XV THE RIFT IN THE ROCK
The brothers were in the habit of waking early, but it had been nearlydawn when they lay down, and, in the shadow of the trees, they sleptuntil the sun was well started on his day's journey. When they did wake,Hugh's first glance was towards the land across the water.
There was no mistaking that high towering shore, steep rocks at the base,richly forest clad above. It was the same shore he had seen weeks before,the first time dimly through fog and snow, again clear cut and distinct,when he and Baptiste had rowed Captain Bennett out of the bay, and yet athird time from the deck of the _Otter_ as she sailed away towardsThunder Cape.
"We have come aright, Blaise," said Hugh with satisfaction. "That is theplace we seek, and it can't be more than a mile away. Do you see thatspot where the trees come to the water, that tiny break in the rocks? Itis a little cove with a bit of beach, and in that stretch of rocks to theleft is the crack where the old boat lies. I'm sure of the spot, becausefrom the _Otter_, when we were leaving, I noticed the bare rock pillarsof that highest ridge away up there, like the wall of a fort among thetrees. It doesn't show quite so plainly now the birches are in leaf, butI'm sure it is the same. There are two little coves almost directly belowthat pillared rock wall, and the cliff is a little farther to the left.Oh, but I am hungry," he added. "We must have a good breakfast before westart across."
Over the short stretch of water that separated the low point from thehigh shore, the bateau sailed before the brisk wind. The stretch of gray,pillared rock, like the wall of a fortress, high up among the greenery,served as a guide. As the boat drew nearer, the twin coves, shallowdepressions in the shore line separated by a projecting mass of rock,came clear to view.
"Steer for the cliff just beyond the left hand cove," Hugh ordered."We'll run in close and then turn."
Blaise obediently steered straight for the mass of rock with the verticalfissures, as if his purpose were to dash the boat against the cliff. Asthey drew close, Hugh gave a shout.
The crack had come into view, a black rift running at an angle into thecliff. As the boat swung about to avoid going on the rocks, the youngerboy's quick eye caught a glimpse, in that dark fissure, of the end of abateau. To give him that glimpse, Hugh had taken a chance of wreckingtheir own boat. Now he was obliged to act quickly, lowering the sail andseizing a paddle.
In the trough of the waves, they skirted, close in, the steep, ruggedrocks. Almost hidden by a short point was the bit of beach at the end ofthe first of the twin coves. With a dexterous twist of the paddles, theboys turned their boat and ran up on the beach. Landing with so muchforce would have ground the bottom out of a birch canoe, but the heavyplanks of the bateau would stand far worse battering.
The appearance of the cove had changed greatly since that day when Hughand Baptiste had rowed past. Then the bushes, birches and mountain ashtrees that ringed the pebbles had been bare limbed. Now, with June morethan two-thirds gone, they were all in full leaf. Big clusters of budsamong the graceful foliage of the mountain ashes were almost ready toopen into handsome flowers. The high-bush cranberries bore white blossomshere and there, and the ninebark bushes were covered with masses ofpinkish buds. Though Hugh's mind was on the wreck, his eyes took note ofthe almost incredible difference a few weeks had made. His nose sniffedwith appreciation the spicy smell of the fresh, growing tips of thebalsams, mingled with the heliotrope-like odor of the tiny twin-flowersblooming in the woods. He did not let enjoyment of these things delayhim, however.
"Now," he cried, when he and Blaise had pulled up the boat, "we must getinto that crack. We can't reach it from the water in this wind. Perhapswe can climb down from the top."
Up a steep rock slope, dotted with fresh green moss, shiny leavedbearberry, spreading masses of juniper and a few evergreen trees growingin the depressions, he hastened with Blaise close behind. Along the topof the cliff they made their way until they reached the rift. Though thesides of the crack were almost vertical, trees and bushes grew whereverthey could anchor a root. Through branches and foliage, the boys couldget no view of the old boat at the bottom.
"We must climb down," said Hugh.
"It will be difficult," Blaise replied doubtfully. "To do it we mustcling to the roots and branches. Those trees have little soil to grow in.Our weight may pull them over."
