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'And so we glide along; in due time encountering those majestic domes, the mighty Sugar Loaf, and the sublime Maiden's Rock which latter, romantic superstition has invested with a voice; and oft-times as the birch canoe glides near, at twilight, the dusky paddler fancies he hears the soft sweet music of the long-departed Winona, darling of Indian song and story.
The quick-sighted old man saw the action, and, as the paddle descended, an upward stroke from his own heavy weapon sent it flying in fragments in the air, while a rapid and returning blow fell upon the head of the paddler, and prostrated him at length in the canoe. The opportunity afforded by this diversion, momentary as it was, was not lost upon Desborough.
The canoes were skirting the western bank, driven by the current, when one voyageur called to another: "My scalp for the sight of an Indian!" "Halt!" the forward paddler answered. "Look to thy scalp, lad, for here is the Indian!" There was no feathered head in ambush, but they saw moccasin prints in the low moist margin and a path leading up to the prairie.
The paddler had to back out of the way, with difficulty escaping the violent assaults of the enraged bird.
We haven't got any sextant to take observations, but I've got all the maps, and I've got a compass maybe we'll get out a Voyage of Discoveries of our own some day!" "Now, Moise," said Alex, "you're to go ahead with the cook-boat. You'd better take Mr. Rob for your bow paddler. I'll let Mr.
Sahwah was Captain of the Dolphins, the Alley crew; Undine commanded the Avenue Turtles. Agony was stern paddler of the Dolphin, the most important position next to the Captain. Prominence had come to her in many ways since she had become the camp heroine; positions of trust and honor fell to her thick and fast without her making any special efforts to get them.
The big boat was open on top like a Newfoundland fisherman's dory or Frenchman's bateau, the little boat covered over the top except for the manholes round which were wound oilskins to keep the water out when the paddler had seated himself inside. Then the wet skin was allowed to dry in sunshine and wind. Hot seal oil and tallow poured over the seams and cracks, calked the leaks.
There were Thornycroft motor-boats and Sennacharib goufas, mahailas and Thames steamboats, an oil-fuel gunboat and a stern paddler that could have come out of a woodcut of the first steamboat on the Clyde and all these in the same reach. I travelled in this last extraordinary vessel for a short time.
I am very glad, however, that you have secured this boat. It is a great improvement upon our own small one." The schoolmaster was a fine paddler, and he insisted that Henry and Paul rest, while he showed his skill. He was anxious, he said, to do his own part in the return, and this offered him the only chance. Henry and Paul acquiesced and he paddled stoutly on for a long time.
But the kayak is easily overturned, and if the paddler is not expert in the use of his paddle, he runs a chance of being drowned, for it is not easy to disengage himself from his craft. Constant practice, however, makes most natives as expert and fearless as tight-rope dancers, and quite as safe.
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