Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-03-10
THE MISSISSIPPI
BUBBLE .
ny EMERSON HcUGH i
Author Of The Storyot the Cowboy,
The Girl at the Halfway House. Etc.
Copyright, 1903. by Emerson Hough.l
CHAPTER XVII.
THE DOOR or THE WEST.

and the sun but an hour high. Come,
let lis hasten!"
You are right, Monsieur Las" re-
piled the one addressed, as the first
speaker seated himself on the thwart
of the boat in whose bow he had been
standing. Bend to it, mes amis!"
John Law turned about on the seat,
gazing back over the length of the
little ship which had brought him and
his comrades thus far on the widest
journey he had ever undertaken. Six
paddlers there were for this great canot
du Nord, and steadily enough they sent
the thin-shelled craft along over the
curling blue waves of the great inland
sea. And now their voices in one ac-
cord fell into the cadences of an an
cient boat-song of New France:
EN- roulant ma boule, roulant,
Roulant, rouler, ma boule roulant"
The ictus of the measure marked
time for the sweeping paddles, and
under the added impetus the paper
shell, reinforced as it was by close
laid splints of cedar, and braced by
the fber-fastened thwarts, fairly
yielded to the rush of the waves as
the stalwart paddlers sent it flying
forward A tiny blur of white showed
about the bows, and now and then
splash of spray came inboard, or some
little curling white cap was divided
by the rush of the swiftly moving
prov.
I'VE shall not arrive too soon, my
friend" rejoined the captain of the
yoyageurs, casting an eye back across
the great lake, which lay black and
ominous against a threatening sky,
the sweep and swirl of its white caps
ever racing hard after the frail craft,
as though eager to break through its
paper sides and tear away the human
beings who thus fled on so lightly.
This boat, mysteriously appearing as
though it were some spirit craft
called from the ancient deeps, was far
from the beginning of its wild journey.
Wide as the eye might reach, there
arose no fieck of snowy canvas, nor
showed the dark line of any similar
craft propelled by oar or paddle.
They were alone, these travellers Be-
fore them, at the entrance of the wide
arm of the great lake Michiganon, lay
the point even at that early day known
as the Door of the West, the beginning
Of the winding waterway which led
on into the interior Of that West, then
so alluring and so unknown. The
eyes of ali were fixed on the low, white
fronted bluffs. crowned By dark for
est growth, which guarded the bay at
either hand. This spot, so wild, so
remote. so significapt-it was home for
these voyayers as much as any; as
much, too, # Law and the woman who
lay back, pale-faced and wild-eyed,
among the bales in the great canoe.
In time the graceful craft approached
the beach, on which the long waves
rolled and curled, now gently, now with
imposing force. With the water yet
half-leg deep, Du Mesne and two of
the paddlers sprang bodily overheard
and held the boat back from the peb-
bles, SO that its tender shell might not
be damaged. Law himself was as soon
as they in the water, and he waded
back along the gunwale until he
reached the stern, the water nearly up
to his hips. Reaching out his arms,
he picked up Mary Connynge from her
seat and carried her dryshod ashore,
bending down to catch some whispered
word. Not so gallant was Du Mesne,
the leader of the voyageurs. He ut
tered a few sharp words of semi-com-
mand TO the Indian woman, who had
been seated on the floor of the canoe,
and she, without protest, crawled for
ward over the thwarts and the heaped
bundles until she reached the bow, and
then went ankle deep into the Dreaming
flood. The great canoe. left empty and
anchored safe from the pebbles Of the
beach, tossed light as cork on the
incoming waves.
A little open space was quickly
found at the edge of the cove in which
the Decentralization was made, and
here Du Mesne and his followers soon
kicked away the twigs and leyeled
out smooth place upon the grass.
Each man produced from his belt
broad-bladed knife, and for the mo-
ment disappeared in the deep fringe of
evergreens which lined the shore.
Fairly in the twinkling of an eye
frame of bent poles was made, above
which were spread strips of unrolled
birch bark from the cargo of the ca
noe. Over the spaces left uncovered
by the supply of bark sheets there were
laid down long mats made by Indian
hands from dried reeds and bulrushes,
affording no inconsiderable protection
against the weather. Inside the lodge,
bales of goods and packages of pro-
visions were quickly arranged in COM
| Portable fashion. Gaudy blankets were
spread upon layers Of soft skins of the
buffalo indian woman had
lck a fire, whose faint
smoke curled lakeward in the soft
evening air. Quickly, and with the
system of experienced campaigners, the
evening biyouac had been prepared;