XXXIV MONGA'S STORY
During the enforced wait for nightfall, Blaise put more questions to theIndian prisoner. Monga, anxious to ingratiate himself with his captors,talked freely.
Ohrante, the captive said, after his first crime, capture and escape, hadfled with Monga and the other Ojibwa who had helped him to get away. Atthe lake shore they had come across two Iroquois hunters, the tall fellowwith the malicious grin and another. When Ohrante proposed to take refugeon Minong, the Ojibwas held back. The Mohawk, however, told them a longstory about how his mother, a captive among the Iroquois, had been adirect descendant of the ancient tribe or clan who had once lived onMinong and had mined copper there. Her ancestors had been chieftains ofthat powerful people, Ohrante asserted, and he himself was hereditaryChief of Minong. From his mother's people and also from his father, whowas a Mohawk medicine man, the giant claimed to have inherited marvellousmagic powers. He had further increased those powers by going throughvarious mysterious experiences and ordeals. The manitos of Minong, hesaid, awaited his coming. He had had a dream, several moons before, inwhich the spirits, in the forms of birds and beasts, had appeared to himand begged him to come and rule over them. They would do his bidding andaid him to destroy his enemies and to become chief of all the tribesabout the Upper Lakes. He would unite those tribes into a powerful nationand drive the white men from the country.
Persuaded by Ohrante's arguments, the four Indians accompanied him toMinong. Their first camp was made on the southwestern end of the island.There Ohrante and the two Ojibwas, secure from pursuit, remained whilethe others crossed again to the mainland and brought back more recruits,an Ojibwa, a Cree and another Iroquois hunter. The band of eight roamedabout the western side of the island by land and water. Most of thewinter they spent in a long, narrow bay, where, according to Monga, theyfound many pieces of copper. In the spring, in search of the wonderstheir chief had promised them, they reached the northeastern end of theisland. Then came a hard storm of wind, rain and snow, accompanied byfog. Three days after the storm, when the waves had gone down, the bandentered, for the first time, the bay west of the long point. There theyfound and captured Jean Beaupre and Black Thunder. It was evident fromMonga's tale that he knew nothing of the hidden furs. Ohrante hadaccepted the story Jean Beaupre had told of having lost everything in thestorm, when his bateau, driven out of its course, had been dashed into arift in the rocks of the long point. Undoubtedly Beaupre must have hadsome warning of the approach of the Indians, for he had had time, as theboys knew, to secrete the furs. The fact that Black Thunder had sufferedan injury to one leg, when the boat was wrecked, might account for thefailure of the two to dodge the giant and his band.
When Monga finished this part of his story, Blaise turned from him totranslate to Hugh.
"Ask him," the elder brother suggested, "if father knew he was on theIsle Royale."
Blaise put the question and translated the reply. "Monga says our fatherknew not where he was. The weather was thick and cloudy, there was no sunand it was not possible to see far. Our father thought he was somewhereon the mainland. Ohrante did not tell him where he was. The chief wishedno man to know the hiding place. The prisoners were kept bound. They weregiven something cooked from leaves that made them sleep sound. Then theywere put in the canoes and taken to the other end of the island. By nightthey were brought across to the Isle of Torture."
"That explains father's not telling you where he was wrecked. He had noidea he had been driven to Minong. But why did Ohrante bring his captivesaway over here? What was his motive? Can you find out?"
Again Blaise asked a question, listening gravely to the answer. "Mongasays that he and Ohrante and the other Ojibwa camped on that littleisland they now call the Isle of Torture, when they first escaped fromour father, and Ohrante dreamed that night that he had many whitecaptives and put them to the torture one after another. Monga thinks itwas because of that dream that the chief brought his captives over tothat island."
"How did father escape?" Hugh questioned eagerly.
Again Blaise turned to Monga, and soon had the rest of the story. At theTorture Island, Ohrante had met with several recruits, who brought withthem a supply of liquor stolen from some trading post. The torture of thetwo captives, Ohrante's part of the entertainment, was postponed untilnight. During the day the party feasted and drank. They consumed all ofthe liquor, which was full strength, not diluted with water as it usuallywas before being sold to the Indians. By night the whole band were lyingabout the island in a heavy stupor. Even the lookout, who had beenstationed in a tree to give warning of the approach of danger, had comedown to get his share.
When the band came to their senses next morning, they found the prisonersgone. The thongs with which they had been tied lay on the ground, onepiece of rawhide having been worn through by being pulled across asharp-edged bit of rock. A canoe was gone and another had a great hole init, but a third boat, on the other side of the island, the prisoners hadnot found. Monga's Ojibwa comrade, the one who had helped Ohrante toescape justice, had been set to guard the captives. In a rage, Ohrantethreatened the fellow with torture in their stead. The guard begged to beallowed to track the escaped prisoners, and the chief consented. A highwind had blown all night and the lake was rough, too rough for thefugitives to have travelled far by water. The channel between shore andisland was protected from the wind, however, and some of the band crossedand found the canoe the escaped prisoners had used. Black Thunder's lameleg prevented rapid travelling, and at the Devil Track River, thenegligent guard and one of the Iroquois overtook the fugitives. Stealingquietly upon them, the Ojibwa attacked Jean Beaupre, the Iroquois, BlackThunder. Black Thunder struggled desperately, and the Iroquois wasobliged to fight for his life. He slew Black Thunder, only to find hisOjibwa companion lying dead a little farther on. Jean Beaupre was gone.
