D. LANG
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA
 
 "INDIAN" STORIES 
 WITH HISTORICAL BASES 
 
 BY D. LANGE, 
 Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 " // a boy can t get interested in The Silver 
 Island of the Chippewa he needs a doctor." 
 
 Cincinnati Times-Star. 
 
 ON THE TRAIL OF THE SIOUX 
 ILLUSTRATED BY J. W. KENNEDY. 
 
 Price Net, $1.00; Postpaid, $1.10. 
 The last stand of the Sioux on the Minnesota 
 frontier, in the early days of the Civil War. 
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND OF THE 
 CHIPPEWA 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY STANLEY WOOD. 
 Price Net, $1.00; Postpaid, $1.10. 
 A story of Isle Royale and Silver Isle in Lake 
 Superior, and the fabulously rich mine on the 
 latter. 
 
 LOST IN THE FUR COUNTRY 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY GRISWOLD TYNG. 
 
 Price Net, $1.00; Postpaid, $1.10. 
 Indian life in the Hudson Bay Region one hun 
 dred years ago, as experienced by twins kidnapped 
 by Indians. 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 THAT SMOKE TELLS THE MESSAGE PLAINLY ENOUGH," OBSERVED 
 DAN. Page 161.
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 
 
 BY 
 D. LANGE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ON THE TRAIL OF THE SIOUX 1 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY STANLEY L. WOOD 
 
 BOSTON 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
 
 Published, March, 191& 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD Co. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 Entered at Stationers Hall, London 
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND OF THE CHIPPEWA 
 
 BERWICK & SMITH CO. 
 
 NORWOOD, MASS. 
 V, S. A.
 
 
 INTEODUCTION 
 
 Some years ago, as I sailed along the 
 rugged North Shore of Lake Superior, I had 
 my first glimpse of Silver Island. 
 
 The Duluth and Isle Boyale boat had just 
 left Port Arthur on Thunder Bay and was 
 headed for the distant blue ridge of Isle 
 Boyale, Michigan, when I sighted an islet a 
 few miles to the left of our course. There it 
 lay, like a fortress guarding the entrance to 
 Thunder Bay, out of which flows the golden 
 stream of Canadian wheat to the markets of 
 far-away lands. No man-of-war and no buc 
 caneer ever tried to capture the great wheat- 
 loading vessels at Fort "William and Port 
 Arthur, so why should our peaceful Canadian 
 neighbors build a sea fort under the pic 
 turesque wooded rocks of Thunder Cape? 
 An old trapper, who was also going to Isle 
 Boyale, knew something about that fortress. 
 
 v 
 
 rrorr
 
 vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 It wasn t a fortress at all, he said. It was 
 a sort of ruin now, but when he first trapped 
 bear on the North Shore and lynx on Isle 
 Eoyale, it was a fabulously rich silver mine. 
 So rich was the ore that they packed it in 
 sacks and barrels, when they shipped it to 
 Detroit. 
 
 On that trip, the romance of the North, 
 of Lake Superior, the Great Inland Sea, and 
 of wild rock-bound and rock-ribbed Isle 
 Eoyale, the great isle of Minong of the Chip- 
 pewas, laid hold of me. I camped in their 
 little cabins with fishermen and trappers, I 
 stalked moose, deer, and bear with camera 
 and field-glass, climbed to the nest of the 
 great white-headed eagle, visited some of 
 the Chippewa Indians and pitched my tent 
 among the screaming sea gulls on the long 
 low ridges of the Siskiwit Islands. 
 
 And when both boys and girls, and many 
 adults, received kindly "On the Trail of the 
 Sioux," a story of the prairies, I ventured 
 to tell a tale playing on the lakes, streams, 
 and islands, and in the forests of the Chip-
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 pewas, who, in the days gone by, fought many 
 a battle with their hereditary enemies, the 
 Sioux, but did not join the Sioux in their 
 desperate struggles against the Whites. 
 
 Thus grew the story of "The Silver Island 
 of the Chippewa." 
 
 DIETKICH LANGE. 
 St. Paul, Minn., 
 
 December, 1912.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE CHIPPEWA S MESSAGE .... ; . : ,., ,.-, ,.j ,. 3 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE START . . i. ,. 15 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 ON THE TRAIL .... 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP ..... i.. ; . :. ,. 31 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 WAGGLES is INITIATED ,..,.,.. 39 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 OFF ON A LONG CRUISE .. . w ,. ,. 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A SPOOKY NIGHT ,. >i i. .- r. >. 68 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LOSING THE SPY AND FINDING A QUEER ISLAND ... 68 
 
 ix
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE MOOSE HUNT 75 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 BUILDING A CANOE AND EXPLORING THE WILDERNESS . 87 
 
 92 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 CAUGHT IN A FOREST FIRE 100 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 IN THE CHIPPEWA TEPEE 109 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 AN UNWELCOME VISITOR 116 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 CUNNING AGAINST CUNNING 121 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 INTO THE UNKNOWN 127 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 BATTLING WITH WAVES AND FOG 134 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE FIRST CAMP ON ISLE ROYALE . 140
 
