A Volunteer with Pike Part 11

"Let her try!" I cried. "Let her turn loose her savage allies upon us, and we will hurl them back into the lakes! We will cross over and drive redcoats and redskins alike down the St. Lawrence into the sea! Even the abject people of the seaboard, who now lick the foot that spurns them, will remember their fathers of the Revolution, and strike the enemy as Paul Jones and his fellows struck them,--on the sea."

The senor met my enthused glance with unmoved gravity. "I have heard mention of what is called President Jefferson's mosquito fleet."

Our arrival at the s.h.i.+pyards gave me welcome excuse to change the subject. I pointed to the scores of river craft, afloat in the stream or in course of construction. "Had you in mind, senor, to take a bateau or a flat?"

"Bateau?--flat?" he repeated. "Your pardon, doctor, but the terms--?"

"A bateau is a boat of flat bottom but with keel. A flat is a great scow without keel, and often provided with deal cabins."

"I had been told how to proceed, but left all to that rascal of a seaman. Immediately upon our arrival, he told me, with many foul oaths, that he intended to make no ventures on fresh water, and to show his contempt for the saltless fluid, has sat ever since in the taproom of the inn, guzzling whiskey."

"You are better off without the fellow," I said. "There are scores of men to be hired here who are well used to river travel. Is it your intention to hire pa.s.sage, or to purchase your own boat?"

"Privacy is desirable. I have disposed of my coach and horses with less loss than I had feared. If boats are not too high in price--"

"Rest easy as to that, senor. Boats are one of the cheapest products of the s.h.i.+pping towns. The question first to decide is whether you prefer a keelboat or a flat."

"Senor, I must rely upon your good advice," he replied.

I pointed at the swollen, turbid current of the Monongahela, swirling high along its banks. "As you see, the river is in full flood. It is what the rivermen term the Spring fresh. The Ohio now runs no less swiftly, at times fully eight miles an hour. I should advise you to choose a flat, because it will travel little less speedily than a bateau, and with its house, will prove a far more comfortable craft for so long a voyage."

"Comfort is an important consideration, doctor. With me travels my niece, whom you may remember."

I kept such command of my features as I could. "I have a clear memory of Senorita Vallois. It is unfortunate."

"Unfortunate!" he exclaimed, with a lift of his black brows.

"That you have no servant skilled in handling a river boat."

"Ah--that!"

"A single man could manage your flat, provided you were willing to lend a hand on occasion at steer-oar or pole--a few minutes, it might be, once or twice a day. There are, as I have said, numbers of skilled rivermen to be hired. But--" I paused as if to consider--"No. I could bring you more than one for whose faithfulness I could vouch, but none who is not foul-mouthed and--to a foreigner--insolent."

s.h.i.+fting my gaze to the nearest flat, I waited in eager suspense. He answered with a question: "Do I understand you to say that with my help one man could guide so clumsy a craft?" I nodded, with a.s.sumed carelessness. "And you are yourself skilled as a riverman, senor?" Again I nodded. I could not trust myself to speak. He continued with polite hesitancy: "Would you, then, think it odd, Dr. Robinson, if I requested you to make the river journey with me?"

"Senor!" I cried, "it would give me great pleasure!"

"_Carambo!_" he muttered, at sight of my glowing face.

A moment's hesitancy would have lost me all the vantage I had gained. I held my left hand level before me, and swept off the upturned palm with my right. There are few of the Indian signs which do not pa.s.s current from the lakes of the North and the swamps of the South to the most remote of the tribes in the Far West. I was right in my surmise that they were known even across the Spanish borders.

The senor bowed in quick apology: "A thousand pardons, Senor Robinson!"

"A man does not ride post-haste without expense," I said, with a seriousness which was not all feigned.

"A thousand pardons!" he repeated. "My purse is at your disposal, Senor Robinson. I do not speak in empty compliment. Such funds as you may require--"

"_Muchas gracias!_" I broke in. "I have enough silver left to jingle in my pocket. My thought was that it would be more agreeable to work my pa.s.sage with an acquaintance than with strangers. At this season it is unusual for persons of culture to undertake the river trip. The voyage is becoming quite the fas.h.i.+on among young gentlemen of means and enterprise, but they seldom venture over the mountains before settled weather, and the rivermen, as I have remarked, are not always the best of company."

"Senor, no more! We share this voyage as fellow-travellers--my boat and your skill. Is it not so?"

"Senor, my thanks!" I replied. "Yet first, there is the question of Senorita Vallois's pleasure. It is a long voyage. I would not thrust myself upon your intimacy against the lady's inclinations."

"My niece will be no less pleased than myself to travel in company with a gentleman of your acquaintance. I will answer for that. My niece has lived for three years in England. While we travel in Anglo-America, we are agreed to comply with such customs of the country as do not differ too widely from our own."

I bowed low to hide my extreme satisfaction. It was the rarest of good fortune to have penetrated the reserve with which a Spanish gentleman surrounds the ladies of his family. But it was not my part to dwell upon the fact. I hastened to point out a flatboat which had caught my eye when we first rode down to the bank.

"What is your opinion of that craft?" I asked.

"So large a boat--for two men? _Santa Maria!_"

"Hardly forty feet over all," I replied. "Let us go aboard."

He swung to the ground as quickly as myself, and we hitched our horses to the nearest stump. As the flat was moored alongside the rough wharf, we had only to step aboard. The height of the water brought the craft almost on a level with the wharf.

A glance or two showed me that the boat was already fitted out with steer-oar, sweeps and poles, a kedge with ample line, and a light skiff, snugly stowed in the ten-foot s.p.a.ce of open prow. Having next made sure that she was well calked and dry, I led the senor through the house. It was divided into three apartments or rooms, of which the one nearest the stern was some five feet the longest.

"Here," I said, pointing to the rude but well-built fireplace, "is the kitchen, salon, and dining-room of our floating inn."

We pa.s.sed on through the middle and forward rooms. Like the kitchen, both were limited to a width of seven feet by the need of a runway without, along each side of the boat. But Senor Vallois looked about approvingly.

"We could share this cabin," he said, glancing about the forward room.

"My thanks, senor, but I can make s.h.i.+ft to sleep on deck," I replied.

"There will be rain--there is always rain in this northern country of yours. No. You will do me the favor of sharing this cabin with me. There are two berths, as you see."

I looked gravely at the rude bunks built, one above the other, on the left wall, and bowed my acceptance of the offer.

"It is well," he continued. "My niece and her woman will share the middle room. There remains only the question of purchase."

"Leave the bargaining to me," I said quickly, at sight of the shrewd-faced Yankee who came down the wharf as we stepped out into the open prow.

"The affair is entirely in your hands, doctor," a.s.sented the senor.

The Yankee stepped aboard with an air of brisk business.

"I cal'clate ye want a boat," he began. "Let ye have this 'un dirt cheap."

"How much?" I demanded.

"One seventy-five."

"Lumber cordelled by keelboat from New Orleans?" I rallied him in smiling irony.

He looked me up and down with a speculative eye.

"We-ell, stranger, I might knock off ten dollars."