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09 - Last of the Plainsmen by Zane Grey · Last of the Plainsmen

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Naza, Naza, Naza. It was a waiting day at Fort
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chippewayan the lonesome far northern Hudson Bay trading poasts seldom
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: saw such life. Teepees dotted the banks of the Slave River,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and lines of blanketed Indians paraded its shores. Near the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: boat landing. A group of chiefs grotesque in semi barbaric,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: semi civilized splendor, but black browed, austere eyed, stood in
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  Speaker 1: savage dignity, with folded arms and high held heads, lounging
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: on the grassy bank where white men, traders, trappers, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: officials of the post. All eyes were on the distant
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: curve of the river, where as it lost itself in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a fine French bend of dark green. White glinting waves
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: danced and fluttered a June sky lay blue in the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: majestic stream. Ragged spear topped, dense green trees massed down
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to the water beyond rose bold bald knobbed hills in
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: remote purple relief along Indian arms stretched south. The waiting
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: eyes discerned a black speck on the green and watched
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: it grow. A flat boat with a man standing to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the oars bore down swiftly. Not a red hand nor
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a white one offered to help the voyager in the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: difficult landing. The oblong, clumsy, heavilylated boat surged in with
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the current and passed the dock despite the boatman's efforts.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: He swung his craft in below upon a bar and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: roped it fast to a tree. The Indians crowded above
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: him on the bank. The boatman raised his powerful form,
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  Speaker 1: erect lifted a bronze face which seemed setting craggy hardness,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and cast from narrow eyes a keen, cool glance on
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: those above. The silvery gleam in his hair told of years. Silence,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: impressive as it was ominous, broke only to the rattle
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of camping paraphernalia, which the voyager threw to a level,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: grassy bench on the bank. Evidently, this unwelcome visitor had
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: journeyed from Afar, and his boat, sunk deep into the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: water with its load of barrels, boxes and bags, indicated
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: that the journey had only begun. Significant, too, were a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: couple of long Winchester rifles shining on a tarpaulin. A
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: cold faced crowd stirred and parted to permit the passage.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Of a tall, thin gray personage of official bearing in
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  Speaker 1: a faded military coat. Are you the Muskox hunter, he asked,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: in tones that contained no welcome. The boatman greeted this
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  Speaker 1: peremptory interlocular with a cool laugh, a strange laugh in
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: which the muscles of his face appeared not to play. Yes,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I am that man, he said. The chiefs of the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Chipewayan and great slave tribes have been apprized of your coming.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: They have held counsel and are here to speak with you.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: At a motion from the commandant, the line of chieftains
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: piled down to the level bench and formed a half
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: circle before the voyager to a man who had stood
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: before grim sitting bull and noble black thunder of the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Sioux and faced the falcon eyed Geronimo and glanced over
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  Speaker 1: the sights of a rifle at gorgeous feathered, wild free comanches.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: This semicircle of Savage's lords of the North was a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: sorry comparison. Bedobbled and betrinketed, slouchy and slovenly, these low
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: stature chiefs belied in appearance, their scorn bright eyes in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: lofty main. They made a sad group, one who spoke
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in unintelligible language, rolled out a haughty, sonorous voice over
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the listening multitude. When he had finished, a half breed
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: interpreter in the dress of a white man spoke at
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: a signal from the commandant. He says, listen to the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: great Orator of the Chippewayan. He has summoned all the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: chiefs of the tribes south of Great Slave Lake. He
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: has held council. The cunning of the paleface, who comes
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: to take the musk oxen is well known. Let the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: pale face hunter return to his own hunting grounds. Let
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: him turn his face from the north. Never will the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: chiefs permit the white man to take musk oxen alive
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  Speaker 1: from their country. The agatear the musk ox is their god.
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  Speaker 1: He gives them food and fur. He will never come back.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: If he is taken away, and the reindeer will follow him,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the chiefs and their people would starve. They command the
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  Speaker 1: pale face hunter to go back. They cry, Nasa, Nasa, Nasa,
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  Speaker 1: save for a thousand miles. I've heard that word. Nasa,
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  Speaker 1: returned the hunter with mingled curiosity and disgust. At Edmonton,
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  Speaker 1: Indian runner start ahead of me, and every village I struck.