 CONTENTS xi 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY AND A FATEFUL MESSAGE . 145 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 PREPARING FOR THE ENEMY 162 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 IN A NORTHEASTER ON THE SISKIWITS 172 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 ESCAPING FROM THE SISKIWITS 179 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 SNOWED IN 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 THE SOLITUDE OF A LONG WINTER 195 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 DECOYING THE TRAILER 207 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 SILVER ISLAND AT LAST 224 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 A VISIT TO AMIGOOSHEB. THE END OF LE Nora. HOME 232 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 THE HISTORY OF SILVER ISLAND . 242
 
 ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 "That smoke tells the message plainly enough," 
 
 observed Dan (page 161) .... Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PACK 
 
 "Swim out! She ll kill you if she strikes you!" . 84 
 
 "You are welcome" 110 
 
 On and on they labored in silence 138 
 
 He ventured too close to the maddened beast . . 204 
 
 "Drop your knife!" ......... 222
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND OF 
 THE CHIPPEWA 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 THE CHIPPEWA S MESSAGE 
 
 WINNIBOSHEE, the CMppewa In 
 dian, had made a remarkably fast 
 trip in his canoe from Grand 
 Portage on Lake Superior to Fort Frances, 
 Ontario. 
 
 He carried an important letter addressed 
 to John McCnlloch, Indian Trader at Fort 
 Frances, and a friend of McCulloch at Grand 
 Portage had promised the Indian a new gun 
 if he delivered the letter in less than a week s 
 time. Winniboshee, in order to provide his 
 family with enough moose meat and venison, 
 needed a new gun very much, so he paddled 
 eighteen hours a day and made the trip in six 
 days.
 
 4 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 McCulloch, although naturally cool and de 
 liberate in his actions, quickly took the letter 
 into a little back room of his log house. His 
 fingers trembled as he broke the red seal, 
 and his voice was a little unsteady as he read 
 it to his wife and oldest son, Dan. 
 
 "Dear Mr. McCulloch," it ran. "On 
 March 20th we paid to Alexander Sellsby 
 your credit of fifteen hundred dollars ($1500) 
 as directed in your order of January 5th, 
 1865. We understand that Mr. Sellsby and 
 the Chippewa, Hamigeesek, who accompanied 
 him, were to close some mining deal for you 
 at Montreal. We could not doubt the gen 
 uineness of the order, but had we been able 
 to reach you, we should have advised you 
 against such a highly speculative venture. 
 
 "Your friends, Sellsby and Hamigeesek, 
 took passage on the steamer Mackinac, for 
 Montreal on May 3d, and on May 5 the boat 
 foundered with all on board in a violent storm 
 on Lake Erie. 
 
 "We appreciate that this news of the death
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 5 
 
 of your friends must come as a hard blow to 
 you. The financial loss also is not incon 
 siderable to a beginner in the Indian trade, 
 and therefore you may draw on us to the ex 
 tent of five hundred dollars ($500). 
 
 1 Hoping that you and your family are well, 
 we remain, 
 
 * Cordially yours, 
 
 "JOHN L. STETSON & Co. 
 
 "Bankers. 
 "Detroit, Michigan, 
 "May 8th, 1865." 
 
 "Now we re done for," muttered Mr. Mc- 
 Culloch, as he stared blankly at the rough 
 logs of the floor and let the letter fall from 
 his trembling hands. 
 
 "Oh, come, Father, we re not done for!" 
 exclaimed Dan, a wiry lad of nineteen, as he 
 sprang up from his rough log stool and stood 
 up tall and straight, his blond hair almost 
 touching the low ceiling. 
 
 "We are not done for!" he repeated. "If 
 Silver Island exists, I ll find it; and if it s
 
 6 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 half as rich as Hamigeesek claimed it is, we 11 
 come out all right. Don t cry, Mother; if 
 Silver Island is within a thousand miles of 
 here, I 11 find it!" 
 
 Then the three sat in silence, until Mc- 
 Culloch went to take a meal of hominy bread 
 and bacon to Winniboshee. 
 
 "I was always opposed to this wild 
 scheme," remarked Dan s mother, as the tears 
 stole out of her calm gray eyes, "but you and 
 Father would not listen to me. You aren t 
 even sure that the ore which Hamigeesek left 
 here contains any silver. It may be lead or 
 tin or some other worthless metal. I never 
 quite trusted either Sellsby or Hamigeesek." 
 
 "What s that you say, Mother?" asked Mc- 
 Culloch as he entered the room again. 
 Sellsby and Hamigeesek never told a lie and 
 Dan and I know silver from lead, although we 
 are not miners or chemists. To-night, after 
 we are safe from intruders, we ll all go to 
 Wolf Hollow and convince you that that piece 
 of ore is full of real silver." 
 
 That June day seemed endless to the whole
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 7 
 
 McCulloch family. Again and again Dan ex 
 amined the piece of ore, and every time he be 
 came more firmly convinced that the white 
 streaks and lumps in it were nothing else 
 than pure silver. 
 
 But Dan s small brother, Harry, was the 
 most excited of all and made no attempt to 
 conceal his excitement, and hardly left Dan 
 for half an hour at a time. 
 
