alongside. "You goin' travel up de Albanee?" he added, with a grin. But there came no answer to his question.
Shortly a gold-braided cap crowning the bearded face of an officer appeared at the rail, and a gruff voice demanded:
"Where are you from and where bound?"
"I go to Albanee; been huntin' up de wes' coast las' long snows," replied the Cree, while the excited dog bared his white fangs in a snarl at the strangers peering down at the canoe.
"Keep your dog quiet!" the officer rasped.
Gaspard spoke to the husky.
"Now make your boat fast to the ladder and come aboard."
After the long months he had spent alone with his dog, the half-breed welcomed the opportunity for a chat and a meal of ship's rations with the crew of the vessel. Furthermore, she was out of her course, in a dangerous position, close in on the Albany shoals, and the captain needed the information he could give him. So lashing his canoe to the rope ladder dropped over the side, Laroque clambered aboard, followed by the yelps of his deserted dog.
Twice Laroque had seen ships of the Hudson's Bay Company loading furs at Charlton Island, but he knew at once from the looks of the long deck-house and the size of the vessel that she was not one of these. A group of sailors, talking together in a strange tongue, eyed with frank curiosity the swart trapper with gaudy Hudson's Bay sash, skinning-knife at
