The Young Fur Traders Part 26

"`Baking again, Anderson?' said he in pa.s.sing. `You get soon through with a heavy cargo of bread just now.'

"`Yes, sir; many mouths to feed, sir,' replied the butler, proceeding with his work.

"The skipper sauntered on, and took the track which leads to the boat-house, where he stood for some time in meditation. Casting up his eyes, he saw Peterkin in the distance, looking as if he didn't very well know what to do.

"A sudden thought struck him. Pulling off his coat, he seized a mallet and a caulking-chisel, and began to belabour the side of a boat as if his life depended on it. All at once he stopped and stood up, blowing with the exertion.

"`Hollo, Peterkin!' he shouted, and waved his hand.

"Peterkin hastened towards him.

"`Well, sir,' said he, `do you wish to speak to me?'

"`Yes,' replied the skipper, scratching his head as if in great perplexity. `I wish you to do me a favour, Peterkin, but I don't know very well how to ask you.'

"`Oh, I shall be most happy,' said poor b.u.t.ter eagerly, `if I can be of any use to you.'

"`I don't doubt your willingness,' replied the other; `but then--the doctor, you see--the fact is, Peterkin, the doctor being called away to see a sick Indian, has entrusted me with a delicate piece of business-- rather a nasty piece of business, I may say--which I promised to do for him. You must know that the Surgical Society of London has written to him, begging, as a great favour, that he would, if possible, procure them the skull of a native. After much trouble he has succeeded in getting one, but is obliged to keep it a great secret, even from his fellow-clerks, lest it should get wind; for if the Indians heard of it they would be sure to kill him, and perhaps burn the fort too. Now I suppose you are aware that it is necessary to boil an Indian's head in order to get the flesh clean off the skull?'

"`Yes; I have heard something of that sort from the students at college, who say that boiling brings flesh more easily away from the bone. But I don't know much about it,' replied Peterkin.

"`Well,' continued the skipper, `the doctor, who is fond of experiments, wishes to try whether _baking_ won't do better than _boiling_, and ordered the oven to be heated for that purpose this morning; but being called suddenly away, as I have said, he begged me to put the head into it as soon as it was ready. I agreed, quite forgetting at the time that I had to get this precious boat ready for sea this very afternoon. Now the oven is prepared, and I dare not leave my work; indeed, I doubt whether I shall have it quite ready and taut after all, and there's the oven cooling; so, if you don't help me, I'm a lost man.'

"Having said this, the skipper looked as miserable as his jolly visage would permit, and rubbed his nose.

"`Oh, I'll be happy to do it for you, although it is not an agreeable job,' replied b.u.t.ter.

"`That's right--that's friendly now!' exclaimed the skipper, as if greatly relieved. `Give us your flipper, my lad;' and seizing Peterkin's hand, he wrung it affectionately. `Now, here is the key of the outhouse; do it as quickly as you can, and don't let any one see you. It's in a good cause, you know, but the results might be terrible if discovered.'

"So saying, the skipper fell to hammering the boat again with surprising vigour till b.u.t.ter was out of sight, and then resuming his coat, returned to the house.

"An hour after this, Anderson went to take his loaves out of the oven; but he had no sooner taken down the door than a rich odour of cooked meat greeted his nostrils. Uttering a deep growl, the butler shouted out, `Sprat!'

"Upon this, a very thin boy, with arms and legs like pipe stems, issued from the kitchen, and came timidly towards his master.

"`Didn't I tell you, you young blackguard, that the grouse-pie was to be kept for Sunday? and there you've gone and put it to fire to-day.'

"`The grouse-pie!' said the boy, in amazement.

"`Yes, the grouse-pie,' retorted the indignant butler; and seizing the urchin by the neck, he held his head down to the mouth of the oven.

"`Smell _that_, you villain! What did you mean by it, eh?'

"`Oh, murder!' shouted the boy, as with a violent effort he freed himself, and ran shrieking into the house.

"`Murder!' repeated Anderson in astonishment, while he stooped to look into the oven, where the first thing that met his gaze was a human head, whose ghastly visage and staring eyeb.a.l.l.s worked and moved about under the influence of the heat as if it were alive.

"With a yell that rang through the whole fort, the horrified butler rushed through the kitchen and out at the front door, where, as ill-luck would have it, Mr Rogan happened to be standing at the moment.

Pitching head first into the small of the old gentleman's back, he threw him off the platform and fell into his arms. Starting up in a moment, the governor dealt Anderson a cuff that sent him reeling towards the kitchen door again, on the steps of which he sat down, and began to sing out, `Oh, murder, murder! the oven, the oven!' and not another word, bad, good, or indifferent, could be got out of him for the next half-hour, as he swayed himself to and fro and wrung his hands.

"To make a long story short, Mr Rogan went himself to the oven, and fished out the head, along with the loaves, which were, of course, all spoiled."

