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On the brow of the hill, just where the faint footpath dipped into a narrow gully at the very edge, almost, of the bluff, he stopped, and lifted his head for an unconsciously haughty stare at his surroundings. Beneath him and half a mile or so up the river valley, the mellow green of Peaceful's orchard was already taking to itself the vagueness of evening shadows.
Heretofore I was in luck to get a time and place in which to wash them. At half-past four o'clock in the afternoon, when it was too dark to sew longer, Alma, Ricka and I went out upon the beach to meet the boys who had been gathering wood, and we walked a half mile over the rough trail of ice blocks, drifts and hummocks.
There was a south-westerly breeze blowing. It was hard work to have to cross the river, chase the yaks and bring them back to camp; then, exhausted as we were, to get the loads on them. We followed the stream on the right bank. It wound in and out between barren hills, afterward flowing through a grassy valley three-quarters of a mile wide and a mile and a half long.
"Stewart River enters from the east in the middle of a wide valley, with low hills on both sides, rising on the north sides in steps or terraces to distant hills of considerable height. The river half a mile or so above the mouth, is two hundred yards in width. The current is slack and the water shallow and clear, but dark colored.
The house he occupied was the last of the wide and irregular street in which it stood; it looked towards the wall beneath the Pincian Mount, from which it was separated by a public garden about half a mile in extent. This once well-thronged place of recreation was now totally unoccupied.
At about a mile and a-half from the camp, a large creek, apparently from the southward, joined the river, and water was found in a scrub creek four miles from the camp, also in wells made by the natives in the bed of the river; and, at about eight miles from the camp, we came upon some fine water-holes along the scrub.
A mile or two farther I saw the loom of the bark hut they lived in, on a patchy clearing in the scrub, and heard the voice of the selector's wife I had seen her several times: she was a gaunt, haggard Bushwoman, and, I supposed, the reason why she hadn't gone mad through hardship and loneliness was that she hadn't either the brains or the memory to go farther than she could see through the trunks of the 'apple-trees'.
Fifteen miles west of Masset the ocean indents the land for about thirteen miles from eight miles to one-eighth of a mile in width forming what is known as Virago Sound and Naden Harbor, the latter being the most accessible and safest anchoring ground for vessels on the north shore of the island. Into this harbor flows the Naden River, the second largest stream of the Queen Charlotte group.
"That looks like a good deal for little Dunhaven," he thought to himself. "I wonder what's happening?" His horse and buggy were in the yard. The young owner presently went out and got into his vehicle, driving slowly along the street to the northward. About a third of a mile from his yard Mr. Farnum came to the spot where the lumber was being unloaded.
The young man set us down at Smith's Corner and it proved to be only about an eighth of a mile up the road and up-hill when Whitney's house burst in sight, silhouetted against the sky. There were lights there and it was evident that several people had gathered for some purpose. We made our way up the path and paused a moment to look through the window before springing the little surprise.
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