Elise. Mr. Perier's was brief. The trip had been a very hardone, but he and the children had come through safely. Matthieu had givenhim Walter's note, and he appreciated the boy's thought for theircomfort. It seemed best, however, for them to remain at Fort Douglas. Hewas suffering with a bad cold and was scarcely able to travel farther.One of the DeMeurons had shown them great kindness. He had offered toshare his cabin with them and had assured them that by hunting andfishing he could provide food for all.
"I am disappointed," Mr. Perier wrote, "that I cannot open a shop. All mychemical and medical supplies were lost when our boat was wrecked. Isaved only a few packages of herb seeds that I was carrying in mypockets. I intend in the spring to plant an herb garden. Through MatthieuI hope to obtain a place in the buffalo wool factory for the winter. Donot think that you must come back here to be with us. It would not bewise. If you have found food and shelter, remain where you are tillspring. Then you c
an return and we will begin cultivating our land. Youneed not be concerned for us, for we have fallen among friends. Ournearest neighbor will be Marianne Scheidecker who is to be marriedto-morrow to one of the ex-soldiers. Several of them have found wivesamong our Swiss girls. I would not want a daughter of mine to marry insuch haste. I am glad Elise is still a little girl."
Elise's letter, dated November 4th, the day of arrival at Fort Douglas,told more of the journey. The second division had traveled slowly, andwith many delays. On September the twentieth another boat from Fort York,carrying the Rev. John West, the English clergyman of the Selkirk Colony,had overtaken the Swiss. The first of October the weather had turned verycold, and some nights the travelers had nearly frozen, especially wheneverything was so wet or frost covered that the fires would not burn. Ina storm on Lake Winnipeg, the boat the Periers were in was wrecked.
"No one was drowned," wrote Elise, "but we were all soaked, and we lostmost of our food and blankets and other things. The men had to cut downtrees and split them into boards to mend our boat, and that took a longtime. It rained and snowed, and the nights were terribly cold. M. Westgave Max and me one of his blankets. We had plenty of wood for fires, butvery little food left, only some barley that we boiled. The weather wasso stormy the men could not catch fish, but they shot a few birds. We atea big owl and a raven that M. West shot. It was a week before we could goon. Then Samuel Scheidecker was taken sick and died, and we stopped at anisland to bury him. I feel so sorry for the Scheideckers. By the time wecame to the mouth of the Red River we were starving, but there wereIndians there, and the chief, Peguis, gave us dried fish."
Elise went on to say that her father had a bad cough and needed a warmplace to stay. So Sergeant Kolbach had kindly taken them in. "This houseis only one room with a loft above that has a floor of loose boards and aladder instead of a stairway. But there is a fireplace, and it is warmand dry. M. Kolbach sleeps in the loft and lets us have the room. It israther dirty, but I have cleaned it up a little and will do moreto-morrow. We shall be comfortable here and kind Mr. West wants Max andme to go to his school and learn English. We miss you very much, Walter,but Father says you must not come back here till spring. We are going tobe all right now. It is so good to be warm and dry and have enough toeat, and in the spring we can be together again."
Walter read this letter aloud to Louis and his mother. "The poor child!"Mrs. Brabant exclaimed again and again. At the close Louis saidearnestly, "That is a brave little girl, your little sister."
Walter was disappointed that his friends were not coming to Pembina, butrelieved to know that they were safe and comfortable. He was quite readyto go back to Fort Douglas and share any hardships they might have toundergo, but Mr. Perier had forbidden him to do so. Apprentices in thosedays seldom thought of disobeying their masters. Moreover Walter feltthat his return to Fort Douglas would probably do more harm than good.There was no employment for him, no way to earn a living, and very likelythe Governor would not let him stay. Louis was strongly against his goingback.
Walter was not wholly at ease about his friends. "I wonder," he pondered,"if that DeMeuron really will provide for them. What will happen if hedoesn't keep his promise?"
"If there is not food for them they will be sent on here to Pembinalater."
"Could they make the trip when the snow is deep and the weather verycold?"
"Oh, yes. By dog sled the journey is easier and, if the trail is good,quicker than by cart. Dogs can travel where ponies can not. Write to yourfriends and tell them if all is not well to send word to you here, andyou and I will go get them. Ask someone at Fort Daer to send your letterthe first time anyone goes to Fort Douglas. Every week or so someonecomes and goes between the two forts. What is the name of that DeMeuronthey live with?"
Walter glanced at Mr. Perier's letter. "Kolbach, Sergeant Kolbach.Louis," he exclaimed, "that was the name of the man with Murray!"
"Kolbach, yes, that was surely his name."
"I wonder if he can be the same man who spoke to me when we landed atFort Douglas. He had a red face and a sandy beard. I don't like it,Louis, their living with that fellow!"
"No," the Canadian boy agreed thoughtfully. "We must go to Pere Dumoulinand ask him about that Kolbach. He may be a wild fellow, and yet be goodto your friends. Oh, yes, that is quite possible."
The two boys went to see the priest the next morning. They found him atthe mission in the little room that served him as bedroom, living-roomand study.
"Pere Dumoulin," Louis asked, "was the man who brought you that letterfrom Fort Douglas Sergeant Kolbach?"
"Sergeant Kolbach? Oh no," came the prompt reply. "It was Fritz Kolbach,the sergeant's brother."
Walter felt relieved. "What kind of a man is Sergeant Kolbach?" heinquired.
"Why do you ask?" The priest looked at the boy keenly.
Walter explained, and Father Dumoulin listened with interest.
"Sergeant Kolbach," he said thoughtfully, "is a very different personfrom his younger brother. The sergeant is a man of influence among theDeMeurons. I do not know him well, but I should think him a somewhatdomineering man, used to authority and fond of exercising it, but he isquieter, more self-controlled, more steady going than most of theDeMeurons. He has usually exercised his influence over his fellows in theinterest of law and order. I know no reason why you should fear that hewill not treat your friends well, since he has chosen to take them intohis house."
"His brother lives with him?" asked Louis.
"I do not think so. Every DeMeuron has his own land, and the Kolbachs aretoo unlike to live together peaceably."
Reassured by Father Dumoulin's information, Walter did not think ofdisobeying Mr. Perier's instructions. At Fort Daer the lad obtained a fewsheets of paper, and, borrowing quill pen and ink from a good-naturedapprentice clerk, he wrote a letter to Mr. Perier and another to Elise,addressing them in Sergeant Kolbach's care. The clerk promised to sendthem at the first opportunity.