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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Desolation, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fort Desolation
+       Red Indians and Fur Traders of Rupert's Land
+
+Author: R.M. Ballantyne
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21732]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORT DESOLATION ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+FORT DESOLATION, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+OR, SOLITUDE IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+THE OUTSKIRTER.
+
+To some minds solitude is depressing, to others it is congenial.  It was
+the _former_ to our friend John Robinson; yet he had a large share of it
+in his chequered life.  John--more familiarly known as Jack--was as
+romantic as his name was the reverse.  To look at him you would have
+supposed that he was the most ordinary of common-place men, but if you
+had known him, as we did, you would have discovered that there was a
+deep, silent, but ever-flowing river of enthusiasm, energy, fervour--in
+a word, romance--in his soul, which seldom or never manifested itself in
+words, and only now and then, on rare occasions, flashed out in a
+lightning glance, or blazed up in a fiery countenance.  For the most
+part Jack was calm as a mill-pond, deep as the Atlantic, straightforward
+and grave as an undertaker's clerk and good-humoured as an unspoilt and
+healthy child.
+
+Jack never made a joke, but, certes, he could enjoy one; and he had a
+way of showing his enjoyment by a twinkle in his blue eye and a chuckle
+in his throat that was peculiarly impressive.
+
+Jack was a type of a large class.  He was what we may call an
+_outskirter_ of the world.  He was one of those who, from the force of
+necessity, or of self-will, or of circumstances, are driven to the outer
+circle of this world to do as Adam and Eve's family did, battle with
+Nature in her wildest scenes and moods; to earn his bread, literally, in
+the sweat of his brow.
+
+Jack was a middle-sized man of strong make.  He was not sufficiently
+large to overawe men by his size, neither was he so small as to invite
+impertinence from "big bullies," of whom there were plenty in his
+neighbourhood.  In short, being an unpretending man and a plain man,
+with a good nose and large chin and sandy hair, he was not usually taken
+much notice of by strangers during his journeyings in the world; but
+when vigorous action in cases of emergency was required Jack Robinson
+was the man to make himself conspicuous.
+
+It is not our intention to give an account of Jack's adventurous life
+from beginning to end, but to detail the incidents of a sojourn of two
+months at Fort Desolation, in almost utter solitude, in order to show
+one of the many phases of rough life to which outskirters are frequently
+subjected.
+
+In regard to his early life it may be sufficient to say that Jack, after
+being born, created such perpetual disturbance and storm in the house
+that his worthy father came to look upon him as a perfect pest, and as
+soon as possible sent him to a public school, where he fought like a
+Mameluke Bey, learned his lessons with the zeal of a philosopher, and,
+at the end of ten years ran away to sea, where he became as sick as a
+dog and as miserable as a convicted felon.
+
+Poor Jack was honest of heart and generous of spirit, but many a long
+hard year did he spend in the rugged parts of the earth ere he
+recovered, (if he ever did recover), from the evil effects of this first
+false step.
+
+In course of time Jack was landed in Canada, with only a few shillings
+in his pocket; from that period he became an outskirter.  The romance in
+his nature pointed to the backwoods; he went thither at once, and was
+not disappointed.  At first the wild life surpassed his expectations,
+but as time wore on the tinsel began to wear off the face of things, and
+he came to see them as they actually were.  Nevertheless, the romance of
+life did not wear out of his constitution.  Enthusiasm, quiet but deep,
+stuck to him all through his career, and carried him on and over
+difficulties that would have disgusted and turned back many a colder
+spirit.
+
+Jack's first success was the obtaining of a situation as clerk in the
+store of a general merchant in an outskirt settlement of Canada.  Dire
+necessity drove him to this.  He had been three weeks without money and
+nearly two days without food before he succumbed.  Having given in,
+however, he worked like a Trojan, and would certainly have advanced
+himself in life if his employer had not failed and left him, minus a
+portion of his salary, to "try again."
+
+Next, he became an engineer on board one of the Missouri steamers, in
+which capacity he burst his boiler, and threw himself and the passengers
+into the river--the captain having adopted the truly Yankee expedient of
+sitting down on the safety-valve while racing with another boat!
+
+Afterwards, Jack Robinson became clerk in one of the Ontario
+steam-boats, but, growing tired of this life, he went up the Ottawa, and
+became overseer of a sawmill.  Here, being on the frontier of
+civilisation, he saw the roughest of Canadian life.  The lumbermen of
+that district are a mixed race--French-Canadians, Irishmen, Indians,
+half-castes, etcetera,--and whatever good qualities these men might
+possess in the way of hewing timber and bush-life, they were sadly
+deficient in the matters of morality and temperance.  But Jack was a man
+of tact and good temper, and played his cards well.  He jested with the
+jocular, sympathised with the homesick, doctored the ailing in a rough
+and ready fashion peculiarly his own, and avoided the quarrelsome.  Thus
+he became a general favourite.
+
+Of course it was not to be expected that he could escape an occasional
+broil, and it was herein that his early education did him good service.
+He had been trained in an English school where he became one of the best
+boxers.  The lumberers on the Ottawa were not practised in this science;
+they indulged in that kicking, tearing, pommelling sort of mode which is
+so repugnant to the feelings of an Englishman.  The consequence was that
+Jack had few fights, but these were invariably with the largest bullies
+of the district; and he, in each case, inflicted such tremendous facial
+punishment on his opponent that he became a noted man, against whom few
+cared to pit themselves.
+
+There are none so likely to enjoy peace as those who are prepared for
+war.  Jack used sometimes to say, with a smile, that his few battles
+were the price he had to pay for peace.
+
+Our hero was unlucky.  The saw-mill failed--its master being a drunkard.
+When that went down he entered the lumber trade, where he made the
+acquaintance of a young Scotchman, of congenial mind and temperament,
+who suggested the setting up of a store in a promising locality and
+proposed entering into partnership.  "Murray and Robinson" was forthwith
+painted by the latter, (who was a bit of an artist), over the door of a
+small log-house, and the store soon became well known and much
+frequented by the sparse population as well as by those engaged in the
+timber trade.
+
+But "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong."  There
+must have been a screw loose somewhere, for bad debts accumulated and
+losses were incurred which finally brought the firm to the ground, and
+left its dissevered partners to begin the world over again!
+
+After this poor Jack Robinson fell into low spirits for a time, but he
+soon recovered, and bought a small piece of land at a nominal price in a
+region so wild that he had to cut his own road to it, fell the trees
+with his own hand, and, in short, reclaim it from the wilderness on the
+margin of which it lay.  This was hard work, but Jack liked hard work,
+and whatever work he undertook he always did it well.  Strange that such
+a man could not get on! yet so it was, that, in a couple of years, he
+found himself little better off than he had been when he entered on his
+new property.  The region, too, was not a tempting one.  No adventurous
+spirits had located themselves beside him, and only a few had come
+within several miles of his habitation.
+
+This did not suit our hero's sociable temperament, and he began to
+despond very much.  Still his sanguine spirit led him to persevere, and
+there is no saying how long he might have continued to spend his days
+and his energies in felling trees and sowing among the stumps and hoping
+for better days, had not his views been changed and his thoughts turned
+into another channel by a letter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE LETTER, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
+
+One fine spring morning Jack was sitting, smoking his pipe after
+breakfast, at the door of his log cabin, looking pensively out upon the
+tree-stump-encumbered field which constituted his farm.  He had
+facetiously named his residence the Mountain House, in consequence of
+there being neither mountain nor hill larger than an inverted wash-hand
+basin, within ten miles of him!  He was wont to defend the misnomer on
+the ground that it served to keep him in remembrance of the fact that
+hills really existed in other parts of the world.
+
+Jack was in a desponding mood.  His pipe would not "draw" that morning;
+and his mind had been more active than usual for a few days past,
+revolving the past, the present, and the future.  In short, Jack was
+cross.  There could be no doubt whatever about it; for he suddenly, and
+without warning, dashed his pipe to pieces against a log, went into the
+house for another, which he calmly filled, as he resumed his former
+seat, lit, and continued to smoke for some time in sulky silence.  We
+record this fact because it was quite contrary to Jack's amiable and
+patient character, and showed that some deep emotions were stirring
+within him.
+
+The second pipe "drew" well.  Probably it was this that induced him to
+give utterance to the expression--
+
+"I wonder how long this sort of thing will last?"
+
+"Just as long as you've a mind to let it, and no longer," answered a man
+clad in the garb of a trapper, whose mocassin foot had given no
+indication of his approach until he was within a couple of paces of the
+door.
+
+"Is that you, Joe?" said Jack, looking up, and pointing to a log which
+served as a seat on the other side of the doorway.
+
+"It's all that's of me," replied Joe.
+
+"Sit down and fill your pipe out of my pouch, Joe.  It's good 'baccy,
+you'll find.  Any news?  I suppose not.  There never is; and if there
+was, what would be the odds to me?"
+
+"In the blues?" remarked the hunter, regarding Jack with a peculiar
+smile through his first puff of smoke.
+
+"Rather!" said Jack.
+
+"Grog?" inquired Joe.
+
+"Haven't tasted a drop for months," replied Jack.
+
+"All square _here_?" inquired the hunter, tapping his stomach.
+
+"Could digest gun-flints and screw nails!"
+
+The two smoked in silence for some time; then Joe drew forth a soiled
+letter, which he handed to his companion, saying--
+
+"It's bin lying at the post-office for some weeks, and as the postmaster
+know'd I was comin' here he asked me to take it.  I've a notion it may
+be an offer to buy your clearin', for I've heerd two or three fellows
+speakin' about it.  Now, as I want to buy it myself, if yer disposed to
+sell it, I hereby make you the first offer."
+
+Jack Robinson continued to smoke in silence, gazing abstractedly at the
+letter.  Since his mother had died, a year before the date of which we
+write, he had not received a line from any one, insomuch that he had
+given up calling at the post-office on his occasional visits to the
+nearest settlement.  This letter, therefore, took him by surprise, all
+the more that it was addressed in the handwriting of his former partner,
+Murray.
+
+Breaking the seal, he read as follows:
+
+  "Fort Kamenistaquoia, April the somethingth:--
+
+  "Dear Jack,--You'll be surprised to see my fist, but not more
+  surprised than I was to hear from an old hunter just arrived, that you
+  had taken to farming.  It's not your forte, Jack, my boy.  Be advised.
+  Sell off the farm for what it will fetch, and come and join me.  My
+  antecedents are not in my favour, I grant; but facts are stubborn
+  things, and it is a fact that I am making dollars here like stones.
+  I'm a fur-trader, my boy.  Have joined a small company, and up to this
+  time have made a good thing of it.  You know something of the fur
+  trade, if I mistake not.  Do come and join us; we want such a man as
+  you at a new post we have established on the coast of Labrador.
+  Shooting, fishing, hunting, _ad libitum_.  Eating, drinking, sleeping,
+  _ad infinitum_.  What would you more?  Come, like a good fellow, and
+  be happy!
+
+  "Ever thine, J. MURRAY."
+
+"I'll sell the _farm_," said Jack Robinson, folding the letter.
+
+"You will?" exclaimed Joe.  "What's your price?"
+
+"Come over it with me, and look at the fixings, before I tell you," said
+Jack.
