The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1922-09-29
THE MASTER OF
BALLANTRAE
A WINTERS
STEVENSON

We were come to the most critica
III portion Of our course, where we Nigh
m equally expect to fall into the hands O
rs French or English, when a terrible
ID calamity befell us. Chew was taker
suddenly sick with symptoms like
It those OF poison, and in the course Of
e few hours expired in the bottom OF
d the canoe. We thus lost at once our
r guide, our interpreter, our boatman
l. and our passport, for he was all these
q IN one; and found ourselves reduced.
S at a blow, to the most desperate and
: irremediable distress.
, Chew, who took great pride in his
r knowledge, had indeed often lectured
} us ON the geography; and Ballantrae,
believe, would listen. But for nv
part have always found such infor-
nation highly tedious and beyond the
fact that we were now in the country
of the Adirondack Indians, and not so
distant from our destination, could we
but have found the way, was entirely
ignorant
The wisdom of my course was soon
the more apparent; for with all his
pains, Ballantrae was no further ad |
vanced than myself He knew we |
must continue to go up one stream |
then, by way of a portage, down an
other; and then up a third But you
are to consider, in a mountain coun-
try, how many streams come rolling
in from every hand. And how is a
gentleman, who is perfect stranger
in that part of the world, to tell any
one of them from the other? Nor was j
this our only trouble.
We were great novices, besides, in
handling a canoe; the portages were f
almost beyond our strength, so that I '
have seen us sit down in despair for C
half an hour at time without one S
word; and the appearance of single v
indian, since we had now no means of S
speaking to them, would have been in is
al probability the means of our de- o.
'truction. W
There is altogether some excuse if W
3allantrae showed something of a to
blooming disposition; his habit of i'm m
'uting blame to others, quite as can nj
BILE as himself, was less tolerabIe, M
nd his language it was not always in
asy to accept. Indeed, he had con-
racted on board the pirate ship a oc
of odd ;oI, |
Ugh degree unusual between gentle su
len; and now, when you might say me
e was in fever, it increased upon |
i'm hugely sal
The third day of these wanderings his
we were carrying the canoe upon a ma
cky portage, she fell and was en- of
rely bilged. The portage was be- is
yeen two lakes, both pretty extern rem
We; the track, such as it was, opened 7
both ends upon the water, and on mas
tn hands was inclosed by the I'M oft,
oxen woods; and the sides of the sni,
ies were quite impossible with bog; 7 q
that we beheld ourselves not only no
ndemned to go without our boat nov
the greater part of our provi- wa
ms, but to plunge at once into i'm If },
le'raoie ehlckets ana TO desert what thir
lie guidance we still had = the q
lrse of the river inot
Zach stuck his pistols in his belt. of
an ak, made a pack of his sore
asure and as much food as he I
Id stagger under, and deserving the this
of our possessions, even to our me
'rds, which would have much en- this
raised us among the woods, we set a lit
h on this deplorable adventure. a pa
labors of Hercules, so finely de- burn
ped by Homer, were trihe to little
I we now underwent Some parts a fal
the forest were perfectly dense shelf
n to the ground, SO that we must witht
our way like mites in a cheese. the b
ONE the bottom was full of deep large
mp, and the whole wood entirely by az
IN. TIL,
nave leaped on great fallen log batta
sunk to the knees in touchwood: waist
We sought to stay myself, in fall and I
against what looked to be a solid nilior
<, and the whole thing has whitfield habits
at my touch like sheet of pa other
stumbling, falling, begging to quicki
lnees, hewing our way, our eyes littl
st put out with twigs and pear
hes, our clothes plucked from suppol
odles, we labored all day, and it of he.
'ubtful if we made two miles few n
was worse, as we could rarely mans