The Island of Yellow Sands: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys

by Ethel C. Brill

  XIX

  LE FORGERON TORDU AGAIN

  The stretch of water proved to be a long bay, with continuous shore onits northwest side, and a chain of wooded islands sheltering it from thesoutheast. The gold-seekers paddled steadily until nightfall compelledthem to make a landing in a little cove beyond a point. Navigationthrough unknown waters, where reefs and shoals might be encountered, wasperilous in the darkness. Though sharp and cold, the night was clear, sothe three did not crawl under the canoe, but lay down in the open withtheir feet to the fire. When they woke at dawn, the fire had gone out,and ground and trees around them were silvered with white frost. Theboys were stiff and chilled, but the exercise of cutting wood, and abreakfast of hot caribou broth, made from the dried meat boiled in thebirch bark basket, soon warmed them.

  Paddling out from the cove, their blades keeping time to

  "L'on, ton, laridon, danee, L'on, ton, laridon, dai,"

  they continued to the northeast along a rock coast, now rising in steepcliffs, again sloping gradually to the water, but broken, eaten out,riven and piled up into all sorts of shapes. The protecting islands, ahalf mile or more away, became smaller, farther apart and more barren.Soon the rock shore terminated in a point, and the travelers turned tothe north, ran past the end of the point, and found themselves crossinganother bay. To left and to right were wooded islands, while aheadstretched a long, forest-crowned ridge, which appeared to be severalhundred feet high.

  "That must be part of the same ridge we climbed," said Ronald eyeing itwith interest.

  The Indian grunted an assent. "Runs through whole of Minong," hereplied.

  The rising wind, penetrating between the islands, made paddling hardwork, until the voyageurs reached the shelter of the high ridge. There,turning to the northeast again, they followed a narrow passage betweenridge and islands, where the water was scarcely disturbed by a ripple.But when they came out from shelter, near the end of a long, high point,the full force of the wind struck them, and they were glad to turn backand make a landing on a bit of pebble beach.

  Before they turned, however, they saw, as they looked out over theheaving waves of the lake, a bit of land to the northeast. When they hadcarried the canoe up on the beach, the two boys with one accord startedto make their way to the end of the point, in the hope of getting abetter view of the speck of land across the water. They estimated thatit was four or five miles away. It was exactly in the direction theyintended to take in their search for the Island of Yellow Sands. Was itthe long-sought-for island, lying now in plain view?

  Nangotook, who had followed the lads, did not think so. "Island we camefrom," he said briefly, pointing to it.

  "You mean the place where we were wind-bound so long?" Jean asked. "Icannot think it. That must be farther away. Think how long we traveledin the fog!"

  "May have been going round and round part of the time. No way to tellafter fog got thick. Over there," and Nangotook pointed across the waterto the west of the bit of land, "Nanabozho."

  The Sleeping Giant was faintly but unmistakably discernible lying on thewater. When the boys considered his position, and the view they had hadof him from the island, they began to be afraid that Nangotook wasright, that the land to the northeast was only the place where they hadbeen delayed so long, and not the Island of Golden Sands. They wereloath to give up their new-born hope, however. As Ronald said, the onlyway to find out was to go and see. To cross those heaving waves in theteeth of the strong north wind was out of the question. Once more theymust wait for favorable weather.

  They went back to the more sheltered spot where they had landed. Therethey came upon something that put their disappointment, at not beingable to cross to the island, out of their heads for the time being.Farther along the pebble beach they found the ashes of a fire and thebones and uneatable remains of a hare. Near by was the pole skeleton ofa shelter, resting against the face of a rock. The Indian, afterexamining the place closely, concluded that the fire had been burningand the hare had been dressed and cooked since the rain of two nightsbefore, but he doubted if the shelter had been occupied the past night.Probably the campers had not been away from the place over thirty-sixhours at the farthest.

