"He had no time to think, hardly to move."—Page 280
Jack expected that Pawnee would be able to run away from the other horses, and he made up his mind that he would try for the old bear; but he found that the horse that Handsome Face was riding, was as swift as Pawnee, and the two kept along about even, both trying to overtake the mother. It was a race as well as a chase. At first the way was down hill and there, they did not in the least gain on the bear, but in a moment she began to climb the hill, and then they closed up on her rapidly. Handsome Face had his bow strung and a sheaf of arrows in his hand, and was making ready to let fly. It was impossible for Jack to shoot, as Handsome Face was directly between him and the bear, the boys riding nearly side by side, and only a few feet apart. All the while they were drawing up close to the bear; rather closer, as Jack thought, than was safe; but he had no time to think about this. Suddenly, Handsome Face drew an arrow to the head and shot, and almost as he did so, the bear whirled and charged directly toward the two boys. Handsome Face's horse turned at right angles, to rush away, and striking Pawnee with his chest just behind the shoulders, knocked him off his feet, so that he fell flat on his side. As the horse went down, Jack jumped, alighting on his feet, but staggering three or four steps before he recovered his balance. He had not let go his gun. He turned to look to see where the bear was, and as he did so, he saw, almost upon him, a huge mass of hair and gleaming white teeth, flying toward him. He had no time to think, hardly to move. He threw up his gun, fired, tried to jump back out of the way, but his heel caught; something struck him a violent blow, and he knew nothing more.
All this time, Joe, whose horse was slower, had fallen behind the others, whipping and kicking with his heels, trying to keep up. The charge of the bear at right angles to her course, had enabled him to gain quite a little bit, so that when the beast threw itself on Jack, he was but a few yards off. He flung himself to the ground, and rushing up close to the side of the bear, shot arrow after arrow into its heart, until all his shafts were gone. It did not leave its prey, and throwing away his bow, he drew his knife, sprang upon the bear and thrust the blade again and again into its body behind the shoulder. Still it did not move; there was no response, not even a quiver of the muscle, and suddenly Joe realised that the bear was dead. He sprang to its head and catching the beast by its great ears, dragged its head off Jack's face and breast and called aloud to Handsome Face, who by this time had returned, "Hurry, hurry, let us help him if we can." The boys managed to drag the bear off Jack, who presented a shocking spectacle. His head, breast and shoulders were covered with blood, but he was not quite dead, for they could see the breath from his nostrils bubbling through the blood. Pulling him up a little way from the bear, they began to feel of him to see whether he was hurt, but in a minute they both broke down. Joe cried bitterly, saying, "Oh! My friend, my friend. I have lost my friend," while Handsome Face began to sing a very melancholy song. It was a sad time for both boys.
Suddenly, as they were crying, Jack sat up and said, "What's the matter? Oh! I know." Both Indian boys sprang to their feet and stared at him, for a moment, and then Joe, throwing himself on his knees behind him, put his arms around Jack, gave him a great hug. "Oh!" he said, "you're not dead, I thought you were dead. Are you hurt? Did the bear strike you?"
"No," said Jack, "I guess there's nothing the matter with me, except that I feel stupid and my head aches."
Joe and Handsome Face now felt Jack all over and he seemed to be unhurt anywhere except that on the back of his head, there was a great bruise which was bleeding a little. The blood, on his head and breast, was that of the bear, and when they went to the body and looked at it, they found that by the merest accident in his shooting, Jack's life had been saved. The ball had struck the bear in the end of the nose and had passed up through the air passages into the brain, causing instant death. The animal had been so close to Jack when he shot, that death did not stop her advance, and the whole weight of her body thrown against Jack had knocked him violently to the ground; his head had struck a small stone and the blow had cut and stunned him. Except for a headache, he was as well as he had ever been.
Jack, for a little while, sat on the ground and nursed his aching head, while Handsome Face and Joe worked at the bear, taking off the skin. The two were very merry, and chattered and sang. Joe, in the exuberance of his spirits, made fun of Jack for having been thrown off his horse and knocked down by the bear, and altogether, was a very different Joe from the one who had been sobbing on the hillside only a few minutes before.
Before long the two boys had the bear skinned, and loaded on one of the horses. Then Handsome Face and Joe went back to the ridge where they had left the deer, put them on the horses and returning to Jack, the party started for the village. No one seemed to know what had become of the two bear cubs. During the excitement that attended the chase of the mother, the little fellows had disappeared. Handsome Face said that Pawnee had no sooner struck the ground than he had bounded to his feet again and had done this so quickly that he had got out of the bear's way.
