The Secret Cache

he morning was clear and the sun coming up across the water. Winds

red him, but the first few minutes of paddling were difficult and painful. W

frequent and unavoidable. On the whole, Hugh and Blaise were lucky during the first part of their trip, and they reached the Pigeo

t dependable, patient and for the most part even tempered. His lack of talkativeness Hugh laid to his Indian blood, his gravity to his sorrow at the loss of the father he had known so much better than Hugh had known him. Blaise, the older boy decided,

of this Indian brother, inclined to resent his very existence. Their relations from their first meeting had been entirely peaceful but somewhat cool and stiff. As yet

Bay that Jean Beaupré had stumbled dying. Somewhere between Grand Portage Bay, which lies just to the west and south of Wa

camp nothing remained but the standing poles of a lodge, from which the bark covering had been stripped, and refuse and cast-off articles strewn upon the stony ground in the untidy manner in which the Indians and most of the white

, indicating the longest section of w

, it is strange we did not

days ago or has been out many days. There is another message here." He squatted down to study the shorter stick. At one en

and a bundle of clothing. Tossing aside the bundle, Blaise opened the small bag, thrust in his hand, then, with the one word "manomin," passed the bag to Hugh. It was about half full of wild rice grains, very hard and dry. The bark package Blaise did not open. He merely sniffed at it and laid it down. Hugh, picking it up and smelling of it, rec

ugh proudly. "They are my mother's work," he said, "made of the bes

ed Hugh que

nows you are the elder and must be the larger." He handed the shirt to Hugh, following it with a pair of the leggings. Looking over the

thes for her unknown stepson as upon those for her own boy. He flushed, however, at the thought of accepting anything from the squaw who had taken hi

mother," Hugh stammere

appearance and quality of the clothes, but took it as a matter of co

of the year food is scarce. That manomin is all that remained of the harves

from the traders at the Gr

ad doubtfully. "We

on a tree. Then he turned to Hugh and said softly an

s Jean Beaupré's grave. Hugh was surprised and horrified to see that it was, in appearance, an Indian grave. Poles had

you do that?" He pointe

zzled. "It is th

man and should have been buried like a w

stead of the pole, with offerings and trophies hung upon it, usually placed beside Ojibwa graves. "The good father absolved him and read the burial service over him," the lad went on, "and I placed the cro

to honor him. At least he had received Christian burial, and it was something to know that his grave would no

for the French, and then for the English traders who followed the Pigeon River route to the country west of the lake. An old Indian trail led from the bay to a spot on the river above the falls and rapids that make its lower course unnavigable. Gitchi Onegam Kaministigoya the Indians had call

ace, but the Old Company still maintained a post at the partly deserted fort on the north shore of the bay. On the west side the chief post and headquarters of the New Company also remai

ds weight. Making a grill of willow twigs resting on stones over the coals, he had the trout ready to broil when Blaise returned. The common way of cooking

other's cooking. "It is good," he said. "I have not eaten f

s hand in the leather pouch he wore at his belt, drew out something and handed it to Hugh. The latter u

aid. "I gave it not to you before, b

tretched out his hand to return the

y. "You are the eld

weather, rain, fog, and wind that cleared the air, but rose to a gale, lashing the waters of the bay to white-capped waves that did not diminish until hours after the wind had blown itself out. Eight days the two camped in a hastily built wigwam on Wauswaugoning Bay, fishing when they could, and snaring one l