+
+They went over it together, and looked at every fence and stump and
+implement.  They visited the live stock, and estimated the value of the
+sprouting crop.  Then they returned to the house, where they struck a
+bargain off-hand.
+
+That evening Jack bade adieu to the Mountain House, mounted his horse,
+with his worldly goods at the pommel of the saddle, and rode away,
+leaving Joe, the trapper, in possession.
+
+In process of time our hero rode through the settlements to Montreal,
+where he sold his horse, purchased a few necessaries, and made his way
+down the Saint Lawrence to the frontier settlements of the bleak and
+almost uninhabited north shore of the gulf.  Here he found some
+difficulty in engaging a man to go with him, in a canoe, towards the
+coast of Labrador.
+
+An Irishman, in a fit of despondency, at length agreed; but on reaching
+a saw-mill that had been established by a couple of adventurous Yankees,
+in a region that seemed to be the out-skirts of creation, Paddy
+repented, and vowed he'd go no farther for love or money.
+
+Jack Robinson earnestly advised the faithless man to go home, and help
+his grandmother, thenceforth, to plant murphies; after which he embarked
+in his canoe alone, and paddled away into the dreary north.
+
+Camping out in the woods at night, paddling all day, and living on
+biscuit and salt pork, with an occasional duck or gull, by way of
+variety; never seeing a human face from morn till night, nor hearing the
+sound of any voice except his own, Jack pursued his voyage for fourteen
+days.  At the end of that time he descried Fort Kamenistaquoia.  It
+consisted of four small log-houses, perched on a conspicuous promontory,
+with a flag-staff in the midst of them.
+
+Here he was welcomed warmly by his friend John Murray and his
+colleagues, and was entertained for three days sumptuously on fresh
+salmon, salt pork, pancakes, and tea.  Intellectually, he was regaled
+with glowing accounts of the fur trade and the salmon fisheries of that
+region.
+
+"Now, Jack," said Murray, on the third day after his arrival, while they
+walked in front of the fort, smoking a morning pipe, "it is time that
+you were off to the new fort.  One of our best men has built it, but he
+is not a suitable person to take charge, and as the salmon season has
+pretty well advanced we are anxious to have you there to look after the
+salting and sending of them to Quebec."
+
+"What do you call the new fort?" inquired Jack.
+
+"Well, it has not yet got a name.  We've been so much in the habit of
+styling it the New Fort that the necessity of another name has not
+occurred to us.  Perhaps, as you are to be its first master, we may
+leave the naming of it to you."
+
+"Very good," said Jack; "I am ready at a moment's notice.  Shall I set
+off this forenoon?"
+
+"Not quite so sharp as that," replied Murray, laughing.  "To-morrow
+morning, at day-break, will do.  There is a small sloop lying in a creek
+about twenty miles below this.  We beached her there last autumn.
+You'll go down in a boat with three men, and haul her into deep water.
+There will be spring tides in two days, so, with the help of tackle,
+you'll easily manage it.  Thence you will sail to the new fort, forty
+miles farther along the coast, and take charge."
+
+"The three men you mean to give me know their work, I presume?" said
+Jack.
+
+"Of course they do.  None of them have been at the fort, however."
+
+"Oh!  How then shall we find it?" inquired Jack.
+
+"By observation," replied the other.  "Keep a sharp look out as you
+coast along, and you can't miss it."
+
+The idea of mists and darkness and storms occurred to Jack Robinson, but
+he only answered, "Very good."
+
+"Can any of the three men navigate the sloop?" he inquired.
+
+"Not that I'm aware of," said Murray; "but you know something of
+navigation, yourself, don't you?"
+
+"No! nothing!"
+
+"Pooh! nonsense.  Have you never sailed a boat?"
+
+"Yes, occasionally."
+
+"Well, it's the same thing.  If a squall comes, keep a steady hand on
+the helm and a sharp eye to wind'ard, and you're safe as the Bank.  If
+it's too strong for you, loose the halyards, let the sheets fly, and
+down with the helm; the easiest thing in the world if you only look
+alive and don't get flurried."
+
+"Very good," said Jack, and as he said so his pipe went out; so he
+knocked out the ashes and refilled it.
+
+Next morning our hero rowed away with his three men, and soon discovered
+the creek of which his friend had spoken.  Here he found the sloop, a
+clumsy "tub" of about twenty tons burden, and here Jack's troubles
+began.
+
+The _Fairy_, as the sloop was named, happened to have been beached
+during a very high tide.  It now lay high and dry in what once had been
+mud, on the shore of a land-locked bay or pond, under the shadow of some
+towering pines.  The spot looked like an inland lakelet, on the margin
+of which one might have expected to find a bear or a moose-deer, but
+certainly not a sloop.
+
+"Oh! ye shall nevair git him off," said Francois Xavier, one of the
+three men--a French-Canadian--on beholding the stranded vessel.
+
+"We'll try," said Pierre, another of the three men, and a burly
+half-breed.
+
+"Try!" exclaimed Rollo, the third of the three men--a tall, powerful,
+ill-favoured man, who was somewhat of a bully, who could not tell where
+he had been born, and did not know who his father and mother had been,
+having been forsaken by them in his infancy.  "Try? you might as well
+try to lift a mountain!  I've a mind to go straight back to
+Kamenistaquoia and tell Mr Murray that to his face!"
+
+"Have you?" said Jack Robinson, in a quiet, peculiar tone, accompanied
+by a gaze that had the effect of causing Rollo to look a little
+confused.  "Come along, lads, we'll begin at once," he continued, "it
+will be full tide in an hour or so.  Get the tackle ready, Francois; the
+rest of you set to work, and clear away the stones and rubbish from
+under her sides."
+
+Jack threw off his coat, and began to work like a hero--as he was.  The
+others followed his example; and the result was that when the tide rose
+to its full height the sloop was freed of all the rubbish that had
+collected round the hull; the block tackle was affixed to the mast; the
+rope attached to a tree on the opposite side of the creek; and the party
+were ready to haul.  But although they hauled until their sinews
+cracked, and the large veins of their necks and foreheads swelled almost
+to bursting, the sloop did not move an inch.  The tide began to fall,
+and in a few minutes that opportunity was gone.  There were not many
+such tides to count on, so Jack applied all his energies and ingenuity
+to the work.  By the time the next tide rose they had felled two large
+pines, and applied them to the side of the vessel.  Two of the party
+swung at the ends of these; the other two hauled on the block-tackle.
+This time the sloop moved a little at the full flood; but the moment of
+hope soon passed, and the end was not yet attained.
+
+The next tide was the last high one.  They worked like desperate men
+during the interval.  The wedge was the mechanical power which prevailed
+at last.  Several wedges were inserted under the vessel's side, and
+driven home.  Thus the sloop was canted over a little towards the water.
+When the tide was at the full, one man hauled at the tackle, two men
+swung at the ends of the levers, and Jack hammered home the wedges at
+each heave and pull; thus securing every inch of movement.  The result
+was that the sloop slid slowly down the bank into deep water.
+
+It is wonderful how small a matter will arouse human enthusiasm!  The
+cheer that was given on the successful floating of the _Fairy_ was
+certainly as full of fervour, if not of volume, as that which followed
+the launching of the _Great Eastern_.
+
+Setting sail down the gulf they ran before a fair breeze which speedily
+increased to a favouring gale.  Before night a small bay was descried,
+with three log-huts on the shore.  This was the new fort.  They ran into
+the bay, grazing a smooth rock in their passage, which caused the
+_Fairy_ to tremble from stem to stern, and cast anchor close to a wooden
+jetty.  On the end of this a solitary individual, (apparently a maniac),
+was seen capering and yelling wildly.
+
+"What fort is this?" shouted Jack.
+
+"Sorrow wan o' me knows," cried the maniac; "it's niver been christened
+yet.  Faix, if it's a fort at all, I'd call it Fort Disolation.  Och!
+but it's lonesome I've been these three days--niver a wan here but
+meself an' the ghosts.  Come ashore, darlints, and comfort me!"
+
+"Fort Desolation, indeed!" muttered Jack Robinson, as he looked round
+him sadly; "not a bad name.  I'll adopt it.  Lower the boat, lads."
+
+Thus Jack took possession of his new home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL MATTERS.
+
+Jack Robinson's first proceeding on entering the new fort and assuming
+the command, was to summon the man, (supposed to be a maniac), named
+Teddy O'Donel, to his presence in the "Hall."
+
+"Your name is Teddy O'Donel?" said Jack.
+
+"The same, sir, at your sarvice," said Teddy, with a respectful pull at
+his forelock.  "They was used to call me _Mister_ O'Donel when I was in
+the army, but I've guv that up long ago an' dropped the title wid the
+commission."
+
+"Indeed: then you were a commissioned officer?" inquired Jack, with a
+smile.
+
+"Be no manes.  It was a slight longer title than that I had.  They
+called me a non-commissioned officer.  I niver could find in me heart to
+consociate wid them consaited commissioners--though there was wan or two
+of 'em as was desarvin' o' the three stripes.  But I niver took kindly
+to sodgerin'.  It was in the Howth militia I was.  Good enough boys they
+was in their way, but I couldn't pull wid them no how.  They made me a
+corp'ral for good conduct, but, faix, the great review finished me; for
+I got into that state of warlike feeling that I loaded me muskit five
+times widout firin', an' there was such a row round about that I didn't
+know the dirty thing had niver wint off till the fifth time, when she
+bursted into smithereens an' wint off intirely.  No wan iver seed a
+scrag of her after that.  An' the worst was, she carried away the small
+finger of Bob Riley's left hand.  Bob threw down his muskit an' ran off
+the ground howlin', so I picked the wipon up an' blazed away at the
+inimy; but, bad luck to him, Bob had left his ramrod in, and I sint it
+right through the flank of an owld donkey as was pullin' an apple and
+orange cart.  Oh! how that baste did kick up its heels, to be sure! and
+the apples and oranges they was flyin' like--Well, well--the long and
+the short was, that I wint an' towld the colonel I couldn't stop no
+longer in such a regiment.  So I guv it up an' comed out here."
+
+"And became a fur-trader," said Jack Robinson, with a smile.
+
+"Just so, sur, an' fort-builder to boot; for, being a jiner to trade and
+handy wid the tools, Mr Murray sent me down here to build the place and
+take command, but I s'pose I'm suppersheeded now!"
+
+"Well, I believe you are, Teddy; but I hope that you will yet do good
+service as my lieutenant."
+
+The beaming smile on Teddy's face showed that he was well pleased to be
+relieved from the responsibilities of office.
+
+"Sure," said he, "the throuble I have had wid the min an' the salvages
+for the last six weeks--it's past belavin'!  An' thin, whin I sint the
+men down to the river to fush--more nor twinty miles off--an' whin the
+salvages wint away and left me alone wid only wan old salvage woman!--
+och!  I'd not wish my worst inimy in me sitivation."
+
+"Then the savages have been giving you trouble, have they?"
+
+"They have, sur, but not so much as the min."
+
+"Well, Teddy," said Jack, "go and fetch me something to eat, and then
+you shall sit down and give me an account of things in general.  But
+first give my men food."
