"Aw, let him alone, Cliff," the other one said. "We've still got it. That's all that matters."
"Well, all right," Cliff said sullenly, "but if that suitcase had gone in the water, Bud, I'd have thrown you right in after it."
Bob hurried back to where Mike and Danny were sitting while the men took the suitcase back to their seats and put it between them on the deck.
"What happened, Bob?" Mike asked excitedly.
"Boy, I don't just know," he said, "but whatever they've got in that suitcase it means an awful lot to them."
In a moment or two the men looked back, stealthily.
"We'd better get to doing something," Danny whispered. "We can't be just sitting here staring at them."
He went up to the pilot house and borrowed Captain Anderson's binoculars, and they took turns scanning the coastline of the Northwest Angle for signs of moose or deer. First, Bob looked and then Mike, and then Bob again. And every now and then they would give the glasses to Danny to have him identify something or other. They were so busy that they didn't notice the tall stranger approach them until he said, "Seeing anything, boys?"
They turned around quickly.
"N-n-no," Bob stammered. "We—we didn't see anything."
"We didn't mean to scare you like we did, Sonny," he went on. "My friend just lost his head for a minute." He smiled warmly, but Danny caught a hard, steel-like glint in his eyes.
"That's all right," Bob said.
"The skipper told me one of you boys lives at American Point," he said. "Can you tell me whether your dad has a cabin and a boat and motor we could rent for a couple of weeks?"
"Y-y-you mean you want to stay up there w-where we're going?" Mike asked.
"The fishing's good up there, isn't it?" the man asked.
"Why, sure," Danny put in quickly. "And I think Dad's got plenty of room. We don't have any guests at all now."
"That's fine. The skipper said he thought it was safe enough for us to go out, but I thought I'd better ask you to make sure. Thanks." Then the stranger left them.
"He seemed friendly enough, didn't he?" Mike asked.
"Yes, he did," Danny answered, "but don't let that fool you. I think they're up to something besides finding that treasure, and I don't know what."
"What makes you say that?" Bob asked.
"It's just a hunch."
The boat was half an hour late into Oak Island because of the headwind, but the rest of the trip was in the island section of the lake where the waves were small, and the skipper made up the time with ten minutes to spare.
Mr. Orlis looked the strangers over carefully when they asked for a cabin. "I don't know," he said. "We have just a couple of cabins, and I'll have to put the boys in one."
"That's all right with us," Cliff said eagerly. "That other cabin will be just dandy."
"I'm not sure that I want to get myself filled up right now," said Mr. Orlis. Danny stood there holding his breath while his Dad weighed the matter in his mind. He knew that he was trying to size them up.
"We'd sure appreciate it if you could put us up for a while."
"Well, you can stay tonight, anyway," Mr. Orlis said, yielding.
The three boys carried their luggage out to the cabin and got situated before the bell clanged to call them in to supper.
There was a big crowd at the Orlis' table for the evening meal with the boat crew, the two strangers and the boys, to say nothing of a couple of the neighbors who had come over to pick up their mail. However, when they had finished eating, Mr. Orlis pushed back from the table and reached for his big, well-worn Bible on the radio behind him.
"It's our custom here to read the Bible and have a word of prayer every morning and night," he said, opening the Bible to the Book of John.
That was one thing that Danny had to say about his dad. Everyone always said he was the bravest man on the Angle. He wasn't afraid of the storms on the Lake of the Woods, or the cold of the winters, or even of getting lost as he roamed the vast, roadless stretches of the Angle. And he wasn't afraid of what people thought about him for reading the Bible and praying. That was what he believed, and that was what he did.
That night he read the third chapter of John, where it tells how Nicodemus came to Jesus after dark and asked Him how to be saved. And Jesus told him that he would have to be born again.
