The Gun-Brand Page 5

  CHAPTER V

  PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS

  At the mouth of the Slave River the outfit was transferred to twelvelarge freight canoes, each carrying three tons, and manned by sixlean-shouldered canoemen, in charge of one Louis LeFroy, Lapierre's bosscanoeman. Straight across the vast expanse of Great Slave Lake theyheaded, and skirting the shore of the north arm, upon the evening of thesecond day, entered the Yellow Knife River.

  The site selected by Pierre Lapierre for Chloe Elliston's school was, inpoint of location, as the quarter-breed had said, an excellent one. Upona level plateau at the top of the high bank that slants steeply to thewater of the Yellow Knife River, a short distance above its mouth,Lapierre set the canoemen to cutting the timber and brush from a widearea. The girl had come into the North fully prepared for a longsojourn, and in her thirty-odd tons of outfit were found all toolsnecessary for the clearing of land and the erection of buildings.Brushwood and trees fell before the axes of the half-breeds and Indians,who worked in a sort of frenzy under the lashing drive of Lapierre'stongue; and the night skies glowed red in the flare of the flames wherethe brush and tree-tops burned in the clearing.

  Two days later a rectangular clearing, three hundred by five hundredfeet, was completed, and early in the morning of the third day Chloestood beside Lapierre and looked over the cleared oblong with its pilesof smoking grey ashes, and its groups of logs that lay ready to be rolledinto place to form the walls of her buildings.

  Lapierre seemed ill at ease. Immediately upon the arrival of the outfithe had dispatched two of his own Indians northward to spy upon themovements of MacNair, for the man made no secret of his desire to be wellupon his way before the trader should learn of the building of the forton the river.

  It had been Chloe's idea to lay out her "village," as she called it, upona rather elaborate scheme, the plans for which had been drawn by anarchitect whose clients' tastes ran to million-dollar "summer cottages"at Seashore-by-the-Sea.

  First, there was to be the school itself, an ornate building of crossedrafters and overhanging eaves. Then the dormitories, two long, parallelbuildings with halls, individual rooms, and baths--one for the women andone for men--the two to be connected by a common dining-hall in such amanner as to form three sides of a hollow square. Connected to thedining-hall was to be a commodious kitchen, and back of that a fullyequipped carpenter-shop and a laundry.

  There were also to be a trading-post, where the Indians could purchasesupplies at cost; a six-room cottage for the accommodation of Big Lena,Miss Penny, and Chloe; and numerous three-room cabins for the housing ofwhole families of Indians, which the girl fondly pictured as flocking infrom the wilderness to have the errors of their heathenish religionpointed out to them upon a brand-new blackboard, and the discomforts oftheir nomadic lives assuaged by an introduction to collapsible bath-tubsand the multiplication table. For hers was to be a mission as well as aschool. Truly the souls north of sixty were destined to owe her much.For they borrow cheerfully, and repay--never.

  So much for Chloe Elliston's plan. Lapierre, however, had his owneminently more practical, if less Utopian, ideas concerning the erectionof a trading-post; for in the quarter-breed's mind the planting of anindependent trading-post upon the very threshold of MacNair's wildernessempire was of far greater importance than the establishment of a school,or mission, or any other institution--especially when the post was onewhich he himself had set about to control. The man's eyes gleamed andthe thin lips smiled as his glance rested momentarily upon the figure ofthe girl--the unwitting, and therefore the more powerful, weapon thatchance had placed in his hands in his battle against MacNair.

  His idea of a post was simplicity itself: One long, log trading-roomwith an ell for a storehouse, and a room--two at the most--in the rearfor the accommodation of the three women. The whole to be erected in thecentre of the clearing, and surrounded by a fifteen-foot log stockade.

  Boldly he broached his plan.

  "But this is _not_ a trading-post!" objected the girl. "The store is aside issue and is to be conducted merely to permit those who takeadvantage of my school to obtain the necessities of life at a fair andreasonable price."

  "Your words were well chosen, Miss Elliston. For if you begin toundersell the H.B.C., and more especially the independents, every Indianin the North will proceed to 'take advantage' of your school and of youalso."

  "But they are being robbed!"

  Lapierre smiled. "They do not know it; they are used to it. Let me warnyou that to tamper with existing trade schedules, except by oneexperienced in the commerce of the North, is to invite disaster. Youwill lose money!"

  "But you told me that you yourself gave the Indians better bargains thaneither the Hudson Bay Company or MacNair."