+
+"Sure they've got it," replied Teddy, with a broad grin.  "That spalpeen
+they calls Rollo axed for meat the first thing, in a voice that made me
+think he'd ait me up alive av he didn't git it.  So I guv 'em the run o'
+the pantry.  What'll yer plaze to dhrink, sur?"
+
+"What have you got?"
+
+"Tay and coffee, sur, not to mintion wather.  There's only flour an'
+salt pork to ait, for this is a bad place for game.  I've not seed a
+bird or a bear for three weeks, an' the seals is too cute for me.  But
+I'll bring ye the best that we've got."
+
+Teddy O'Donel hastened to the kitchen, a small log-hut in rear of the
+dwelling-house, and left Jack Robinson alone in the "Hall."
+
+Jack rose, thrust his hands deep into his pockets, and walked to the
+window.  It was glazed with parchment, with the exception of the centre
+square, which was of glass.
+
+"Pleasant, uncommonly pleasant," he muttered, as he surveyed the
+landscape.
+
+In front lay a flat beach of sand with the gulf beyond, the horizon
+being veiled in mist.  Up the river there was a flat beach with a hill
+beyond.  It was a black iron-looking hill, devoid of all visible
+verdure, and it plunged abruptly down into the sea as if it were trying
+fiercely to drown itself.  Down the river there was a continuation of
+flat beach, with, apparently, nothing whatever beyond.  The only objects
+that enlivened the dreary expanse were, the sloop at the end of the
+wooden jetty and a small flagstaff in front of the house, from which a
+flag was flying in honour of the arrival of the new governor.  At the
+foot of this flagstaff there stood an old iron cannon, which looked
+pugnacious and cross, as if it longed to burst itself and blow down all
+visible creation.
+
+Jack Robinson's countenance became a simple blank as he took the first
+survey of his new dominions.  Suddenly a gleam of hope flitted across
+the blank.
+
+"Perhaps the back is better," he muttered, opening the door that led to
+the rear of the premises.  In order to get out he had to pass through
+the kitchen, where he found his men busy with fried pork and flour
+cakes, and his lieutenant, Teddy, preparing coffee.
+
+"What is that?" inquired Jack, pointing to a small heap of brown
+substance which Teddy was roasting in a frying-pan.
+
+"Sure it's coffee," said the man.
+
+"Eh?" inquired Jack.
+
+"Coffee, sur," repeated Teddy with emphasis.
+
+"What is it made of?" inquired Jack.
+
+"Bread-crumbs, sur.  I'm used to make it of pais, but it takes longer,
+d'ye see, for I've got to pound 'em in a cloth after they're roasted.
+The crumbs is a'most as good as the pais, an' quicker made whin yer in a
+hurry."
+
+Jack's first impulse was to countermand the crumbs and order tea, but he
+refrained, and went out to survey the back regions of his new home.
+
+He found that the point selected for the establishment of the fort was a
+plain of sand, on which little herbage of any kind grew.  In rear of the
+house there was a belt of stunted bushes, which, as he went onward into
+the interior, became a wood of stunted firs.  This seemed to grow a
+little more dense farther inland, and finally terminated at the base of
+the distant and rugged mountains of the interior.  In fact, he found
+that he was established on a sandbank which had either been thrown up by
+the sea, or at no very remote period had formed part of its bed.
+Returning home so as to enter by the front door, he observed an enclosed
+space a few hundred yards distant from the fort.  Curious to know what
+it was, he walked up to it, and, looking over the stockade, beheld
+numerous little mounds of sand with wooden crosses at the head of them.
+It was the burial-ground of the establishment.  Trade had been carried
+on here by a few adventurous white men before the fort was built.  Some
+of their number having died, a space had been enclosed as a
+burying-ground.  The Roman Catholic Indians afterwards used it, and it
+was eventually consecrated with much ceremony by a priest.
+
+With a face from which every vestige of intelligence was removed, Jack
+Robinson returned to the fort and sat down in solitary state in the
+hall.  In the act of sitting down he discovered that the only arm-chair
+in the room was unsteady on its legs, these being of unequal length.
+There were two other chairs without arms, and equally unsteady on their
+legs.  These, as well as everything in the room, were made of fir-wood--
+as yet unpainted.  In the empty fire-place Jack observed a piece of
+charcoal, which he took up and began, in an absent way, to sketch on the
+white wall.  He portrayed a raving maniac as large as life, and then,
+sitting down, began insensibly to hum--
+
+  "I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls."
+
+In the midst of which he was interrupted by the entrance of his
+lieutenant with a tray of viands.
+
+"Ah, yer a purty creatur," exclaimed Teddy, pausing with a look of
+admiration before the maniac.
+
+"Come, Teddy, sit down and let's have the news.  What have we here?"
+said Jack, looking at three covered plates which were placed before him.
+
+"Salt pork fried," said Teddy removing the cover.
+
+"And here?"
+
+"Salt pork biled," said the man, removing the second cover; "an' salt
+pork cold," he added, removing the third.  "You see, sur, I wasn't sure
+which way ye'd like it, an' ye was out whin I come to ax; so I just did
+it up in three fashions.  Here's loaf bread, an' it's not bad, though I
+say it that made it."
+
+As Jack cut down into the loaf, he naturally remembered those lines of a
+well-known writer:
+
+  "Who has not tasted home-made bread,
+  A heavy compound of putty and
+  lead!"
+
+"Are these cakes?" he said, as Teddy presented another plate with
+something hot in it.
+
+"Ay, pancakes they is, made of flour an' wather fried in grease, an' the
+best of aitin', as ye'll find;--but, musha! they've all stuck together
+from some raison I han't yet diskivered: but they'll be none the worse
+for that, and there's plenty of good thick molasses to wash 'em down
+wid."
+
+"And this," said Jack, pointing to a battered tin kettle, "is the--
+the--"
+
+"That's the coffee, sur."
+
+"Ah! well, sit down, Teddy, I have seen worse fare than this.  Let's be
+thankful for it.  Now, then, let me hear about the fishery."
+
+Nothing pleased Teddy O'Donel so much as being allowed to talk.  He sat
+down accordingly and entertained his master for the next hour with a
+full, true, and particular account of every thing connected with Fort
+Desolation.  We will not, however, inflict this on the reader.  Reduced
+to its narrowest limits, his information was to the following effect:--
+
+That the Indians, generally, were well disposed towards the traders,
+though difficult to please.  That a good many furs had been already
+obtained, and there was a report of more coming in.  That the salmon
+fishery was situated on a river twenty miles below the fort, and was
+progressing favourably; but that the five men engaged there were a
+quarrelsome set and difficult to keep in order.  Teddy thought, however,
+that it was all owing to one of the men, named Ladoc, a bully, who kept
+the other four in bad humour.
+
+But the point on which poor Teddy dilated most was his solitude.  For
+some time he had been living with no other companions than an old Indian
+woman and her half-caste daughter, and they having left him, during the
+last three days he had been living entirely alone "among the ghosts,"
+many of which he described minutely.
+
+This intelligence was brought to an abrupt close by a row among the men
+in the kitchen.  Rollo had been boasting of his walking powers to such
+an extent, that Pierre had become disgusted and spoke contemptuously of
+Rollo; whereupon the bully, as usual, began to storm, and his wrath
+culminated when Pierre asserted that, "Mr Robinson would bring him to
+his marrow-bones ere long."
+
+"Jack Robinson!" exclaimed Rollo with contempt; "I'd walk him blind in
+two hours."
+
+Just at that moment the door opened, and Jack stood before them.
+
+"You are too noisy, men," said he, in a quiet voice, (Jack almost always
+spoke in a soft voice); "remember that this kitchen is within hearing of
+the hall.  Rollo, go down to the beach and haul up the sloop's boat, I
+see the tide is making on her."
+
+Rollo hesitated.
+
+"You hear?" said Jack, still in a quiet tone, but with a look--not a
+fierce look, or a threatening look, but--a peculiar look, which
+instantly took effect.
+
+One has often observed a cat when about to spring.  It makes many pauses
+in its prowling towards its prey, and occasional motions that lead one
+to expect a spring.  But the motion which precedes the actual spring is
+always emphatic.  It may not be violent; it may be as slight as all the
+previous motions, but there is that in it which tells irresistibly,
+somehow, of a fixed purpose.  So is it, doubtless, with tigers; so was
+it with Jack Robinson.  His first remark to the men was a prowl; his
+order to Rollo was a pause, with an _intention_; his "you hear?" softly
+said, had a _something_ in it which induced Rollo to accord instant
+obedience!
+
+On returning to the hall, Jack paced up and down indignantly.  "So there
+are _two_ bullies in the camp," he soliloquised; "I must cure them
+both;--but softly, Jack.  It won't do to fight if you can secure peace
+by other means.  Let blows be the last resource.  That's my motto.
+He'll walk me blind!  Well, we shall see, _to-morrow_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+TAMING A BULLY.
+
+The morrow came, and Jack Robinson rose with the sun.  Long before his
+men were astir he had inspected the few books and papers of the
+establishment, had examined the condition of the fur and goods store,
+and had otherwise made himself acquainted with the details of the fort;
+having gone over its general features with Teddy the day before.
+
+When the "lieutenant" arose, he found indications of his new master
+having been everywhere before him, and noted the fact!  As Teddy was by
+no means a man of order--although a good and trustworthy man--there was
+enough to be done before breakfast.  Jack purposely put Rollo into the
+kitchen to prepare the morning meal, this being comparatively light
+work.  He himself worked with the other men in the stores.  There was
+necessarily a great deal of lifting and shifting and clearing, in all of
+which operations he took the heaviest part of the work, and did his work
+better and more thoroughly than any of the others.  Teddy observed this
+also, and noted the fact!
+
+At breakfast there was naturally a good deal of talk among the men, and
+special mention was of course made of the energy of their master.
+
+Breakfast over, Jack assembled the men and apportioned to each his day's
+work.
+
+"I myself," said he, "mean to walk down to the fishery to-day, and I
+leave O'Donel in charge; I shall be back to-morrow.  Rollo, you will
+prepare to accompany me."
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the man, not knowing very well how to take this.
+The others glanced at each other intelligently as they departed to their
+work.
+
+A few minutes sufficed for preparation, and soon Jack stood with his
+rifle on his shoulder in front of the house.  Rollo quickly made his
+appearance with an old trading gun.
+
+"You can leave that, we won't require it," said Jack; "besides I want to
+walk fast, so it is well that you should be as light as possible."
+
+"No fear but I'll keep up with you, sir," said the man, somewhat piqued.
+
+"I do not doubt it," replied Jack, "but one gun is enough for us, so put
+yours by, and come along."
+
+Rollo obeyed, and resolved in his heart that he would give his new
+master a taste of his powers.
+
+Jack started off at a good rattling pace, somewhat over four miles an
+hour.  For the first mile Rollo allowed him to lead, keeping about a
+foot behind.  Then he thought to himself, "Now, my friend, I'll try
+you," and ranged up beside him, keeping a few yards to one side,
+however, in order to avoid the appearance of racing.  After a few
+minutes he pushed the pace considerably, and even went ahead of his
+companion; but, ere long, Jack was alongside and the pace increased to
+nearly five miles an hour.
+
+Only those who have tried it know, or can fully appreciate, what is
+meant by adding a mile an hour to one's pace.  Most active men go at
+four miles an hour when walking at a good smart pace.  Men _never_ walk
+at five miles an hour except when in the utmost haste, and then only for
+a short distance.  Anything beyond that requires a run in order to be
+sustained.