Just as they reached the prairie, they heard shouts behind them, and looking back, saw Bull Calf and The Mink galloping toward them, each with a load behind him on his horse. When they came up, it was seen that Bull Calf had a young bear and The Mink a deer and when their stories had been told by both parties, it was learned that this little bear had run over the ridge and down toward the Indian boys who were coming down the mountain, and they had chased it and killed it with their arrows. Certainly, this had been a lucky hunt; four deer and two bears for five boys!
At a little brook, they crossed on their homeward way, Jack dismounted and washed from himself as much blood of the bear as he could, and after that felt much more comfortable, so that before camp was reached, though his head still ached badly, he felt quite like himself again.
That night, in the lodge, when he told Hugh the story of the day, the old man found fault with him for carelessness and bad judgment.
"You hadn't never ought to ride close beside any man that's trying to kill on horse-back. If it's buffalo or bear, it's all the same. If he has to turn off quick, he'll either ride into you or right ahead of you and get in your way. Besides that, you can't shoot at anything if a man is between you and the game, and yet you're riding along side of him with a loaded gun, likely as not pointing right at him, and if you're anyway careless, you're likely to pull it off and maybe kill him. There ain't no game that it's worth taking them risks for. Just as soon as you found that your horse was not good enough to pass the boy's, you ought to have fell behind and waited; you might know that that bear wouldn't be killed by an arrow, and that your chance would come. Of course, there have been times when bears have been killed by arrows, old Pis'kun, here, killed a big grizzly once that way, but a thing like that don't happen once in a dog's age; that's one reason why Indians are so afraid of bears.
"In the old times, when they had nothing but arrows, they couldn't kill bears at all, and lots of men that tried it got killed off. It's only since the Indians got some good guns, that they have killed any bears to amount to anything."
"Well, Hugh, I see now, since you explained it to me, that I was pretty stupid, but I didn't think about any of these things," said Jack.
"No, I don't reckon you did. You are a boy of course, and boys have a kind of habit of not thinking, but just running in and doing things, and not figuring on what may happen afterward. I'm mighty glad I wasn't with you, for I reckon if I had been, I'd a been scared a plenty."
"Well, but then, if you had been with us I guess it wouldn't have happened. You'd probably have called out to me and I'd have likely done what you said."
"Well, yes, maybe so. I'll say this for you," he went on, "that you've got a lot more sense than most boys I've seen."
"I ought to be learning something with all the things you tell me, and all the different kinds of trouble I keep getting into all the time."
"Well, you won't have much chance to get into any more troubles, because, now we are going to move back to the Marias, and then you and me, and maybe Joe will go into Benton and tend to our little business there, and then go down the river."
"Well," said Jack, "I'm mighty sorry to have the summer ended; I never had such a good time in my life. I thought last year, when I went back, that I never could have as good a time again, but this is better."
The slow return of the village to the Marias River, and their journey along it to the camp, was uneventful. Hugh had let it be known among his friends, that on reaching this camp he and Jack would leave them, and the evening before this took place, a great feast was given by the head chief, Iron Shirt, to which a considerable number of the principal men of the village were asked. Out of compliment to Jack, Joe and Handsome Face were invited, and it was between them that he sat on the right of the chief on this great occasion. The speeches made were many, and in each one of them were friendly allusions to the two white men, who for some months past had dwelt in the camp. During the smoking of the last pipe, Hugh stood on his feet and made a speech in Piegan, in which he acknowledged all the kindness that they had received. Then, as they had previously arranged, the three boys got up and went about the circle, putting down before each one of the guests a package containing some present, which should be a slight memorial of their visit.
The making up of these bundles had occupied Joe and Jack for two evenings, and they contained about all the trade goods that they had brought from the South, so that when the bundles had been prepared, all the red cloth, the beads, the tobacco and the handkerchiefs were gone, and of all the property that they had brought into the camp, there remained only a little food.
The next morning, long before they were up, presents from different people in the camp began to arrive at the lodge. There were great piles of buffalo robes, beautiful moccasins, shirts ornamented with beads or porcupine quills; skins and furs of one sort and another. More, as Hugh said, than they could pack on their horses. However, they made up their bundles and by borrowing a couple of pack horses from John Monroe, managed to load all their possessions, and set out for Benton. The flour sack, which contained the gold, was wrapped in a bear skin and placed on the bucking dun, under a great pile of robes.