"We must get down some way," Hugh insisted. "We shall have to take ourchances."
"The wind and waves will calm. We have but to wait and enter from thewater."
Hugh had not the Indian patience. "The wind is not going down, it iscoming up," he protested. "It may blow for a week. I didn't come here towait for calm weather. I'm going down some way."
He wriggled between the lower branches of a spruce growing on the veryverge of the crack and let himself down a vertical wall, feeling with histoes for a support. Carefully he rested his weight on the slanting stemof a stunted cedar growing in a niche. It held him. Clinging with fingersand moccasined feet to every projection of rock and each branch, stem orroot that promised to hold him, he worked his way down. He heeded hisyounger brother's warning in so far as to test every support beforetrusting himself to it. But in spite of his care, a bit of projectingrock crumbled under his feet. His weight was thrown upon a root he hadlaid hold of. The root seemed to be firmly anchored, but it pulled loose,and Hugh went sliding down right into the old boat. The ice, which hadfilled the wreck when he first saw it, had melted. The bateau was morethan half full of water, into which he plumped, splashing it all overhim. He was not hurt, however, only wet and shaken up a bit.
Blaise had already begun to follow his elder brother into the cleft, whenhe heard Hugh crash down. Halfway over the edge, the younger boy pausedfor a moment. Then Hugh's shout came up to him. "All right, but becareful," the elder brother cautioned.
Light and very agile, the younger lad had better luck, landing nimbly onhis feet on the cross plank of the old boat. It was the vermilion paintedthwart that had held the mast. Eagerly both lads bent over it to makeout, in the dim light, the black figures on the red ground.
"It is our father's sign," Blaise said quietly, "our father's sign, justas I have seen it many times. This was his bateau, but whether it waswrecked here or elsewhere we cannot tell."
"I believe it was wrecked here," Hugh asserted. "See how the end issplintered. This boat was driven upon these very rocks where it now lies,the prow smashed and rents ripped in the bottom and one side. But it isempty. We must seek some sign to guide us to the furs. We need morelight."
"I will make a torch. Wait but a moment."
Blaise straightened up, hooked his fingers over the edge of a narrow,rock shelf, swung himself up, and ascended the rest of the way as nimblyas a squirrel. In a few minutes he came scrambling down again, holding inone hand a roughly made torch, resinous twigs bound together with a bitof bearberry vine. With sparks from his flint and steel, he lighted thebalsam torch. It did not give a very bright light, but it enabled theboys to examine the old bateau closely. The only mark they could findthat might have been intended as a guide was a groove across the forethwart. At one end of the groove short lines had been cut diagonally toform an arrow point.
"The cache, if it is on the island, must be sought that way," saidBlaise.
"The arrow surely points up the crack. We'll follow it."
The smashed bow of the boat was firmly lodged among the fragments of rockupon which it had been driven. Over those fragments, up a steep slope,the boys picked their way for a few yards, until the walls drew together,the fissure narrowing to a mere slit. By throwing the light of the torchinto the slit and reaching in arm's length, Hugh satisfied himself thatthere were no furs there. Nevertheless the arrow pointed in thatdirection. He looked about him. The left hand wall was almostperpendicular, solid rock apparently, with only an occasional verticalcrack or shallow niche where some hardy bit of greenery clung. But fromthe right wall several blocks had fallen out. On one of those b
locks Hughwas standing. He held the torch up at arm's length.
"There's a hole up there. Such a place would make a good cache."
"Let me up on your shoulders," Blaise proposed, "and I will look in."
Sitting on Hugh's shoulders, Blaise threw the light of the torch into thehole. Then he reached in his arm. "There are no furs here," he said.
Hugh had been almost certain he had found the cache. He was keenlydisappointed. "Are you sure?" he cried.
"Yes. It is a small place, just a hole in the rock. Let me down."
"There are no furs there," Blaise repeated, when he had jumped down fromHugh's shoulders. "But something I found." He held out a short piece ofrawhide cord.
Hugh stared at the cord, then at his half-brother. "You were not thefirst to visit that hole then. What is the meaning of this?" He took thebit of rawhide in his fingers.