+
+It was curious to watch the progress of these two men.  The aim of each
+was to walk at his greatest possible speed, without allowing the
+slightest evidence of unwonted exertion to appear on his countenance or
+in his manner.
+
+They walked on the sands of the shore--there being no roads there--and
+at first the walking was good, as the tide was out and the sand hard.
+But before they had got half way to the fishery the sea came in and
+drove them to the soft sand, which, as nearly every one knows, is
+terribly fatiguing and difficult to walk in.
+
+Up to this point the two men had kept abreast, going at a tremendous
+pace, yet conversing quietly and keeping down every appearance of
+distress; affecting, in fact, to be going at their usual and natural
+pace!  Many a sidelong glance did Rollo cast, however, at his companion,
+to see if he were likely to give in soon.  But Jack was as cool as a
+cucumber, and wore a remarkably amiable expression of countenance.  He
+even hummed snatches of one or two songs, as though he were only
+sauntering on the beach.  At last he took out his pipe, filled it, and
+began to smoke, without slackening speed.  This filled Rollo with
+surprise, and for the first time he began to entertain doubts as to the
+result of the struggle.
+
+As for Jack, he never doubted it for a moment.  When they were compelled
+to take to the heavy sand and sank above the ankles at every step, he
+changed his tactics.  Putting out his pipe, he fell behind a few paces.
+
+"Ha!" thought Rollo, "done up at last; now I'll give it you."
+
+The thought that he was sure of victory infused such spirit into the man
+that he braced himself to renewed exertion.  This was just what Jack
+wanted.  He kept exactly a foot behind Rollo, yet when the other
+ventured to slacken his pace, (which was now too great to be kept up),
+he pushed forward just enough to keep him at it, without disheartening
+him as to result.  In the midst of this they both came to a full stop on
+discovering a box made of birch bark, which seemed to have been dropped
+by some passing Indians.
+
+"Hallo! what have we here?" cried Jack, stooping down to examine it.
+
+"My blessin' on't whatever it is," thought Rollo, to whom the momentary
+relief from walking was of the greatest consequence.  Jack knew this,
+and hastened his inspection.  It was a box of bear's fat.
+
+"Come, not a bad thing in times like these," observed Jack; "will you
+carry this or the rifle, my man?  See, the rifle is lighter, take that."
+
+Again they stepped out, and the sand seemed to grow softer and deeper as
+they advanced.  They were now five miles from the end of their journey,
+so Jack began to exert himself.  He pushed on at a pace that caused
+Rollo to pant and blow audibly.  For some time Jack pretended not to
+notice this, but at last he turned round and said--
+
+"You seem to be fatigued, my man, let me carry the rifle."
+
+Rollo did not object, and Jack went forward with the box and rifle more
+rapidly than before.  He was perspiring, indeed, at every pore
+profusely, but wind and limb were as sound as when he started.
+
+He finally left Rollo out of sight, and arrived at the fishery without
+him!
+
+Half an hour afterwards Rollo arrived.  He was a stout fellow, and by
+taking a short rest, had recovered sufficiently to come in with some
+degree of spirit; nevertheless, it was evident to all that he was "used
+up," for, "it is not the distance but the pace that kills!"  He found
+the fishermen at dinner, buttering their cakes with the bear's grease
+that had been discovered on the way down.  Jack Robinson was sitting in
+the midst of them, chatting quietly and smoking his pipe beside the
+fire-place of the hut.
+
+Jack introduced him as one of the new men, but made no reference to the
+walk from Fort Desolation.  He felt, however, that he had conquered the
+man, at least for that time, and hoped that further and more violent
+methods would not be necessary.  In this he was disappointed, as the
+sequel will show.
+
+That night Jack slept on a bed made of old salmon-nets, with a new
+salmon-net above him for a blanket.  It was a peculiar and not a
+particularly comfortable bed; but in his circumstances he could have
+slept on a bed of thorns.  He gazed up at the stars through the hole in
+the roof that served for a chimney, and listened to the chirping of the
+frogs in a neighbouring swamp, to which the snoring of the men around
+him formed a rough-and-ready bass.  Thus he lay gazing and listening,
+till stars and strains alike melted away, and left him in the sweet
+regions of oblivion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE SALMON FISHERY.
+
+Next morning, Jack Robinson went out at daybreak to inspect the salmon
+fishery.
+
+The river, up which the fish went in thousands, was broad, deep, and
+rapid.  Its banks were clothed with spruce-fir and dense underwood.
+There was little of the picturesque or the beautiful in the scenery.  It
+was a bleak spot and unattractive.
+
+Two of the four men who conducted the fishery were stationed at the
+mouth of the river.  The other two attended to the nets about six miles
+farther up, at a place where there was a considerable fall terminating
+in a long, turbulent rapid.
+
+With his wonted promptitude and energy, Jack began to make himself
+master of his position long before the men were stirring.  Before Ladoc,
+who was superintendent, had lighted his first pipe and strolled down to
+the boat to commence the operations of the day, Jack had examined the
+nets, the salt boxes, the curing-vats, the fish in pickle, the casks,
+and all the other _materiel_ of the fishery, with a critical eye.  From
+what he saw, he was convinced that Ladoc was not the best manager that
+could be desired, and, remembering that Ladoc was a bully, he was
+strengthened in an opinion which he had long entertained, namely, that a
+bully is never a trustworthy man.
+
+He was in the act of forming this opinion, when Ladoc approached.
+
+"Good morning, Ladoc," said he; "you rise early."
+
+"Oui, sair; mais, you gits up more earlier."
+
+"Yes, I am fond of morning air.  The fishery prospers, I see."
+
+"It doos, monsieur," said Ladoc, accepting the remark as a compliment to
+himself; "ve have catch fifteen casks already, and they is in most
+splendid condition."
+
+"Hum!" ejaculated Jack, with a doubtful look at a cask which was
+evidently leaking, "hum! yes, you are getting on pretty well, but--"
+
+Here Jack "hummed" again, and looked pointedly at one of the large vats,
+which was also leaking, and around which there was a great deal of salt
+that had been scattered carelessly on the ground.  Raising big eyes to
+the roof of the low shed in which the salt-boxes stood, he touched with
+his stick a torn piece of its tarpaulin covering, through which rain had
+found its way in bad weather.  He "hummed" again, but said nothing, for
+he saw that Ladoc was a little disconcerted.
+
+After some minutes Jack turned to his companion with a bland smile, and
+said--
+
+"The next station is--how many miles did you say?"
+
+"Six, monsieur."
+
+"Ah, six! well, let us go up and see it.  You can show me the way."
+
+"Breakfast be ready ver' soon," said Ladoc, "monsieur vill eat first,
+p'r'aps?"
+
+"No, we will breakfast at the upper station.  Ho, Rollo! here, I want
+you."
+
+Rollo, who issued from the hut at the moment, with a view to examine the
+weather and light his pipe, came forward.
+
+"I am going with Ladoc to the upper station," said Jack; "you will take
+his place here until we return."
+
+"Very well, sir," replied Rollo, fixing his eyes upon Ladoc.  At the
+same moment Ladoc fixed his eyes on Rollo.  The two men seemed to read
+each other's character in a single glance, and then and there hurled
+silent defiance in each other's teeth through their eyes!  Ladoc was
+annoyed at having been silently found fault with and superseded; Rollo
+was aggrieved at being left behind; both men were therefore enraged--for
+it is wonderful how small a matter is sufficient to enrage a bully--but
+Jack ordered Ladoc to lead the way, so the rivals, or enemies, parted
+company with another glance of defiance.
+
+That day, Jack Robinson had a somewhat rough and remarkable experience
+of life.
+
+He began by overhauling the nets at the mouth of the river, and these
+were so prolific that the small flat-bottomed boat used by the fishermen
+was soon half filled with glittering salmon, varying from ten to fifteen
+pounds in weight.  In order to avoid having his mocassins and nether
+garments soiled, Jack, who pulled the sculls, sat with bare feet and
+tucked-up trousers.  In less than an hour he rowed back to the
+landing-place, literally up to the knees in salmon!  Among these were a
+few young seals that had got entangled in the nets, while in pursuit of
+the fish, and been drowned.  These last were filled with water to such
+an extent, that they resembled inflated bladders!
+
+"Breakfast is ready, sir," said one of the men, as the boat-party leaped
+ashore.
+
+"Very good," replied Jack; turning to Ladoc, "now, my man, are you ready
+to start for the upper fishery?"
+
+"Eh? ah--oui, monsieur."
+
+There was a titter amongst the men at the expression of their big
+comrade's face, for Ladoc was ravenously hungry, and felt inclined to
+rebel at the idea of being obliged to start on a six-miles' walk without
+food; but as his young master was about to do the same he felt that it
+was beneath his dignity to complain.  Besides, there was a _something_
+peculiar about Jack's manner that puzzled and overawed the man.
+
+The fact was, that Jack Robinson wanted to know what his bullies were
+made of, and took rather eccentric methods of finding it out.  He
+accordingly set off at his best pace, and pushed Ladoc so hard, that he
+arrived at the upper fishery in a state of profuse perspiration, with a
+very red face, and with a disagreeably vacuous feeling about the pit of
+his stomach.
+
+They found the men at the station just landing with a boat-load of fish.
+They were all clean-run, and shone in the bright sunshine like bars of
+burnished silver.
+
+"Now, Ladoc," said Jack, "get breakfast ready, while I look over matters
+here."
+
+It need not be said that the man obeyed most willingly.  His master went
+to examine into details.  Half-an-hour sufficed to make him pretty well
+acquainted with the state of matters at the station, and, during
+breakfast, he soon obtained from the men all the knowledge they
+possessed about the fishery, the natives, and the region.
+
+One of the men was a half-caste, a fine-looking, grave, earnest fellow,
+who spoke English pretty well.  His name was Marteau.
+
+"The seals and the bears are our worst enemies, sir," said Marteau, in
+the course of conversation.
+
+"Indeed! and which of the two are worst?" inquired Jack.  "Another slice
+of pork, Ladoc, your appetite appears to be sharp this morning; thank
+you, go on, Marteau, you were saying something about the bears and
+seals."
+
+"It's not easy to say which of them is worst, sir.  I think the bears
+is, for the seals eat the bits that they bite out o' the fish, and so
+get some good of it; but the bears, they goes to the vats and pulls out
+the salt fish with their claws, for you see, sir, they can't resist the
+smell, but when they tries to eat 'em--ah, you should see the faces they
+do make!  You see, they can't stand the salt, so they don't eat much,
+but they hauls about and tears up an uncommon lot of fish."
+
+"It must make him ver' t'irsty," observed Ladoc, swallowing a can of tea
+at a draught.
+
+"It makes one thirsty to think of it," said Jack, imitating Ladoc's
+example; "now, lads, we'll go and overhaul the nets."
+
+Just as he spoke, Ladoc sprang from his seat, seized Jack's gun, which
+leant against the wall, shouted, "A bear!" and, levelling the piece
+through the open doorway, took aim at the bushes in front of the hut.