Jack had arrayed himself in a suit of new clothing throughout. A beautiful shirt of antelope skin, heavily fringed and ornamented with quills, buckskin trousers, bead worked, and a pair of handsomely ornamented buckskin moccasins, with parfleche soles. About his hat was a strip of otter fur. His knife sheath was a large one of Indian make, studded with bright brass headed nails, and from a buttonhole of his shirt hung the gold powder charger by a buckskin string.
They started late, and it was night when they reached Fort Benton. However, Hugh managed to find his friend who owned the stable, and they put their possessions in it, their horses into the corral, and slept on the fragrant hay. At daylight next morning they were up, and after a time had breakfast. Hugh inquired when the bank would be open, and learned that this would not be for three or four hours yet. He told the boys, therefore, to go out and wander about the town if they wanted to, and said that he would stay with their property in the stable, until the time came to go to the bank with the gold.
Joe's childhood having been spent in Benton, he was a good guide for the town; yet concerning the old fort and the interior of the trading posts, he knew little or nothing. For some time they wandered through the streets and down along the river bank, and at length turned about to return to the stable. As they were passing along the street, Jack stopped before the window of a saloon to look at a mountain sheep's head with immense horns, and after he had looked at it for a while, and spoken with Joe of its great size, he turned to walk away, and as he did so, found himself standing face to face with a very tall man, whose long white beard reached nearly to his waist. The stranger was not only very tall, but very broad as well; but seemed thin, almost to emaciation, yet gave one the idea of a person possessing great strength. He was neatly dressed in buckskin, which, though not new, was clean and in good condition, and was without any ornament of beads or quill work. As Jack stepped aside to avoid the old man, he spoke to him in a low, pleasant voice, and said: "The head is large, my friend, is it not?"
"Yes, sir," said Jack, "it's immense. I never saw anything so big, but then I haven't killed many sheep, in fact, I have only seen a very few."
"You are young," said the stranger. "You have not lived long enough to see many things. Do you belong in this country?"
"No," said Jack, "I come from back in the States. I am just out here for a little while, and have been living this summer with the Indians up north."
"You are along way from home. How do you come to be here?" said the man. "Young boys do not usually travel that great distance alone."
"Oh," said Jack, "I came with a friend, Mr. Hugh Johnson, maybe you've heard of him. He's been a long time in the country, more than forty years." The man seemed to ponder.
"Many years ago I knew a man so called; those were in the trapping days. We used to call him then, Casse-tête, because, once with a stone, he smashed the head of a wounded cow that was charging him. He had a strong arm and good luck." Jack was interested, and wondered if it were Hugh who had done this. He would have liked to ask more questions, but by the clock in the saloon, he saw that it was time to meet Hugh, and he thought, perhaps, that he could find this old man again, later, and talk to him, so he took off his hat politely and said good morning, and started to go on. But as he moved, the old man touched him on the shoulder and said: "Wait, friend; you have there," pointing to Jack's breast, "property that I lost long ago. Where did you get it? If you look at it, you will find scratched in the metal, my initials, 'B. L.'"
For a moment, Jack was almost dumb with astonishment, and then he said: "Are you Baptiste Lajeunesse?"
"That is my name," said the old man, "where have you heard it?"
"Oh, Mr. Lajeunesse, wait until we find Hugh, then we must have a long talk with you. Were you chased by Indians once, long ago south of the Bear Paw Mountains? And did you lose a mule there?"
The old man smiled rather sadly, and said: "Truly, my son, I was chased there, and I did lose a mule and many other valuable things which I have never been able to find. But one of them I see now on your breast."
Jack quickly untied the powder charger and offered it to Baptiste who waved it away. Then Jack asked him: "Where can we find you in an hour or two? We will come back here with Hugh, I'm almost sure that he is the man that you call Casse-tête."
"I'll be near here all the day," said Baptiste, "and if I'm not in sight, the man in the saloon can tell you where I have gone." Without a word more, Jack and Joe started on a run toward the stable.
