C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

In Pierre House7I"Where is the next possible chance?" I asked, holding my breath and trying tospeak in a casual tone. He told me it would be at Old Crow. By this time we hadthe maps spread out before us on the counter of the store."It's quite a settlement," he said, "you'd sure fmd a guide there who wouldpaddle down to Fort Yukon with you.""What about Lazarus and the boy coming on to Old Crow with us?" I enquiredhopefully. He shook his head."They wouldn't do it," he said with decision. "The track back over muskegcountry to McPherson or Aklavik is long enough when they are carrying theirfood on their backs.""What's the river like between La Pierre House and Old Crow?" I asked him,and he told me that he had never been there, but he reckoned it was a stretch ofabout II5 miles."Could we do it alone?" was my next question."Oh, sure," he said airily, but he did not mention the question of rapids nordid he seem to know exactly where they occurred.I returned to Gwen with the news. She began muttering to herself. WheneverGwen muttered it was like the growl of distant thunder, one knew there was worseto come. At last it came, with the most scornful expletive in her vocabulary, whichwas rather a limited one except where nautical matters were involved."The miserable landlubbers," she said, "and they told us that La Pierre Housewas a certainty."Alandlubber, in her view of things, was not only an incompetent oafbut also aman who was apt to let others down and to make engagements without fulfillingthem. I do not think she credited those earth-bred and earth-bound people withany virtues at all. The sea had always been the greatest thing in her island life andall her heroes were to be found among seafaring men.We both sat on our balcony for a while, gazing with glum faces at the maps, as ifwe hoped to find on them a substitute for that deserted cabin with the Frenchname. Then suddenly in the same breath we said: "n5 miles isn't very far, and it'sgoing downriver.""Have you ever paddled a canoe?" asked Gwen. I told her I had not and askedher if she ever had. It seemed that she had only paddled a small one in the pondon Tresco, when she was a child in the Scilly islands. On the other hand I knewthat she had learned to row a boat before she learned to walk.