+
+At the same moment Jack leaped forward, struck up the muzzle of the gun
+just as it exploded, and, seizing Ladoc by the collar, hurled him with
+extraordinary violence, considering his size, against the wall.
+
+"Make yourself a better hunter," said he, sternly, "before you presume
+to lay hands again on my gun.  Look there!"
+
+Jack pointed, as he spoke, in the direction in which the man had fired,
+where the object that had been mistaken for a bear appeared in the form
+of a man, crawling out of the bushes on all-fours.  He seemed to move
+unsteadily, as if he were in pain.
+
+Running to his assistance, they found that he was an Indian, and, from
+the blood that bespattered his dress and hand, it was evident that he
+had been wounded.  He was a pitiable object, in the last stage of
+exhaustion.  When the party ran towards him, he looked up in their faces
+with lustreless eyes, and then sank fainting on the ground.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Jack, as they carried him into the hut and placed
+him on one of the low beds; "he must have met with an accident, for
+there is no warfare in this region among the Indians to account for his
+being wounded."
+
+"'Tis a strange accident," said Marteau, when the man's clothes were
+stripped off and the wounds exposed.  "An accident sometimes puts _one_
+bullet through a man, but seldom puts _two_!"
+
+"True," said Jack, "this looks bad, here is a hole clean through the
+fleshy part of his right arm, and another through his right thigh.  An
+enemy must have done this."
+
+On farther examination it was found that the bone of the man's leg had
+been smashed by the bullet, which, after passing through to the other
+side of the limb, was arrested by the skin.  It was easily extracted,
+and the wounds were dressed by Jack, who, to his many useful qualities,
+added a considerable knowledge of medicine and surgery.
+
+When the Indian recovered sufficiently to give an account of himself to
+Marteau, who understood his language perfectly, he told him, to the
+surprise of all, that his double wound was indeed the result of an
+accident, and, moreover, that he had done the deed with his own hand.
+Doubtless it will puzzle the reader to imagine how a man could so twist
+himself, that with an unusually long gun he could send a bullet at one
+shot through his right arm and right thigh.  It puzzled Jack and his men
+so much, that they were half inclined to think the Indian was not
+telling the truth, until he explained that about a mile above the hut,
+while walking through the bushes, he tripped and fell.  He was carrying
+the gun over his shoulder in the customary Indian fashion, that is, by
+the muzzle, with the stock behind him.  He fell on his hands and knees;
+the gun was thrown forward and struck against a tree so violently, that
+it exploded; in its flight it had turned completely round, so that, at
+the moment of discharge, the barrel was in a line with the man's arm and
+leg, and thus the extraordinary wound was inflicted.
+
+To crawl from the spot where the accident occurred took the poor fellow
+nearly twelve hours, and he performed this trying journey during the
+night and morning over a rugged country and without food.
+
+The surgical operation engaged Jack's attention the greater part of the
+forenoon.  When it was completed and the Indian made as comfortable as
+possible, he went out with the men to visit the nets which were set at
+the rapids about two miles higher up the river.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+JACK HAS A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER.
+
+We never can tell what a day or an hour may bring forth.  This is a
+solemn fact on which young and old might frequently ponder with
+advantage, and on which we might enlarge to an unlimited extent; but our
+space will not admit of moralising very much, therefore we beg the
+reader to moralise on that, for him--or herself.  The subject is none
+the less important, that circumstances require that it should be touched
+on in a slight, almost flippant, manner.
+
+Had Jack Robinson known what lay before him that evening, he would--he
+would have been a wiser man!  Nothing more appropriate than that occurs
+to us at this moment.  But, to be more particular:--
+
+When the party reached the nets, Jack left them to attend to their work,
+and went off alone to the vats, some of which, measuring about six feet
+in diameter, were nearly full of fish in pickle.
+
+As he walked along the slight track which guided him towards them, he
+pondered the circumstances in which he then found himself, and,
+indulging in a habit which he had acquired in his frequent and prolonged
+periods of solitude, began to mutter his thoughts aloud.
+
+"So, so, Jack, you left your farm because you were tired of solitude,
+and now you find yourself in the midst of society.  Pleasant society,
+truly!--bullies and geese, without a sympathetic mind to rub against.
+Humph! a pleasant fix you've got into, old fellow."
+
+Jack was wrong in this to some extent, as he afterwards came to confess
+to himself, for among his men there were two or three minds worth
+cultivating, noble and shrewd, and deep, too, though not educated or
+refined.  But at the time of which we write, Jack did not know this.  He
+went on to soliloquise:
+
+"Yes, you've got a pretty set to deal with; elements that will cause you
+enough of trouble before you have done with them.  Well, well, don't
+give in, old chap.  Never say die.  If solitude is to be your lot, meet
+it like a man.  Why, they say that solitude of the worst kind is to be
+found where most people dwell.  Has it not been said, that in the great
+city of London itself a man may be more solitary than in the heart of
+the wilderness?  I've read it, but I can't very well believe it.  Yet,
+there _may_ be something in it.  Humph!  Well, well, Jack, you're not a
+philosopher, so don't try to go too deep; take it easy, and do the best
+you can."
+
+At this point Jack came suddenly in sight of the vats.  They stood in
+the centre of a cleared space in the forest.  On the edge of the largest
+vat was perched an object which induced our hero to throw forward his
+fowling-piece hastily.  It was a black bear, or rather the hind-quarters
+of a black bear, for the head and one paw and shoulder of the animal
+were far down in the vat.  He was holding firmly to its edge by the hind
+legs and one fore-leg, while with the other he was straining his utmost
+to reach the fish.
+
+Jack's first impulse was to fire, but reflecting that the portion of the
+bear then in view was not a very vulnerable part, he hesitated, and
+finally crept behind a tree to consider, feeling confident that whatever
+should occur he would be pretty sure of getting a favourable opportunity
+to fire with effect.
+
+Quite unconscious of his danger, bruin continued to reach down into the
+vat with unwearied determination.  His efforts were rewarded with
+success, for he presently appeared on the edge of the vat with a fine
+salmon in his embrace.  Now was Jack's opportunity.  He raised his
+piece, but remembering Marteau's remark about the bear's difficulty in
+eating salt salmon, he postponed the fatal shot until he should have
+studied this point in natural history.
+
+His forbearance met with a reward, for the bear kept him during the next
+five minutes in such a state of suppressed laughter, that he could not
+have taken a steady aim to have saved his life.  Its sense of smell was
+evidently gratified, for on leaping to the ground it took a powerful
+snuff, and then began to devour the salmon with immense gusto.  But the
+first mouthful produced an expression of countenance that could not be
+misunderstood.  It coughed, spluttered, and sneezed, or at least gave
+vent to something resembling these sounds, and drew back from the fish
+with a snarl; then it snuffed again.  There was no mistaking the smell.
+It was delicious!  Bruin, disbelieving his sense of taste, and
+displaying unwise faith in his sense of smell, made another attempt.  He
+had tried the head first; with some show of reason he now tried the
+tail.  Faugh! it was worse than the other; "as salt as fire," as we have
+heard it sometimes expressed.  The spluttering at this point became
+excessive, and it was clear that the bear was getting angry.  Once
+again, with an amount of perseverance that deserved better fortune, the
+bear snuffed heartily at the fish, tore it to shreds with his claws, and
+then tried another mouthful, which it spat out instantly.  Displaying
+all its teeth and gums, it shut its eyes, and, raising its head in the
+air, fairly howled with disappointment.
+
+Jack now deemed it prudent to bring the scene to a close, so, calming
+himself as well as he could, he took a steady aim, and, watching his
+opportunity, fired.
+
+The bear did not fall.  It faced round in a moment, and, uttering a
+fierce growl, very unlike to its previous tones, rushed upon its enemy,
+who fired his second barrel at the creature's breast.  Whether it was
+that Jack's fit of laughter had shaken his nerves so as to render him
+incapable of taking a good aim, is a matter of uncertainty, but although
+both shots took effect, the bear was not checked in his career.  On it
+came.  Jack had no time to load.  He turned to run, when his quick eye
+observed a branch of a tree over his head within reach.  Dropping his
+gun he bounded upwards and caught it, and, being unusually powerful in
+the arms, drew himself up and got astride of it just as the bear reached
+the spot.  But bruin was not to be baulked so easily.  He was a black
+bear and a good climber.  Finding that he could not at his utmost
+stretch obtain a nibble at Jack's toes, he rushed at the trunk of the
+tree and began to ascend rapidly.  Jack at once moved towards the end of
+the branch, intending to drop to the ground, recover his gun and run for
+it; but the movement broke the branch off suddenly, and he came down
+with such a crash, that the bear stopped, looked round, and, seeing his
+enemy on the ground, began to descend.
+
+Although somewhat stunned by the fall, our hero was able to spring up
+and run in the direction of the hut.  The bear was so close on his
+heels, however, that he had no chance of his reaching it.  He felt this,
+and, as a last resource, doubled on his track like a hare and made for
+the banks of the river, which were twenty feet high at the place,
+intending to leap into the rapid and take his chance.
+
+In this, too, he was foiled.  His fall from the tree had partially
+disabled him, and he could not run with his wonted agility.  About ten
+yards from the edge of the bank the bear overtook him, and it seemed as
+if poor Jack Robinson's troubles were at last about to be brought to an
+abrupt close.  But Jack was self-possessed and brave as steel.  On
+feeling the bear's claws in his back, he drew his knife, wheeled round,
+fell into its embrace, and plunged the knife three or four times in its
+side.  The thing was done in a moment, and the two, falling together,
+rolled over the edge of the steep bank, and went crashing down through
+the bushes amid a cloud of dust and stones into the raging flood below.
+At the foot of the rapid, Marteau and one of the men happened to be
+rowing ashore with a load of fish.
+
+"Hallo! what's that?" cried Marteau.
+
+"Eh!" exclaimed his comrade.
+
+"A bear!" shouted Marteau, backing his oar.
+
+"And a man!  What!  I say!"
+
+"Pull! pull!"
+
+Next moment the boat was dancing on the foam, and Marteau had hold of
+the bear's neck with one hand, and Jack's hair with the other.
+
+They were soon hauled to land, the bear in its dying agonies and Jack in
+a state of insensibility; but it took the united strength of the two men
+to tear him from the tremendous grasp that he had fastened on the brute,
+and his knife was found buried to the handle close alongside of bruin's
+heart!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+SOLITUDE.
+
+On the day of his encounter with the bear, Jack Robinson sent Rollo up
+to the fort to fetch down all the men except O'Donel, in order that the
+fishery might be carried on with vigour.
+
+Of course it is unnecessary to inform the reader that Jack speedily
+recovered from the effects of his adventure.  It would be absurd to
+suppose that anything of an ordinary nature could kill or even do much
+damage to our hero.  Beyond five deep punctures on his back and five on
+his breast, besides a bite in the shoulder, Jack had received no damage,
+and was able to return on foot to Fort Desolation a few days after the
+event.
+
+On arriving, he found his man, Teddy O'Donel, sitting over the kitchen
+fire in the last stage of an attack of deep depression and home
+sickness.  Jack's sudden appearance wrought an instantaneous cure.
+
+"Ah!" said he, grasping his master's hand and wringing it warmly; "it's
+a blessed sight for sore eyes!  Sure I've bin all but dead, sur, since
+ye wint away."
