The night settled clear and calm, with scarce a breath of air to sough through the pendent leaves of the stately poplars. But the moonlit atmosphere was rife with strange sighings and moanings and whisperings, as from the ghostly lake out of sight below the camp. These sounds may have been water-fowl; William New and other trappers and voyageurs in both parties said that they were “spirits” and “medicine”; Jacob Dodson, the young colored man, said that they were “mighty like ha’nts”; and the wounded dog, which now was recovering, whined and shivered and snuggled closer upon Oliver’s buffalo robe. In spite of the sounds real and imaginary the camp was safe and whole at day-break. The lieutenant put everybody at work cutting timber with which to make a horse-pen and a fort. In the midst of these preparations Ike Chamberlain sought out Kit Carson, and addressed him freely.
“Say, Kit, what’s the meaning o’ this hyar? Must be going to stay awhile.”
“Going to stay till the lieutenant gets through, Ike.”
[179]
“Wall, he’s not our boss. We’re an independent consarn.”
“I reckon you are, Ike. So what’s the matter?”
“We’ve ’bout decided that staying hyar an’ living on roots an’ feathers whilst a crazy man measures that thar lake doesn’t shine with us fellows. Thar air no fur an’ no meat hyar, an’ snow air creeping down the hills. We want to get out whilst we can.”
“I won’t stop you, Ike.”
“You come too.”
“Not an inch. I engaged to Lieutenant Frémont, an’ I’m going through.”
“On that ’ere lake, in that ’ere boat, Kit?”
“I shorely am, Ike, if the lieutenant asks me to.”
“Don’t you do it, Kit, don’t you do it,” implored Ike, much concerned. “Thar’s a whirlpool that’ll swallow you, boat an’ all. If the lake has nary river draining it off, how does it keep from overflowing, with these rivers running in! Must drain by a whirlpool, which sucks the water off fast as it comes in. Mebbe thar air cannibals on those islands, to gobble ye soon as ye land. Besides, whar’s the grub for the crowd? What you fetched down from Hall is ’bout gone already, an’ we’ll soon be living wuss’n Root Diggers. When the snows fall lower we’ll be shut in to starve. ’Tain’t a fit country for white man; ’tain’t, Kit. We’re going to pull out, an’ you’d better come with us. If that lieutenant wants to stay an’ make figgers, let him.”
[180]
“Go if you want to, Ike. I stay with Frémont,” answered Kit Carson, evenly. “He expects me to, and I will. I can’t ask you Touse men to. There won’t be much fun in it, for you, especially if we push on for the coast by winter trail down the Snake.”
“What!” gasped Ike. “Jest to get figgers? No, siree. I reckon we’ll pack back through the mountains, whar thar’s fur an’ meat, for Laramie, Kit.”
“All right, Ike. When you get to Touse tell Josefa I’m well.” And Kit turned away.
Oliver heard this conversation, and was aghast. Back to Taos? Never! He hastened after Kit and appealed to him:
“Do I have to go, Kit?”
“Whar, boy?”
“Back, with Ike and the rest.”
“Reckon you’d better. Times air liable to be hard on the trail, an’ we’re bound through to Vancouver.”
“But I want to stay, Kit. I’ll feed myself—I’ll do my own foraging—I’d just as soon eat roots, I like ’em. I want to stay, with you and Lieutenant Frémont—and sail on the lake—and go to the coast. I’m not afraid.”
“Not afraid to explore that ’ere lake in that rubber contraption, an’ get swallowed by a whirlpool, mebbe?”
“No,” declared Oliver, stanchly.
“Wall,” smiled Kit Carson, his clear gray-blue eyes twinkling, “if Ike an’ the rest should happen to[181] ride off an’ you shouldn’t be with ’em, I s’pose we’d have to keep you, best we could. You’ve got yore dog, to eat.”
To the wise a word is sufficient. Ike and William New and all the Carson squad swiftly packed, to take the trail. The Frémont men cast sidelong glance as they proceeded with their own duties, and some, amidst the bantering, hinted that they would like to go, too. But they were under orders: enlisted for this United States Army service. The Taos men were free trappers, enlisted not at all.