The Iroquois tried to follow Beaupre, but, being himself wounded, fellfainting from loss of blood. Monga and another of the band, sent afterthe two by Ohrante, found the Iroquois unable to travel without help. Itwas Monga who had kindled the cooking fire, the remains of which Hugh hadfound. Blaise spoke of finding the blood-stained tunic and Monga saidthat the Iroquois had stripped it from Black Thunder, but Monga and theother Indian would not let him carry the shirt away for fear of thevengeance of the thunder bird pictured upon it. The three returned to theIsland of Torture without attempting to follow Beaupre farther. When thelake calmed, two of the band took the winter catch of furs to the GrandPortage and exchanged them for supplies. Then the whole party returned toMinong, living for some time at the southern end. In a later raid theycaptured the unfortunate Indian, Ohrante's personal enemy, whom the boyshad seen being tortured. One of the chief's men was killed in theencounter, another deserted and several were left on the mainland toobtain recruits.
The rest went back to Minong and travelled to the northern end again. Inthe bay west of the long, high point, they found the spot the crew of the_Otter_ had cleared, and built their wigwams there. The discovery thatsomeone else had visited the place made Ohrante a bit uneasy, and he kepta lookout stationed on the high ridge. When the Beaupre brothers reachedthe point, all of the band except two happened to be away on a huntingtrip. The two guards, neglectful of lookout duty, had failed to see thelads approach. It must have been one of them who had fired the shot thataroused the boys at dawn. Ohrante and one canoe of the hunting partyreturned that very day. The call that had so startled Hugh, when he wasabout to open the packet, was a signal from one of the camp guards to thereturning chief. Luckily for the brothers they were well hidden in thepit, and Ohrante and his men were back at their camp long before the twolads reached theirs. The other canoe of hunters did not return until thefollowing day. Luck had been poor, and Monga proposed to his companionsthat they round the long, high point and look for game on the other side.They were headed towards the rocky tip, when, suddenly, before theirastonished eyes, a giant form appeare
d on the open rocks. The giantturned, looked straight at the canoe, then seemed to sink into theground. Just as he vanished, however, a second giant, even taller thanthe first, loomed up. Monga and his comrades turned and fled. Mongalooked back once, just in time to see one of the giants spring up out ofthe rocks, he said. The frightened Indians took refuge beyond the lowpoint on the other side of the bay, and stayed there until the fog camein, before daring to venture to camp. They told Ohrante of seeingNanibozho and Kepoochikan on the end of the long point, but he, tostrengthen his followers' belief in his magical powers, insisted next dayon rounding the point. In the Bay of Manitos, the Chief of Minong had thescare of his life.
Darkness had come by the time Blaise had learned all this from theprisoner and had translated it to Hugh and Baptiste. It was time to makea start. Monga was left behind, and to prevent his crying out orattracting attention in any way, he was gagged and tied to a tree. Thenthe others embarked in Baptiste's canoe. The weather favored them. Thenight was dark, not a ray of moonlight penetrating the thick clouds. Onlya light breeze rippled the water and the air was unusually warm.
Noiselessly, through the deepest shadows, the canoe approached the Islandof Torture. From the upper end, the black mass appeared to be quitedeserted. No gleam of fire shone through the trees. As the canoe slippedalong close to the mainland, however, the flickering light of a smallfire appeared ahead. That fire was not on the island, but on the mainlandopposite. Swerving in to shore, the canoe was brought to a stop, its prowjust touching a bit of beach. Without speaking a word, and makingscarcely a sound, the five stepped out, deposited the boat upon thepebbles and gathered around it in a knot.
Keneu, his mouth close to the half-breed boy's ear, whispered a word ortwo. Blaise nodded, and in an instant the Indian was gone into thedarkness. Blaise turned to Hugh and explained in the softest of whispers:"Keneu goes to learn who they are."
Silent, almost motionless, the rest of the party remained standing on thebit of beach in the thick darkness of the sheltering bushes. Hugh's eyeswere fastened on the black, silent island across the narrow channel. HadOhrante changed his plans? He felt his younger brother's hand on his arm,and turned about. He could just distinguish a low, hissing sound, whichhe realized was the Indian making his report to Blaise.
The sound ceased and the boy's lips were at Hugh's ear. "There are fourmen camping there. One is an Iroquois. They wait for Ohrante to come.Then they go to the island."
"He hasn't come yet, then?" Hugh whispered back.
"No, these are new men except the Iroquois. They come to join Ohrante.They have liquor, but the Iroquois will not let them drink until thechief comes."
"Then the only thing we can do is wait."
"That is all. We can watch the island from here. When Ohrante comes weshall know it."