+
+"You've not been ill, have you?" said Jack, looking somewhat earnestly
+in the man's face.
+
+"Ill?  No, not i' the body, if that's what ye mane, but I've been awful
+bad i' the mind.  It's the intellect as kills men more nor the body.
+The sowl is what does it all."  (Here Teddy passed his hand across his
+forehead and looked haggard.) "Ah!  Mr Robinson, it's myself as'll
+niver do to live alone.  I do belave that all the ghosts as iver lived
+have come and took up there abode in this kitchen."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Jack, sitting down on a stool beside the fire and
+filling his pipe; "you're too superstitious."
+
+"Supperstitious, is it?" exclaimed the man, with a look of intense
+gravity.  "Faix, if ye seed them ye'd change yer tune.  It's the noses
+of 'em as is wust.  Of all the noses for length and redness and for
+blowin' like trumpets I ever did see--well, well, it's no use
+conjicturin', but I do wonder sometimes what guv the ghosts sitch
+noses."
+
+"I suppose they _knows_ that best themselves," observed Jack.
+
+"P'r'aps they does," replied Teddy with a meditative gaze at the fire.
+
+"But I rather suspect," continued Jack, "that as your own nose is
+somewhat long and red, and as you've got a habit of squinting, not to
+mention snoring, Teddy, we may be justified in accounting for the--"
+
+"Ah! it's no use jokin'," interrupted O'Donel; "ye'll niver joke me out
+o' my belaif in ghosts.  It's no longer agone than last night, after
+tay, I laid me down on the floor beside the fire in sitch a state o'
+moloncholly weakness, that I really tried to die.  It's true for ye; and
+I belave I'd have done it, too, av I hadn't wint off to slape by
+mistake, an' whin I awoke, I was so cowld and hungry that I thought I'd
+pusspone dyin' till after supper.  I got better after supper, but, och!
+it's a hard thing to live all be yer lone like this."
+
+"Have no Indians been here since I left?"
+
+"Not wan, sur."
+
+"Well, Teddy, I will keep you company now.  We shall be alone here
+together for a few weeks, as I mean to leave all our lads at the
+fishery.  Meanwhile, bestir yourself and let me have supper."
+
+During the next few weeks Jack Robinson was very busy.  Being an
+extremely active man, he soon did every conceivable thing that had to be
+done about the fort, and conceived, as well as did, a good many things
+that did not require to be done.  While rummaging in the stores, he
+discovered a hand-net, with which he waded into the sea and caught large
+quantities of small fish, about four inches in length, resembling
+herrings.  These he salted and dried in the sun, and thus improved his
+fare,--for, having only salt pork and fresh salmon, he felt the need of
+a little variety.  Indeed, he had already begun to get tired of salmon,
+insomuch that he greatly preferred salt pork.
+
+After that, he scraped together a sufficient number of old planks, and
+built therewith a flat-bottomed boat--a vessel much wanted at the place.
+But, do what he would, time hung very heavy on his hands, even although
+he made as much of a companion of Teddy O'Donel, as was consistent with
+his dignity.  The season for wild fowl had not arrived, and he soon got
+tired of going out with his gun, with the certainty of returning
+empty-handed.
+
+At last there was a brief break in the monotony of the daily life at
+Fort Desolation.  A band of Indians came with a good supply of furs.
+They were not a very high type of human beings, had little to say, and
+did not seem disposed to say it.  But they wanted goods from Jack, and
+Jack wanted furs from them; so their presence during the two days and
+nights they stayed shed a glow of moral sunshine over the fort that made
+its inhabitants as light-hearted and joyful as though some unwonted
+piece of good fortune had befallen them.
+
+When the Indians went away, however, the gloom was proportionally
+deeper, Jack and his man sounded lower depths of despair than they had
+ever before fathomed, and the latter began to make frequent allusions to
+the possibility of making away with himself.  Indeed, he did one
+evening, while he and Jack stood silently on the shore together, propose
+that they should go into the bush behind the fort, cover themselves over
+with leaves, and perish "at wance, like the babes in the wood."
+
+Things were in this gloomy condition, when an event occurred, which,
+although not of great importance in itself, made such a deep impression
+on the dwellers at Fort Desolation, that it is worthy of a chapter to
+itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+HORRORS.
+
+One morning the sun rose with unwonted splendour on the broad bosom of
+the Saint Lawrence.  The gulf was like a mirror, in which the images of
+the seagulls were as perfect as the birds themselves, and the warm hazy
+atmosphere was lighted up so brightly by the sun, that it seemed as
+though the world were enveloped in delicate golden gauze.
+
+Jack Robinson stood on the shore, with the exile of Erin beside him.
+Strange to say, the effect of this lovely scene on both was the reverse
+of gladdening.
+
+"It's _very_ sad," said Jack, slowly.
+
+"True for ye," observed the sympathising Teddy, supposing that his
+master had finished his remark.
+
+"It's _very_ sad," repeated Jack, "to look abroad upon this lovely
+world, and know that thousands of our fellow-men are enjoying it in each
+other's society, while we are self-exiled here."
+
+"An' so it is," said Teddy, "not to mintion our fellow-women an' our
+fellow-childers to boot."
+
+"To be sure we have got each other's society, O'Donel," continued Jack,
+"and the society of the gulls--"
+
+"An' the fush," interposed Teddy.
+
+"And the fish," assented Jack; "for all of which blessings we have cause
+to be thankful; but it's my opinion that you and I are a couple of
+egregious asses for having forsaken our kind and come to vegetate here
+in the wilderness."
+
+"That's just how it is, sur.  We're both on us big asses, an' it's a
+pint for investigation which on us is the biggest--you, who ought to
+have know'd better, or me, as niver kno'w'd anything, a'most, to spake
+of."
+
+Jack smiled.  He was much too deeply depressed to laugh.  For some
+minutes they stood gazing in silent despondency at the sea.
+
+"What's that?" exclaimed Jack, with sudden animation, pointing to an
+object which appeared at the moment near the extremity of a point of
+rocks not far from the spot where they stood--"a canoe?"
+
+"Two of 'em!" cried O'Donel, as another object came into view.
+
+The change which came over the countenances of the two men, as they
+stood watching the approach of the two canoes, would have been
+incomprehensible to any one not acquainted with the effect of solitude
+on the human mind.  They did not exactly caper on the beach, but they
+felt inclined to do so, and their heaving bosoms and sparkling eyes told
+of the depth of emotion within.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour the canoes were within a short distance of
+the landing-place, but no shout or sign of recognition came from the
+Indians who paddled them.  There was an Indian in the bow and stern of
+each canoe, and a woman in the middle of one of them.
+
+"Well, boys, what cheer?" said Jack, using a well-known backwood's
+salutation, as the men landed.
+
+The Indians silently took the proffered hand of the trader and shook it,
+replying in a low voice, "Wachee," as the nearest point they could
+attain to the pronunciation of "What cheer?"
+
+There was something so unusually solemn in the air and manner of the
+savages, that Jack glanced at the canoe in which the woman sat.  There
+he saw what explained the mystery.  In the bottom lay an object wrapped
+up in pieces of old cloth and birchbark, which, from its form, was
+evidently a human body.  A few words with the Indians soon drew from
+them the information that this was one of their wives who had been
+ailing for a long time, and at length had died.  They were Roman
+Catholic converts, and had come to bury the body in the graveyard of the
+fort which had been "consecrated" by a priest.
+
+To whatever pitch of excitement Jack and his man had risen at the
+unexpected appearance of the Indians, their spirits fell to an
+immeasurably profounder depth than before when their errand was made
+known.
+
+Everything connected with this burial was sad and repulsive, yet Jack
+and his man felt constrained, out of mere sympathy, to witness it all.
+
+The Indians were shabby and squalid in the extreme, and, being destitute
+of the means of making a coffin, had rolled the corpse up in such
+wretched materials as they happened to possess.  One consequence of this
+was, that it was quite supple.  On being lifted out of the canoe, the
+joints bent, and a sort of noise was emitted from the mouth, which was
+exceedingly horrible.  Had the dead face been visible, the effect would
+not have been so powerful, but its being covered tended to set the
+imagination free to conceive things still more dreadful.
+
+The grave was soon dug in the sand inside the graveyard, which was not
+more than a hundred yards on one side of the fort.  Here, without
+ceremony of any kind, the poor form was laid and covered over.  While
+being lowered into the grave, the same doubling-up of the frame and the
+same noise were observed.  After all was over, the Indians returned to
+their canoe and paddled away, silently, as they had come; not before
+Jack, however, had gone to the store for a large piece of tobacco, which
+he threw to them as they were pushing off.
+
+During the remainder of that day, Jack Robinson and his man went about
+their vocations with hearts heavy as lead.  But it was not till night
+that this depression of spirits culminated.  For the first time in his
+life Jack Robinson became superstitiously nervous.  As for Teddy
+O'Donel, he had seldom been entirely free from this condition during any
+night of his existence; but he was much worse than usual on the present
+occasion!
+
+After sunset, Jack had his tea alone in the hall, while O'Donel took
+his--also, of course, alone--in the kitchen.  Tea over, Jack sat down
+and wrote part of a journal which he was in the habit of posting up
+irregularly.  Then he went into the kitchen to give Teddy his orders for
+the following day, and stayed longer than usual.  Thereafter, he read
+parts of one or two books which he had brought with him from the
+civilised world.  But, do what he would, the image of the dead woman
+lying so near him invariably came between him and the page, and obtruded
+itself on his mind obstinately.  Once he was so exasperated while
+reading, that he jumped violently off his chair, exclaiming, "This is
+childish nonsense!"  In doing so he tilted the chair over, so that it
+balanced for an instant on its hind legs, and then fell with an awful
+crash, which caused him to leap at least three feet forward, clench his
+fists, and wheel round with a look of fury that would certainly have put
+to flight any _real_ ghost in creation.
+
+Jack gasped, then he sighed, after which he smiled and began to pace the
+hall slowly.  At last he said, half aloud, "I think I'll smoke my pipe
+to-night with that poor fellow, O'Donel.  He must be lonely enough, and
+I don't often condescend to be social."
+
+Taking up his pipe and tobacco-pouch, he went towards the kitchen.
+
+Now, while his master was enduring those uncomfortable feelings in the
+hall, Teddy was undergoing torments in the kitchen that are past
+description.  He had had a grandmother--with no nose to speak of, a
+mouth large enough for two, four teeth, and one eye--who had stuffed him
+in his youth with horrible stories as full as a doll is of sawdust.
+That old lady's influence was now strong upon him.  Every gust of wind
+that rumbled in the chimney sent a qualm to his heart.  Every creak in
+the beams of his wooden kitchen startled his soul.  Every accidental
+noise that occurred filled him with unutterable horror.  The door, being
+clumsily made, fitted badly in all its parts, so that it shook and
+rattled in a perfectly heartrending manner.
+
+Teddy resolved to cure this.  He stuck bits of wood in the opening
+between it and the floor, besides jamming several nails in at the sides
+and top.  Still, the latch _would_ rattle, being complicated in
+construction, and not easily checked in all its parts.  But Teddy was an
+ingenious fellow.  He settled the latch by stuffing it and covering it
+with a mass of dough!  In order further to secure things, he placed a
+small table against the door, and then sat down on a bench to smoke his
+pipe beside the door.
