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"Well, I guess it will have to be done." The sudden change in his attitude was naturally not lost upon the girl, but she kept her astonishment to herself, and waited until Mattawa had made Nasmyth as comfortable as possible. Then she turned to him. "I am very sorry you are hurt," she said. "I understand it was an axe cut. How did it happen?" Nasmyth appeared to reflect.
He's occasionally hard to get on with, but since I came here, I'm willing to acknowledge that men of his species are useful, and I have struck harder masters in this great Dominion." Mattawa Tom laughed hoarsely as he responded: "I should say!
"Pshaw!" she said. "I told Mattawa to get me a few things ready." Nasmyth followed her out of the shanty, and when he had picked up the basket and kettle somebody had left at the door, she turned to him. "Where shall we go?" she asked. "Anywhere," said Nasmyth, "that is, as long as it's away from the river."
The stratification was looser than usual, and several mighty masses had fallen from it into the river. There were also crannies at its feet. "You've seen all the drilled holes. Anything strike you yet?" inquired Mattawa Tom. "Yes," was the answer. "It occurs to me that French Louis said he couldn't tally out all the sticks of giant powder that he'd stowed away a week or two ago.
A further proof of friendship was afforded by their willingness to receive a missionary in their midst the Récollet, Father Joseph Le Caron. Champlain's line of exploration in 1615-16 took the following course. He first ascended the Ottawa to the mouth of the Mattawa. Thence journeying overland by ponds and portages he entered Lake Nipissing, which he skirted to the outlet.
Gillow questioned with a show of interest, and the foreman nodded sagaciously as he answered: "Whoever busts the boss up will have to get both feet on the neck of Mattawa Tom first, and that's not going to be easy. I'll keep my eyes right on to that fellow." Tom went out, and Gillow, awakening at midnight, saw that his blankets were still empty.
He sat upon an overturned bucket discoursing whimsically, while Mattawa Tom, who acted as Thurston's foreman, peeled potatoes for him. The cook-shanty was warm and snug, and Gillow made those to whom he granted the right of entry work for the privilege. "Strikes me as queer," said the big axeman, with a grin, when the cook halted to refill his pipe.
Mattawa, however, gazed at them both as if such matters were beyond him, and Wheeler, who turned to Nasmyth, changed the subject. "Well," he said, "what are you going to strike next?" Nasmyth took out his pipe, and carefully filled it before he answered, for he knew that his time had come, and he desired greatly to carry his comrades along with him.
"Well," he said, "I guess it couldn't be either a Bush deer or a wapiti." They were still standing there when their comrades came running up, and Mattawa, who took down his light, broke into a great hoarse laugh. "A steer!" he said, and pointed to a mark on the hide. "One of Custer's stock. Guess he'll charge you quite a few dollars for killing it."
Mattawa Tom withdrew with much reluctance, and it was long before any person knew exactly what Geoffrey and the stranger said to each other, though Gillow informed his comrade that the captured man said to him, by way of explanation before sleeping: "Your boss is considerably too smart a man for me to bluff, and I've kind of decided to help him.
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