XXXV THE FALL OF THE GIANT
As the wait might be long, the party decided to snatch a few minutes'sleep, one of them remaining on the lookout for the arrival of the Chiefof Minong. It was some time after midnight, when Keneu, who was doingguard duty, discerned something moving on the lake, coming down shore. Helaid his hand on the half-breed boy's forehead, and Blaise woke at once.
"A canoe," the Indian whispered.
Blaise raised his head to look. "The men from the Grand Portage. Whatidiots! Why not keep closer in?"
The Indian's hand pressed the lad's shoulder warningly. "Wait," hebreathed. "Let them go by."
Secure in the black shelter of the alders that overhung the bit of beach,Blaise watched the approaching canoe. It came on rapidly, confidently. Asit drew close in the darkness of the channel between mainland and island,the boy's eyes could make out no details. But his ears caught somethingthat made him heartily glad he had not signalled that canoe as had beenhis first thought. What he heard was an order spoken in Ojibwa, in theunmistakable, high-pitched, nasal voice of Ohrante. In obedience to thecommand, the canoe swung away from the mainland towards the Island ofTorture, and disappeared in the blackness of its margin.
Blaise drew a long breath and whispered in Keneu's ear, "Go watch thecamp and see what they do."
Keneu made no reply, but Blaise knew he was gone, though he heard nosound as the Indian slipped through the bushes. In the same quiet waythat Keneu had waked him, by laying his hand on the forehead of each,Blaise aroused his companions. In a few minutes all were sitting up, wideawake, staring at the dark water and the impenetrable blackness of theisland. There were no stars or moon. The air was unusually warm andsultry. A pale flash lit up the dark sky for an instant. Some momentslater a low rumbling came to their ears. A storm now might spoil alltheir plans, thought Hugh anxiously.
A gleam of light shone through the trees at the farther end of theisland. A fire had been kindled as a signal that the Chief of Minong hadarrived. Again the sky was lit by a white flash. Again the thunder rolledand rumbled. From down the channel came a sound of splashing water. Nocanoe, paddled by Indians, ever made such a splashing as that. "Have theyall jumped in? Are they swimming across?" thought Hugh.
Rolling over, he crawled down the beach. His head almost in the water, hegazed down the channel. Another flash of lightning swept the sky. Hughcrouched low, but in the instant of the illumination, he saw, crossingfrom mainland to island, a canoe with several men, and in its wakesomething black rising above the water. Hugh could not believe that theswimming thing was really what, in the instant's flash of light, itappeared to be.
He turned to slip up the beach again, and found Blaise at his side. Insilence the two went back to their place beside the canoe. A few minuteslater, Blaise felt a hand on his shoulder, and Keneu's voice spoke in hisear, in a low, hissing whisper.
"They have left their camp. They have crossed to the island, where a firenow burns."
"How many canoes?"
"Only one."
"Are other men coming?"
"I think not. I think they are the only ones."
Hugh was growing impatient. It had been his intention to wait to put hisplan into operation until the party on the island had feasted and drunkand were sleeping. The coming storm, however, threatened to thwart hisstrategy. Bad weather might drive Ohrante and his band to the mainland insearch of better shelter. Even if they remained on the island, a violentstorm would delay action. In daylight he could not carry out his scheme,and dawn was not far off. There was grave risk in acting now, but todelay might mean to lose all chance of success. Again the lightningflashed more brightly, the thunder rolled louder and at a shorterinterval. He must act now if at all. He put his mouth to his youngerbrother's ear.
"We must get those canoes. A storm may spoil our chance. We dare notwait."
"Yes," agreed Blaise. He understood the situation quite as well as Hugh.There was no need for more than the one word.
"You and I and Keneu will go," Hugh went on. "When we get across, Keneumust remain with our canoe. The others must stay here to stop the menfrom the Grand Portage when they come."
"Yes," Blaise replied again, and rose to his feet. "Come," he saidbriefly to the Indian.
In a few whispered words, Hugh explained to Baptiste that he and Manihikmust remain where they were. The Frenchman was inclined to grumble. Hedid not like the idea of the boys' going into action without his support.Hugh was firm, however, and as the whole plan was his, he was by rightthe leader, so Baptiste was forced to submit. By the time Hugh hadfinished his explanation, Blaise and Keneu had the canoe in the water.