+
+It was at this point in the evening that Jack resolved, as we have said,
+to be condescending.
+
+As he had hitherto very seldom smoked his pipe in the kitchen, his
+footstep in the passage caused O'Donel's very marrow to quake.  He
+turned as pale as death and became rigid with terror, so that he
+resembled nothing but an Irish statue of very dirty and discoloured
+marble.
+
+When Jack put his hand on the latch, Teddy gasped once--he was incapable
+of more!  The vision of the poor Indian woman rose before his mental
+eye, and he--well, it's of no use to attempt saying what he thought or
+felt!
+
+The obstruction in the latch puzzled Jack not a little.  He was
+surprised at its stiffness.  The passage between the hall and kitchen
+was rather dark, so that he was somewhat nervous and impatient to open
+the door.  It happened that he had left the door by which he had quitted
+the hall partially open.  A gust of wind shut this with a bang that sent
+every drop of blood into his heart, whence it rebounded into his
+extremities.  The impulse thus communicated to his hand was
+irresistible.  The door was burst in; as a matter of course the table
+was hurled into the middle of the kitchen, where it was violently
+arrested by the stove.  Poor Teddy O'Donel, unable to stand it any
+longer, toppled backwards over the bench with a hideous yell, and fell
+headlong into a mass of pans, kettles, and firewood, where he lay
+sprawling and roaring at the full power of his lungs, and keeping up an
+irregular discharge of such things as came to hand at the supposed
+ghost, who sheltered himself as he best might behind the stove.
+
+"Hold hard, you frightened ass!" shouted Jack as a billet of wood
+whizzed over his head.
+
+"Eh! what?  It's _you_, sur?  O, musha, av I didn't belave it was the
+ghost at last!"
+
+"I tell you what, my man," said Jack, who was a good deal nettled at his
+reception, "I would advise you to make sure that it _is_ a ghost next
+time before you shie pots and kettles about in that way.  See what a
+smash you have made.  Why, what on earth have you been doing to the
+door?"
+
+"Sure I only stuffed up the kayhole to keep out the wind."
+
+"Humph! and the ghosts, I suppose.  Well, see that you are up betimes
+to-morrow and have these salmon nets looked over and repaired."
+
+So saying, Jack turned on his heel and left the room, feeling too much
+annoyed to carry out his original intention of smoking a pipe with his
+man.  He spent the evening, therefore, in reading a pocket copy of
+Shakespeare, and retired to rest at the usual hour in a more composed
+frame of mind, and rather inclined to laugh at his superstitious fears.
+
+It happened, unfortunately, that from his window, as he lay on his bed,
+Jack could see the graveyard.  This fact had never been noticed by him
+before, although he had lain there nightly since his arrival, and looked
+over the yard to the beach and the sea beyond.  Now, the night being
+bright moonlight, he could see it with appalling distinctness.  Sleep
+was banished from his eyes, and although he frequently turned with
+resolution to the wall and shut them, he was invariably brought back to
+his old position as if by a species of fascination.
+
+Meanwhile Teddy O'Donel lay absolutely quaking in the kitchen.  Unable
+to endure it, he at last rose, opened the door softly, and creeping up
+as near us he dared venture to his master's door, sat down there, as he
+said, "for company."  In course of time he fell asleep.
+
+Jack, being more imaginative, remained awake.  Presently he saw a figure
+moving near the churchyard.  It was white--at least the upper half of it
+was.
+
+"Pshaw! this is positive folly; my digestion must be out of order,"
+muttered Jack, rubbing his eyes; but the rubbing did not dissipate the
+figure which moved past the yard and approached the fort.  At that
+moment Teddy O'Donel gave vent to a prolonged snore.  Delivered as it
+was against the wooden step on which his nose was flattened, it sounded
+dreadfully like a groan.  Almost mad with indignation and alarm, Jack
+Robinson leaped from his bed and pulled on his trousers, resolved to
+bring things to an issue of some sort.
+
+He threw open his chamber door with violence and descended the staircase
+noisily, intending to arouse his man.  He _did_ arouse him, effectually,
+by placing his foot on the back of his head and crushing his face
+against the steps with such force as to produce a roar that would have
+put to shame the war-whoop of the wildest savage in America.
+
+In endeavouring to recover himself, Jack fell upon Teddy and they rolled
+head-over-heels down the steps together towards the door of the house,
+which was opened at that instant by Ladoc, who had walked up to the
+fort, clad only in his shirt and trousers, (the night being warm), to
+give a report of the condition of things at the fishery, where he and
+Rollo had quarrelled, and the men generally were in a state of mutiny.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE BULLY RECEIVES A LESSON.
+
+We regret to be compelled to chronicle the fact, that Jack Robinson lost
+command of his temper on the occasion referred to in the last chapter.
+He and Teddy O'Donel rolled to the very feet of the amazed Ladoc, before
+the force of their fall was expended.  They sprang up instantly, and
+Jack dealt the Irishman an open-handed box on the ear that sent him
+staggering against one of the pillars of the verandah, and resounded in
+the still night air like a pistol-shot.  Poor Teddy would have fired up
+under other circumstances, but he felt so deeply ashamed of having
+caused the undignified mishap to his master, that he pocketed the
+affront, and quietly retired towards his kitchen.  On his way thither,
+however, he was arrested by the tremendous tone in which Jack demanded
+of Ladoc the reason of his appearance at such an untimely hour.
+
+There was a slight dash of insolence in the man's reply.
+
+"I come up, monsieur," said he, "to tell you if there be _two_ masters
+at fishery, _I_ not be one of 'em.  Rollo tink he do vat him please,
+mais I say, no; so ve quarrel."
+
+"And so, you take upon you to desert your post," thundered Jack.
+
+"Vraiment, oui," coolly replied Ladoc.
+
+Jack clenched his fist and sprang at the man as a bull-terrier might
+leap on a mastiff.  Almost in the act of striking he changed his mind,
+and, instead of delivering one of those scientific blows with which he
+had on more than one occasion in his past history terminated a fight at
+its very commencement, he seized Ladoc by the throat, tripped up his
+heels, and hurled him to the ground with such force, that he lay quite
+still for at least half a minute!  Leaving him there to the care of
+O'Donel, who had returned, Jack went up to his bedroom, shut the door,
+thrust his hands into his pockets, and began to pace the floor rapidly,
+and to shake his head.  Gradually his pace became slower, and the
+shaking of his head more sedate.  Presently he soliloquised in an
+undertone.
+
+"This won't do, John Robinson.  You've let off too much steam.  Quite
+against your principles to be so violent--shame on you, man.  Yet after
+all it was very provoking to be made such a fool of before that insolent
+fellow.  Poor Teddy--I wish I hadn't hit you such a slap.  But, after
+all, you deserved it, you superstitious blockhead.  Well, well, it's of
+no use regretting.  Glad I didn't hit Ladoc, though, it's too soon for
+_that_.  Humph! the time has come for action, however.  Things are
+drawing to a point.  They shall culminate _to-morrow_.  Let me see."
+
+Here Jack's tones became inaudible, and he began to complete his
+toilette.  His thoughts were busy--to judge from his knitted brows and
+compressed lips.  The decision of his motions at last showed that he had
+made up his mind to a course of action.
+
+It was with a cleared brow and a self-possessed expression of
+countenance that he descended, a few minutes later, to the hall, and
+summoned O'Donel.
+
+That worthy, on making his appearance, looked confused, and began to
+stammer out--
+
+"I beg parding, sur, but--but raally, you know--it, it was all owin' to
+them abominable ghosts."
+
+Jack smiled, or rather, tried to smile, but owing to conflicting
+emotions the attempt resulted in a grin.
+
+"Let bygones be bygones," he said, "and send Ladoc here."
+
+Ladoc entered with a defiant expression, which was evidently somewhat
+forced.
+
+Jack was seated at a table, turning over some papers.  Without raising
+his head, he said--
+
+"Be prepared to start for the fishery with me in half-an-hour, Ladoc."
+
+"Monsieur?" exclaimed the man, with a look of surprise.
+
+Jack raised his head and _looked_ at him.  It was one of his peculiar
+looks.
+
+"Did you not understand me?" he said, jumping up suddenly.
+
+Ladoc vanished with an abrupt, "Oui, monsieur," and Jack proceeded, with
+a _real_ smile on his good-humoured face, to equip himself for the road.
+
+In half an hour the two were walking silently side by side at a smart
+pace towards the fishery, while poor Teddy O'Donel was left, as he
+afterwards said, "all be his lone wid the ghost and the newly buried
+ooman," in a state of mental agony, which may, perhaps, be conceived by
+those who possess strong imaginations, but which cannot by any
+possibility be adequately described.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+STRANGERS AND STRANGE EVENTS.
+
+The monotony of the night march to the fishery was enlivened by the
+unexpected apparition of a boat.  There was just enough of moonlight to
+render it dimly visible a few hundred yards from the shore.
+
+"Indians!" exclaimed Ladoc, breaking silence for the first time since
+they set out.
+
+"The stroke is too steady and regular for Indians," said Jack.  "Boat
+ahoy!"
+
+"Shore ahoy!" came back at once in the ringing tones of a seaman's
+voice.
+
+"Pull in; there's plenty of water!" shouted Jack.
+
+"Ay, ay," was the response.  In a few seconds the boat's keel grated on
+the sand, and an active sailor jumped ashore.  There were five other men
+in the boat.
+
+"Where have _you_ dropped from?" enquired Jack.  "Well, the last place
+we dropped from," answered the seaman, "was the port quarter davits of
+the good ship Ontario, Captain Jones, from Liverpool to Quebec, with a
+general cargo; that was last night, and ten minutes afterwards, the
+Ontario dropped to the bottom of the sea."
+
+"Wrecked!" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"Just so.  Leastwise, sprung a leak and gone to the bottom."
+
+"No hands lost, I hope?"
+
+"No, all saved in the boats; but we parted company in the night, and
+haven't seen each other since.  Is there any port hereabouts, where we
+could get a bit o' summat to eat?"
+
+"There is, friend.  Just pull six miles farther along shore as you are
+going, and you'll come to the place that I have the honour and happiness
+to command--we call it Fort Desolation.  You and your party are heartily
+welcome to food and shelter there, and you'll find an Irishman in charge
+who will be overjoyed, I doubt not, to act the part of host.  To-morrow
+night I shall return to the fort."
+
+The shipwrecked mariners, who were half-starved, received this news with
+a cheer, and pushing off, resumed their oars with fresh vigour, while
+Jack and his man continued their journey.
+
+They reached the fishery before dawn, and, without awakening the men,
+retired at once to rest.
+
+Before breakfast, Jack was up, and went out to inspect the place.  He
+found that his orders, about repairing the roof of the out-house and the
+clearing up, had not been attended to.  He said nothing at first, but,
+from the quiet settled expression of his face, the men felt convinced
+that he did not mean to let it pass.
+
+He ordered Ladoc to repair the roof forthwith, and bade Rollo commence a
+general clearing-up.  He also set the other men to various occupations,
+and gave each to understand, that when his job was finished he might
+return to breakfast.  The result of this was, that breakfast that
+morning was delayed till between eleven and twelve, the fishery speedily
+assumed quite a new aspect, and that the men ate a good deal more than
+usual when they were permitted to break their fast.