 Dan," he begged, "now, Dan, you aren t 
 going to hunt up that Silver Island and leave 
 me here all alone with sister Margaret? If 
 you do, I ll sure run away back to Detroit. I 
 can t do a thing here but hang around this old 
 log house. 
 
 " Mother won t let me go and play with the 
 Indian kids; she won t let me go fishing or 
 swimming alone. I can t do a thing but work 
 in the garden and quarrel with sister. And 
 every time I make her cry Mother boxes my 
 ears or asks Father to straighten me out. 
 Oh, I wish I was back in Detroit ! " 
 
 "Oh, kid, dry up, dry up!" at last Dan 
 broke in good naturedly. "You d be dead
 
 8 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 long ago if Mother didn t watch you. Didn t 
 yon fall into the river only last week?" 
 
 "Yes, and didn t I get out again, tool" re 
 torted Harry, vexed at the indifference of his 
 big brother. How am I ever going to learn 
 to swim, if I can never go to the river ? You 
 and Father and Mother always say: Don t 
 go near the river, don t go fishing; you re 
 too small to set traps. Play with Margaret 
 and work in your garden. 
 
 "If you go away and leave me, I ll run 
 after you, he screamed as he broke out cry 
 ing; "or I ll, I ll run run away to to 
 Detroit. You, you 11 see, if I don t ! " And 
 with that he ran down the trail to a secluded 
 spot where he frequently hid himself when 
 his excitable temper had been wrought up to 
 an uncomfortable degree. 
 
 "Queer kid," muttered Dan, as he looked 
 after him. "Very much like myself when I 
 was eleven. He would take it very hard if 
 I went away and left him. And it is really 
 pretty lonesome here for a youngster. "Won 
 der if I could take him along? He would be
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 9 
 
 lots of company. But I m afraid Mother 
 wouldn t allow it. 
 
 At last evening drew near. Winniboshee 
 had long ago finished his meal of boiled bacon, 
 bread and lettuce. One whole loaf of bread 
 he had eaten and the second loaf he had car 
 ried away under his blanket, as it was the 
 custom of Indians to do with anything left 
 over from a meal. 
 
 The sky began to be tinted orange behind 
 the pines, numerous whitethroats whistled on 
 the trees around the clearing, and the weird 
 and dreamy evening song of several her 
 mit thrushes rang out from the thickets of 
 spruce, balsam, and birch a few rods away. 
 
 Quietly the McCulloch family walked along 
 the trail northward to Wolf Hollow. Only 
 Harry and his fox terrier, Waggles, could not 
 suppress their excitement. They ran ahead 
 on the trail, scampered about now on this side 
 and now on that, until Dan called to them 
 sharply : Cut out your capers, kid. Haven t 
 I told you lots of times that the woods have 
 ears and eyes?"
 
 10 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "Yes," spoke up the boys father, "Harry, 
 stop your racket with the pup. It s harder 
 to keep a secret in these woods than it is to 
 keep one s business quiet in a big town. 
 Some of these Indians and half-breeds seem 
 to be able to smell news. Fall in behind with 
 that frisky pup of yours ! 
 
 Arrived at the hollow, Dan laid the ore on 
 a stump, around which he built a fire, and for 
 half an hour the boys and their father fed the 
 blaze until it lighted up the little hollow with 
 the reddish glare of old pine knots, and made 
 the tall trunks of pines and the white-barked 
 poplars and birches stand out in sharp con 
 trast, like white, spooky silhouettes against 
 a dark background. 
 
 Then they let the fire burn low, and with a 
 stick Dan pulled out the ore. He pushed it 
 over on a rock and hammered it with the head 
 of his ax until most of the rock, cracked and 
 softened by the fire, fell away from the metal. 
 As soon as the battered piece had cooled off, 
 he took it up. 
 
 "There," he said to his parents; "it s
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 11 
 
 surely not iron or copper, and it isn t lead or 
 tin or some other worthless stuff. If it were, 
 this fire would have melted it. It s got the 
 white bright shine of silver and it beats up 
 like silver. It s silver and nothing else, 
 though I admit that this beating and hammer 
 ing is a pretty crude test. There s more of 
 it where this came from and I want to go and 
 find it!" 
 
 "True enough," replied Dan s father in a 
 low voice. "I think it s silver all right. 
 Everybody thinks there s gold and silver in 
 the rocks around Lake Superior, and I know 
 that Sellsby and Hamigeesek didn t lie to me. 
 But how can you ever hope to find the Is 
 land? Hamigeesek was the only one who 
 knew, and he and poor Sellsby lie dead on the 
 bottom of Lake Erie. 
 
 "Now look, Father," broke in Dan ear 
 nestly. I know enough to try. Hamigeesek 
 found the Island on a trip to Isle Eoyale in 
 Lake Superior. I know in a general way the 
 route he must have taken. He said the Is 
 land was very small, just a bare rock only five
 
 12 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 times as long as a canoe, had no trees or 
 bushes on it, and you could see the silver shine 
 in the water like stars. 
 