Just as Hugh, as leader, took his place in the bow, a flash of lightninglit up the sky. The moment the flash was over, the canoe was off, Blaisein the center and Keneu in the stern. The paddling was left to theIndian, Hugh dipping his blade only now and then on one side or theother, as a signal to the steersman.
The natural clearing, where the fire now blazed bright, was at the otherend of the little island. If the Indians were all gathered around thefire, they could not see the canoe crossing from the mainland. Someonemight be down at the shore, but the attacking party had to take a chanceof that. Luckily the short passage was accomplished before the nextflash.
On the inner side of the little island, the trees and bushes grew down tothe water. In absolute silence, the canoe slipped along, close in.Another bright flash of lightning, quickly followed by a peal of thunder,caused Keneu to hold his blade motionless. The boat was well screened bythe trees, however, and there was no sign that it had been observed.
That flash of lightning had revealed something to Hugh. Just ahead was alittle curve in the margin of the island, and beyond it, a short, bluntprojection, a bit of beach with alders growing well down upon it. On thebeach were two canoes. To reach the spot, however, it would be necessaryto pass an open gap, a sort of lane leading up from the shore to theplace where the fire burned. Through the gap the firelight shone out uponthe water. It would never do to try to pass in the canoe.
Hugh dipped his paddle and gave it a twist. The Indian understood. He toosaw the firelight on the water. The canoe swerved towards shore andslowed down. Before it could touch and make a noise, Hugh was overside,stepping quickly but carefully, to avoid the slightest splash. Blaisefollowed. Keneu remained in the boat. He allowed his end to swing in farenough so he could grasp an overhanging branch and hold the craft steady.
Now came the most difficult part of the undertaking, to creep in thedarkness through the dense growth, which came clear to the water line,around to the beach where the canoe lay. Hugh, as leader, intended to gofirst, but he did not get the chance. Before he realized what the youngerboy was about, Blaise had slipped past him and taken the lead. It waswell he did so for Blaise, slender and agile, was an adept at wrigglinghis way snake-like, and he seemed to have a sixth sense in the darknessthat Hugh did not possess. So Hugh was constrained to let his youngerbrother pick the route. He had all he could do to follow without rustlingor crackling the thick growth. Progress was necessarily very slow, only afew feet or even inches at a time. Whenever there came a lightning flash,both lay flat. The flashes were less revealing in the dense growth, andluckily the trees stood thick between the two lads and the fire.
Blaise had reached the edge of the gap through which the yellow-redfirelight shone. He could see the fire itself, a big, roaring pile, andthe figures moving around it. The sound of voices speaking Ojibwa andIroquois came to his ears. Reaching back with one foot, he gave Hugh alittle warning kick, then looked for some way to cross the open space.
The Island of Torture, like most of the islands off the northwest shoreof the lake, consisted of a low, flat-topped, rock ridge descendinggradually to the water on one side and more abruptly on the other. Thelane was a natural opening down a steep slope from the ridge top to thewater. Just at the base of the open rock lane, at the very edge of thewater, grew a row o
f low shrubs, so low that they did not shut off thelight of the fire, but cast only a narrow line of shadow. The one way tocross that gap without being seen was to crawl along in the shadow ofthose bushes. The water might be shallow there or it might be deep. Lyingflat, Blaise put one hand into the shadowed water. His fingers touchedbottom. He felt around a little, then crawled forward. The water provedto be only a few inches deep. Prostrate, he wriggled along the rockbottom in the narrow band of shadow. When Blaise had reached the shelterof the woods beyond, Hugh followed, taking extreme care to slip alonglike an eel, without a splash.
The brothers were now but a short distance from the canoes. The thickgrowing alders fringing the pebbles shut off the firelight. The chiefperil was that someone might be guarding the boats. Eyes and earsstrained for the slightest sign of danger, the two crawled forward onhands and knees. They reached the first canoe without alarm and went onto the second. Still hidden from the Indians around the fire, the boyslifted the canoe and turned it bottom side up. Blaise drew his knife fromthe sheath and carefully, without a sound of ripping, cut a great hole inthe bark, removing a section between the ribs. Then the two carried theboat out a few feet and deposited it upon the water. It began to fillimmediately, the water entering the big hole with only a slight gurglingnoise. Even that sound alarmed the lads. They beat a hasty retreat andlay close under the alders. The Indians around the fire, however, weretoo engrossed in their own affairs to heed the sound, if indeed itcarried that far.
