Wrecked but not Ruined | Page 5

intend to commence on
the south side."
"So far well," replied Redding, "but if I find that they have raised a
stone or planted a stake on the north side of the creek, I'll--"
Here feeling that he was about to give way to a boastful spirit, he got
himself out of the difficulty of having to finish the sentence by making
a sudden and somewhat stern demand for "more bear-steak."
"Vid pleasieur, Monsieur," said Le Rue, placing a huge slice on his
master's plate.
"Well, sir, I hope you'll find that they haven't overstepped the
boundary," said Bellew, "because the McLeods look as if they'd be
troublesome customers to deal with."
The fur-trader made no reply. He felt indignant at the bare idea of his

being checked in doing his duty by any man, or men, who were
"troublesome," by which expression he understood Bellew to mean that
they were resolute and physically powerful in opposition; he therefore
thought it best to avoid any further tendency to boast by holding his
tongue.
Not so his volatile retainer, who stuck his fork into a lump of meat
vindictively, as if it had been the body of a McLeod, and exclaimed:--
"Hah! vat you say? troblesom, eh? who care for dat? If de Macklodds
do touche, by von small hinch, de lands of de Companie--ve vill--hah!"
Another stab of the fork was all that the savage Le Rue vouchsafed as
an explanation of his intentions.
In this frame of mind Reginald Redding and his man started off next
morning on foot at an early hour, slept that night at a place called Sam's
hut, and, the following evening, drew near to the end of their journey.
CHAPTER THREE.
A BRIEF BUT AGREEABLE MEETING.
The little outskirt settlement of Partridge Bay was one of those infant
colonies which was destined to become in future years a flourishing
and thickly-peopled district of Canada. At the period of our story it was
a mere cluster of dwellings that were little better than shanties in point
of architecture and appearance. They were, however, somewhat larger
than these, and the cleared fields around them, with here and there a
little garden railed in, gave them a more homelike aspect than the
dwellings of the wood-men.
The valley in which the settlement stood was one of those magnificent
stretches of primeval forest which used to be the hunting-grounds of
the red man, and from which he had not at that time been thrust by the
"paleface," for, here and there, his wigwam might still be seen sending
its wreath of blue smoke above the tree-tops.

It was evening--a calm, sunny, glorious, spring evening--when Redding
and his man overtopped the heights that enclosed the vale, and paused
as well to gaze upon the scene as to recover breath. Far below them lay
the hamlet, a cluster of black dots on a field of pure snow. Roseate
lights on undulations, and cold blue shadows in hollows, were tamed
down in effect by the windows of the hamlet which shot forth beams of
blazing fire at the setting sun. Illimitable space seemed to stretch away
to the place where the horizon would have been if it had not lost itself
in a golden glory, and this vast reach was a varied irregular network of
dark pines and fields of snow--the pines tipped everywhere with
sparkling snow-wreaths, the fields streaked everywhere with long
shadows. Little winding lines of a grey colour which radiated from the
hamlet indicated the tracks where the settlers drove their sleighs and
wood-sledges. Many of these were seen moving along the far-off tracks
like insects, while the tinkle of the sleigh-bells floated upwards like
fairy music.
"Yes, I shall take up my abode there," murmured Redding, as he gazed
in rapt admiration on the beautiful scene.
"Monsieur?" said his companion.
"I say that I should like to dwell there," answered Redding. "It is a
splendid country, and will be better known in days to come."
"Vraiment, truly, a magnifircent kontry," returned Le Rue, "gorgeows,
magnifique! I vould giv moche, ver moche, to have leetil cottage, an
vife, an cow, an pigs dere."
As Redding had been thinking of something similar, he laughed, and
commenced the descent of the zigzag track that led to the hamlet.
They had proceeded only a few yards when, turning round a cluster of
pines, they suddenly discovered some travellers in difficulty--a man
whose horse had shied or stumbled off the narrow track and was
embedded up to the girths in the soft snow, and two females, whose
furry garments, all besprinkled with snow, showed that they had just
emerged from the sledge, which lay on its side behind the horse. The

driver's chief anxiety seemed to be to quiet and restrain his horse,
which being