216 SPORT INDEED 



I attempted to straighten myself into an erect position 

 a fresh jab would double me up. " What the deuce 

 can be the matter with my back ? " This question 

 naturally crossed my mind, and I never before queried 

 it with a stronger desire for an answer. For forty- 

 seven odd years had I boasted of my back and its 

 ability to shoulder difficulties ; why should it now 

 begin to cut capers and " go back on me " ? Had it 

 come across some difficulty it couldn't shoulder ? 

 Was it lumbago ? Well I had often heard of the dis- 

 ease but had no more idea that it would saddle itself 

 upon my back than I now have of saddling my country 

 with presidential aspirations. 



After many attempts, I managed to creep to my bed 

 of boughs. The pain was excruciating and getting 

 worse so fast that at ten o'clock it was unendurable ; 

 then I called two of the guides and offered them a 

 liberal sum to paddle across the lake to Roberval 

 thirty-eight miles away and get a doctor. One, only, 

 of the four Indians, could speak English, and the little 

 that he spoke was of the " pigeon " variety. 



They put their heads together and after a great deal 

 of powwowing went out, looked up at the sky and 

 then at the lake ; then they came back to me, the 

 pigeon man saying " Heap bad storm. You give two 

 pounds tobac extry and we go." If the demand had 

 been a hundred pounds, I was in full humor to grant it. 



After telling the " pigeon " what he was to say to the 



