The Secret Cache

dlass. Then the strained seams were calked and a few new boards put in. A tall, straight spruce was felled and trimmed to replace the broken mast, and a small mainsail devised from

the mainland or an island. The repairs to his ship were of the first importance, and he postponed determining his whereabouts until the Otter was made seaworthy once more. Not a trace of hu

ged. While the reloading was going on, under the eyes of the mate, the Captain, w

time to time Captain Bennett glanced up at the abrupt rocks and forested ridges on his right, or across to the lower land on the other side of the bay. Directly ahead, some miles across the open lake, he could see a distant

Captain from his study of the unfamiliar waters. Beyond the tip of the opposite or northwestern

nnett exclaimed. "Hig

strokes. Presently the Captain spoke aga

yond the end of the low northwestern shore, m

asked Hugh, forgetting in his eagern

reach of discipline, "the eastern boundary of Thunder Bay, w

n his oars to study the long shape, like a gigantic figure stretched out at rest upon the

urse as I feared," remarked t

stion. "What then, sir, i

I have seen one end or the other of Royale many times from a distance, when crossing to the Kaministikwia or to the Grand Portage, but I never set foot on the island before." Again he glanced up at the steep rocks and thick woods o

er from the lake, its brown-gray surface stained almost black at the water line, blotched farther up with lichens, black, orange and green-gray, and worn and seamed and rent with vertic

ointing to the thing, "someo

Bennett. "There is the end of a boat in that hole, M'sieu,

the shipmaster, "and w

above the water. From the boulder he sprang like a squirrel. His moccasined feet gripped the rim of the old boat, and he balanced

t melted in the dark, cold cleft. Indeed the boat was half full of ice. It was a crude looking craft, and its sides, which had never known paint, were weathered

g evidently a mixture of vermilion and grease. It was but little faded by water and weather, and on the red background had been drawn, in some black pigment, figures such as the Indians use

es in color, yes," was the reply, "but ne

men who were in her when sh

cked here. This bateau was carried away in a storm from some beach or anchorage on the north or west shore. There is nothing in her, tho

e on this big isla

hey think it is inhabited by spirits, especially one bay they call the Bay of Manitos. It is said that in the old days the Ojibwa came here somet

perhaps this boat belonged to some

"Perhaps, but then the Indian m

ld manitos haven't troub

not disturbed their copper, and-we

the boat had probably drifted away from some camp or trading post on the mainland, and had been driven into the cleft i

the bay, shot a yearling moose. The crew of the Otter feasted and, to celebrate the completion of the work on the sloop,

of harbor. She passed safely through the narrower part of the bay. Then, to avoid running close to the towering rocks which had first appeared to her Captain through the falling snow, he steered across towards the less formidable appearing northwest shore. That shore proved to be a low, narrow, woo

, a mountain top rising from the water. On the other hand, as the Otter entered the great bay, were the scarcely less impressive heights of the Isle du Paté, called to-day, in translation of the

she crossed to the western shore, to the mouth of the Kaministikwia. The river, flowing from the west, discharges through three channels, forming a low, triang

t of the United States when the treaty of peace after the Revolution established the Pigeon River as the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions. Though the Northwest Company was a Canadian organization, it retained its headquarters south of the Pigeon River through the last decade of the eighteenth century. In the early years of