XXV
THE RED SPOT AMONG THE GREEN
Jean and Ronald went first to the spot on the ridge where the threehunters had separated. From there they attempted to trace the cariboutrail Nangotook had set out to follow. It was a well traveled track,which had evidently been much used by the animals, and was not difficultto follow for a mile or more. Then the boys lost it in a bog, where therain of the night before had soaked the spongy moss and had caused it toexpand and blot out all tracks. There were plenty of evidences thatcaribou had visited the place more than once. Here and there plants andbushes had been nibbled and cropped, and small trees had been strippedof bark and branches far above where hares could reach. Evidently thecaribou had wandered about all over the bog to feed, but had made nowell defined trail through it.
When the lads tried to determine which way the animals had gone, andNangotook after them, they encountered a difficult problem. In the woodsthat encircled the wetter and more open part of the bog, there were halfa dozen breaks where caribou might have gone through and where theIndian might have followed their tracks. Jean and Ronald examined all ofthe openings, and tried to decide which one Nangotook had probably used.The ground was still spongy, and the rain had obliterated allfootprints. The trees and bushes around one of the openings showedsigns of recent nibbling, however, and the boys decided to try that one.But they had not gone far when they lost all trace of the trail, iftrail it really was. There were no more nibbled trees, and noindications that any animal had ever been through the thick tangle ofstanding and fallen cedar and black spruce.
The two retraced their steps to the bog, and tried another of theopenings, to meet with a similar disappointment. The third attempt wasmore successful. The track was faint indeed, so faint that Ronald couldnever have followed it if he had been alone, but Jean was a betterwoodsman, with a surer instinct for a trail. He led the way, throughswamp woods, and up rising ground, partly wooded, partly open, untilthey reached a spot where they could look out over the lake to thenorth. There, along the ridge, the reindeer lichen had been croppedclose in many places, proving beyond a doubt that caribou had beenthere, whether they had come the way the boys had just traveled or not.From the ridge top the descent to the lake was steep, with broken cliffsand a rough, inhospitable, stony beach at the base. After Jean hadclimbed a jack pine to get a better view of the surroundings, the twofollowed along the ridge to the southwest, noting the cropped moss andnibbled bushes as they went.
Reaching a gully, which bore signs that the animals might have gone thatway, the boys scrambled through it and down over the rocks to thenarrow, stony beach. A rocky, wooded island, perhaps a quarter of amile out and almost parallel with the shore, served as a slightwindbreak and had probably aided in the formation of the beach, whichwas about a mile in length. Beyond it on either hand the cliffs rosestraight from the water.
Finding nothing to indicate that Nangotook had visited the beach, thelads climbed up the broken cliffs, and followed the shore to thenortheast for a couple of miles until they came out on a point acrossthe cove from their camp. There they saw a caribou feeding, but thebeast took alarm before Jean was within range, and made off so rapidlythat pursuit was useless. They had found no trace of Nangotook.
Worried and puzzled, but still hoping that while they were searching forhim, the Indian might have returned to the rendezvous, the two boys madetheir way along the west shore of the cove, to the place where they hadleft the canoe. The boat was undisturbed, and there were no signs of theOjibwa.
All that day and the two following, they searched for Nangotook. Theyexplored all the tracks and suggestions of tracks that led from the bogwhere the caribou fed. They went along the cliffs beyond the gully,where they had descended to the shore, until they came to an indentationin the coast line, a great open bay, only partly protected by islands.Several times they saw caribou, but were not able to approach nearenough for a successful shot.
The two also explored the whole western side of the cove to its head,and went up the stream to its source, a long, narrow, crook-shaped lake.On the third day of their search, they examined the east shore of theharbor, although it did not seem likely that Nangotook had been there.It was possible, however, that he might, in his pursuit of game, havebeen led around the head, across the marsh and stream and down the eastside. The boys crossed the little inlet where their camp lay, andexamined, as thoroughly as they could, both the lower ground and theridge that ran at an angle with the cove. Along that ridge, and down itssoutheastern slope they came across a number of old pits, but allovergrown and showing no signs of having been mined for many years.
At the base of the ridge, a little back from the shore, in a grove ofbirch trees, the lads found the remains of a camp. It was from thisplace that Ronald had seen the thin wisp of smoke ascending. The camphad evidently been a temporary one, for no lodge had been built.Probably the campers had used their canoe for shelter, though there wereno marks in the ground to show where it had rested on paddles or poles.Neither were there any footprints, but that was not surprising, for theground was rocky, with only shallow soil that would not take deepimprints. The ashes and charred sticks of the fire remained, and stumps,with the ax marks plain upon them, indicated where wood had been cut. Alarge birch had been partly stripped of its bark, doubtless for thepurpose of repairing the canoe, or making utensils of some kind. Bones,bits of skin, fish scales and heads, and the uneatable parts of hares,squirrels and birds, were strewn about the ground in the Indian manner.The untidiness did not prove that the camp was necessarily an Indianone, however, for the white forest-wanderers were usually quite ascareless of neatness and cleanliness as the savages themselves. Jean andRonald, who piled fish and game refuse in a heap a little distance fromthe camp, and out of sight and smell, were far more particular than mostof the wilderness travelers.