  "I know the North! And you may be assured the concessions are morenominal than real."

  "Very well, then," flashed the girl. "My concessions will be more realthan nominal, and of that you may be assured. If my store pays expenses,well and good!" And by the tone of the girl's voice, and the slight,unconscious out-thrust of her chin, Pierre Lapierre knew that the timewas unpropitious for a further discussion of trade principles.

  Chloe was speaking again: "But to return to the buildings----"

  Lapierre interrupted her, speaking earnestly: "My dear Miss Elliston,consider the circumstances, the limitations." He tapped lightly the rollof blue-prints the girl held in her hand. "Those plans were made by aman who had not the slightest knowledge of conditions as they exist here."

  "The buildings are to be very simple."

  "Undoubtedly. But simplicity is relative. A building that would beconsidered simplicity itself in the States, might well be intricatebeyond the possibility of construction here in the wilderness. Do yourealize that among our men is not one who can read a blue-print, or hasever seen one? Do you realize that to erect buildings in accordance withthese plans would require a force of skilled mechanics under thesupervision of a master builder? And do you realize that time is a mostimportant factor in our present undertaking? Who can tell at what momentBrute MacNair may swoop down, upon us like Attila of old, and strike afatal blow to our little outpost of civilization? And if he finds _me_here--" His voice trailed into silence and his eyes swept gloomily thenorthern reach of the river.

  Chloe appeared unimpressed. "I hardly think he will resort to violence.There is the law--even here in the wilderness. Slow to act, perhaps,because of the inaccessibility of the wild country; but once itsmachinery is in motion, as unbending and as indomitable as justiceitself. You see, I have read of your Mounted Police."

  "The Mounted!" Lapierre laughed. "Yes--I see you have _read_ of them!Had you derived your information in a more direct manner--had you livedamong them--if you _knew_ them--your childlike trust in them would seemas absurd, perhaps, as it does to me!"

  "What do you mean?" cried the girl, regarding the quarter-breed with asearching glance. "That the men of the Mounted are--that they maybe--influenced?"

  Again Lapierre laughed--harshly. "Just that, Miss Elliston! Theyare--crooked. They may be influenced!"

  "I cannot believe that!"

  "You will--later."

  "You mean that MacNair has----"

  The man interrupted with a wave of his hand. "What I have told you ofMacNair is the truth. I shall prove this to your own satisfaction, atthe proper time. Until then, I ask you to believe me. Admitting, then,that I have spoken the truth, do you suppose for an instant that thesefacts are not known to the Mounted? If not, then the officers areinefficient fools. If they are known, why don't the Mounted remedymatters? Because MacNair is rich! Because he buys them, body and soul!Because he owns them, like he owns the Indians! That's why!

  "Just stop and consider what is ahead of a dollar-a-day policeman. Whenhis five-year term of enlistment has expired, he has his choice ofenlisting for another term, or making his living some other way. At theend of the five years he has learned to hate the service w
ith a hatredthat is soul-searing. It is the hardest, strictest, most exacting, andmost ill-paid service in the world; and the five years of the man'senlistment have practically rendered him unfit for earning a living.

  "He has lived in the wild country. He knows the wild country. Andcivilization, with its rapid advance, has left him five years behind thetimes. Our ex-man of the Mounted is fit for only the commonest labour.And, because there are almost no employers in the North, he cannot turnhis knowledge of the wilds to profitable account, unless he turnssmuggler, whiskey-runner, or fur-poisoner. The men know this.Therefore, when an officer whose patrol takes him into the far 'backblocks' is approached by a man like MacNair, with his pockets bulgingwith gold, what report goes down to Regina, and on to Ottawa?

  "Yes, Miss Elliston, in the Northland there is law. But the law is afundamental law--the primitive law of savage might. The strong devourthe weak. Only the fit survive--survive to be ruled, to be trampled, tobe _owned_ by the strongest. And the law is the measure of might!Primal instincts--pristine passions--primordial brutishness permeate thewhole North--rule it.

  "The wolf and savage _carcajo_ drag down the hunger-weakened caribou andthe deer, and rip the warm, red flesh from their bones before their eyeshave glazed. And, in turn, the wolf and the _carcajo_, the unoffendingbeaver and musquash, the mink, the fisher, the fox, and the otter aretrapped by savage man and the pelts ripped from their twitching bodieswhile life and sensibility remain. They are harder to skin when cold.And with the thermometer at forty or sixty below zero, the little bodieschill almost instantly if mercifully killed--therefore, they are notkilled, but flayed alive and their bleeding bodies tossed upon the snow.They die quickly--then. But--they have lived through the skinning! Andthat is the North!"

