The golden geese of day had flown back to the Master's treasure house;

and ah! the loneliness of that first night at sea!--the low whistling

song of the icy winds among the shrouds; the cold repellent color tones

which lay thinly across the west, pressing upon the ragged, heaving

horizon; the splendor and intense brilliancy of the million stars; the

vast imposing circle of untamed water, the purple of its flowing

mountains and the velvet blackness of its sweeping valleys; the

monotonous seething round the boring prow and the sad gurgle of the

speeding wake; the weird canvas shadows rearing heavenward; and above

all, that silence which engulfs all human noises simply by its

Advertisement..

immensity! More than one stout heart grew doubtful and troubled under

the weight of this mystery.

Even the Iroquois Indian, born without fear, stoic, indifferent to

physical pain, even he wrapped his blanket closer about his head, held

his pipe pendent in nerveless fingers, and softly chanted an appeal to

the Okies of his forebears, forgetting the God of the black-robed

fathers in his fear of never again seeing the peaceful hills and

valleys of Onondaga or tasting the sweet waters of familiar springs.

For here was evil water, of which no man might drink to quench his

thirst; there were no firebrands to throw into the face of the North

Wind; there was no trail, to follow or to retrace. O for his mat by

the fire in the Long House, with the young braves and old warriors

sprawling around, recounting the victories of the hunt!

Only the seamen and the priests went about unconcerned, untroubled,

tranquil, the one knowing his sea and the other his God. There was

something reassuring in the serenity of the black cassocks as they went

hither and thither, offering physical and spiritual assistance. They

inspired the timid and the fearful, many of whom still believed that

the world had its falling-off place. And seasickness overcame many.

With some incertitude the Vicomte d'Halluys watched the Jesuits. After

all, he mused, it was something to be a priest, if only to possess this

calm. He himself had no liking for this voyage, since the woman he

loved was on the way to Spain. Whenever Brother Jacques passed under

the ship's lanterns, the vicomte stared keenly. What was there in this

handsome priest that stirred his antagonism? For the present there

seemed to be no solution. Eh, well, all this was a strange whim of

fate. Fortune had as many faces as Notre Dame has gargoyles. To bring

the Comte d'Hérouville, himself, and the Chevalier du Cévennes together

on a voyage of hazard! He looked around to discover the whereabouts of

the count. He saw him leaning against a mast, his face calm, his

manner easy.

"There is danger in that calm; I must walk with care. My faith! but

the Chevalier will have his hands full one of these days."




Most Popular