It was two hundred miles to the Cree
encampment, and the journey had its double dangers.
Another officer was sent on the expedition for which Jim had been
preparing, and he made ready to go upon his lonely duty. His wife did
not know till three days after he had gone what the nature of his mission
was.
IV
Jim made his journey in good weather with his faithful dogs alone, and
came into the camp of the Crees armed with only a revolver. If he had
gone with ten men, there would have been an instant melee, in which
he would have lost his life. This is what the chief had expected, had
prepared for; but Jim was more formidable alone, with power far behind
him which could come with force and destroy the tribe, if resistance was
offered, than with fifty men. His tongue had a gift of terse and
picturesque speech, powerful with a people who had the gift of
imagination. With five hundred men ready to turn him loose in the plains
without dogs or food, he carried himself with a watchful coolness and
complacent determination which got home to their minds with great force.
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