It was a strangely interesting story to Bob who had never heard much of the Bible read before. He could picture the tall and stately Nicodemus coming down the dusty road at night to talk to Jesus. He could feel how mixed-up Nicodemus was when he asked the questions and tried to understand the answers. But, even though it interested him as few stories he had ever heard, he squirmed uncomfortably. What would those strangers and the captain of the Bert Steele think? What would those big burly neighbors think? He looked from one to another and was surprised to see that they were all listening as though they were as interested as he was. He tried to think of something else, but he could not. Everything his Uncle Carl was reading was aimed right at him. The words drove barbs into his heart. He was glad when the Bible reading and prayer were finally over and they were back in the cabin.
"I pumped Dad a little," Danny said as soon as the three of them were inside the cabin. "And he said that there have been fellows up here looking for the Du Bois' treasure off and on for years."
"Doesn't he think there's anything to it?" Mike asked quickly.
"Oh, he thinks there's something to it all right, but he thinks it's hid so well no one'll ever find it. It's a sort of laughingstock among the people who live up here."
"They'll probably laugh again when we find it for them," Bob said.
"Dad said he was about in the notion of sending those two men back in the morning; but he figured that if they were out here looking for the Du Bois' treasure, they're harmless enough."
"Did you get the names of any Indians to go see?" Mike asked.
"Oh, I already had them," Danny went on. "But say, I'd better go and talk to Dad about a boat or canoe for in the morning. I forgot all about that. Want to come along?"
As they stepped onto the porch of the main house, they heard Cliff say to Mr. Orlis, "There isn't any lock on the door of that cabin."
"Why, I don't even have a lock on my own house."
"Well, we want one for this one. Haven't you got a strong padlock and a hasp? We'll put it on."
Bob started to open the screen door, but Danny touched him on the arm.
"Why do you want your door locked?" Mr. Orlis went on. "Nobody ever steals anything around here."
"We want it locked, just the same. And we're going to fasten the windows shut, too!"
The bag! Get it! Get it!
Chapter Three
A Call on Rick Thunderbird
THE NEXT MORNING the boys were up and dressed and out on the dock beside the Bert Steele before anyone else was out of bed. The wind had died to a whisper, and the mirror-like creek was glistening in the early morning sun. From across the way the birds were singing, and, as they watched, a big fish leaped out of the water to spear a fly.
"Did you see that?" Mike asked excitedly. "Boy, did you see that big bass?"
"You'll see a lot of fish jumping before the summer's over," Danny laughed.
"Oh, boy!" Mike walked out to the end of the narrow dock. "It makes me want to get my rod and reel and start fishing."
"Any time you say," Danny told him.
"We're not going to do any fishing till we find that treasure," Bob put in.
Danny held a warning finger to his lips. "S-s-sh," he said softly. "The crew sleeps on the boat, and they might be awake."
"O.K.," Bob said sullenly. "I'll be careful, because I'm not going to give anything away." Mr. Smith, Danny's big gray tomcat, came up just then and rubbed against his legs. "Come on, kitty cat," he said impulsively, as he reached down and grasped the cat about the middle. "You're going for a swim."
"Don't do that," Danny cried. But Bob had already thrown the cat out into the icy waters
of the creek.
"What's the big idea, Bob?" Mike asked angrily, as Danny pushed past them to the end of the dock.
"I don't like cats," he said, laughing loudly, "unless they're swimming. Just look at him. Just look at him, would you? That's about the funniest thing I ever saw."
"There isn't anything funny about it," Danny snapped. He was on his knees at the end of the dock holding out his hands to Mr. Smith. "Come on, old man," he said. "Come on, buddy. Come on over here to me. I won't let him do that to you again."
When he had the trembling cat in his arms, he turned to Bob. His face was white and drawn, and his mouth was in a thin, hard line.
"I want to tell you something, Bob," he said so softly that Mike, who was standing close by, could scarcely hear him. "You can pull any kind of a joke you want to on me. I can take it. But you leave my pets alone. I've warned you once before. I'm not going to warn you any more. Understand?"
