XXVIII
FLEEING FROM LE FORGERON
After Nangotook had finished his narrative, Ronald asked him how LeForgeron had managed to follow them through storm and fog, and yet notlose track of them. The boys knew that the Indians, among whom he hadlived for many years, regarded him as a great medicine man and believedhim to have magic powers which they respected and feared. Nangotookanswered that the Frenchman had hinted that he had learned of thegold-seekers' quest in some mysterious way, and had asserted that, fromthe first, he had had them in his power. They could not escape him, hesaid, no matter how hard they might try. But the Ojibwa knew that allthis might be mere boasting to put his prisoner in awe of him. The factthat Le Forgeron had not discovered that it was the Island of YellowSands the three were seeking, as well as his betrayal of his dependenceon his captive's leadership, rather destroyed Nangotook's faith inAwishtoya's magic powers. So, in the white man's absence, he hadquestioned the Cree, leading up to the subject so carefully that thelatter had not suspected he was being quizzed.
From what the Cree told him, Nangotook discovered that Le Forgeron hadnot tracked the treasure-seeking party as easily or readily as hepretended. Whether he had overheard them say something about the Rockof the Beaver, and, knowing the place, had gone there directly, or hadtrailed them along the north shore of the lake, Nangotook had notlearned. At any rate it was the smoke of his fire they had seen whenthey left the Rock. He had watched them go and had noted their course,but had not followed until darkness came. He did not wish to be observedby them, and had trusted that, if he kept to the same course, he wouldreach whatever place the gold-seekers were headed for. The Creeevidently believed that it was by Awishtoya's magic powers alone thatthe two had survived the storm and reached land. Instead of being castup on a barren rock, as the others had been, they had been driven on theshore of the island that Nangotook and the boys had reached two dayslater. They had narrowly escaped being battered on the rocks at thenorthern end, but had managed to avoid wreck, and had found a refuge inthe cave where Ronald had discovered the remains of their camp.
It was Le Forgeron who had knocked Ronald over the cliff. The Cree hadbeen in the cave at the time, He had gone out in the canoe and had towedthe unconscious boy into the adjoining cavern, where he had taken fromhim his gun and knife. Awishtoya had ordered him, the Indian said, tokill the lad, if he were not already dead, but because of a dream he hadhad the night before, which forbade him to take life, even the life ofan animal, that day, the Cree had not given the death stroke. He hadthought the boy would die anyway, for he did not believe he could getout of the cave without a boat to help him, and he felt sure that hiscompanions would never find him there. Le Forgeron did not go into thehole where Ronald was, so he did not discover that his servant had notcarried out his commands. As soon as he had disposed of the lad, theIndian had paddled to the place where the two were in the habit ofdescending the cliff, and had taken his master into the canoe. Then theyhad crossed a short stretch of water to a little, outlying, almostbarren island, where they had lain hidden among the few stunted treesand bushes until nightfall. Before night the weather had cleared, sothey could see the land away to the southwest.
Evidently Le Forgeron had made up his mind that the gold mine was not onthe island where they had been staying. He had doubtless spied on thethree and had seen no evidence of prospecting. After midnight he orderedthe Cree to launch the canoe again, and they made a perilous crossing,with strong wind and high waves, to Minong. There they waited in thecamp on the point for several days, one or the other of them on watchday and night for the coming of the gold-seekers' canoe. As the dayspassed, the Frenchman grew more and more impatient. He was absent fromcamp most of the time, leaving the Indian to watch for the canoe.Finally Le Forgeron gave up waiting, and the two began a series ofwanderings that the Cree evidently did not understand. To Nangotook,however, it was plain that the Blacksmith had been searching for thegold mine. They left the harbor where they had been camping, andexplored the whole northern end of the big island, as well as the littleislands off its shores. They penetrated to the interior of Minong,traveling along the ridges. In some places they remained for severaldays at a time, the Cree minding the camp while his master went off byhimself. The northeaster did not disturb them seriously, for they werein camp with plenty to eat. At last they reached the cove where thecopper mines were.
This was the sum of what Nangotook, by careful questioning and withoutappearing especially curious, had learned from the Cree. It proved tohim that Le Forgeron had not followed the three by any exercise ofmysterious powers. If he had used magic, it had been merely to savehimself and his companion from storm and waves, and in that respect hehad not been any better cared for than Nangotook and the boys. The fog,which had hidden their coming to Minong and had caused them to land manymiles from Le Forgeron's camp, had put him off their track, so that itwas not until he reached the cove of the copper mines that he foundhimself in their neighborhood again. It was then that he discovered thathe still had three persons, not two, to deal with. His anger at hisIndian servant, for not obeying orders and taking Ronald's life, hadbeen so great that he had threatened to kill the Cree, and might havedone so, had the latter not fled from him and kept away until hismaster's fury cooled.
"It would seem," said Jean, when the Indian had finished telling what hehad learned, "that, if Le Forgeron thinks we are seeking gold abouthere somewhere, the wisest course for us is to leave at once, and getas far away as we can before he discovers we have gone. With a goodstart, and three paddles to his two, we may easily beat him to theGrande Portage and be rid of him. If he has deserted from the fleet, Ido not believe he will show himself at any of the Company's posts forsome years to come."
