Charles G D Roberts

The House in the Water Charles G D Roberts

UPON the moonlit stillness came suddenly a far-off, muffled, crashing sound. Just onceit came, then once again the stillness of the wilderness night, the stillness of vast, untraversed solitude. The Boy lifted his eyes and glanced across the thin reek of thecamp-fire at Jabe Smith, who sat smoking contemplatively. Answering the glance, thewoodsman muttered "old tree fallin'," and resumed his passive contemplation of thesticks glowing keenly in the fire. The Boy, upon whom, as soon as he entered thewilderness, the taciturnity of the woodsfolk descended as a garment, said nothing, but scanned his companion's gaunt face with a gravely incredulous smile. So wide-spread and supreme was the silence that 2 five seconds after that singlestrange sound had died out it seemed, somehow, impossible to believe it had everbeen. The light gurgle of the shallow and shrunken brook which ran past the open frontof the travellers' "lean-to" served only to measure the stillness. Both Jabe and the Boy, since eating their dinner, had gradually forgotten to talk. As the moon rose over the low, fir-crested hills they had sunk into reverie, watching the camp-fire die down. At last, with a sort of crisp whisper a stick, burnt through the middle, fell apart, and aflicker of red flame leaped up. The woodsman knocked out his pipe, rose slowly to hisfeet, stretched his gaunt length, and murmured, "Reckon we might as well turn in.""That's all right for you, Jabe," answered the Boy, rising also, tightening his belt, andreaching for his rifle, "but I'm going off to see what I can see. Night's the time to seethings in the woods."Jabe grunted non-committally, and began spreading his blanket in the lean-to. "Don'tforgit to come back for breakfast, that's all," he muttered. He regarded the Boy as aphenomenally brilliant hunter and trapper spoiled by sentimental notions.3To the Boy, whose interest in all pertaining to woodcraft was much broader and moresympathetic than that of his companion, Jabe's interpretation of the sound of the fallingtree had seemed hasty and shallow. He knew that there was no better all-roundwoodsman in these countries than Jabe Smith; but he knew also that Jabe's interest inthe craft was limited pretty strictly to his activities as hunter, trapper and lumberman. Just now he was all lumberman. He was acting as what is called a "timber-cruiser,"roaming the remoter and less-known regions of the wilderness to locate the bestgrowths of spruce and pine for the winter's lumbering operations, and for the present hiskeen faculties were set on the noting of tree growths, and water-courses, and the lay ofthe land for the getting out of a winter's cutting. On this particular cruise the Boy--who, for all the disparity in their years and the divergence in their views, was his most valuedcomrade--had accompanied him with a special object in