The Secret Cache

and found his half

the lake appears,

as Hugh's reply, and

ge. Suddenly Blaise paused, turned his head and laid his finger on his lips. Hugh strained his ears to listen, but could catch no sound but the whining cry of a sea-gull and the rippling of the water on the outer rocks. Blaise had surely heard something, for he dropped

d by an alder and a small balsam fir, he looked out across the water. He saw what Blaise had heard. Only a few hundred feet away were two canoes, three men in each. Even at that

an in the stern. Indeed that man was too notable and unusual a figure to escape attention. A gigantic fellow, he towered, even in his kneeling position, a good foot above his companions. A long ea

ick breath. "Ohrante!" he whispered in

ed a point farther up the shore and vanished from sight, Blaise rose to his feet. Hugh followed his example, and they made their way back across the rocks in silence. By the t

as he helped to lift the canoe

though he would always be a cripple. He had told the tale of the attack, and a party of Ojibwas, led by Hugh's father, had pursued Ohrante and captured him. They were taking him back to stand trial by Indian law or to be turned over to white justice,-there was some disagreement between Jean Beaupré and hi

I should not wish to follow him or have him follow us. He hated our father and nothing would please him more than to get us in his hands. I hope my m

Ojibwa himsel

into the Ojibwa country to hunt and trap for the Old Company. It is said his

nging in of Iroquois hunters i

ear. They are greedy for pelts good and bad, and care not how quickly they strip the country of beasts of all kinds. If the comp

y for the company itself, it

did ill to bring strange hunters into lands where they had no right. Let the Iroquois keep to

d was occupied with a thought which had just come to him. "Do you

. I cannot believe the traders have brought Ohrante back to hunt and trap for them. And my heart is troubled for my mother. Once when she was

rescued her from the Siou

e bought her from the chief who wished to make her his squaw. Then our father brought her to the Grand Portage. There the priest mar

chman should have taken the only possible way to save the sad Ojibwa girl from captivity among the cruel Sioux? The elder son felt ashamed

t coming from that way, but from the opposite direction, and there are no women in his canoes. Sure

ot dare make open war." He was silent for a moment. Then he said earnestly, "There is but one thing for us to

eement. "Let us get our br

to Hugh. "We make no fire here," he said abruptly. "The Iroquois is not yet far a

de no objection, but nibbled his lump of sugar as he helped to load the canoe and launch it. Before th