A man with a full, deep voice was speaking at length, his tones reachingthe boys where they lay hidden. Every now and then his listeners broke inwith little grunts and ejaculations of approval or assent. A crash ofthunder, following close upon a bright flash, drowned his voice. When therumbling ceased, he was no longer speaking. Something else was happeningnow. Little cries and grunts, accompanied by the beating together of woodand metal and the click of rattles in rude rhythm, came to the boys'ears.
"They are dancing," thought Hugh. "What fools to make such an exhibitionhere where a boat may pass at any moment! Ohrante is certainly insane orvery sure he is invincible. It is time we finished our work."
He missed Blaise from his side, and crept down to the remaining canoe,supposing his younger brother had gone that way. Blaise was not there.Hugh waited several minutes, listening to the grunts and cries, which,low voiced at first, were growing louder and faster as the dancers warmedto their work. Suddenly one of them uttered a yell, which was followed byquite a different sound, an animal's bellow of rage or pain. Hugh wasboth alarmed and curious. What was going on up there, and what had becomeof Blaise?
The elder brother crept back across the pebbles, pushed his waycautiously among the alders, and crawled up a short, steep slope toppedby more bushes and trees, through which the firelight flickered. Thenoises of the dance, broken by louder cries and angry bellows, continued.Crouching low in the shadow, Hugh peeped through at the strangest scenehe had ever looked upon.
In the open space a big fire blazed, casting its reddish-yellow glareover the picture. Between the fire and the boy, the dancing figures ofthe Indians passed back and forth, crouching, stamping, gesticulating, tothe rhythm of their hoarse cries and the clicking of their weapons andrattles. All were naked to the waist and some entirely so. Their facesand bodies were streaked and daubed with black and white, yellow and red.Near by, in dignified immobility, stood the self-styled Chief of Minong,his tall feather upright in his head band, his face and breastfantastically painted in black and vermilion. His bronze body wasstripped to the waist, displaying to advantage the breadth of hisshoulders and the great muscles of his long arms. A little shudder passeddown Hugh's spine as his eyes rested upon that huge, towering form andthe set, cruel face. Yet it was neither the war dance nor Ohrante thatheld his surprised gaze longest.
A little to one side of the fire, the tall birch rose straight and highabove its fellows. To its white stem was tied, not a human victim thistime, but the dark form of an animal, a moose. As the beast tossed itshead about in frenzy, Hugh could see that its antlers, still covered withthe fuzzy velvet, had no broad palms and bore but two points on eitherside. It was a crotch horn or two year old. Every few moments one oranother of the dancers would utter a yell or war whoop, dart towards thecaptive animal, strike it a swift blow with knife, spear or firebrand,then leap nimbly out of the way of its tossing antlers and flyingforefeet. A favorite sport seemed to be to strike the beast upon thesensitive end of the nose with a burning pole. The moose was wild withrage and pain, plunging madly about, swaying the birch almost tobreaking. The bonds were strong and the tree failed to snap, yet the boywondered how long it would be before something gave and freed thefrenzied beast. He thought the young moose did not realize his ownstrength, but when he should find it out, Hugh did not want to be in theway.
The watcher was just about to retreat to the beach, when the dancingsuddenly stopped. Drops of rain were beginning to fall, but the showerwas not the reason for the cessation of the dancing. Ohrante had raisedhis arm in an impressive gesture. The dancers lowered their weapons andrattles and drew back to the other side of the fire. Majestically Ohrantestalked forward and confronted the plunging moose. Lightning flashed,thunder pealed, there came a sharp dash of rain, the fire hissing andspitting like a live thing as the drops struck it. But Ohrante did notintend to be deprived of his cruel sport by a mere thunder shower. Heheld in his right hand a long pole with a knife lashed to the end.Standing just out of reach of the enraged beast's antlers and forefeet,he lunged directly at its throat.
There came a dazzling flash, a flare of light, a stunning crash thatseemed to shatter Hugh's ear-drums. Even as the flash blinded his eyes,they received a momentary impression of a great black object hurtling atand over the giant Indian, as he toppled backward into the fire. The nextinstant a huge bulk crashed through the bushes almost on top of the boy.A tremendous splash followed.