The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-08

never wanted TO 90 again. ne mat
turned out to be a perfectly helpless
man and had made trouble ali the
time throughout the trip. His first ex-
plot had been to lose both my gun ana
that of the guide IN the middle of q
lake way up north where the water
was at least three hundred feet deep
We spent four days fishing for the
weapons with all the lines that we had
tied together, and we had hard work
to reach bottom. We never saw those
guns again. That left US without any
weapon except a very poor gun that
my friend had brought along-one OF
those guns that won't shoot the same
way twice and that are always ready
to go pieces.
wen, We worked our way down the
sure that it would not be caught by this
rivers and lakes to get back to civiliza-
ton, since the loss of the guns had
spoiled the shooting trip. When we
struck the region where we are now
what does that greenhorn member of
our party do but lose all our pro-
visions! And he went out of his way
to do it, too.
all the grub into the big canoe ana had
pulled it high up on shore to make
swift current which was racing by on
its way to a bad rapids below My
friend who wanted to fish in the
stream, showed the canoe into the
water to enable him to make a cast
without getting his feet wet. When
he was through he walked back to
Z
boat up again.
THE result was that when we got to
the shore the big canoe had gone down
stream, dived over the falls, and all
our food was gone. We rescued a
few bits of bacon at the risk of our
/ lives, but that was all. There wasn't
enough for one meal and we had q
/ long ten days trip both by portage and
| paddle ahead of US.
| THE only thing to do was to lay in
grub; and at first we expected that
plenty of ammunition and the duck
were thick-big 1ocks of them all
around US.
But We reckoned without the gun.
hadn't fired it more than half a dozen
times when the breech mechanism
| damned and the next thing we knew
| the thing exploded, luckily without
hurting any of US. But there we were
4 without gun and without food.
/ There were no fish around and, any
way, we didn't dare to rely on catch
! ing fish as we went on, for too many
/ explorers have starved because they
failed to catch fish just when they
needed them most.
tsWen, there sat those ducks by the
hundred and there sat we. with no way
to reach them. Dan made some bows
and arrows and we tried them. But
| although he was the son of an Indian
mother, he had never used bows and
arrows any more than 1 had, and we
! soon found that we would starve be-
to shoot any duck.
after fooling around for day or
two, during which time we ate up all
the duck that I had killed before the
gun burst, Morrowby said that he
would get enough birds so that we
would have food to last US till we got
to civilization. He warned US to get
back from the shore and hide in the
bushes SO that the birds would not
see US.
''Then he stripped himself and
rubbed his body all over with grease
bfrom the ducks that we had cooked.
He strapped a belt around his waist
/ loosely and attached strings with slip-
Knots to it all around. Then he gath
cred an arrnful of reeds and tied them
together in a rude clump. This clump
he followed out underneath till it
fitted over his head and shoulders.
" Now said he, be very quiet.
There is q. flock of blue bills just out
side of that point am going out
linto the water and work out as far as
I can wade among the wild rice out
there. AS soon as I am on the spot.
I want you to crawl to the shore and
then, While you remain hidden in the
bushes, wave the red rag that I have
tied to this stick. Do it very quietly
and slowly. Make no sudden mo-
tons. Blue bills are very inquisitive
ducks and they will probably come
swimming in slowly to see what the
red thing is. They will come. where
I am hiding and you must not make
a sound whatever happens then. You
will see something that viii surprise
''He stepped softly into the water
and waded out till he was well up to
his shoulders. Then he adjusted the
clump of reeds over his head and
slowly worked out TO the rice bed.
Nothing could be seen of him then.
and il looked merely as if a patch of
reeds were floating along with the
wind.
I ?
told and soon the flock of blue bills
made its appearance. The birds were
suspicious and alert, but, bit by bit.
their curiosity got the better of their
warfness, and they swan nearer and
nearer. The clump of reeds, under
which Dan MorrOwby was hidden,
moved almost impercepubly toward
them.
Suddenly a fine fat duck disappear
ed below the surface like a Shot=s0
quickly that it did not have time to
squawk. 1t was lucky that the guide
had cautioned US not to make a sound
no matter what happened, for the
thing was so sudden and amazing that
surely would have uttered an ex-
J clamation had not been prepared for
something queer.
well, the ducks kept looking at the
red rag and coming in by inches, and
! the reeds kept bobbing UP and down
and floating here and there among the
flock, and every few moments a duck
= WOUto ~ uoW.i' NO. ~ l C1Py ~e-l. III. ~.
went on for about half an hour, until
[ out of the flock of twenty-eight only
ten Weer left. Then duck managed to
S squawk Just as it was being pulled
: down, and away went the flock.
( Dan Morrowby, thoroughly chilled
! but with eighteen fine ducks hanging
] dead on the strings around his belt
Waded ashore He told us that his
7 father had learned the trick from an
q | Arapahoe Indian. who, curiously
! ! enough, had learned it from a South
American Indian who had accom-
?. panied scientific expedition into Can
= ada one time, He said the South