Ronald did not like the idea of running away, as he called it. His fierytemper had been aroused by the attempt to destroy his comrade andhimself in such a cruel and cowardly way, as well as by the capture ofNangotook. His first impulse was to seek the Frenchman's camp, and haveit out with him, but, after a brief argument, the wiser and coolercounsels of Jean and the Ojibwa prevailed. The latter, while he wouldhave liked well to avenge himself on Le Forgeron, felt responsible forthe two boys, and was reluctant to expose them to a fight with the crueland crafty Blacksmith. To be sure they were three to two, but the othershad guns and ammunition, which gave them an overpowering advantage. SoNangotook was in favor of getting away first, and settling the scorewith the Frenchman at some later time. Although he did not say so to theboys, he was determined to seek out Awishtoya and make him pay thatscore, as soon as the two lads had been returned to their friends.
To Nangotook's argument, Jean added the opinion that, if they shouldprovoke a fight with Le Forgeron, or attack him, they would putthemselves in the wrong, and make themselves liable to punishment forcrime, if either of their enemies should escape from their assault, orif the matter should become known in any other way. "There is no way wecould punish them except to kill them outright," he said, "and while Ido not doubt Le Forgeron well deserves death, I should be loath toattack him deliberately and in cold blood. If he should attack us, thatwould be different. Then I should have no compunctions."
"He will attack us, that is certain, if he finds a chance," repliedRonald. "It is open warfare between us, and it seems to me only goodgeneralship to strike first and get the advantage."
In the end, however, he yielded to the counsels of the others, and theyprepared to leave their camp at once. The Indian had not taken long totell his story, and the discussion that followed had lasted but a fewminutes. So the morning was but little advanced when they were ready tostart. If they paddled out of the cove and along shore, they couldhardly hope to escape being seen by their enemies, yet they did not wantto delay until nightfall. So they decided to cross the cove and gooverland, portaging the canoe, to the bay the boys had found when theywere searching for some trace of Nangotook.
They put their plan into execution at once. Paddling across the cove,they landed in a nar
row little bay, climbed to the high ground, carryingthe canoe, and went along at the top of the cliffs. They chose, so faras they could, ground open enough to allow the canoe to be taken througheasily, but with growth sufficiently large and thick to prevent theirbeing seen by any one on the water or on the outlying islands.Conditions on the whole were favorable, and they were able to make goodspeed without exposing themselves. They went rapidly, but carefully,leaving as little trace of their passage as possible, in the hope thatLe Forgeron would not find their trail. The place had been muchfrequented by caribou, and a broken branch or a bruised bit of moss orlichen would naturally be laid to the animals, unless it bore plainsigns of the human. Such plain signs it was their intention to avoid. Inone respect, however, luck was against them, for, though they were inneed of food, they saw but one caribou, and did not get near enough fora shot. As the boys had been over the ground before, they led the way.When they came to the rift that led down to the pebble beach, Nangotook,pointing to the island that lay out from it, said it was there he hadbeen held a prisoner. He must have been carried down to the beach, whilestill unconscious, and taken across in Le Forgeron's canoe.
The refugees launched their boat in a little lake the lads had found,and, after portaging around a beaver dam, paddled down a narrow streamto the great bay.
None of the three had had anything to eat since the night before. Theloss of the caribou meat was a serious matter, for, instead of pushingon rapidly as they wished to do, they must delay to hunt and fish. Amongthe reefs and islands of the bay, they succeeded in catching enough fishfor a meal, and, landing on a small island, broiled their catch.Wishing to leave as few traces as possible for Le Forgeron to find, theygathered up the fish cleanings, and even the embers and ashes from thefire, and threw them into the lake. Then Etienne covered the spot wherethe ashes had been with dry earth and fallen leaves, so cleverly that noone would have suspected that a fire had ever been kindled there.
Taking to the canoe, the voyageurs started to go on with their journey,but, as they paddled out from the shelter of the small island, theydiscovered that the wind was blowing a gale from the west. By keepingclose to shore and taking advantage of every bit of shelter that littleislands and points afforded, they managed to make their way through thebay. When they rounded a long point at the southwestern end, however,they found the waves rolling so high and the black clouds coming up thesky so threateningly, that they did not dare to continue along an openand unprotected shore. They were obliged to turn back into the littlesubsidiary harbor they had just skirted, which cut into the land in asouthwesterly direction at the end of the large bay.
In their anxiety to make speed, they would have tried to go on overland,but the storm broke before they had the canoe out of the water. In theheavy rain and boisterous wind, traveling over rough and unfamiliarground, carrying the canoe was out of the question. They were forced tocrawl under the upturned boat, and wait for the passing of the storm.
The storm was in no haste to pass over. It developed into one of thosecold, driving, wind-lashed, autumn rains that may last any length oftime, from hours to days. The weather-wise Etienne soon decided thatfarther travel that day, either by water or land, was out of thequestion. The three might as well make themselves as comfortable as theycould. They had one consolation at least. The storm would delay LeForgeron as well, if he had succeeded in getting on their track. If hehad not found their trail before the rain began, he would not find it atall, for all the traces they had left would be completely washed out.
They did not attempt to build a shelter, but cut evergreen branches,shook the water from them, and covered the ground under the canoe. Thedriving rain prevented them from finding food. Not an animal or birdventured forth, and fishing from the shore was without result. So thethree went supperless. When their canoe had disappeared from the burningisland, the one remaining blanket had gone with it, for the blankets,folded or rolled, were always carried in the canoe to kneel upon or leanagainst. So the campers had no cover that night but the damp spruce andbalsam branches they burrowed into, in the attempt to keep warm. Jeanwas the worst off, for he did not even have a coat.
The Island of Yellow Sands: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys Page 28