 "I don t know whether the Island is in 
 Rainy Lake or in some other lake along the 
 route, or in Lake Superior. I don t believe 
 it s far from shore nor far from Isle Royale 
 if it is in Lake Superior, because the Indians 
 seldom go far from land in their canoes. My 
 plan is to start at once along the route to Isle 
 Royale. I may pick up some more informa 
 tion as I go along. Hamigeesek s good 
 friend, Amigoosheb, generally has his camp 
 at the head of the Pigeon River, near the Isle 
 Royale route, and I wouldn t be surprised if 
 Hamigeesek had visited him and told him 
 something about the location of Silver Is 
 land." 
 
 "If Dan goes hunting for that island I m 
 going along," piped out Harry with a loud 
 shrill voice. "There s nothing here for me 
 to do and Margaret can have my garden, 
 and" 
 
 "Harry," broke in Mr. McCulloch ear-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 13 
 
 nestly, if you start making a noise here, I ll 
 baste you well with a birch switch. You ve 
 been an unbearable youngster all day ! 
 
 Harry knew that Ms father meant it and 
 felt a little ashamed of his actions during the 
 day; but as the family walked home in si 
 lence, he made up his mind to beg Dan to 
 take him along and have Dan help him get his 
 father s and mother s consent. 
 
 Harry s dog, Waggles, had run ahead, and 
 when he was about half-way to the house, he 
 began to bark savagely and ran something 
 into the timber. 
 
 * I wonder what that pup is after now I He 
 makes enough noise to awake the whole 
 woods," remarked Dan. 
 
 "I bet it s a fisher, Dan," answered Harry. 
 " Don t you know ever since he had a fight 
 with the fisher last winter, he gets mad and 
 barks like crazy when he strikes the trail of 
 one." 
 
 "He seems to be right on to something, the 
 way he barks," said McCulloch to Dan, as 
 Harry ran ahead alone. "I just wonder if
 
 14 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 that half-breed Le Noir has been nosing 
 around here again? Ever since poor Sellsby 
 and Hamigeesek started for Montreal, that 
 fellow has been trying to find out something 
 about their trip. I wonder if he has any 
 inkling about the discovery Hamigeesek 
 made?"
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 THE START 
 
 BEFORE breakfast next morning 
 Harry opened his campaign with his 
 mother and was met by a flat refusal 
 to his ardent prayer. But this did not dis 
 courage Harry at all, because Mother had 
 many times first refused a thing and later had 
 granted it. With his most persuasive argu 
 ments he went after his big brother. 
 
 "Dan," he begged, "if you let me go along 
 hunting for that Silver Island, I ll never be 
 kiddish again, honest Injun, I won t ! I won t 
 be lazy and I ll mind you to a dot. Cross my 
 heart, Dan, I will. I ll lug all my own stuff 
 too." 
 
 "No, you can t go, kid. You re always 
 hungry or tired or dry. And then you al 
 ways make such a blooming lot of noise that 
 
 15
 
 16 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 you d scare all the game and make us both 
 starve." 
 
 "Oh, come, Dan, I told you I wouldn t be 
 kiddish, and sure as I live I won t. And 
 Waggles must go along too. Wouldn t Wag 
 gles and I have a time! We ll guard camp 
 from Indians and bears when you are asleep, 
 and Waggles will catch " 
 
 Drop it, kid, drop it!" Dan began to 
 laugh aloud. "You and Waggles are just the 
 right kind to fight bears and Indians. You 
 two will make enough racket to scare the fish 
 in the water, and 
 
 "Dan, sure, I tell you we ll be as quiet as 
 moles and we 11 work like beavers. 
 
 "Yes, I know both of you. You ll be snor 
 ing five minutes after we make camp and 
 Waggles never caught anything bigger than 
 mice and rats." 
 
 "He never had a chance. He s mighty 
 brave all right. He can t help being small. 
 Didn t he have a big fight with the fisher?" 
 
 "And the fisher would have killed him if I 
 hadn t come along with a club."
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 17 
 
 But he showed that he was the right 
 stuff." 
 
 "Yes, you and Waggles are both great 
 stuff! Just quit jawing me now; I ll see 
 what I can do for you and that speckled pup 
 of yours. 
 
 "Wheel hurrah!" yelled Harry. "Dan, 
 you re a bully fellow. When are we going to 
 start?" 
 
 "Bun along and get some water for Mother 
 from the spring. We ll start as soon as we 
 can get ready." 
 
 Harry had never worked as hard as he did 
 this day. He fetched in water and wood. 
 He hoed his garden as it never had been hoed 
 before, and he even hoed Margaret s garden. 
 It was a bad day for weeds. He told Wag 
 gles all about the trip and Waggles looked 
 him straight in the face and wagged his short- 
 haired tail with much excitement, and Harry 
 felt sure Waggles knew what his master was 
 talking about and the boy-master was several 
 times on the point of telling Margaret every 
 thing, but he was afraid that she would spoil
 
 18 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 his case with Father and Mother before Dan 
 had secured their consent. 
 
 When Harry went to bed he started to 
 travel in imagination the whole trail from 
 Port Frances to Grand Portage, over which 
 the family had come about a year ago, but he 
 fell asleep when he reached the grove of big 
 Norway pines at Five-Mile Camp where they 
 had made the last stop on the long journey. 
 