+
+After breakfast, while they were seated outside the door of their hut
+smoking, Jack smoked his pipe alone by the margin of the river, about
+fifty yards off.
+
+"Monsieur be meditating of something this morning," observed little
+Francois Xavier, glancing at Rollo with a twinkle in his sharp grey eye.
+
+"He may meditate on what he likes, for all that _I_ care," said Rollo
+with a scornful laugh.  "He'll find it difficult to cow _me_, as I'll
+let him know before long."
+
+Ladoc coughed, and an unmistakable sneer curled his lip as he relighted
+his pipe.  The flushed face of Rollo showed what he felt, but, as
+nothing had been _said_, he could not with propriety give vent to his
+passion.
+
+At that moment Jack Robinson hailed Ladoc, who rose and went towards
+him.  Jack said a few words to him, which, of course, owing to the
+distance, could not be heard by the men.  Immediately after, Ladoc was
+seen to walk away in the direction of an old Indian burying-ground,
+which lay in the woods about a quarter of a mile from the fishery.
+
+Five minutes later Jack hailed Rollo, who obeyed the summons, and after
+a few words with his master, went off in the same direction as Ladoc.
+There seemed something mysterious in these movements.  The mystery was
+deepened when Jack hailed Francois Xavier, and sent him after the other
+two, and it culminated when Jack himself, after allowing five minutes
+more to elapse, sauntered away in the same direction with a stout cudgel
+under his arm.  He was soon lost to view in the woods.
+
+Each of the three men had been told to go to the burying-ground, and to
+wait there until Jack himself should arrive.  Ladoc was surprised on
+receiving the order, but, as we have seen, obeyed it.  He was more than
+surprised, however, when he saw Rollo walk into the enclosure, and still
+more astonished when Francois followed in due course.  None of the three
+spoke.  They felt that Jack would not keep them long in suspense, and
+they were right.  He soon appeared--smoking calmly.
+
+"Now, lads," said he, "come here.  Stand aside, Francois.  I have
+brought you to this place to witness our proceedings, and to carry back
+a true report to your comrades.  Ladoc and Rollo, (here Jack's face
+became suddenly very stern; there was something _intense_, though not
+loud, in his voice), you have kept my men in constant hot water by your
+quarrelling since you came together.  I mean to put an end to this.  You
+don't seem to be quite sure which of you is the best man.  You shall
+settle that question this day, on this spot, and within this hour.  So
+set to, you rascals!  Fight or shake hands.  _I_ will see fair play!"
+
+Jack blazed up at this point, and stepped up to the men with such a
+fierce expression, that they were utterly cowed.
+
+"Fight, I say, or shake hands, or--" Here Jack paused, and his teeth
+were heard to grate harshly together.
+
+The two bullies stood abashed.  They evidently did not feel inclined to
+"come to the scratch."  Yet they saw by the peculiar way in which their
+master grasped his cudgel, that it would be worse for both of them if
+they did not obey.
+
+"Well," said Ladoc, turning with a somewhat candid smile to Rollo, "I's
+willin' to shake hands if _you_ be."
+
+He held out his hand to Rollo, who took it in a shamefaced sort of way
+and then dropped it.
+
+"Good," said Jack; "now you may go back to the hut; _but_, walk arm in
+arm.  Let your comrades _see_ that you are friends.  Come, no
+hesitation!"
+
+The tone of command could not be resisted; the two men walked down to
+the river arm in arm, as if they had been the best of friends, and
+little Francois followed--chuckling!
+
+Next day a man arrived on foot with a letter to the gentlemen in charge
+of Fort Desolation.  He and another man had conveyed it to the fort in a
+canoe from Fort Kamenistaquoia.
+
+"What have we here?" said Jack Robinson, sitting down on the gunwale of
+a boat and breaking the seal.
+
+The letter ran as follows:--
+
+  "Fort Kamenistaquoia, etcetera, etcetera.
+
+  "My Dear Jack,
+
+  "I am sorry to tell you that the business has all gone to sticks and
+  stivers.  We have not got enough of capital to compete with the
+  Hudson's Bay Company, and I may remark, privately, that if we had, it
+  would not be worth while to oppose them on this desolate coast.  The
+  trade, therefore, is to be given up, and the posts abandoned.  I have
+  sent a clerk to succeed you and wind up the business, at Fort
+  Desolation, as I want you to come here directly, to consult as to
+  future plans.
+
+  "Your loving but unfortunate friend,
+
+  "J. Murray."
+
+On reading this epistle, Jack heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"Adrift again!" he muttered.
+
+At that moment his attention was arrested by the sound of voices in
+dispute.  Presently the door of the men's house was flung open, and
+Rollo appeared with a large bundle on his shoulders.  The bundle
+contained his "little all."  He was gesticulating passionately to his
+comrades.
+
+"What's wrong now?" said Jack to Francois, as the latter came towards
+him.
+
+"Rollo he go 'way," said Francois.  "There be an Indian come in hims
+canoe, and Rollo make up his mind to go off vid him."
+
+"Oh! has he?" said Jack, springing up and walking rapidly towards the
+hut.
+
+Now it must be told here that, a few days before the events we are
+describing, Jack had given Rollo a new suit of clothes from the
+Company's store, with a view to gain his regard by kindness, and attach
+him to the service, if possible.  Rollo was clad in this suit at the
+time, and he evidently meant to carry it off.
+
+Jack crushed back his anger as he came up, and said in a calm,
+deliberate voice, "What _now_, Rollo?"
+
+"I'm going off," said the man fiercely.  "I've had enough of _you_."
+
+There was something supernaturally calm and bland in Jack's manner, as
+he smiled and said--
+
+"Indeed!  I'm _very_ glad to hear it.  Do you go soon?"
+
+"Ay, at once."
+
+"Good.  You had better change your dress before going."
+
+"Eh?" exclaimed the man.
+
+"Your clothes belong to the company; _put them off_!" said Jack.
+"Strip, you blackguard!" he shouted, suddenly bringing his stick within
+three inches of Rollo's nose, "Strip, or I'll break every bone in your
+carcase."
+
+The man hesitated, but a nervous motion in Jack's arm caused him to take
+off his coat somewhat promptly.
+
+"I'll go into the house," said Rollo, humbly.
+
+"No!" said Jack, sternly, "Strip where you are.  Quick!"
+
+Rollo continued to divest himself of his garments, until there was
+nothing left to remove.
+
+"Here, Francois," said Jack, "take these things away.  Now, sir, you may
+go."
+
+Rollo took up his bundle and went into the hut, thoroughly crestfallen,
+to re-clothe himself in his old garments, while Jack strolled into the
+woods to meditate on his strange fortunes.
+
+That was the end of Rollo.  He embarked in a canoe with an Indian and
+went off--no one knew whither.  So, the wicked and useless among men
+wander about this world to annoy their fellows for a time--to pass away
+and be forgotten.  Perhaps some of them, through God's mercy, return to
+their right minds.  We cannot tell.
+
+According to instructions, Jack made over the charge of his
+establishment that day to the clerk who had been sent down to take
+charge, and next morning set out for Fort Kamenistaquoia, in the boat
+with the shipwrecked seamen.
+
+Misfortune attended him even to the last minute.  The new clerk, who
+chanced to be an enthusiastic young man, had resolved to celebrate his
+own advent and his predecessor's departure by firing a salute from an
+old carronade which stood in front of the fort, and which might,
+possibly, have figured at the battle of the Nile.  He overcharged this
+gun, and, just as the boat pushed off, applied the match.  The result
+was tremendous.  The gun burst into a thousand pieces, and the clerk was
+laid flat on the sand!  Of course the boat was run ashore immediately,
+and Jack sprang out and hastened to the scene of the disaster, which he
+reached just as the clerk, recovering from the effects of the shock,
+managed to sit up.
+
+He presented a wonderful appearance!  Fortunately, none of the flying
+pieces of the gun had touched him, but a flat tin dish, full of powder,
+from which he had primed the piece, had exploded in his face.  This was
+now of a uniform bluish-black colour, without eyelashes or eyebrows, and
+surmounted by a mass of frizzled material that had once been the
+unfortunate youth's hair.
+
+Beyond this he had received no damage, so Jack remained just long enough
+to dress his hurts, and make sure that he was still fit for duty.
+
+Once more entering the boat, Jack pushed off.  "Good-bye, boys!" said
+he, as the sailors pulled away.  "Farewell, Teddy, mind you find me out
+when you go up to Quebec."
+
+"Bad luck to me av I don't," cried the Irishman, whose eyes became
+watery in spite of himself.
+
+"And don't let the ghosts get the better of you!" shouted Jack.
+
+O'Donel shook his head.  "Ah, they're a bad lot, sur--but sorrow wan o'
+them was iver so ugly as _him_!"
+
+He concluded this remark by pointing over his shoulder with his thumb in
+the direction of the house where the new clerk lay, a hideous, though
+not severely injured, spectacle, on his bed.
+
+A last "farewell" floated over the water, as the boat passed round a
+point of land.  Jack waved his hand, and, a moment later, Fort
+Desolation vanished from his eyes for ever.
+
+Readers, it is not our purpose here to detail to you the life and
+adventures of Jack Robinson.
+
+We have recalled and recounted this brief passage in his eventful
+history, in order to give you some idea of what "outskirters," and
+wandering stars of humanity sometimes see, and say, and go through.
+
+Doubtless Jack's future career would interest you, for his was a nature
+that could not be easily subdued.  Difficulties had the effect of
+stirring him up to more resolute exertions.  Opposition had the effect
+of drawing him on, instead of keeping him back.  "Cold water" warmed
+him.  "Wet blankets," when thrown on him, were dried and made hot!  His
+energy was untiring, his zeal red hot, and when one effort failed, he
+began another with as much fervour as if it were the first he had ever
+made.
+
+Yet Jack Robinson did not succeed in life.  It would be difficult to say
+why.  Perhaps his zeal and energy were frittered away on too many
+objects.  Perhaps, if he had confined himself to one purpose and object
+in life, he would have been a great man.  Yet no one could say that he
+was given to change, until change was forced upon him.  Perchance want
+of judgment was the cause of all his misfortunes; yet he was a clever
+fellow: cleverer than the average of men.  It may be that Jack's
+self-reliance had something to do with it, and that he was too apt to
+trust to his own strength and wisdom, forgetting that there is One,
+without whose blessing man's powers can accomplish no good whatever.  We
+know not.  We do not charge Jack with this, yet this is by no means an
+uncommon sin, if we are to believe the confessions of multitudes of good
+men.
+
+Be this as it may, Jack arrived at Fort Kamenistaquoia in due course,
+and kindly, but firmly, refused to take part with his sanguine friend, J
+Murray, who proposed--to use his own language--"the getting-up of a
+great joint-stock company, to buy up all the sawmills on the Ottawa!"
+
+Thereafter, Jack went to Quebec, where he was joined by Teddy O'Donel,
+with whom he found his way to the outskirt settlements of the far west.
+There, having purchased two horses and two rifles, he mounted his steed,
+and, followed by his man, galloped away into the prairie to seek his
+fortune.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Desolation, by R.M. Ballantyne
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