“Ready, boy?” called William New, to Oliver.
“I want to wait and see the boat start,” answered Oliver. “Go on; I can trail you.”
“You’d better do it in a hurry, then,” grumbled William New, as he mounted. “We’re heading for beaver an’ buff’ler, an’ we travel fast.”
Without another word off they rode, two by two, at trapper rack or single-foot; and following up the Weber Fork they disappeared among the hills.
Oliver sauntered about, and at the first opportunity took a hand in rolling logs.
“Aren’t you going, boy?” demanded Lieutenant Frémont, suddenly noting him.
“No, sir.”
“Why not? Wouldn’t they take you?”
“Yes, sir; but I’d rather stay with you and Kit.”
“Oh, I see.” And the lieutenant, out of careworn bearded face, eyed him calculatingly.
[182]
“I’d like to sail in the boat, on the lake, if there’s room,” ventured Oliver. “I wouldn’t be afraid.”
“I don’t know about that,” said the lieutenant. “I don’t know but what you’d better go on up to Fort Hall with Fran?ois and party. I’m sending them, in a minute or two, so as to cut down the drain on the supplies.”
“I’d—like—to—stay,” faltered Oliver. “Kit said I could eat my dog—but maybe I won’t have to.”
“You’re liable to eat worse than dog, if you do stay,” warned the lieutenant, with a sudden smile lighting his countenance. And he added: “But stay you shall. You’re a brave lad, and I like courage.”
The horse corral and the little fort, both of cottonwood or poplar trunks, were finished; and in the latter was mounted the battered but faithful brass howitzer. Nobody might tell yet how many Indians, perhaps Utes, perhaps Snakes, perhaps Root Diggers, perhaps strangers more savage, might be spying and planning attack upon these few invaders; so precautions were taken. This being done, Fran?ois Lajeunesse and some others were told off by the lieutenant, to go back up the Bear and on to Fort Hall, there to wait.
After Fran?ois and companions left, the Carson-Frémont camp on the Weber River consisted of the lieutenant and Kit, Basil Lajeunesse, Baptiste Bernier, Baptiste Derosier, Fran?ois Badeau, Mr. Preuss, Jacob Dodson the young colored man, and Oliver. Sergeant[183] Zindel had started with the Fran?ois squad, but Jacob knew how to handle the gun.
The day was spent in patching and strengthening the rubber boat, in making scientific observations, and in exploring the country near at hand. The sunset was beautiful, orange and green, reflected in the waters of the great lake—a sunset so peculiar that it might have been enchantment by a wizard, testing his spells after the frowns of the genie had failed. However, nobody was afraid of the wizard, and the supper of yampa roots and a fat duck which Jacob had shot tasted good. The spells by a stout heart are much stronger than any spells by any wizard.
It was planned that the next day a voyage should be made to the nearest of the islands. Neither Kit Carson nor Lieutenant Frémont put much stock in tales of whirlpool and ravenous monsters and club-bearing giants—although, of course, who could say! But they hoped to find upon the islands flowers and fruits and crystal streams and much game, never before witnessed by human being.
Jacob, and Fran?ois Badeau and Baptiste Derosier had been named to garrison the little fort. After an early breakfast the lieutenant and Kit, Mr. Preuss and Basil and Baptiste Bernier busied themselves in packing the boat, tied to the river-bank, with blankets and scientific instruments and three rubber bags of water and a little food.
“Wall, boy,” remarked Kit Carson, with a twinkle,[184] eyeing Oliver, who lingered near, “looks as though you’d better stay ashore.”
“What’s that?” queried the lieutenant, overhearing. “Oh, I guess we can make room. By all means. He climbed the highest peak, and I think he ought to be one to explore the enchanted islands. Come along, lad. You can pump the bellows and keep her blown up.”
And Oliver needed no second invitation.
The sun was just appearing over the mountain ranges in the east when, on this the eighth of September, the rubber canoe left her moorings and started down the river, for the lake. The men paddled; Oliver was set at work pumping air into the inflated cylinders, along gunwales and bows, for ............