 Dan succeeded in convincing his father and 
 mother that Harry and Waggles should join 
 in the search for Silver Island. 
 
 "I should like to have some company on 
 this long trip," he had argued, and I shall 
 certainly take good care of him and can look 
 after him better than you could at home. He 
 can t go to school here, but he will learn a lot 
 of things on this trip. 
 
 Three days later, Dan, Harry, and Wag 
 gles took the trail for Grand Portage. The 
 dawn of a June day breaks early in the 
 North Country. It was just past two o clock 
 when the boys said good-by to their parents 
 and sister. A few whitethroats already
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 19 
 
 whistled their clear song from the spruce and 
 fir thickets. 
 
 1 i Gee whiz, remarked Harry, l those little 
 Peabody birds don t do much sleeping. One 
 of them was singing last night at ten o clock 
 just before I fell asleep." 
 
 The stars were still twinkling above the 
 dark forest and it was with some difficulty 
 that the travelers followed the trail. Wag 
 gles, who was generally very cheerful, frisk 
 ing about to right and left, and sniffing at all 
 kinds of real and imaginary tracks, trotted 
 soberly behind. The cold wet grass did not 
 invite any frisking about, and he seemed to 
 be depressed in spirits and wondering why 
 any humans should start on a trip at such an 
 unreasonable hour. The cool hours of even 
 ing were, to his dog sense, the proper time to 
 start on a trip. 
 
 Big drops and even little streams of cold 
 dew ran down from hazel and willow and 
 other brush that hung into the trail. The 
 boots of the boys were as wet as if the lads 
 had been wading in a marsh, and the cold dew
 
 20 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 soaked into the upper part of their tucked-in 
 Mackinaw trousers until the two travelers 
 were wet to the skin and their woolen trous 
 ers were as heavy as soaked sponges. 
 
 Dan, who was walking ahead, stripped off 
 most of the dew, but there was plenty left to 
 soak into his small brother and even Waggles 
 soon looked as if he had just taken a bath. 
 
 For fully half an hour the trio followed the 
 trail in silence until the spires of the spruces 
 and the cloud-like branches of the old pines 
 began to rise out of the grayish pale light of 
 morning. 
 
 " What are we starting so dreadful early 
 for anyway?" Harry at last ventured to ask. 
 
 "I ll give you a pointer on that, young 
 brother," replied Dan in a low voice. 
 
 "The woods haven t as many eyes and ears 
 as the town, but they have eyes and ears a 
 good deal keener. We don t want any half- 
 breed or Indian around here to know where 
 we are going and what we are taking along. 
 Within three or four days Father can tell 
 them we have gone on a trip east and they
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 21 
 
 will probably think we have gone to look up 
 a good trapping trail or hunting camp for 
 fall. But if any one sees us with these packs 
 he ll know right away that we re after some 
 thing unusual and he 11 try to figure out what 
 it is and some curious fellow may start sneak 
 ing around after us, for none of them have a 
 thing to do at this season. And I reckon you 
 and Waggles and I are company enough on 
 this business.
 
 CHAPTEE HI 
 
 ON THE TBAIL 
 
 AGAIN the two brothers relapsed into 
 silence. A long twenty miles of 
 hard trail lay before them, near the 
 end of which they would find hidden a birch- 
 bark canoe, a pack-load of steel traps and two 
 pairs of snowshoes, all of which Dan had 
 cached there when the country froze up the 
 preceding fall. 
 
 Dan, with his heavy pack, set a rapid pace, 
 and although Harry carried only a small load 
 he had but little wind left for talking and ask 
 ing questions. As the sun rose above the 
 tree tops, the dew rapidly disappeared from 
 the underbrush. Whitethroats and hermit- 
 thrushes still sang in the thickets. In some 
 small openings, where several years ago fire 
 had destroyed the large trees, woodland spar 
 rows and numerous little warblers chirped 
 22
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 23 
 
 their plain songs. The big black log-cock was 
 hammering on a dead pine and, with a loud 
 scream, took flight as the boys approached, 
 for he has always been one of the shyest of 
 birds. 
 
 "Golly, he s a big fellow," remarked 
 Harry, "as big as a crow." But Dan was 
 already two dozen paces ahead and Harry fell 
 into a short trot to catch up with him, and 
 again they moved along in silence. 
 
 As noon was approaching they entered a 
 tamarack swamp where the going was unusu 
 ally bad. Dan, an experienced woodsman, in 
 stinctively picked his way over slippery roots 
 and deep holes filled with dark-brown water. 
 
 "A beastly rotten trail, you re leading us 
 on," Harry was going to say, when he slipped 
 on a root and, turning a kind of somersault 
 sideways, landed squarely on his stomach in 
 a black pool, and, although he wriggled out 
 as quickly as he could, he was soused and 
 daubed with reddish-brown mud all over. 
 