Bob's gaze fell before Danny's icy blue stare, and he turned and went shuffling off the dock.
Jack Crawford and Cliff Myers, the two strangers who had come in on the Bert Steele the evening before, were already in the house waiting for breakfast when the boys came in. Danny looked them over carefully. They were dressed in heavy wool clothes and had their hunting knives and fishing tackle on the porch.
"Yes, sir, we're all ready to go out after a big one," Jack, the tall, slender one, said. "And I'll bet you a dollar against a dime, Danny, that we get a bigger fish than you do."
Danny grinned at him. "I don't bet," he said, "but I usually do as well as the next guy when it comes to fishing here."
As they sat down to the breakfast table, Danny eyed the two men casually. There was something different about them this morning, something he couldn't figure out.
When they had all finished eating a big breakfast of steaming pancakes and golden syrup and oatmeal in cream so thick it clung to the spoon, Mr. Orlis took his Bible and began to read again.
"What do you do, Danny?" Bob whispered as they pushed their chairs back from the table, "read the Bible all the time?"
"Just at breakfast and supper," he answered.
The boys had Danny's chores done up in record time, filled the outboard motor with gas and shoved out into the creek.
"Where're we headed first?" Bob asked.
"I think our best bet is to go over to see Rick Thunderbird," Danny said. "He doesn't live very far away, and I think he might be able to give us some information about the map, or the treasure."
"Couldn't we fish on the way?" Mike wanted to know.
"No," Bob retorted, "we're not going to fish. We're going to stay after that treasure until we get it."
"O.K. but I'm sure hankering to get at those fish."
Danny opened the outboard motor to full throttle, and the light aluminum boat skimmed through the water. He went out of the wide-mouthed creek and turned northeast, threading among the islands that were scattered like marbles across the floor. They crossed over to the Canadian side of the Lake of the Woods.
"Boy, aren't you afraid of getting lost up here?" Mike asked as Danny banked sharply to the right and then to the left to go around a little blob of land that thrust its nose out of the water.
"I've been lost a few times," he admitted, "but I'm not lost now."
The twins looked about them eagerly. "Well, how do you like it, Bob?" Mike asked.
"They pray too much," he replied.
For an hour or more they twisted this way and that among the islands until Danny came at last to the little triangular strip of land at the mouth of Monument Bay where Rick Thunderbird had his cabin.
"Well, here we are," Danny said, cutting the speed. As they docked and got out of the boat, he continued, "I think it would be better if you'd sort of let me do the talking to him. He knows me a little, and I might be able to get something out of him. He's a funny old fellow and doesn't seem to like strangers too well."
The old Indian was sitting in his cabin by the fire when Danny knocked on the door. He grunted to them, and they went inside.
"Do you remember me, Mr. Thunderbird?" Danny asked.
The Indian nodded solemnly.
"We came over to see if you could help us with something," said Danny.
Rick Thunderbird reached over and put another stick of wood in the barrel stove.
"Could you tell us anything about the Du Bois treasure that's supposed to be buried up here?"
"It happened a long time ago," Rick said gruffly. "A long time ago."
"I know, but did he leave a map or any directions telling where he buried it?"
The Indian reached out slowly and methodically stirred the fire.
"I know your people sometimes hand stories like that down from parents to children, and I knew that you would know if this story had been handed down that way."
Rick shook his head. "It was a long time ago," he said.
And, although Danny tried desperately after that, he could get no more out of the aged Chippewa Indian. Finally he got to his feet and shook hands with Rick and said good-bye.
"Well, what do you know about that?" Mike said as they walked down to the boat. "We couldn't get a single word out of him."
"No," Bob said angrily, "and the old fossil knows plenty about it too. You could see that in his eyes."
"If you could tell anything about him by looking at him," Danny said, "you're better than I am. I couldn't tell whether he knew anything or not."
