XXIV
NANGOTOOK'S DISAPPEARANCE
Had the caribou not been badly wounded, pursuit would have beenhopeless, but it was bleeding freely, as its trail showed. Neverthelessit led the boys a long chase, down the hillside, along thickly wooded,low ground, through a gap between ridges and to the edge of a brook.There, exhausted by loss of blood, it sank down among the thickunderbrush. But when it caught sound or scent of the hunters, the beaststruggled to its feet again, and attempted to cross the stream. Jean,pushing through the bushes, caught sight of it, and let fly anotherarrow. He hit his mark, and the caribou fell before it could reach theother side.
After the lads had recovered their breath, they pulled the dead animalout of the shallow water. To take such a load up the ridge would be hardwork, and Ronald suggested that they try following the brook.
"It empties into the cove of course," he said. "When we reach there, oneof us can go back along shore for the canoe."
The banks of the brook were thickly covered with trees and bushes. Withtheir heavy load tied to a pole and carried between them, the boys madeslow progress. More than once they wished they had turned back the otherway. At last they came to a place where the brook rippled down a slopeinto a marsh, and joined a larger stream that wound sluggishly, in manyturns and twists, through the tall, ripe grass and sedges. On thefarther side of the larger stream was a dense belt of leafless shrubsthat appeared to stand almost in the water, and beyond them thick cedarwoods.
"Now where are we?" exclaimed Ronald disgustedly. "It seems I guessedwrong about this little brook. I never thought of its emptying intoanother stream."
"I'm not sure you were so very wrong," Jean replied. "We could see whenwe paddled up the cove that it was low and swampy at its head. This maywell be the very swamp. If we follow it we can soon discover."
Accordingly, turning to the north, they made their way along the higherground. The marsh was roughly triangular in shape and, as they went ontowards its base, they soon found that Jean was right. Beyond a belt ofrushes and other aquatic plants, the waters of the cove came in view.When the boys reached the shore, Jean offered to go for the canoe whileRonald kept watch over the game. Ronald did not like inaction, but heknew his friend was the better woodsman, and could make his way throughthe forest and over rough ground almost as rapidly and tirelessly asNangotook himself. So the Scotch lad set himself to wait as patiently ashe could.
The cove was longer, and the distance from the head to the place wherethe hunters had first landed was considerably farther, than Jean hadthought. He had supposed that he might have half a mile to go, but itwas really two or three times that far. He found the canoe safe, and sawno sign of the Indian's having returned from the hunt.
To let Nangotook know who had taken the canoe and when, the boy left anIndian sign. He drove a straight stick in the ground in an open placeand scratched a line in the earth along the shadow the stick cast. WhenNangotook returned, he would be able to tell, from the difference in theposition of the shadow at that time and the mark on the ground, how farthe sun had traveled in the meantime. On a piece of birch bark Jeanscratched with the point of his knife a large J and beneath it twoarrows pointing opposite ways. This bit of bark he pegged to the groundbeside the stick, with one arrow pointing up the cove, the other down,signs of the way he had gone and that he would return.
When the two lads reached the rendezvous again with their game, theyrather expected to find Nangotook waiting for them. He was not there, sothey decided to go on to camp. Ronald helped Jean to dress and cut upthe caribou. Then, leaving his companion to begin the drying process, hewent back for the Ojibwa.
The hunter had not arrived, and there was nothing to do but wait. Ronaldoccupied the time in fishing, paddling about where he would be in plainsight from shore and could be easily hailed. The afternoon drew to aclose, and still Nangotook did not return.
"He must have followed his game a long way," thought Ronald, "or else hemissed the caribou entirely and is looking for other tracks. We'll havethe laugh on him if he fails to get anything."
The sun had set behind threatening clouds, and, as darkness deepened,Ronald became a little uneasy. Could anything have happened toNangotook, he wondered, but he put the idea out of his head. The Indianwas abundantly able to take care of himself. He had merely gone far inpursuit of game. It was slow work coming back in the darkness,especially if he were heavily loaded.
Ronald went ashore, kindled a cooking fire and broiled a fish for hissupper. He was sorry he had not brought some of the fresh meat with him,but he had not expected to stay so long. After he had finished his meal,he sat down on a fallen tree beside his little fire and waited aspatiently as he could.