 Harry, who was getting tired and hungry, 
 felt vexed enough to cry, but Dan laughed and
 
 24 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 said it was all a part of the game and Harry 
 would soon dry off in the sun. Waggles 
 sniffed and jumped around the pool as if he 
 thought Harry had dived into it after a mouse 
 or chipmunk or frog, for all of which Wag 
 gles was always on the alert. 
 
 "You fool pup," remarked Harry, as with 
 a handful of grass he brushed off some of the 
 mud, "I ll push you into that mud-hole if you 
 don t stop making fun of me." 
 
 And again they marched on, Harry won 
 dering if Dan was going to make the whole 
 twenty miles without stopping for lunch. 
 But he had promised that he wouldn t be a 
 baby and he wasn t going to tell that he was 
 getting tired and hungry. 
 
 The sun was now shining almost straight 
 through the pines and through the loose green 
 foliage of tall poplars and birches. 
 
 "There," said Dan, as he threw his pack 
 on the soft moss near a still, clear stream; 
 "this is good spring water, and here we ll 
 stop for a bite ; we re over half there now. I 
 suppose you re near played out, kid?"
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 25 
 
 "Not a bit of it, Dan; I could walk a mile 
 yet, but I tell you I m hungry. You hiked 
 as if somebody was chasing us." 
 
 "We want to get out of this country as 
 soon as possible, and there s no telling how 
 long we may have to stop at our canoe. It 
 leaked a little last fall, nd I m just a little 
 afraid a bear may have ripped it. The coun 
 try is full of them." 
 
 The biscuits, which Harry s mother had 
 put into the pack for the small voyager s spe 
 cial benefit, went fine and fast with the hot 
 tea; but Dan would allow Harry only three 
 of them, while Harry said he felt as if he 
 wanted about a dozen. 
 
 "This is just a light lunch and a short 
 rest," Dan decided. "You can t march if 
 you re stuffed. To-night you can eat all you 
 want. 
 
 After lunch Dan struck a very slow pace. 
 Harry followed at ease and behind trotted 
 Waggles, his tongue lolling out of his 
 mouth, for the day had grown very hot and 
 Waggles was not used to long trips.
 
 26 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 On open hillsides the heat waves rose quiv 
 ering in the air, the scattered branches of tall 
 Norways gave hardly any shade, and only 
 the hobnails in the boots of the boys pre 
 vented them from slipping on the dry needles. 
 
 The trees and shrubs, the grasses, ferns 
 and flowers, seemed to be almost palpitating 
 with growth, but as for sound or sign of other 
 life, the forest seemed dead. 
 
 * Where are all the birds and animals any 
 way?" asked Harry. 
 
 "They re taking a nap, Harry. Birds and 
 animals move and feed in the morning and 
 towards evening; during the hot noon hours 
 they keep quiet. They re wise in their ways 
 and know how to take life easy when they 
 can. 
 
 "Where are the big animals? I thought 
 we would see some and I ve seen nothing 
 bigger than a red squirrel and a rabbit." 
 
 "Each goes to his own country in spring. 
 Moose and deer are in the thickets and 
 swamps around the lakes where they can
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 27 
 
 hide their young and get into water when the 
 flies are bad. You ll see plenty of them as 
 we travel along." 
 
 "Where are the bears and wolves and 
 lynxes?" 
 
 "The bears roam about a good deal now. 
 In July and August they find the raspberry 
 and blueberry patches. The lynxes are scat 
 tered everywhere and nowhere in particular. 
 The wolves are on high ground where they 
 had their cubs early in spring. But we ll 
 not see many of either of these. They are 
 wary and don t often come into the open and 
 they are apt to hear us and smell us before 
 we see them. 
 
 "And now I ll give you another pointer. 
 Cut out noises as much as you can. None of 
 your yelling and calling, and see to it that 
 Waggles doesn t chase and bark after things 
 all the time. I m afraid that pup will turn 
 out a good deal of a nuisance, but I knew 
 you wanted very much to take him along, 
 and then he s always so happy and cheerful
 
 28 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 and looks at a person in such a human-like 
 way, well, perhaps he may be of some use 
 in camp too. 
 
 "But you and Waggles will have to go 
 short on noise. The big creatures of the 
 woods are seldom heard. 
 
 "Moose and deer and Indians are nearly 
 always silent. Bears and lynxes and pan 
 thers are silent and so are the eagles." 
 
 "What about wolves and owls? Don t 
 they make a lot of noise 1 Harry threw in. 
 
 "Only at times, and then they know what 
 they re howling for; at least the wolves do. 
 What the owl hoots for, I don t know. But 
 you ll not hear or see many wolves. 
 
 "The wild things seem to know that every 
 one can sneak upon you, if you make a noise, 
 so they keep still unless they have some use 
 for noise." 
 
 "What about the birds?" ventured Harry. 
 
 "Oh, yes; the small birds don t have to be 
 afraid of being followed, because they can 
 hop and fly about in the trees and bushes 
 where nothing can follow them."
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 29 
 
 Time went quickly and the slower pace of 
 travel did not tire Harry. Again they 
 passed up hill and down hill, through spruce 
 and tamarack swamps and through open 
 sunny places where an abundance of small 
 white flowers were spread out over the moss 
 and around the rocks and dead stumps. In 
 several places the travelers touched the lake, 
 on whose blue glittering surface the pines be 
 gan to cast long shadows. 
 
