The Secret Cache

e worn moccasin and the stained tunic had raised their hopes of finding the wrecked bateau soon. At any moment they might come upon it

ment, men, squaws and children. Luckily two deer and a yearling moose had been killed the day before, and Blaise, after some discussion in Ojibwa, succeeded in obtaining a piece of fresh venison and another of moose meat. The Indians refused Hugh's offer of

ured him. He had never seen the giant Iroquois, the man said, but he had heard that it was through his great powers as a medicine man that he had escaped from his captors. Without d

ver late in the Moon of the Snow Crust," the O

did Blaise tell Hugh of the

cried. "That is February or March, isn't it?

his elder brother had no doubt of the meaning. Hugh's heart, like the younger lad's, was hot against his father's murderer

t morning. Just as the sun was coming up, reddening the white mist that lay upon the gently rippling wate

oked up from his paddl

e as the Otter, though she seemed to have but one square sail. What was a ship doing here, so far south of the Kaministikwia and even of the Grand Portage? Did she belon

was much smaller. She was not a ship at all, only a wooden boat with a sail. There was something about the light and the atmospheric conditions, t

both ends. It was well loaded and carried three men. Hugh shouted a greeting and an inquiry. A tall fellow in blanket coat and scarlet

ded later to inspect a stream mouth, the half-breed said seriously that some spirit of the lake must

e on the way from Michilimackinac to the Sault, we saw something like that. A small, bare rock ahead of us stretched up like a high island. The Capt

ut Hugh doubted if the

s or with families of Indians journeying to the Grand Portage or to the New Fort. The two avoided convers

er the stars and took up their paddles at chilly dawn with no breakfast but a bit of maple sugar. Hugh grew lean and brown and hard muscled. Except for the redder hue of his tan, the light color of his hair and his gray eyes, he might almost have been whole brother to Blaise. The older boy had become expert with the paddle and could hold his own for

u or trace of Jean Beaupré's having come that way, the boys grew more and more puzzled and an

and where the city of Duluth now stands. To-day the name is no longer applied to the head of the lake itself, but is restricted to the railway junction and town of Fond du Lac several mile

Drawing nearer, they discovered that the long, sand point was by no means bare, much of it being covered more or less thickly with bushes, evergreens, aspens and willows. The two lads were weary, discouraged and very hungry. Since their scanty breakfast of wild rice boiled with a little f

he fishing. Luck with the lines had been poor throughout most of the trip, but that night fortune favored the lads a little. In the shallower water wi

each. Then they kindled a fire and cooked their long delayed supper. When th

on the low sand-bar, the mosquitoes came in clouds to the attack, but it was not the

t have been battered to pieces and washed out into the lake. Our only chance of

d quietly. "Have you forgotten what we found at the River of

r. "We didn't find any sign of the boat, y

nd afterwards washed out into the lake. We must make speed back there. But, H

taken the furs. Father told you he was wrecked in a storm, and, unable to carry the furs with him, he hid them. That much you say he made clear. When and where he was

bade me seek you out and find the furs and the packet. When

ing to the howling of a lonely wolf f

h of ground about that river. We will not give up while a chance r