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

by Ethel C. Brill

  XIV

  LOST IN THE FOG

  All that night the wind blew a gale, dashing the waves on the rocks,where they broke in showers of foam and spray that gleamed white in themoonlight, for the sky was cloudless and the air clear and cold.

  When the gold-seekers looked off across the water next morning they metwith a surprise. Far away to the west stretched a dim blue shape likethe figure of a gigantic man lying on his back.

  "The Cape of Nanabozho," exclaimed the Indian in an awe-struck tone.

  "The Sleeping Giant himself," the lads cried, and Jean added, "Are wenot then far west of our course? Surely we should not be able to see thePointe au Tonnerre."

  Nangotook shook his head. "Who knows," he said, "how far the Cape ofThunder may be seen? Is it not the home of Nanabozho himself? Who knowsthat it may not come and go in the sight of men at the will of themanito?"

  "But," objected Ronald, "you said that island on the east shore was thegrave of Nanabozho. What has he to do with the Cape of Thunder?"

  Nangotook looked puzzled. "It is true," he said slowly, "my people saythe manito makes his dwelling on that island to the east, but they sayalso that the Cape of Thunder is formed in his likeness, and they leaveofferings to him there. It may be," the Ojibwa added, his face clearing,"that part of the time he lives in one place, part of the time in theother. Why not? Spirits may be in many places. They do not travel slowlylike men, who creep along with much labor. What do the manitos know ofpaddling and of portages? They cross high hills at a stride, and theland and water are alike to them. Do not the white fathers say that Godis a spirit and that He is everywhere?"

  "Hush, hush, Etienne!" cried Jean scandalized. "Would you speak of thegood God and your heathen manitos in the same breath, and even comparethem with Him? And you a Christian! It is sacrilege!"

  The Ojibwa looked abashed. "I _am_ a Christian, I worship the one greatspirit as the fathers taught me," he answered somewhat sullenly. Hestarted to turn away, but Ronald spoke to him.

  "Surely," the boy insisted, "we're out of our course. We've been driventoo far to the west, and must seek our island towards the east. Is thatnot true?"

  "It may be," Nangotook grunted, "if that is the true cape."

  "Of course it is the cape. What else could it be?"

  "A sign from the manito himself," growled the Indian, and turned hisback.

  The lads were not unimpressed by Nangotook's words and manner. The dimfigure, like a great man outstretched in sleep, seemed mysterious anduncanny enough to their imaginations. Thunder Cape is the easternboundary of Thunder Bay on the northwest shore of Superior, and it isonly its highest part that is visible far across the lake, the lowerland sinking entirely out of view and leaving the Giant lying solitaryon the water.

  "Etienne says it is a sign," Jean remarked in a low voice. "Does hethink the omen good or bad, I wonder?"

  Ronald shook his head. "I doubt if he knows what he thinks, but what isthat to us? If we ever find the gold, we will secure it in spite of allthe Indian devils in the lake." He spoke hotly, eager to prove tohimself as well as to his companion that he had no faith in or respectfor the power of such heathen spirits and demons.

  Jean looked a little frightened at his friend's bold tone. Nangotookturned on him with a stern face. "Speak not so of the manitos of thesewaters," he said peremptorily, "lest you rouse their wrath and bringdisaster on us all." And with a glance of scorn at the offending lad, hewalked away.

  "Nangotook is but a weak kind of Christian," Ronald remarked sneeringly."He still puts his faith in these manitos of his and fears them." Theboy was smarting under the Indian's rebuke.

  Jean shook his head doubtfully. "He is a Christian," he replied, "but,being an Indian, he has seen instances of the power of the spirits ofthe lake. I, too, am a Christian, as you very well know, and have noveneration for such savage gods and devils, but I have heard strangetales of their doings and of the power of their priests. Father Renesays the medicine men's gifts are surely of the devil, but that goodChristians who put their faith in a higher power need have no fear ofthem. Yet I can see no good in offending the spirits needlessly, andbringing their enmity upon us by foolish speeches."

