The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Desolation, by R.M. Ballantyne

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Fort Desolation
Red Indians and Fur Traders of Rupert's Land

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21732]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORT DESOLATION ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

FORT DESOLATION, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

OR, SOLITUDE IN THE WILDERNESS.

THE OUTSKIRTER.

To some minds solitude is depressing, to others it is congenial. It was
the _former_ to our friend John Robinson; yet he had a large share of it
in his chequered life. John--more familiarly known as Jack--was as
romantic as his name was the reverse. To look at him you would have
supposed that he was the most ordinary of common-place men, but if you
had known him, as we did, you would have discovered that there was a
deep, silent, but ever-flowing river of enthusiasm, energy, fervour--in
a word, romance--in his soul, which seldom or never manifested itself in
words, and only now and then, on rare occasions, flashed out in a
lightning glance, or blazed up in a fiery countenance. For the most
part Jack was calm as a mill-pond, deep as the Atlantic, straightforward
and grave as an undertaker's clerk and good-humoured as an unspoilt and
healthy child.

Jack never made a joke, but, certes, he could enjoy one; and he had a
way of showing his enjoyment by a twinkle in his blue eye and a chuckle
in his throat that was peculiarly impressive.

Jack was a type of a large class. He was what we may call an
_outskirter_ of the world. He was one of those who, from the force of
necessity, or of self-will, or of circumstances, are driven to the outer
circle of this world to do as Adam and Eve's family did, battle with
Nature in her wildest scenes and moods; to earn his bread, literally, in
the sweat of his brow.

Jack was a middle-sized man of strong make. He was not sufficiently
large to overawe men by his size, neither was he so small as to invite
impertinence from "big bullies," of whom there were plenty in his
neighbourhood. In short, being an unpretending man and a plain man,
wi