Though they could find no direct evidence, the lads were certain intheir own minds that this camp had belonged to Le Forgeron Tordu and hisCree companion. They could not have explained why they were so sure, butthey _were_ sure nevertheless. They were convinced, too, that there wassome connection between the camp and the disappearance of Nangotook,although they had not come upon the slightest evidence of foul play.After examining the place closely, they concluded that the camp groundhad not been used for several days. Jean thought, from the appearance ofthe ashes, that the fire had not been burning since the last rain, andno rain had fallen since the night Ronald had spent waiting for theOjibwa to return from the hunt. There was no discernible trail that ledany distance from the camp. Very likely the campers had come to the spotby water and had departed in the same way. So the finding of the place,instead of helping to solve the problem of Nangotook's disappearance,only increased the boys' perplexity as well as their uneasiness.
Late in the afternoon of the same day, they saw something else thattroubled them. Having searched everywhere for some trace of theircompanion, they were in a state of puzzlement over what to do next, buttoo restless to remain quiet. So they paddled to the entrance of thecove, and made their way out among the reefs, and along the base of thesteep cliffs to the southwest. As they were going slowly along, with aline and hook attached to the stern paddle, Jean, who was in the bow,caught sight of some bright red thing gleaming among the green ofevergreen trees on an outlying rocky island. With an exclamation, hepointed out the bright spot to Ronald, who had but a glimpse of itbefore it disappeared.
"There's a man on that island," said Jean excitedly. "That was a bit ofhis toque."
"It looked like it," Ronald admitted, "but it may have been only theautumn red of a rowan tree."
"No, no," Jean replied quickly. "That was no mountain ash tree. It wouldnot have disappeared that way. We should still be able to see it. Thered spot moved quickly and disappeared among the green. Yet there is nowind. I tell you it is a man. It is Le Forgeron, I am sure."
"That may be true," Ronald answered. "At any rate we must find out. Ifwe can get on the track of the Blacksmith we may disc
over what hasbecome of Etienne. I have little hope that he still lives, but at leastwe may find out how he died. We can't be leaving this place to make ourway to the Grande Portage while there's any chance that he may return.Yet if we do not go soon, winter may catch us and hold us prisoner."
Jean nodded gravely. "We cannot rest till we find out what that redthing is," he said. "But if it is Le Forgeron's toque, it would not bewise to approach too closely now. We will go back to our camp again, asif we had noticed nothing, and after darkness comes, we will paddleacross to that place and look for what we may find."
Ronald agreed at once. Not to excite suspicion if any one was watchingfrom the island, they went on a little farther before turning, thenpaddled slowly back, as if their whole attention were devoted to theirfishing.
After darkness had come, the two lads embarked again, made their way outamong the rocks at the mouth of the harbor, and paddled towards theisland. They wielded their blades silently, but darted as rapidly asthey could across the open water. In spite of the fact that the moon hadnot yet risen, they were afraid their canoe could be seen by anykeen-eyed person who might be looking that way. As they approached theisland, they watched closely for the gleam of a camp-fire or for anysign of life, but no light glowed through the trees that clothed thecentral part of the rock island, and no movement was visible. Drawingnear to land, the boys slowed their stroke and crept quietly alongshore, searching the shadows for a landing place. A little cove in therocks appeared to be a likely place, and, running in, they found a bitof pebble beach where they succeeded in making a safe landing. Theyconcealed the canoe in a cleft of the rocks, where the shadows layblack, and then started to reconnoiter.
Cautiously and noiselessly they climbed the rocks to the patch of woods.An owl flew out on silent wings, and sailed down so close to Ronald'shead that it startled him for a moment. No sound, but the rustling ofevergreen needles in the light breeze and the low rippling of the waterin the crannies of the rock shore below, disturbed the utter stillness.With the exception of the ghostly owl, there seemed to be no lifewhatever on the island.
In the darkness of the trees and bushes, they had to proceed verycarefully. They did not attempt to go through the center of the woodedpatch, but made their way along its edge, on the alert every moment forsome sign of a camp. So cautiously did they move, stopping every fewpaces to listen and peer into the shadows, that it took them a long timeto go the short distance to the southern end of the island, and beforethey reached it, the moon had risen and was lighting up the bare rocksand the water beyond.
So far the two had come upon no traces of either man or beast, butthere, in the moonlight, Jean discovered a bent and broken serviceberrybush, where something, man or animal, had pushed through. He dropped onhis knees to look for tracks, but could find no trace of footprints inthe thin soil that only partly covered the rock. As he rose to his feet,he sniffed the air like an animal that catches a scent.
"Smoke," he whispered to Ronald.
Ronald, who had been examining a patch of moss at his feet, trying tomake out whether it had been trodden on or not, turned his head in thedirection of the wind and sniffed also. "Yes," he whispered back, "someone has a fire over there in the woods. We must be finding out aboutit." And stepping in front of Jean, he pushed through the bushes.
As the two made their way among the trees, going very cautiously overthe rough ground, where broken rocks, cropping out everywhere and hiddenin the shadow of the stunted and twisted spruces, made progressdifficult, the smell of smoke came more and more strongly to theirnostrils. Though as yet they could not see it, the camp-fire must beclose at hand, they thought, and they went carefully that no sound mightbetray their presence. A faint, crackling noise reached their ears. Itgrew rapidly louder. Gleams of red appeared through the tree trunksahead. Ronald stopped short, stared a moment, then turned to Jean, whohad come up to him.
"That is no camp-fire," he exclaimed, with a note of alarm in his lowpitched voice.
Jean looked where the other pointed and gave a little gasp. "The woodsare on fire," he whispered. "The canoe, quick! Out of the trees to therocks and around that way."
The Island of Yellow Sands: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys Page 25