"I think it means that the furs have been there, but have been takenaway," was the younger lad's slow reply. "It is a piece from the thongthat bound a bale of furs. That is what I think."
"Someone has found the cache and taken away the pelts."
"I fear it," agreed Blaise. Though he spoke quietly, his disappointmentwas as strong as Hugh's.
"That someone is probably one of the Old Company's men. Then the furs arelost to us indeed. Yet we do not know. How did anyone learn of the cache?It may have been Black Thunder of course, but then what was the meaningof the blood-stained shirt? No, we don't know, Blaise. Our furs may begone for good, but we can't be sure. Father may have put them in thereout of reach of the storm and later moved them to some other place, orthey may never have been in that hole at all. Some animal may havecarried that bit of rawhide there."
Blaise shook his head. "What animal could go up there?"
"A squirrel perhaps, or a bird, a gull. Anyway we can't give up thesearch yet, just because we have found a bit of rawhide in a hole in therocks. That would be folly. Perhaps the arrow points up the rift to somespot above. We can't climb up here. We must go back."
The two returned to the wreck and climbed up the way they had come down.Hugh again in the lead, they followed along the top of the rift to itshead. There they sought earnestly for some sign that might lead them tothe cache, but found none. When at sunset they gave up the search forthat day, their fear that the furs had been stolen from the hole in therock had grown near to a certainty. Well-nigh discouraged, they went backto the beach in the shallow cove where they had left their boat.
"Why is it, Blaise," Hugh asked, as they sat by the fire waiting for thekettle to boil, "that no Indians dwell on this big island? It is abeautiful place and there must be game and furs for the hunting."
Blaise gave his characteristic French shrug. "I know not if there is muchgame, and Minong is far from the mainland. I have heard that there isgreat store of copper in the rocks. The Ojibwas say that the island wasmade by the giant Kepoochikan. Once upon a time the fish quarrelled withKepoochikan and tried to drown him by making a great flood. But he builta big floating island and made it rich with copper and there he took hisfamily and all the kinds of birds and beasts there are. When the water,which had spread over the whole earth, stopped rising, he told a gull todive down to the bottom and bring up some mud. The gull could not dive sofar, but drowned before he reached the bottom. Then Kepoochikan sent abeaver. The beaver came up almost drowned, but with a ball of mudclutched tight in his hands. Kepoochikan took the mud and made a newearth, but he kept the island Minong for his home. After many years therewas another giant, the great Nanibozho, who was chief of all the Indianson the new land Kepoochikan had made. Nanibozho is a good manito andKepoochikan a bad one. They went to war, and Nanibozho threw a greatboulder from the mainland across at Kepoochikan and conquered him. Theboulder is here on Minong yet they say. Since then Nanibozho has guardedthe copper of Minong, though some say his real dwelling place is onThunder Cape. Off the shore and in the channels of Minong he has setsharp rocks to destroy the canoes that approach the island, and he hasmany spirits to help him guard the treasure."
"That is only a tale, of course," said Hugh somewhat disdainfully. "We ofthe ship _Otter_ camped here several days and we saw or heard no spirits.We found nothing to fear."
"You sought no copper," was the retort. "It is said that sometimesKepoochikan and Nanibozho fight together on the rocks and hurl greatboulders about. Strange tales there are too of the thick forest, of thelittle lakes and bays. There is one place called the Bay of Manitos,where, so I have heard, dwell giant Windigos and great serpents and hugebirds and spirits that mock the lonely traveller with shouts and threatsand laughter."
"Surely you do not believe such tales, Blaise," Hugh protested, "or fearsuch spirits."
"I know that neither Kepoochikan nor Nanibozho made the world," theyounger boy replied seriously. "My father and the priests taught me thatthe good God made the world. But whether the tales of giants and spiritsare true, I know not. That I do not fear them I have proved by cominghere with you."
To that remark Hugh had no answer. To believe or be inclined to believesuch tales and yet to come to the enchanted island, to come with only onecompanion, surely proved his half-brother's courage. Indeed the older boyhad no thought of questioning the younger's bravery. He had come to knowBlaise too well.