They got in the boat, and Danny headed diagonally across Monument Bay. "I'm disappointed," he said. "I figured old Rick was our best bet."
"If he is, we don't have much chance of learning anything from the Indians," Bob said sourly.
"I thought he'd tell us what he could because he and Dad are pretty good friends. Dad's been trying to deal with him spiritually for a couple of years."
"Your dad's been trying to deal with him spiritually?" Mike echoed. "Just what do you mean?"
"He's been talking to him about his soul," Danny said.
"I still don't get you," said Mike.
"It's this way," Danny cut the throttle back to where he didn't have to shout to be heard above the motor. "We—you and I and Bob and Rick—and for that matter everyone in the world is born into the world with a sinful nature. The Bible tells us that there are none righteous, no not one, that no one seeketh after God, and that all we, like sheep, have gone astray."
"But what's that got to do with Rick Thunderbird?" Bob asked.
"It has a lot to do with Rick," Danny went on, "just like it has a lot to do with each one of us. Because the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.
"Since we're all sinners and the wages of sin is death, then it stands to reason that we've all earned death.
"Isn't that right?"
"I—I guess you're right," Mike said.
"C-can't you talk about something else?" Bob put in.
Danny didn't answer him as he went on, "If God had just left it all there, then there wouldn't be any hope in the world for anyone. But He didn't. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to bear the sins of all. He'll save those who would put their trust in Him. It's like that verse Dad read last night, 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'"
There was a long, tense silence. Bob stared at his feet, and Mike looked out across the water. "I—I never heard anything like that in my life before," the taller twin said.
"That's why Dad has been concerned about Rick. That's why I've been concerned about you."
"Well, you don't need to be concerned about me," Bob said harshly. "I'll get along all right."
At that moment Mike saw a canoe, half filled with water and washed up on the shore of a little island.
"Look!" he cried.
"Boy, there's a good canoe," Bob said. "Let's go and get it."
Danny turned the boat sharply and went back. "Why, that's old Rick's canoe,
" he said. "I'd know it anywhere."
"That doesn't make any difference. It's adrift. It belongs to whoever finds it."
"Oh, no," Danny said, stopping the motor and coasting the boat up alongside the canoe. "It belongs to Rick. We'll have to take it back to him."
"Take it back to him?" Bob echoed. "After the way he treated us? I never heard of such a thing."
Mike and Danny dumped the water out of the canoe and fastened it to the stern of the boat with a light rope they happened to have along while Bob sat in the boat and sulked.
Old Rick had said but little to them when they were at his place the first time. He said little more the second time.
"I didn't know it was gone," he mumbled. "Must've got away during the windstorm yesterday afternoon."
As they left the old Indian's home, Bob turned to Danny once more. "That was the thanks we got from him," he said sharply. "We should've left the canoe out there instead of coming back with it."
They ate their lunch in the boat and visited three more Indians that afternoon. Two of them talked freely but knew nothing, and the third was like Rick Thunderbird. If he knew anything, he wasn't telling it.
When the boys finally got back to American Point, Danny's mother had begun to worry about them. "I'm so glad you're here, Danny," she said. "Now, if your dad and those strangers would only come, I'd be at ease again."
"Haven't they got back yet?" Danny asked.
She shook her head. "They went shortly after you did, and they were supposed to be back for dinner." Danny looked at Mike and then at Bob. It didn't sound good. It didn't sound good at all.
Why that’s old Rick’s boat.
Chapter Four
Bob Skips Church
AS SOON as the three boys were alone in their cabin, Mike said, "Boy, I hadn't even thought about your dad and those two guys not being back yet until your mom started worrying, Danny. What do you make of it?"
Danny crossed over to the bunk bed and sat down. "I don't know what to think," he said. "I don't think his staying out like this is anything to worry about. I've gone out with Dad when he said we'd be gone for a couple of hours, and we'd wind up staying all day."
Danny Orlis and the Angle Inlet Mystery Page 2
