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Updated: May 7, 2025
So, choking and blinded with perspiration, Geoffrey smote on mechanically, until the man from Mattawa said, "She's about busted." Just then there was a clamor from the watchers on the piers. Men shouted, "Come back." "Whole jam's starting!" "King log's yielding now!" "Jump for your lives before the wreckage breaks away with you!"
This would be a colossal undertaking; for the region up Mattawa River toward Georgian Bay is of iron rock, and to build a canal wide enough for the big cargo carriers would out-distance anything in the way of canal construction in the world.
"I'm sorry I didn't know he was in the city," he said. "How are you getting on?" "Satisfactorily, so far as the work goes. We have pushed the blasting heading well under the fall, but there's a thing that has been worrying me. I'd gone across the range to see what the boys in the valley had done, when a man came in. It appears he resented our trying to lower the river. Mattawa saw him."
There was silence for a few minutes, and then Mattawa grinned at Waynefleet. "I guess you've got to keep that rock from freezing, and the fire was kind of low when I last looked out," he remarked. With a frown of resignation Waynefleet rose wearily and went out, for it was his part to keep a great fire going day and night.
Mattawa went out, and soon afterwards Nasmyth, whose clothes were now partly dry, lay down, dressed as he was, in his twig-packed bunk, with his pipe in his hand. It was growing a little colder, and a keen air, which had in it the properties of an elixir, blew in, but that was a thing Nasmyth scarcely noticed, and the dominant roar of the river held his attention.
In the struggle for the control of the fur trade geographical advantages lay with the French. They had two excellent routes from Montreal directly into the richest beaver lands of the continent. One of these, by way of the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers, had the drawback of an overland portage, but on the other hand the whole route was reasonably safe from interruption by Iroquois or English attack.
Accompanied by Stephen Brulé, a noted Indian interpreter, a servant, and eight Indians, Champlain left Montreal about the middle of July, ascended the Ottawa, and paddled down the Mattawa to the lake of the Nipissings, where he had interviews with the Indians who were dreaded by other tribes as sorcerers.
"Of course," he added, "it is something to know that I have your sympathy; but I must not keep you here." It was not a tactful speech, but Laura smiled. "I meant to take you out," she said. "You have been sitting here brooding since the dam went, and from what Mattawa told me, you haven't had any dinner." "No," said Nasmyth; "now I come to think of it, I don't believe I have.
Still, one of the others did, and made a sign to Mattawa that any support he might feel disposed to offer his employer would not be tolerated in the meanwhile. Nasmyth, however, realized that there was only one course open to him, and he drew back one hand as he met the uneasy eyes of the man in front of him. "You are going to back down on what you said?" he asked, with incisive quietness.
"I have a thing or two to tell you, but we'll get into the shanty and have supper first. The boys are just quitting work," remarked Gordon. They clambered down over a practicable trail, though part of it was covered deep with snow, crept in and out among the boulders by the light of a great fire that blazed above the fall, and found Mattawa laying a meal out when they reached the shanty.
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