  Chloe Elliston shuddered and drew away in horror. "Is--is thispossible?" she faltered. "Do they----"

  "They do. The fur business is not a pretty business, Miss Elliston. Butneither is the North pretty--nor are its inhabitants. But the traffic infur is inherently the business of the North--and its history is writtenin blood--the blood and the suffering of thousands of men and millions ofanimals. But the profits are great. Fashion has decreed that My Ladyshall be swathed in fur--therefore, men go mad and die in the barrens,and the quivering red bodies of small animals bleed, and curl up, andstiffen upon the hard crust of the snow! No, the North is not gentle,Miss Elliston----"

  "Don't! Don't!" faltered the girl. "It is all too--too horrible--toosickeningly brutal--too--too unbelievable!" She covered her eyes withher hand.

  Lapierre answered, dryly. "Yes. The North is that way. It has alwaysbeen so--and it always will----"

  Chloe's hand dropped from her eyes and, she faced him in a sudden burstof passion. Her sensitive lips quivered and her eyes narrowed to therapier-blade eyes that were the eyes of Tiger Elliston. She tore theroll of blue-prints to bits and ground them into the mould with the heelof her boot.

  "_It will not!_" Her voice cut sharply, and hard. "What do you know ofwhat the North _will_ be? You know it only as it has been--as it is,perhaps. But, of its future you know nothing. I tell you the North willchange! It is a hard land--cruel--elemental--raw! But it is _big_!And, when it awakens, its very bigness, the virile force and strength ofit, will turn against its savagery, its cruelty, its brutishness; andabove all other lands it will stand for the protection of the weak andfor the right of things to live!"

  The quarter-breed gazed into her face with a look of undisguisedadmiration. "Ah, Miss Elliston, you are beautiful, now--beautifulalways--but, at this moment--radiant--divine--" Chloe seemed not to hearhim.

  "And that is to be _my_ work--to awaken the North! To bring to itspeople the comforts--the advantages of civilization!"

  "The North is too big for you, Miss Elliston. It is too big for _men_.Pardon, but it is not a woman's land."

  The girl's eyes flashed. "Suppose we leave sex out of it, Mr. Lapierre.They said of my grandfather that 'the harder they fought him, the betterhe liked 'em,' and that 'he never knew when he was licked.' Maybe thatis the reason he never was licked, but lived to carry civilization into aland that was a thousand years deeper in savagery than this land is. Andtoday civilization--education--Christianity exist where seventy-fiveyears ago the chance visitor was tortured first and eaten afterward."

  Lapierre shrugged. "It is useless to argue. I am in sympathy with yourundertaking. I admire your courage, and the high ideals of your mission.But, permit me to remind you that your grandfather, whoever he was, was_not_ a woman. Also, that here, in the North, Christianity and educationhave failed to civilize--the educated ones and the converts are worsethan the others."

  The girl's eyes darkened and the man noticed the peculiar out-thrust ofthe chin. He hastened to change the subject.

  "I am glad you have abandoned those plans. They were useless. May I nowproceed with the building?"

  Chloe smiled. "Yes," she answered, "by all means. But, as this is to be_my_ undertaking, I think I shall have it _my_ way. Build the storefirst, if you please----"

  "And the stockade?"

  "There will be no stockade."

  "No stockade! Are you crazy? If MacNair----"

  "I will attend to MacNair, Mr. Lapierre."

  "Do you imagine MacNair will stand quietly by and allow you to build atrading-post here on the Yellow Knife? Do you think he will listen toour explanation that this is a school and that the store is merely aplaything? I tell you he will countenance neither the school nor thepost. Education for the natives is the last thing MacNair will standfor."

  "As I told you, I will attend to MacNair. My people will not be armed.The stockade would be silly."

  Lapierre smiled; drew closer, and dropped his voice to a confidentialwhisper. "I can put one hundred rifles and ten thousand cartridges inthe hands of your people in ten days' time."

  "Thank you, Mr. Lapierre. I don't need your guns."

  The man made a gesture of impatience. "If you choose to ignore MacNair,you must, at least, be prepared to handle the Indians who will crowd yourcounter like wolves when they hear you are underselling the H.B.C. Whenyou explain that only those who are members of your school may trade atyour post, you will be swamped with enrolments. You cannot teach thewhole North.