  To this argument, which indicated that Jean upheld the Indian in hisrebuke, Ronald found no ready answer. Indeed in his heart he was not socontemptuous of the manito's powers as he appeared, and was just a bituneasy over his own defiance. The feeling was not strong enough,however, to shake his determination to find the wonderful island and tocarry off a goodly sample of its golden sands.

  The wind was still blowing so strongly from the west as to maketraveling impossible. Ronald had suffered no ill effects, except alittle stiffness of the muscles, from his soaking and chilling of theday before, but the wound on his forehead and a lump on the back of hishead pained him considerably, so he did not care to exert himself. Heremained in camp, spending his time mending his clothes and making ahare skin cap to replace the toque he had lost when he fell over thecliff. The others fished on the lea side of the island, visited thesnares, and searched for some signs of the man or beast that hadattacked the boy. With the exception of some footprints at the edge ofthe cliff, prints made by a larger moccasin than Ronald wore, there wasno trace of the mysterious enemy. The tracks were found in one placeonly, where a little earth had lodged on the rock. On the almost barerocks round about, no marks were discernible. Jean and Etienne wouldhave been glad to explore the caves under the cliff, but the high windof that day and the following one made it impossible to use the canoe onthat side of the island.

  The second evening after Ronald's fall from the cliff, a wonderfulaurora borealis, more brightly colored than any the boys had ever seen,waved its streamers of green, yellow, orange and flame-red over thenorthern sky. Nangotook regarded it with awe, and muttered something inhis own language that the boys could not understand.

  The next night the wind went down with the sun, but when the lads creptinto their blankets, the long roll of the waves had not subsided enoughto make launching the canoe safe. Since they had learned of the presenceof an enemy on the island, one or another of the three had kept awakeand watchful all night. When Ronald took his turn before dawn, he leftthe wigwam and scrambled down the rocks to get a drink of water. He waspleased to find that the waves had smoothed out into long, gentleswells. "We can surely cross to that other land to-day," he thought. Hewas too impatient to put off departure, however. Why wait till daylight?The sun would come up in another hour or two. If they started at once,they could make the trip before there was any danger of the wind risingagain, and, moreover, their enemies, who might be on the watchsomewhere, would be less likely to see them go.

  The lad returned to the shelter, aroused the others and explained hisplan. Jean was eager to go, and Nangotook grunted his assent. The ideaof stealing a march on their enemies appealed to the Indian's love ofstrategy. Dawn was just beginning to break, when everything was ready.But Nangotook suddenly became reluctant to start out. He pointed to themist that lay on the water and dimmed the stars. "Fog come soon," hesaid.

  "'Tis only the morning haze," replied Ronald. "'Tis not thick enough tohinder us, and it will disappear at sunrise."

  "We shall be there by sunrise if we start now," Jean added confidently."That land is not far away. An hour's paddling will surely take usthere."

  "Better wait and see," said the Ojibwa.

  But the boys insisted. They were impatient to be gone, and could notendure the thought of further delay. Ronald especially was stubbornlydetermined. He knew better than to accuse Nangotook openly of cowardice,but he hinted so plainly that the Indian might be influenced by fear,that the latter's pride was touched. Suddenly breaking short theargument, he picked up the canoe, stalked into the water with it, andheld it ready for the lads to step in.

  They began their trip in silence. During the stay on the islandNangotook had whittled out two paddles to replace the ones they hadlost, and now, as was his custom, he took the bow, with Jean in thes
tern. In the dim light and the haze they could not make out the land towhich they were going, but they knew the direction, and had no fear ofmissing the place unless the mist grew denser.

