Adventure, November 1915 — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ef I As af per aK 4 i 118 and take the lake for it. It curves north- he and westward, mark you, like a wal- ’ tusk, and its northern end is not so ae miles from the Upper Manikuagan River. Thus we shall miss the Mushala- gan gateway which this teffle of a Helbaud holds. And though he may head us before we touch the Height of Land, we will have performed the strategic stroke of dividing his force. He can not leave his base un- guarded, and he will be compelled to leave men to man his river fleets to keep his lines of communication open. Yon’s logic, eh, Sachelle?” The chief trader nodded energetically _ and put his pipe away. “Oui,” he admitted, “dat’s wan better plan dan tryin’ to beat our way over de portage. Ba gar, dat ain’t no easy trick to do. But on de water we got de fair show.”’ “Aye, and though we shall still be out- numbered badly, it will not be what one might be calling overwhelmning superior- ity, you mind. And win or lose, we will be giving Hillaire Helbaud and his Arctic Fur whelps a busy night of it. A raid on Manikuagan Portage, men, and a quick retreat! Are you all willing?” “We are!” they boomed. “Then be cleaning the camp as I say. ‘And you, Sachelle and Frangois, be spur- ring them while they work. I, myself, must improvise a cassock for my mas- querade.” Immediately the Seven Islands, Moisie, Mingan and Romaine men sprang to the work, striking the canvas flys stretched to windward of the fire, roping their dunnage and supplies info compact bundles for stowing between the canoe-thwarts and bringing forth the canoes themselves from the cedar-screened cache of green branches where they were concealed. The Factor unearthed his own gear-bag _ and from it took an adikey, a hooded cloth coat of Eskimo origin and lighter than the Winter skin koolutuk, which he had been wearing in the Spring. It was shaped much like a parka or a priest’s cassock, and he proceeded carefully to rip out the drill lining which he had put in it to more effectively stop the wind and Labrador - rains, When he had finished he held in his hands the costume of his masquerade, and quickly he arrayed himself in it, pulled the hood Adventure over his head and drew in the sagging skirt with a twist of twine about his waist. “Will I pass for Boccairre, are you thinking?” he demanded of his men. They stared at his mighty figure, fully as tall as the tall Lavergne’s and bulking much broader and thicker, bulking almost mountainous in the loose folds of the adikey. “Ba gar!” chuckled ‘the chief trader in admiration. ‘I’m never see such a priest on de country. You be big as t’ree priests, but in de night an’ in hees drunkenness I’m don’t ’spose Hillaire Helbaud be notice. An’ den, as Chakoni be say, you mebbe need all your size w’en you be go to put de vows. An’, diable, we be forget wan t’ing! You got de book for it?”’, The Factor drew from his pocket his mooseskin-bound Bible, the well-thumbed volume that along with his monstrous pipe accompanied him wherever he journeyed, the book which, not to speak of other things, - contained his beloved Solomon’s proverbs, underscored in red ink by his cumbersome hand. . “T am not thinking,”’ he observed, “that it contains the exact words that Helbaud needs in his essay, but I am thinking it contains much else that he needs. The word of the Lord is mighty, and he who bears it with no forward heart goes not in vain. Therefore, men, we can be hoping that our righteous cause will prosper, and the hand of Providence will be with us on Manikuagan Portage. | Helbaud fancies himself lord of the North, but there are lords and overlords, and he has yet to-meet his overlord. So load up in a crack and set out.” Like huge turtles bearing their mis- shapen shells the Hudson’s Bay men, with their supplies, dunnage and fur canoes poised upon their heads, bobbed off across the cut-off to the Manikuagan’s waters. In single file they ascended the ground-hem- lock covered slope, crossed the mossy, bouldered chasm, threaded over the tama- rack ridge and descended through the thick shrubbery to the shore-line at the horseshoe- shaped cove. “Listen!” commanded the Factor, as they reached the margin. They all stood immobile for a ee 6 ears trained riverwards for the sound of the paddle of some chance traveler, but no such sound came. COPMICOOOLKS (EO)