The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1904-04-08
CHAPTER XVII.
THE DOOR OF THE WEST.

Nearly league farther, Du Mesne,
and the sun but an hour high. Come,
let us hasteni"
you are right, Monsieur Las" re-
piled the one add essed, as the first
| speaker seated himself on the thwart
of the boat in whose bow he had been
| standing. Bend to it, mes amisl"
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" rejoned the captain of the
voyageurs, casting an eye back across
the great lake, which lay black and |
ominous against a threatening sky |
the sweep and swirl of it's 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 Graf. |
called from the ancient deeps, was far
from the beginning of its wild journey.
Wide as the eye might reach, there
arose no flecll 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 Miclis gan on, 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 all 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, Sc
remote, so signiicant-it was home fol
these voyayeurs as much as any; as
much, too, for Law and the woman who
ray pacK, paIe-raced 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 it's tender sh ell might not
De damaged. Law himself was as soon
rs they in the water, and he waded
pack along the gunwale until he
reached the stern, the water nearly up {
o his hips. Reaching out his arms,
he picked up Mary Connynge from her
eat and carried her dryshod ashore,
bending down to catch some whispered
word. Not so gallant was Du Mesne, !
he leader of the voyageurs. He ut
cred few sharp words of semi-com-
nand to the Indian woman, who had
leen seated on the floor of the canoe
nd she. without protest. crawled for
ward over the thwarts and the heaped
undles until she reached the bow, and
hen went ankle deep into the Dreaming
God. The great canoe, left empty and
nchored safe from the pebbles of the
each, tossed light as cork on the
1coming waves.
A little open space was quickly
Dund at the edge of the cove In which Is
he Decentralization was made, and II
ere Du Mesne and his followers soon n
licked away the twigs and leveled II
ut smooth place upon the grass n