 The birds, although seldom seen, again 
 filled the forest with music. There came 
 again the ever-present whistle of the white- 
 throats, which Harry imitated until one of 
 the birds almost flew into the face of his sup 
 posed rival. From the thickets and swamp 
 rang out again the notes of the veery and 
 hermit-thrushes, sweet and melancholy but 
 still strong, as if the little throbbing hearts 
 of the singers were overflowing with some 
 great joy; while from low and open bushes 
 came the medley of song sparrows and war 
 blers, whose chirps and trills and feeble, wiry 
 notes blended like a well-attuned accompani-
 
 30 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 merit with the stronger music of thrushes and 
 whitethroats. 
 
 Dan slowed up and began to scan carefully 
 the poplars on the right side of the trail. 
 
 "We are almost there," he said. "I 
 blazed a poplar a few rods beyond the big 
 fallen log we just climbed over. Our canoe 
 is just ten rods straight south of that blaze, 
 under some old spruces near a small pond 
 and not more than ten rods from Eainy 
 Lake. 
 
 Here is the blaze! Now I only hope the 
 boat s there and that a bear hasn t slashed it 
 or some fool porcupine cut holes into it!" 
 and with that the two boys, much to the sur 
 prise of tired and panting Waggles, left the 
 trail and struck into a bad jungle of willows 
 and a leaning and prostrate growth of black 
 alders which had never righted themselves 
 since the heavy snows of three years ago.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP 
 
 THE ten rods seemed to Harry at least 
 a mile long, and lie wondered how 
 Dan would ever be able to find any 
 thing in this swamp of tangled brush, and 
 how he would ever be able to find his way out 
 again. 
 
 Dan, however, walked straight to his cache, 
 but when he stood before the canoe which he 
 had so carefully turned bottom up on two 
 poles, tied to small trees, he angrily dropped 
 his pack and made some strong remarks 
 about fool bears and porcupines who always 
 find everything and monkey with everything 
 they find. 
 
 "Confound those four-legged idiots! * he 
 muttered, as he showed Harry a big rent in 
 the side of the canoe and the toothmarks of 
 the porcupine on the heels of the snowshoes. 
 
 31
 
 32 THE SILVEK ISLAND 
 
 "Now, we ll have to stop here a day to fix 
 the canoe," he added. "I m surprised that 
 plaguy porcu didn t cut up the webs of the 
 snowshoes and eat a dozen holes into the 
 canoe so we would have to throw the whole 
 outfit away! Well, no use grumbling; they 
 aren t any worse than some humans I know." 
 
 "I guess that means me," thought Harry; 
 however he didn t say so, but asked: "What 
 do they do it for?" 
 
 "Well, I guess," explained Dan, getting 
 over his anger, "the snow broke down my 
 poles so the canoe dropped to the ground. A 
 bear happened to come along and took it for 
 some sort of log and so, of course, it was his 
 duty to turn it over to see if there weren t 
 some mice or bugs or ants under it, for a 
 bear is just like you and Waggles; he s al 
 ways hungry." 
 
 Harry passed over this slur on himself and 
 Ms much-admired pup and asked: 
 
 "But why should the porcupine want to 
 eat your snowshoes?" 
 
 "The porcupine," his big brother began
 
 OF THE OHIPPEWA 33 
 
 with a smile, "has a kink in his character 
 like the Indian. An Indian will sell his soul 
 for a jug of whisky, and if the porcupine had 
 a thousand souls he would sell them all for 
 an old salt barrel and then he d eat up the 
 old barrel from top to butt. He s plumb 
 crazy for salt and will risk his life to get it. 
 
 "I suppose he imagined those snowshoes 
 smelled of salt, so he tasted them to make 
 sure. If there had been any salt in them he 
 would have eaten them up. 
 
 "But now let s get busy and make camp. 
 You may cut some balsam boughs and make 
 a bed and I ll set up the tent and make sup 
 per. 
 
 Harry cut down two bushy balsam-firs and 
 with his sharp sheath-knife cut off the 
 branches about a foot and a half long. Two 
 armfuls he laid in position to serve as pil 
 lows. The other boughs he arranged in a 
 thick soft layer. The butt of each bough was 
 set on the ground while the soft sprays 
 slanted upward toward the pillows of the 
 boys. Then he spread a blanket over the
 
 34 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 soft green mattress of boughs and laid out 
 the second blanket ready to be used as a 
 cover. 
 
 "Look here, Dan," he asked when he was 
 through; "how s this?" 
 
 "Good job," remarked Dan; "you did it 
 quick and just as I showed you. Now get 
 ready for supper." 
 
 Harry ran quickly to the pond, hastily 
 washed his hands and face, and sat down at 
 the camp-fire. 
 
 "Hand out the goods, Dan," he said. 
 "Can I eat all I want now? I never was so 
 nearly starved in my life." 
 
 "Yes, you can eat all you want of this sup 
 per if you will eat slowly. We have plenty 
 of time; it will not be dark for three hours 
 yet." 
 