  The boys were greatly excited over the find. Was this the camp of LeForgeron Tordu and his Indian companion, and were the two still on theirtrail? The only way to answer the first question was to find theirtracks. The pebble beach retained no clear traces of moccasined feet,and the men had doubtless departed by canoe, but back from the beach,part way up the slope, where the trees stood thick and the rock wascovered with a layer of leaf mold, Jean came upon tracks. UnhesitatinglyNangotook pronounced the prints those of a man whose right foot turnedout and who threw his weight more heavily upon that foot than upon theleft. Not far away the Ojibwa found other tracks, made by another man.This trail he succeeded in following through the woods to the top of theridge, where, in a narrow rock opening, a hare runway, he discovered theremains of a snare. The noose had been taken away, but the fence oftwigs, leading to the spot where it had been set, remained.

  It now seemed perfectly clear that the Frenchman and his Indiancompanion had been camping on the beach not longer ago than the morningbefore. Apparently Le Forgeron was still in pursuit of thegold-seekers. Had he seen them set out from the island before dawn, andhad he followed? Nangotook thought that very unlikely. He did notbelieve Le Forgeron had been where he could observe their departure. Ifhe had been hiding anywhere on the island, it must have been in one ofthe caves on the north shore. Yet it did not seem likely that he hadcrossed from the island after the lifting of the fog, for the winds hadbeen strong ever since. Nangotook doubted if the Blacksmith could havemade his way across the stretch of open lake at any time during the pastfive days. He came to the conclusion that Le Forgeron must have crossedbefore the others left the island, perhaps immediately after he or hiscompanion had hurled Ronald from the cliff. Ronald, however, pointed outthat the wind and waves had been very unfavorable at that time, and theIndian was forced to admit that the boy was right. Unable to solve theproblem, he shook his head doubtfully. "Awishtoya evil man," he said,"very evil. Maybe he can put spell on waters and go when he pleases."

  "I have heard it said that he has sold himself to the devil," Jeanreplied seriously, "so it may be indeed as you say. He may have seen usgo, though, and if he followed he was caught in the fog too, and mayhave reached this place by accident. One thing is certain. He has beenhere. Surely it is not so important to know just when he came, as todiscover where he has gone and whether he will return."

  "You are right," Ronald agreed. "We must be tracking this enemy ofours. Unless he's in league with the evil one, he has not crossed tothat island over there within the last two days, that is sure. The windand waves have been too high. And if that's the island we came from, hewould have no reason for going back. We had best be searching for him inthe other direction."

  "We go in canoe up this water then," and Nangotook pointed along thechannel to the southwest, "and we take all the meat with us. Awishtoyahas taken the apakwas from his wigwam. Yet he may come back. If we leaveanything he will find it."

  "That is true," cried Jean. "We must take everything with us, and leaveno trace behind. This is no place for us to camp, if there's a chancethat Le Forgeron may return."

  Carefully the Indian erased all signs of their visit to the beach and tothe woods and rocks near by. Stepping backwards, his body bent almostdouble, he smoothed out with his hands the tracks he and the boys hadmade in the adjacent forest. When he had completed his task, he was sureno traces remained that might not have been made by some passing animal.

  Then the three embarked and paddled back through the quiet channelbetween point and islands. They penetrated to the head of a long narrowbay, that lay parallel to the one they had come through that morning andthe evening before. There were many islands, and the shores wereforested to the water's edge. Though the searchers scanned the rocks andwoods closely, they found no clear signs
that a canoe had ever run inanywhere along either shore or on any of the islands. Several times theyexamined likely looking places, but always without definite result. Notone sure trace of Le Forgeron Tordu or of any human being did they find,though they made the complete circuit of the shore, reaching at last therocky point they had passed that morning. So thorough was their searchthat it occupied most of the day.

  Though they discovered no more clear signs of their enemy, the trip wasnot altogether fruitless, for, as they went along, they caught severalfish, lake trout of smaller size than those they had taken out in thelake. Near the head of the bay Jean hooked a pickerel, and, at the mouthof a small stream, several brook trout. The explorers landed on a small,well wooded island, that lay across a narrow stretch of water from theinner side of the point to the east of the bay, and cooked their fishand made camp.