Time dragged slowly. Ronald was meditatively chewing a wintergreen leafand thinking back over the search for the golden sands, when he wasstartled by an owl that hooted from a tree above his head, thelong-drawn, blood-chilling, hunting cry of the great horned owl. The bigbird swooped down suddenly and flew out over the water with noiselesswings. A little later he heard its call again from far away. There was ascratching on the bark of a tall tree near by, and for a moment a redsquirrel broke out in peevish chattering. Ronald half rose from hisseat, thinking the little animal's excitement might mean Nangotook'sapproach. But no one appeared and all was silent again, except for thefaint lapping of the water and the monotonous rustling of the spruceneedles in the light breeze.
The night was growing very chilly, and the boy replenished his fire,regretting that he had not gathered more fuel while he could see to getit. Clouds covered the sky and the darkness was thick. He fell into adoze, from which he woke suddenly, as a small, slim, black form glidedby his feet and disappeared in the water. The mink had made no sound,but its mere presence had somehow served to arouse his suspicioussenses. The fire was almost out. As the boy stooped to put on the lastof his wood, he heard in the distance the snarling, cat-like screech ofa lynx. He made an instinctive movement of disgust. He loathed lynxesmore than any other animal, the treacherous, cruel cats. Most beasts hadsomething noble about them, however fierce they might be, he thought,but in the lynx he could see no good whatever. He remembered the timethe cat had fallen through the roof of the shelter, and the scrimmage heand Jean had had with the beast. That was the night Etienne had heard LeForgeron and had found his footprints and those of his companion. Then adisturbing thought flashed into the boy's mind, and he sat upright onhis log, wide awake.
Could it be that Le Forgeron was preventing Etienne's return? Had itbeen the smoke from the Blacksmith's fire he had seen, and had LeForgeron by some trick waylaid the Indian and killed him or badlyinjured him? Ronald had no doubt of the fight Nangotook would put up ifattacked. But if he had been taken by surprise and attacked two toone---- A dash of rain interrupted the lad's thoughts. He had no ideahow far advanced the night was, for the stars were all obscured. Hesprang up, groped his way to the canoe, turned it over, propped up oneside with the paddles, and crept under it. By the time he had settledhimself, the rain was coming down hard.
Ronald slept no more that night. His mind was too full of anxiety, hisapprehensions and imagination too wide awake. He tried to convincehimself that Nangotook had gone too far in pursuit of game to get backbefore dark, so had camped and waited for daylight. The lad couldconvince his reason of all this but not his imagination. It keptpicturing to him how the Ojibwa might have been ambushed or waylaid byhis enemies, and left dead in his tracks. He began to worry about Jeanalone in the camp. If the evil Frenchman had made way with Nangotook,would not the next move be to steal upon the camp at night and get Jeanalso? At that point in his imaginings, common sense reasserted itself.What possible reason could the Frenchman have for destroying them all?If he knew why they had come back to the lake, and was following them,he would surely not want to put them out of the way until they had ledhim to the golden sands. "But," whispered his imagination, "he mightwork to separate you and get rid of you two boys. He _did_ try to getrid of _you_ when he knocked y
ou over the cliff. He might think he couldforce or bribe Nangotook to lead him to the island." In such manner thelad's thoughts and feelings argued with one another through the rest ofthe night, which seemed to him well-nigh endless.
Dawn came at last, and Ronald crawled out of his shelter. The rain hadceased, but the morning was cold and raw, and he was stiff andshivering. He had made up his mind to return to camp first and see ifJean was safe. Then they would cache their meat supply, come back, andfollow Nangotook's trail, to find out what had become of him.
Ronald paddled back to the camping ground at his best speed. When heentered the little bay he was relieved to see Jean.
Jean turned at Ronald's shout. Seeing the latter returning alone, hestared in amazement, and then ran down to the water calling outquestions. When he had heard Ronald's story, his anxiety was evengreater than his comrade's, for Nangotook had always been a devotedfriend to him, and Jean was very fond of the Indian. Hurriedly the twotook the meat from the fire, wrapped it in bark, and hung it in a treefor safe keeping. Then, waiting only long enough to eat a little of thebroiled meat, they launched the canoe and made speed back to the placewhere Ronald had passed the night. Before taking to the trail, however,they carried the canoe some distance from the landing place, hid it in athicket, and did their best to erase all signs that might lead to itsdiscovery. If Le Forgeron Tordu were anywhere about, the lads had nointention of letting him steal the canoe while they were searching forNangotook.
The Island of Yellow Sands: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys Page 24