Description
The Protector
CHAPTER I
A FRIEND IN NEED.
A light breeze was blowing down the inlet, scented with the smell of the
firs, and the tiny ripples it chased across the water splashed musically
against the bows of the canoe. There was a thud as the blade struck the
water, and the long, light hull forged onwards with slightly lifted,
bird’s-head prow, while the two men swung forward for the next stroke
with a rhythmic grace of motion. They knelt, facing forward, in the
bottom of the craft; and dissimilar as they were in features and, to
some extent, in character, the likeness between them was stronger than
the difference. Both bore the unmistakable stamp of a wholesome life
spent in vigorous labour in the open. Their eyes were clear, and like
those of most bushmen singularly steady; their skin was
weather-darkened, and they were leanly muscular.
On either side of the lane of green water giant firs, Cedars and
balsams, crept down the rocky hills to the whitened driftwood fringe.
They formed part of the great coniferous forest which rolls westwards
from the wet coast range of Canada’s Pacific province, and, overleaping
the Strait, spreads across the rugged and beautiful wilderness of
Vancouver Island. Ahead, clusters of little frame houses showed up here
and there in openings among the trees, and a small sloop, towards which
the canoe was heading, lay anchored near the wharf.
Product ID: 9781776770182
Sku: 9781776770182
