Adventure Magazine Cover — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

46 the youngest Br#lé there, yet in deliberate manner, in the caution and reserve of his glance, he was a mature man of forty. A voyageur, marveling at the youth’s un- common hue and features, instinctively found a name and spoke it aloud as the newcomer strode past toward the lead canoe— “Lady-Face!”’ The youth heard it going from lip to lip and smiled—a geod-humored, rare and sun- ny smile. The name, running up the bri- gade line, reached MclIllivray before the stranger did; so that the grizzly-haired Scot thought one of the Briélés knew the youth. “If you have canoe-room for me to the fort,”’ said the latter in a mellow voice, “I will pay with my only means—paddle- strength. My birch-bark is a sorry wreck at the end of this portage.” MclIllivray looked at him searchingly; at his pack, his rifle, his dress. When he spoke his harsh voice was a loon’s in com- parison. “Pedler?”’ he demanded, loading the word with his contempt for the traveling, un- attached traders. The youth shook his head. “What company thene” “None. Iam a freeman.” “You are farther from Montreal than freemen wander,” Mclllivray said.curtly, as if in disbelief. “T am going farther,” the youth rejoined, waving a hand toward the west. “Your business?” “To see places not seen before.” Mclilivray grunted. His keen eyes, quick to detect sturdy qualities, appraised the youth favorably. But, wizened in the jn- cessant, bickering warfare of hostile fur companies, MclIllivray was a man of cau- tious kidney; to him a stranger was a potential enemy—either an agent of the Boston merchants or a pedler or a spy of the H. B. or X. Y. He was framing a re- fusal of the youth’s request when a stout man of fifty, dressed richly in laced suit and cocked hat, arose from a rock and in- terrupted. “Let him join us, Mclilivray,” he com- manded; and added almost to himself: *The Hudson's Bay Company and its personnel were called ‘‘the English'’ because their headquarters were in London. The Northwest Company, its great rival, had headquarters in Montreal, where the partners had an organization called ‘‘the Beaver Club.” Adventure “The English* scour the Orkneys and Sus- sex for new blood like him, while we employ to our disadvantage the French who were here before us. Unless his looks belie his nature, we will turn a freeman into a rare and sorely needed clerk.” Mclllivray, hiding his displeasure at this thwarting of his judgment, nodded with quick deference. He motioned the youth to the third canoe and ordered the brigade into the water. — f‘“DAT man? He ess de gran’ Mac!” “eA The Bralé, answering Lady-Face’s eza% ¥ soft question, pointed with awed respect at the lead canoe and at the stocky man, reposing at his ease therein, who had commanded Mclllivray to take the young man along with the brigade. “De Ojibways,” he added, ‘‘call him ‘de Sail’ for dat he ess bellied out.” “The grand Mac?” Lady-Face queried so softly that the eight men ahead of him in the canoe heard not a word. “One of the Montreal partners?” The Bra#lé, a smoke-faced Algonquin métis, nodded. “He ess come de whole way dis spring. He ess joined dis voyage at Le Grand Portage. Mclllivray say, before de snows fly de gran’ Mac go back to Le Grand Portage—to Montreal.” “He is not a wintering partner then?” The Brdlé shook his head. “Why is he making this trip?” Lady- Face further asked in a voice softer than before. The Brélé opened his lips to answer. But, checking himself in mid-utterance, he bent a quick look at his interrogator, who casually was watching a swan winging high over the river. “T know nudding,”’ his lips to a straight line. Lady-Face asked no more questions just then. The brigade in short space swung around a curve in the river. The voya- geurs in the two first canoes, and the eight in the third, were eyes ahead: those behind were shut from view by the jutting head- land. Lady-Face passed a hand into his leather jacket and brought out an ample, silver-embossed flask. He took a nip, for sake of ceremony, and handed the flask to his companion. “It will shorten the miles.” The Brdalé tasted eagerly. MICLOOOK he replied, shutting’ C© in