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  Speaker 1: The redskins would crowd around me, and her old chief
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  Speaker 1: would harangue at me and motion me back and point
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  Speaker 1: north with Naza, Naza, Naza. What does it mean? No
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  Speaker 1: white man knows, No Indian will tell, answered the interpreter.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: The traders think it means a great slave. The North Star,
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  Speaker 1: the North Spirit, the North wind, the North lights, and Agatir,
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  Speaker 1: the musk Ox god. Well, say to the chiefs to
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: tell Akateer, I have been four moons on the way
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  Speaker 1: after some of his little laggoteers, and I'm going to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: keep on after them. Hunter, you are most unwise, broke
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: in the commandant in his officious voice. The Indians will
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: never permit you to take a musk Ox alive from
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  Speaker 1: the north. They worship him, pray to him. It is
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a wonder you have not been stopped. Goo will stop me,
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  Speaker 1: the Indians they will kill you if you do not
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  Speaker 1: turn back. Bah to tell an American plainsman that the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: hunter paused a steady moment with his eyelids narrowing over
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: slits of blue fire. There is no law to keep
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  Speaker 1: me out, nothing but Indian superstition and the greed of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay people, and I am an old fox
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: not to be fooled by petty Bates. For years the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: officer of this fur trading company have tried to keep
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: out of explorers. Even Sir John Franklin, an Englishman, could
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: not buy food of them. The policy of the company
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: is to side with the Indians to keep the traders
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and trappers. Why so they can keep on cheating the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: poor savages out of clothing and food by trading a
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: few trinkets and blankets little to back on rum for
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars worth of furs. Have I failed to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: hire a man after man, Indian after Indian, not to
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: know why I cannot get a helper? Have I a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: plainsman come a thousand miles alone to be scared by
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  Speaker 1: you or a lot of craven Indians? Have I been
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: dreaming of musk Oxen for forty years to slink south?
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  Speaker 1: Now when I begin to feel the north, not I
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: deliberately every chief, with the sound of a hissing snake,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: spat in the hunter's face. He stood immovable while they
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: perpetrated the outrage, then calmly wiped his cheeks and in
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  Speaker 1: his strange cool voice addressed the interpreter. Tell them, thus
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: they show their true qualities to insult in council. Tell
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: them they are not chiefs, but dogs. Tell them they
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: are not even squaws, only poor, miserable, starved dogs. Tell them,
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  Speaker 1: I turn my back on them. Tell them the pale
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: faces fought real chiefs, fierce, bold like eagles. And he
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: turns his back on dogs. Tell them he is the
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  Speaker 1: one who could teach them to raise the muskocks and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the reindeer, and to keep out the cold and the wolf.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: But they're blinded. Tell them, the hunter goes north through
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  Speaker 1: the Council of Chiefs. Ran a low mutter as of
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: gathering thunder tutor his word. The hunter turned his back
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  Speaker 1: on him as he brushed by his eye caught a
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  Speaker 1: gaunt savage slipping from the boat. At the hunter's stern call,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the Indian lift ashore started to run. If stole a
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: parcel would have succeeded in eluding its owner, But an
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: unforeseen obstacle as striking as it was unexpected, a white
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: man of colossal stature had stepped in the chief's passage
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and laid two great hands on him. Instantly, the parcel
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: flew from the Indian, and he spun in the air
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to fall into the river with a sounding splash. Yell
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: signaled the surprise and alarm caused by this unexpected incident.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: The Indian frantically swam to the shore, whereupon the champion
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of the Stranger in a strange Land lifted a bag
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: which gave forth a musical clink of steel, and throwing
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: it with the camp articles on the grassy bench, he
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  Speaker 1: extended a huge friendly hand. My name is Rhea, he said,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in the deep cavernous toins. Mine is Jones, replied the hunter,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and right quickly did he grasp a proliffered hand. He
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  Speaker 1: saw Rhea, a giant of whom he was but a
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  Speaker 1: stunted shadow six and a half feet. Rhea stood with
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  Speaker 1: yard wide shoulders of bulk of bone and brown, His ponderous,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: shaggy head rested on a bull neck. His broad face
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: with its low forehead, its close shut mastuff under jaw,
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  Speaker 1: its big o'paque eyes, pale and cruel as those of
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  Speaker 1: a jaguar, marked him a man of terrible brute force.