When they reached the stable, there was no one there, but a man loitering in the street near by, told them that he had seen "their partner" going up the street a little while before, with a sack of flour on his shoulder. At once, Joe led the way to the bank nearby, and entering it, they could see, behind the counter, Hugh and another man, in earnest conversation. As soon as Hugh saw them he introduced them to Mr. Finley, the manager of the bank, as his two partners. Hugh had already taken out the gold. It had been examined and weighed, and three drafts, each for $2,520.00 were now being made out, one to the order of each of the three.
Hugh told Jack that a few miles below the town, there was a steam-boat loading, on which they could get passage for Bismarck, and that he had made arrangements to have all their baggage hauled down to it.
"I reckon, we'll leave all the horses, except maybe Pawnee and your new horse, up here in charge of Joe. We can trust him to look after them carefully, and I reckon it's more than likely, that you may come back here again next season; and if you do, it will be a lot shorter for you to come direct and find your horses here, rather than to go to the ranch and have to ride up across country. That takes a lot of time.
"Of course, if you want to, you can leave all the horses here, we won't need them going down. And now, I reckon," he added, "we'll go out and buy some things. We'll stop in again to shake hands with you, Mr. Finley, before we quit the town."
They were scarcely outside the door, when Jack, who in his excitement, had hardly been able to keep quiet, exclaimed, "Oh! Hugh, we've found Baptiste Lajeunesse."
"Sho," said Hugh, "you don't mean it."
"Yes we have. He saw the powder charger and before looking at it, said it was his and that he had lost it a long time, and that it had his initials on it. He had not told us what his name was, and I asked if he was Baptiste Lajeunesse, and he said yes. Let's go and see him and find out all about what happened when he lost the powder charger; and oh! Hugh," he said, his face falling, "suppose that gold belongs to him."
"Well, son," said Hugh, "if it's Bat, and he lost the powder charger and he lost the gold too, we are all just as poor as we were before you found it."
"Oh!" said Jack, "won't that be a shame, when we have been thinking that we were all so rich, and when Joe needs so many things, and you and me too, Hugh."
"Well," said Hugh, with a comical look of disappointment on his face, "I guess we all think we need lots of things that we haven't got, but somehow or other, if we can't have 'em, we manage to just live along in about the same way, and I don't know as it makes much difference, but I would like to see Joe with a good gun and I reckon we'll have to try to get him one somehow, whether we have the gold or not."
It was but a short walk to the place where Jack had left the stranger, and in a few moments they saw him sitting in front of the door. Hugh stopped in front of him, looked at him closely and said: "Well, Bat, how are you?"
"All right Casse-tête. And you?"
"It's a long time since you lost your charger, friend," said Hugh.
"Ah, yes," said Baptiste, "I never shall have another one as good. The one you saw me make and that the boy has on his shirt, was good for nothing. I have had no luck since I lost the old one. At first things went well, and I thought I should be rich, but soon trouble came, and has been coming ever since."
"How did you lose the charger?" said Hugh.
"That morning when I left the fort, I went north to the big lakes and trapped along them, and one day, on one of the little streams, I found a piece of gold; a small piece as large as my finger nail. I began to look for more, and to wash the bars, and there, for a little while and in one place, I found much gold. I stayed there until my grub gave out and my ammunition too, for in crossing a stream my animal fell and wet my powder. I started to come in for supplies, and one day, as I was travelling along, the Indians jumped me and I had to run. They had cut me off from the fort, and I ran east keeping ahead of them during the day, but at night they would catch up. At last, when I was southeast of the Bear Paws, my horses were getting tired and the Indians came so close to me, that they began to shoot. I had but a few charges left in my horn, and couldn't fight. Finally, they came so close that they killed my pack animal, and an arrow went through my shoulder. One or two of them had guns and kept shooting at me, but they did not hit me; they crowded me though, and now I had to run to the river to hid in the breaks, where I could slip away on foot without being trailed.
"This I did, but when I got in among the mauvaises terres, the Indians stopped behind, and then I found that my gold, which I had been running to save, was gone. I had had it on my saddle, and a ball had cut the strings and it had dropped off; also my horse had been wounded and could travel no more, and I was bleeding and growing weak. Along the shore I found a drift log, and that night, tying my gun to it, I pushed it off into the deep water and got on it, and floated down the stream.
"That was the last I knew for a long time. When I next had sense, I was in the camp of two trappers at the mouth of the stream, they call 'Judith.' They told me, that one day, weeks before, they had seen something queer coming down the stream, and at length, saw that it was a man on a log; one of the men swam out with a rope and brought the stick to shore, and me with it. But they said I was crazy. They said, too, that I had many wounds that I had not known of and one of them was a cut on the head where a ball had glanced.
