The Border Boys Along the St. Lawrence Page 7

  CHAPTER VI. HOMEWARD BOUND.

  The next day the boys, enriched by many postcards and souvenirs, set outon their return trip. They voyaged along under the high banks of the St.Lawrence, from Cape Diamond to Cape Rouge, drinking in every bit of thestriking scenery with interest.

  About a mile above Wolfe's Cove they passed the historic little villageof Sillery, where, in the stormy days of the Christian conquest ofCanada, the Jesuits called about them the Hurons and preached to them ina language of which the wondering Indians, listening with stoicalpatience, understood not a word.

  In later years there came a dispute as to whether the land about Sillerybelonged to the Jesuits or the Hurons. The British decided in favor ofthe Jesuits, but offered the Hurons other lands. These they refused, andthe red men soon melted away into the forests to dwindle ultimately toextinction.

  About midway between Quebec and Montreal the boys stopped at the town ofThree Rivers, so called from the fact of its being on the triplejunction of the St. Maurice River with the St. Lawrence. Three Riverswas an important early trading post, being the head of tide water on theSt. Lawrence. Champlain erected a fort there on the site of a primitivedefense built by the Algonquins and destroyed by the Iroquois. It wasfrom here, too, so Ralph was able to inform his chums, that FatherBrebeuf set forth with a party of Hurons to preach in the farthestwilderness.

  The good father, according to history, was as much of a fighting man asa preacher. He taught the Indians how to build fortifications and topalisade squares with flanking towers, which were a vast improvement ontheir round stockades.

  The boys stopped at a dock adjoining a small farmhouse, not far fromThree Rivers, to buy some fresh provisions, for Persimmons' experimentsin cookery had proved disastrous to their larder.

  The place was kept by a descendant of the old "_habitants_" of thecountry, a man as brown as a berry, with high, Indian-like cheek bonesand beady black eyes. His house must have stood there for hundreds ofyears. It was of rough, whitewashed stone, and had a steep roof, with ahuge chimney at one end.

  While they were waiting for the fresh milk and the eggs that the_habitant_ promised to produce promptly, they gazed about the livingroom into which they had been ushered.

  Its rough walls were whitewashed and adorned with crude pictures,chiefly of religious subjects. Ropes of onions, hams and dried fruithung from the roof beams. In a corner, snowshoes and sleds and firearmstold a mute story of the severity of the Canadian winter. It was all asit might have been in the days of the earliest settler.

  But, if the people were primitive, they had a clear idea of how tocharge for their viands! There was no help for it but to pay the bill,while the cunning little eyes of the _habitant_ surveyed the roll fromwhich Ralph peeled the required amount. He was plainly wishing that hehad charged twice as much, particularly when he saw the fine boat theboys had.

  The return trip through the canals with occasional stretches of clearwater was monotonous. Nothing occurred out of the ordinary. But thedelay in the canals and a slight overheating of the machinery resultedin its being dark by the time they neared their island.

  "Well, we've had a grand trip, but I'm glad to be back again," declaredRalph, as they came into familiar waters once more.

  "So am I," agreed Hardware. "I'll be glad to get a decent meal again."

  He glanced in an aggravating way at Persimmons, who had been the ship'scook and bottle washer, as well as engineer at times, and was nowgetting a breath of fresh air above deck. He ducked just in time toavoid a well-aimed piece of oily waste which Persimmons, justlyindignant, flung at him.

  "Next cruise we take," declared the disgruntled lad, "you can take thepots and pans, Hardware. And I'll bet that anything you make will tastelike your name!"

  "I'd rather it did than like an unripe persimmon!" declared Hardware.Then Ralph had to exercise his good offices to make peace between thebelligerents. But soon more important matters occupied their minds.

  The strange craft that they had almost forgotten on their cruise ofsight-seeing came back now with vividness to their recollections. Thesurprising appearance and equally startling disappearance of themysterious motor boat were recalled as they threaded home waters again.As the _River Swallow_ moved through the darkness with her electric sideand bow lights glowing like jewels, each boy was busy with speculationsconcerning it.

  Their reveries were cut short by a sudden shout which appeared to comefrom right under the bow.

  "What was that?" exclaimed Hardware in a startled tone. He was alone onthe bridge with Ralph. Persimmons was below, having returned to hisengines.

  "Jiggered if I know! Somebody shouted, though. It was right under thebow."

  "That's what I thought. Hark, there it is again!"

  Both boys strained their ears. Unmistakably a hail had come out of thedarkness.

  "Clap on the search-light quick, Hardware," ordered Ralph.

  The boy snapped the light on. It blazed out fan-like in the night,cutting a broad circle of light that revealed the whole river asHardware swept it from side to side. Suddenly he gave a shout andpointed.

  Embraced in the circle of light, and right under their bow almost, was afrail boat. In it were seated two Indians. Their craft was piled highwith baskets which they had been trying to sell among the islands.

  The boys knew at once that the red men came from a reservation down theriver and belonged to the St. Regis tribe.

  "They're coming right down on us!" cried Ralph.

  "What's the matter with them?" cried Harry. "I see," he addedimmediately, "they've broken their paddle. See, they are waving thestump of it in the air! Steer out, Ralph! Steer out, or you'll run themdown!"

  "I--I can't," exclaimed Ralph in an agitated voice.

  "Can't! Why not?"

  "Don't you see where we are? There are rocks on each side. If I turn outwe'll be ripped like an egg shell on them."

  "Gracious, that's so!" And then Hardware noticed for the first time thatthey were running through a narrow channel between two islands.