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  Speaker 1: Free Trader called the commandant, better think twice before you
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  Speaker 1: joined fortunes with the muskox hunter, the hell with you
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and your ntin dog eared redskins, cried Ria, I've run again,
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  Speaker 1: a man of my own kind, a man of my
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  Speaker 1: own country, and I'm going with him. With this, he
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  Speaker 1: thrust aside some encroaching gaping Indians so unconcernedly and ungently
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: that they sprawled upon the grass. Slowly the crowd mounted
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  Speaker 1: and once more lined the bank. Jones realized that, by
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: some late turning stroke of fortune, he had fallen in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: with one of the few free trees of the province.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: These free traders, from the very nature of their calling,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: which was to defy the fur company and to trap
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  Speaker 1: and trade on their own account, were a hardy and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: intrepid class of men. Raised worth to Jones exceeded that
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: of a dozen ordinary men. He knew the ways of
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  Speaker 1: the north, the language of the tribes, the habits of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the animals, the handling of dogs, and uses of food
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and fuel. Moreover, it soon appeared that he was a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: carpenter and blacksmith. Burm kit, he said, dumping the contents
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of his bag. It consisted of a bunch of steel traps,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: some tools of broken acts, a box of miscellaneous things
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  Speaker 1: such as trappers use and a few articles of flannel,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: even redskins, he added in explanation of his poverty. Not
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: much of an outfit, But I'm the man for you. Besides,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I had a pal once to knew you on the planes,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: called you Buff, Jones old Jim Brandy. Was I recollect? Jim,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: said Jones. He went down in Custer's last cho char.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: So you were Jim's pal. That'd be a recommendation if
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you needed one. But the way you chucked that Indian
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: overboard got me ray. Soon manifested himself as a man
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: of few words and much action. With the planks Jones
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: had on board, he heightened the stern and bow of
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  Speaker 1: the boat to keep out the beating waves in the rapids.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: He fashioned a steering gear and a less awkward set
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  Speaker 1: of oars, and shifted the cargo so as to make
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: more room in the craft. Buff, we're in for a storm.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Set up a tarpaulin and make a fire. We'll pretend
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to camp tonight. Those Indians won't dream. We'd try to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: run the river after dark, and we'll slip by under cover.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: The sun blazed over, Clouds moved up from the north.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: The cold wind swept the tips of the spruces, and
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: rain commenced to drive in gusts. By the time it
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: was dark, not an Indian showed himself. They were housed
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: from the storm. Lights twinkled in the teepees and the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: big log cabins of the trading company. Jones scouted round
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: till pitchy black night. Then a freezing, pouring blast sent
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: him back to the protection of a topperlin. When he
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: got there, he found that Ray had taken it down
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: and awaited him off, said the free trader, And with
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: no more noise than a drifting feather, the boat sprung
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: into the current and glided down till the twinkling fires
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: no longer a sectuated the darkness. By night, the river,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in common with all swift rivers, had a sullen voice,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and murmured at hurry, its restraint, its minutes, its meaning.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: The two boatmen, one at the steering gear one of
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the oars, faced the pelting rain and watched the dim
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: dark line of trees. The craft slid noiselessly onward into
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the gloom and into Jones's ears. Above the storm poured
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: another sound, a steady, muffled rumble, like the roll of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: giant chariot wheels. It had come to be a familiar
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: roar to him, and the only thing which, in his
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: long life of hazard, had ever sent the cold, prickling,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: tight shudder over his warm skin. Many times on the Abathbaca,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: that rumble had prestaged the dangerous and dreaded rapids. Hell
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: ben rapids shouted ray, bad water, but no rocks. The
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: rumble expanded to a roar, the roar to a boom
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: that charged the air with heaviness, with a dreamy burr,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the whole indistinct world appeared to be moving, to the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: lash of wind, to the sound of rain, to the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: roar of the river. The boat shot down and sailed aloft,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: met shock on, shock breasted, leaping dim white waves, and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: in a hollow, unearthly blend of watery sounds, rode on
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: and on, buffeted, tossed, pitched into a black chaos, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: yet gleamed with obscure shrouds of light. Then the convulsive
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: stream shrieked out a last defiance, changed its course abruptly
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: to slow down and drown the sound of rapids in
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: muffling distance. Once more, the craft swept on smoothly to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the drive of the wind and rush of the rain.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: By midnight, the storm cleared, murky clouds split to show
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: shiny blue white stars and a fitful moon that silvered
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the crests of the pruss and sometimes hidden like a
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: gleaming black threaded pearl behind the dark branches. Jolones, a
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: plainsman all his days, wonderingly watched the moon blanched water.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: He saw its shade and darken under shadowy walls of granite,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: where it swelled with hollow song and gurgle. He heard
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: again the far off rumble, faint on the night wind.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: High cliff banks appeared walled out the mellow light, and
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: the rivers suddenly narrowed yawning holes. Whirlpools of a second
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: opened with a gurgling suck, and raced with the boat on.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: The craft flew far ahead, a long, declining plane of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: jumping frosted waves played dark and white with the moonbeams.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: The slave plunged to his freedom down his river own
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: spiked bed, knowing no patient, Eddy and white wreathed his
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: dark shiny rocks in spume and spray. End of chapter
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: eight