"Since that time my mind is no longer good. Sometimes, for a long time, I don't know anything. Sometimes I can't remember the things that happened yesterday, but the old things, those that happened before that time, I remember well; and so it is, Casse-tête, that I know you, even if your hair is white; but I have always thought of you as young and strong and a breaker-in of bulls' heads;" and the old man laughed pleasantly.
Jack and Joe did not understand everything of what was said, but Hugh, as he listened to this story, seemed to become very grave and sad.
"And what do you do now, Baptiste?" he asked. "We no longer trap beaver. How do you live?"
"Sometimes I ask myself that question, friend," Baptiste replied, "and I do not always know how to answer it. In the summer, when the boats are loading, sometimes I help to pack the robes. Sometimes, when the furs are brought in, they get me to come and help them look at them and say what they are worth; in that way I earn a little money, and my friend here, who owns this house, is kind to me. I sleep here always and sometimes when he goes away, I stay and answer questions for him."
"Friend," said Hugh, "when these Indians were chasing you, and when at last you turned to the river, did you have your charger with you?"
"I don't know," said Baptiste, "I did not know it was lost until I got well in the camp at the mouth of the Judith; then I saw it was gone."
"And do you know when you lost your gold?"
"I don't know," said Baptiste. "When my mule fell, and I turned to run straight for the river, the gold was still on my saddle; before I got to the edge of the breaks, a bullet struck the horse, or the saddle, and when I stopped near the river the gold was gone. I can tell you no more than that."
"But, Bat," said Hugh, "did you never go back there to look for it?"
"I went back," said Lajeunesse, "but I could never find the place. When I got near it, things were always confused in my mind and I could see nothing that I knew again, although I had travelled over the country many times, and knew it well."
"Listen to me, friend," said Hugh, "Not long ago, these two young men and I were down in that same country. We found, close together, a mule that had been killed long ago with an arrow, this charger," touching the gold on Jack's breast, "and an old buckskin sack full of gold. It may be that these things were yours."
"That is curious," said Lajeunesse. "The charger was mine for I know it well, perhaps the mule also was mine, but about the gold, who can tell. Perhaps it was mine, perhaps another's."
"Oh! Hugh," burst out Jack, unable longer to contain himself. But Hugh raised his hand for silence, and Jack stopped, though he was eager to try to prove to Lajeunesse that the gold was his, and that none of them had, or wished to have, any claim on it.
"As you say," said Hugh, "the gold may have belonged to any one; gold dust is much alike and a buckskin sack in the course of years, rots and disappears. Yet, after all, it seems likely that this may have been yours, since it was found near other things that were yours, and since you lost your gold at that place."
"Truly," said Lajeunesse, "it may have been mine, but it was lost long ago and could not be found, and now if you men have found it, it is yours."
"That is what we must now determine;" said Hugh. "We are here together, four persons, the only four, so far as we can tell, that know anything of this gold, or have a claim to it. Suppose, now, that we four were to decide that the gold belonged to you, what would you do with it?"
"Truly," said Baptiste, "if it belonged to me, I should not know what to do with it. I think I should give it to some one to take care of for me, for since my head has been bad, I might lose it or forget where I had put it, and then it would do me no good. If it belonged to you, Casse-tête, what would you do with it?"
"Well, Bat, I'm good deal like you, I don't know what I would do with it. I never had much money, not more than enough to buy supplies and have a good time, and this is more than one would need for that." Hugh stopped speaking, and thought for a little while and then said: "I'll tell you what I think would be fair: Suppose we divide this gold in two parts, and you take one part and the two boys will take the other; then we'll put yours in the bank and they will hire it of you and pay you rent for it as long as they keep it. I think they ought to pay you, maybe forty or fifty dollars a month. If they'd pay you as much as that and gave it to you every month, you'd get along all right, wouldn't you?"
"Indeed, Casse-tête, I should think that I were rich if I had so much money as that every month, but you see this gold is not mine, even if it is the same gold that I lost; it has stopped being mine when I lost it. If I had lost gold pieces on the prairie and you had found them, they would be yours, and so it is with this dust. Why, then, should you make me a present of one half of it?"
"Partly because I feel sure you lost it," said Hugh, "and partly on account of old times; and partly because you now have nothing, though twenty-five years ago, there was no man on the prairie that was richer than Baptiste Lajeunesse."