  "Those that you will be forced to turn away--what will they do? Theywill not understand. Instead of returning to their teepees, their nets,and their traplines, they will hang about your post, growing gaunter andhungrier with the passing of the days. And the hunger that gnaws attheir bellies will arouse the latent lawlessness of their hearts, andthen--if MacNair has not already struck, he will strike then. ForMacNair knows Indians and the workings of the Indian mind. He knows howthe sullen hatred of their souls may be fanned into a mighty flame. HisIndians will circulate among the hungry horde, and the banks of theYellow Knife will be swept bare. MacNair will have struck. And withsuch consummate skill will his hand be disguised, that not the faintestbreath of suspicion will point toward himself."

  "I shall sell to all alike, while my goods last, whether they are membersof my school or not----"

  "That will be even worse than----"

  "It seems you always think of the worst thing that could possiblyhappen," smiled the girl.

  "'To fear the worst, oft cures the worst,'" quoted Lapierre.

  "'Don't cross a bridge 'til you get to it' is not so classic, perhaps,but it saves a lot of needless worry."

  "'Foresight is better than hindsight' is equally unclassic, andinfinitely better generalship. Bridges crossed at the last moment aregenerally crossed from the wrong end, I have noticed." The man leanedtoward her and looked straight into her eyes. "Oh, Miss Elliston--can'tyou see--I am thinking of your welfare--of your safety; I have known youbut a short time, as acquaintance is reckoned, but already you havebecome more to me than----"

  Chloe interrupted him with a gesture.

  "Don't--please--I----"

  Lapierre ignored
the protest, and, seizing her hand in both his own,spoke rapidly. "I will say it! I have known it from the moment of ourfirst meeting. I love you! And I shall win you--and together wewill----"

  "Oh, don't--don't--not--now--please!"

  The man bowed and released the hand. "I can wait," he said gravely."But please--for your own good--take my advice. I know the North. I wasborn in the North, and am of the North. I have sought only to help you.Why do you refuse to profit by my experience? Must you endure what Ihave endured to learn what I offer freely to tell you? I shudder tothink of It. The knowledge gleaned by experience may be the mostlasting, but it is dearly purchased, and at a great loss--always." Theman's voice was very earnest, and Chloe detected a note of mild reproach.She hastened to reply.

  "I _have_ profited by your advice--have learned much from what you havetold me. I am under obligation to you. I appreciate your interestin--in my work, and am indeed grateful for what you have done to furtherit. But there are some things, I suppose, one _must_ learn byexperience. I may be silly and headstrong. I may be wrong. But I standready to pay the price. The loss will be mine. See!" she criedexcitedly, "they are rolling up the logs for the store."

  "Yes," answered the man gravely, "I bow to your wishes in the matter ofyour buildings. If you refuse to build a stockade we may erect a fewmore buildings--but as few as you can possibly manage with, MissElliston. I must hasten southward."

  Chloe studied for some moments. "The store"--she checked them off uponher fingers--"the schoolhouse, two bunkhouses, we can leave off thebathrooms, the river and the lake will serve until winter."

  Lapierre nodded, and the girl continued. "We can do without the laundryand the carpenter-shop, and the individual cabins. The Indians can setup their teepees in the clearing, and build the cabins and the otherbuildings later. But I _would_ like a little cottage for myself, andMiss Penny, and Lena. We _could_ make three rooms do. Can we have threerooms?"

  Lapierre bowed low. "It shall be as you say," he replied. "And now, ifyou will excuse me, I shall see to it that these _canaille_ work. LeFroythey do not fear."

  He turned to go, and at that moment Chloe Elliston saw a look of terrorflash into his eyes. Saw his fingers clutch and grope uncertainly at thegay scarf at his throat. Saw the muscles of his face work painfully.Saw his colour fade from rich tan to sickly yellow. An inarticulate,gurgling sound escaped his lips, and his eyes stared in horror toward apoint beyond and behind her.

  She turned swiftly and gazed into the face of a man who had approachedunnoticed from the direction of the river, and stood a few paces distantwith his eyes fixed upon her. As their glances met the man's gazecontinued unflinching, and the soft-brimmed Stetson remained on his head.Her slender fingers clenched into her palms and, unconsciously, her chinthrust forward--for she knew intuitively that the man was "Brute" MacNair.