  Etienne had almost convinced the boys that the island to the northwestwas the one where they had been wind-bound. Nevertheless they wereanxious to reach it, for they had resolved to strike out from there toeast and north, in one more effort to find the land of golden sands. Butthe spirits of the lake were still against them, and four days longerthey were held prisoner on the end of Minong. During most of the timethe open lake was very rough. Traveling several miles across it, againsta head or side wind, was far too perilous to be attempted in so frail acraft as a bark canoe. Only once for a few hours did the wind swing to amore favorable quarter, the south, and then it brought thick mistfollowed by fine, cold rain, almost as blinding as the fog. A strongwest wind dispersed rain and mist and blew away the clouds, but madecrossing as dangerous as ever.

  Impatient as the treasure-seekers were during all that time, they coulddo nothing but make the best of the delay. They camped on the smallisland, where no enemy could approach under cover, and continued theirsearch for Le Forgeron Tordu. Climbing to the top of the high ridge,they looked down another long bay, parallel with the two they werefamiliar with, and to wooded land and other stretches of water beyond.They were determined to explore that bay, but the strong wind anddangerous, outlying reefs made rounding the long point out of thequestion. So they were obliged to carry the canoe up the ridge, a hardand laborious portage, and with much difficulty take it down the steepnorth side. They caught a good supply of fish in that third bay, andfound slight signs on two of the islands that human beings might havebeen there not many days before. But there were no clear tracks theycould identify as those of the lame Frenchman. On the farther shore ofthe bay, near its head, they thought they had come upon a trail, butsoon made up their minds that it was only the old track of some wildanimal.

  Wishing to save their dried meat for emergencies, they made every effortto obtain enough fresh meat and fish to sustain them. As only threerounds of ammunition remained for the one gun, Nangotook spent part ofhis time making bows and arrows for himself and Jean, leaving the gun toRonald, who could be trusted not to waste his powder. The Ojibwa strunghis bow with twisted caribou sinew, braided at the ends. The arrowshafts he made of serviceberry wood, straightening them by drawing themthrough a hole he had bored in a piece of bone. Some of the arrows, withpoints of wood hardened in the fire, were intended for shooting birdsand squirrels. Others had heads of bone or chipped stone, let into aslit or groove in the end of the shaft and bound tight with soakedsinew, which contracted when dry. Nangotook insisted that the feathersused must be those of a bird of prey, or else the arrows would not besufficiently deadly. Coming one day upon several hawks, which circledwithin easy range, as they prepared to dart down on a flock of migratingsmall birds that had paused to rest and feed among the alders, Ronaldsacrificed one of his precious charges of ammunition to bring down oneof the marauders. With hawk feathers, carefully cut and placed to givejust the right weight and balance, Nangotook feathered his arrows. Whenhe had constructed two bark quivers, the primitive hunting equipment wasready.

  The Ojibwa demonstrated the use of the new weapon by shooting a squirreland a gull in quick succession, and the boys, admiring his skill, atonce set to work to practice with the other bow. Ronald, who was proudof his marksmanship, was chagrined to find that not only Nangotook butJean could easily outshoot him both in range and accuracy. In hischildhood the French lad had played with bows and arrows made byNangotook, who had taught him how to use them, while to Ronald theweapon was entirely new.

  The hide of the caribou was cured and dressed, and part of it made intonew moccasins to replace the wanderers' worn and ragged ones. From abone that he had saved for the purpose, Nangotook also made, with muchlabor, a knife such as his ancestors must have used before the white menbrought them steel and iron. Ronald's knife had been lost or taken fromhim when he fell over the cliff, and the Indian insisted that the ladtake his. He could use the bone one just as well, he said, and whenRonald hesitated to accept the gift, showed such plain signs of offense,that the boy hastened to take it to make amends. He guessed that thiswas Nangotook's way of expressing gratitude for his rescue fromdrowning.