"And what was the result?" inquired Harry.

"Oh, there was a long investigation, and the skipper got a blowing-up, and the doctor a warning to let Indians' skulls lie at peace in their graves for the future; and poor b.u.t.ter was sent to McKenzie's River as a punishment, for old Rogan could never be brought to believe that he hadn't been a willing tool in the skipper's hands; and Anderson lost his batch of bread and his oven, for it had to be pulled down and a new one built."

"Humph! and I've no doubt the governor read you a pretty stiff lecture on practical joking."

"He did," replied the accountant, laying aside his pipe, and drawing the green blanket over him, while Harry piled several large logs on the fire.

"Good-night," said the accountant.

"Good-night," replied his companions; and in a few minutes more they were sound asleep in their snowy camp, while the huge fire continued, during the greater part of the night, to cast its light on their slumbering forms.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

PTARMIGAN-HUNTING--HAMILTON'S SHOOTING POWERS SEVERELY TESTED--A SNOWSTORM.

At about four o'clock on the following morning, the sleepers were awakened by the cold, which had become very intense. The fire had burned down to a few embers, which merely emitted enough light to make darkness visible. Harry, being the most active of the party, was the first to bestir himself. Raising himself on his elbow, while his teeth chattered and his limbs trembled with cold, he cast a woebegone and excessively sleepy glance towards the place where the fire had been; then he scratched his head slowly; then he stared at the fire again; then he languidly glanced at Hamilton's sleeping visage; and then he yawned. The accountant observed all this; for although he appeared to be buried in the depths of slumber, he was wide awake in reality, and moreover intensely cold. The accountant, however, was sly--deep, as he would have said himself--and knew that Harry's active habits would induce him to rise, on awaking, and rekindle the fire,--an event which the accountant earnestly desired to see accomplished, but which he as earnestly resolved should not be performed by _him_. Indeed, it was with this end in view that he had given vent to the terrific snore which had aroused his young companion a little sooner than would have otherwise been the case.

"My eye," exclaimed Harry, in an undertone, "how precious cold it is!"

His eye making no reply to this remark, he arose, and going down on his hands and knees, began to coax the charcoal into a flame. By dint of severe blowing, he soon succeeded; and heaping on a quant.i.ty of small twigs, the fitful flame sprang up into a steady blaze. He then threw several heavy logs on the fire, and in a very short s.p.a.ce of time restored it almost to its original vigour.

"What an abominable row you are kicking up!" growled the accountant; "why, you would waken the seven sleepers. Oh! mending the fire," he added, in an altered tone; "ah! I'll excuse you, my boy, since that's what you're at."

The accountant hereupon got up, along with Hamilton, who was now also awake, and the three spread their hands over the bright fire, and revolved their bodies before it, until they imbibed a satisfactory amount of heat. They were much too sleepy to converse, however, and contented themselves with a very brief inquiry as to the state of Hamilton's heels, which elicited the sleepy reply, "They feel quite well, thank you." In a short time, having become agreeably warm, they gave a simultaneous yawn, and lying down again fell into a sleep, from which they did not awaken until the red winter sun shot its early rays over the arctic scenery.

Once more Harry sprang up, and let his hand fall heavily on Hamilton's shoulder. Thus rudely a.s.sailed, that youth also sprang up, giving a shout, at the same time, that brought the accountant to his feet in an instant; and so, as if by an electric spark, the sleepers were simultaneously roused into a state of wide-awake activity.

"How excessively hungry I feel! isn't it strange?" said Hamilton, as he a.s.sisted in rekindling the fire, while the accountant filled his pipe, and Harry stuffed the tea-kettle full of snow.

"Strange!" cried Harry, as he placed the kettle on the fire--"strange to be hungry after a five miles' walk and a night in the snow? I would rather say it was strange if you were _not_ hungry. Throw on that billet, like a good fellow, and spit those grouse, while I cut some pemmican and prepare the tea."

"How are the heels now, Hamilton?" asked the accountant, who divided his attention between his pipe and his snowshoes, the lines of which required to be re-adjusted.

"They appear to be as well as if nothing had happened to them," replied Hamilton. "I've been looking at them, and there is no mark whatever.

They do not even feel tender."

"Lucky for you, old boy, that they were taken in time, else you'd have had another story to tell."

"Do you mean to say that people's heels really freeze and fall off?"

inquired the other, with a look of incredulity.

"Soft, very soft, and green," murmured Harry, in a low voice, while he continued his work of adding fresh snow to the kettle as the process of melting reduced its bulk.

"I mean to say," replied the accountant, tapping the ashes out of his pipe, "that not only heels, but hands, feet, noses, and ears frequently freeze, and often fall off in this country, as you will find by sad experience if you don't look after yourself a little better than you have done hitherto."