  It did grow denser. The light breeze was almost directly south now andit brought the fog. Gradually, and at first almost imperceptibly, thehaze thickened. Nangotook and the boys paddled with all their strengthand speed, the latter confident that they would soon reach theirdestination, the Indian so silent and stolid that it was impossible toguess at his thoughts. Then suddenly, all in a moment as it seemed, thefog folded them in its thick white blanket. Nangotook grunted as if tosay "I told you so," but did not lessen the speed of his stroke. To turnback was useless. There was better chance of keeping their directiontrue if they went ahead, for in turning they would almost inevitablylose their bearings.

  The breeze was driving the fog, and as they went on, Jean and Ronaldwere sure, from the angle at which they took the waves and the way thebreeze struck them, that they were keeping the course and would soonreach land. They strained their ears for the sound of water lapping onrocks or sand beach, and peered through the thickness for the shadowy,looming shape of cliffs or trees.

  On and on they went. The fog whitened with the coming of dawn, but didnot lessen or disperse. It blew and shifted from time to time, but neverthinned enough to give them a clear view for more than a few feet in anydirection. Either the land they had seen was much farther away than theyhad estimated, or they were out of their course. The Indian had nothingto say, and the lads could not tell whether he had really lost hisbearings and knew it, or believed himself to be going in the rightdirection. When they questioned him, he answered only with grunts. Theyhad scorned his advice, and had hurt his pride by implying that he wasafraid to set out. Now he was letting them take their punishment.

  They were certainly being well punished. As they paddled on through thefog, without a sound or glimpse of anything that suggested land, bothboys grew very uneasy. After all, perhaps Nangotook had been right,perhaps the sleeping Nanabozho had actually shown himself to them as awarning to their rashness, or perhaps Ronald's bold speech had reallyoffended some manito. Neither boy would have admitted to the other thathe had such thoughts, but they lived in a superstitious age, and therewere many strange tales current among the voyageurs of the powers of theIndian spirits and of their priests or shamans.

  The brightening of the fog showed the advance of day. Yet theadventurers went on and on and on. The thought occurred to both ladsthat the land they had seen might not be real at all, but only a mirageor a false appearance sent by the evil spirits to lure them to theirdeaths. There in that dense, chilling mist, cut off as it seemed fromthe world of men, and going perhaps into the very middle of the greatlake, whose mysteries neither Indian nor white man had ever fullypenetrated, such thoughts were far from pleasant.

  Even fear could not still the pangs of hunger in healthy boys, however,or make them quite forget that they had had no breakfast. The birchbasket still held the remains of the hare stew from their evening meal,so Ronald helped himself to a share of it, and then took the sternpaddle while Jean breakfasted. Nangotook, however, refused to give uphis paddle or to eat.

  The day wore away, and still the blades dipped with regular rhythm. Thestroke was slower and easier now, for there was no reason, lost as theywere for haste or speed. They paddled merely to keep headway on thecanoe and to strike the waves at the right angle. And still, hour afterhour, they went on and on, Jean and Ronald taking turns at the sternpaddle, the Indian never yielding up his place in the bow.

  Ronald was plying his paddle mechanically, a dull apathy having settleddown on his spirit, as the hour of silence and white mist passed, andJean, stretched out on the bottom of the canoe, had fallen asleep whenNangotook, who had been sullenly silent all day, spoke suddenly. "Land,"he said and jerked his head towards the left.

  Ronald woke from his stupor at once. The first thing he noticed was thatthe mist was a little less thick, for he could see Nangotook moredistinctly, the next thing he observed was that the water was perfectlysmooth, without even a ripple, and the third and most important was adim, scarcely discernible something, a shadow of a shape, on the lefthand. He called to Jean and the latter sat up and stared at the shadow.

  At the Indian's order Ronald swerved the canoe in that direction. Therewas no sound of surf, yet the approach must be made cautiously, for rockshores are far more common on Lake Superior than sand beaches. A carefulstroke and paddles lifted, another stroke and paddles lifted again, andthen the bow grated gently. Without hesitation Nangotook stepped overthe side, while Ronald held the canoe stationary with his paddle.