"Truly," said Baptiste, "it is pleasant to think of the old times, and to meet one who remembers them. I have thought of you many times, Casse-tête, since I saw you last, and I am glad that we meet again. But what about these young men?" he said. "They partly own this gold, what do they say about giving it away?"
"Why," said Jack, "I say you ought to have it all, and not half of it, as Hugh says." Joe said nothing, but smiled as if he agreed with Jack.
"Now," said Hugh, as he rose, "that gold was left at the bank; I'll go up there and see that it is divided in two parts, and we'll find out what the people there will pay you for the use of yours, then I will come back here and let you know." Lajeunesse waved his hand, and they went out.
On the way to the bank, Jack said, "But, Hugh, why didn't you make him take all the gold?"
"Well, son," said Hugh, "you see, he had lost it for good and he never would have heard of it again if you boys hadn't found it, and we hadn't brought it in. I think that luck and that work entitles us to half of it, but there is another thing more important than that. You see, the old man has partly lost his mind, he isn't fit to take care of any property, and if we would give him that sack of gold, it would be just as he says; he'd leave it lying out on the sidewalk some time, and somebody would pick it up and walk off with it, or he would put it down somewhere and forget where he left it, or he'd give it away. It wouldn't do him no good nor us neither. What I'm going to do is this, if you boys agree; I'm going to deposit half these drafts that we got for the gold to your credit but we'll see that the interest is paid to him every month. Then as long as he stays here, he'll have a living and yet he won't be able to spend the principal. Then if ever he dies the money will be here to the credit of you two boys, one half to each."
"Well, but," said Jack, "suppose he's got any children or a wife?"
"Well," said Hugh, "he ain't got neither, without he's married since I knew him and that ain't noways likely. But we can find out about that anyhow."
When they reached the bank, Hugh explained the matter in detail to the manager, who was an old resident of Fort Benton and knew Lajeunesse well. One half the money was deposited in the name of Jack and Joe as joint owners, the interest to be paid monthly at the rate of one and a quarter per cent. per month to Lajeunesse. This would give him nearly $50 a month. Returning to Baptiste, they told him what had been done, and while he and Hugh were talking it over, Jack untied from his shirt the gold charger and when the opportunity came, offered it to the old man.
"There can't be any doubt," he said, "Mr. Lajeunesse, that this is yours, for it is marked with your name and you should take it." The old man smiled kindly as he took it in his hand and looked at it thoughtfully, then he handed it back and said, "No, my friend, in these days I don't use such things, and besides, it brought me bad luck. If you like it, keep it always to remember a man to whom you were kind. I shall think of you, Casse-tête, and of your boys, many times from this on. Every month I shall have a good reminder of you."
They sat all day chatting together, Hugh and Baptiste doing most of the talking, though sometimes they addressed the boys. About the middle of the afternoon, Hugh rose, and shaking hands with Baptiste, said that it was time to go. The two old friends walked slowly toward the stable, while the boys ran ahead and found a wagon hitched up and their property partly loaded in it. It was arranged that all the horses should be left in Joe's care, to be kept in the Piegan camp, and that Hugh or Jack would write him, to say what should be done with the stock; if he heard nothing from them, he was to keep the animals until next summer, when it was hoped Jack and Hugh would again go to the Piegan camp.
The ride down to the point where the steamboat was tied up was rather a melancholy one. Jack and Joe sat together on the back seat not saying much, but holding fast each other's hands. When the boat was reached, all were busy for a little while transferring the goods to the deck and then the captain came to Hugh and said, "Well, you got here just in time; there's a little more water coming down to-day, and I'm going to start now just as soon as we can cast off the lines."
"Well, Joe," said Jack, "I'm awful sorry to go, I've had the best time I ever had in my life, and a good part has been owing to you. I'll never forget you nor the Piegans, and if I possibly can, I'll come back again next summer."
"Good-bye, my friend," said Joe, "I wish I were going with you, I hate to have you leave me. I feel like crying. Come back next year if you can."
"Hurry up," said Hugh, from the deck of the vessel, "they're casting off the lines."
Jack turned and ran over the gang plank and stood beside Hugh, and as the vessel passed out into the stream and slowly moved around the point, the last things that he saw were the tall figure of the old trapper and the slender one of the Indian boy, standing side by side with their backs toward the sinking sun.
END.