 Waggles had curled up for a nap as soon 
 as he saw that his masters were making 
 camp. But Waggles had either been born 
 with or had acquired the ability to wake up 
 when supper was served. He uncurled him 
 self, shook his soft hanging ears into proper
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 35 
 
 position, sat down where the smoke did not 
 strike him, and with his brown eyes he be 
 gan to look most appealingly at Harry; from 
 time to time he uttered a low whine and 
 wagged his tail as far as that was possible 
 in his sitting posture. 
 
 "Lie down, Waggles!" ordered Dan; 
 "What s the matter with your table man 
 ners?" 
 
 "Oh, come on, Dan," pleaded Harry; 
 "he s one of us now; he doesn t have to wait 
 till we are through. Let me give him a veni 
 son bone. I know he s half starved." 
 
 Dan did not object, but remarked with a 
 smile: "Mother spoiled both you and the 
 pup. 
 
 Waggles seemed to comprehend the situa 
 tion perfectly. He stood up, whined a little 
 louder, wagged his tail, licked his chops and 
 spoke and pawed for his bone with a will as 
 soon as Harry had it ready. 
 
 Dan had set up a big supper, consisting of 
 a lot of Mother s biscuits heated in a frying- 
 pan, several big chunks of venison and some
 
 36 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 most fragrant rashers of bacon; but it all 
 went, and Waggles disposed of the bones and 
 crumbs and scraps and was looking for more. 
 
 My," said Harry, when he had drunk 
 his cup of hot tea and the tin dishes had been 
 washed and turned over near the fire, "I m 
 mighty glad I made the bed before supper. 
 I couldn t do it now. I m too full to wig 
 gle." 
 
 Soon the evening grew cool. The boys 
 put on their Mackinaw coats and added some 
 more dry wood to the fire, while Waggles 
 curled up as close to the fire as he could with 
 out singeing his hair. 
 
 As the boys had no more work to do for 
 the day, they became conscious once more 
 of the woodland sounds. Whitethroats, her 
 mits and veeries were again in full song, a 
 junco tinkled his plain ditty from a near-by 
 opening, while from the alder marsh behind 
 them came the sweet warble of the winter 
 wren, much more musical than the song of 
 the house wren. 
 
 From the top of a tall spruce near the
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 37 
 
 pool in front of them came a wild and weird 
 sound new to Harry. "Yip pe weer!" the 
 bird seemed to cry. 
 
 "What is it, Dan?" the smaller boy asked. 
 "It s sure a funny song." 
 
 "It s some kind of a fly-catcher. There 
 he sits on the top of a spruce. Look how he 
 darts after flies from time to time." 
 
 From the lake came the long-drawn cry 
 of a loon. 
 
 "Listen, Dan," remarked Harry with a 
 twinkle; "there s a fellow who makes a big 
 noise in the woods. He sure beats me and 
 the pup." 
 
 "Yes," replied Dan, "but there s some 
 meaning in his noise. He s calling to his 
 mate or his young and he must call loud be 
 cause they are often a mile or more away." 
 And again the long-drawn scream rang out, 
 sounding almost like a sharp howl of a dog 
 or wolf. 
 
 Then the boys talked about home and 
 Harry wondered if they could ever send 
 word home to tell how they were getting
 
 38 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 along, and Dan thought they might fall in 
 with some Indians or trappers who could 
 take a message to their parents and sister. 
 
 It was still daylight when the boys crept 
 under their blankets and closed the tent so 
 no mosquitoes could get in. For a few min 
 utes they lay listening to the whitethroats 
 "Sow wheat, Peaverly, Peaverly, Peaverly," 
 and to the hermits weird "Whirree, whirree 
 zee, zee," then, after the fatigue and ex 
 citement of the day, drowsiness overcame 
 them and they fell into a dreamless sleep 
 with Waggles curled up at the foot of their 
 bed.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 WAGGLES IS INITIATED 
 
 THE June nights are short in the north 
 woods. When the lads awoke, the 
 sun was sending its slanting rays 
 through the boughs and bushes and a medley 
 of bird song filled the woods. Harry had a 
 feeling that he had been dreaming of white- 
 throats and hermits and veeries and that it 
 was their music that woke him up. 
 
 "Pesky things," he drawled, still half 
 asleep. "I wish they d let a fellow sleep." 
 
 "Bub your eyes, kid," Dan told him; 
 "they have been singing their best ever since 
 three o clock. It takes more than bird song 
 to wake you. A pair of loons had a fine 
 long-distance talk an hour ago. One gave 
 his cry right above our tent and you never 
 heard him." 
 
 39
 
 40 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 i i 
 
 I surely did sleep some," admitted 
 Harry, as he sat up and stretched himself. 
 
 As they sat eating their breakfast they 
 heard a splash on the other side of the pool 
 and saw something red step into the water 
 for a drink. 
 
 "Look, Dan, look!" whispered Harry. 
 "Waggles, you fool pup, lie down! It s a 
 big buck! Doesn t he look fine!" 
 
 They watched the buck through some thin 
 bushes as he began to feed around the pool. 
 In a little while he had passed around far 
 enough to get the wind of the boys and the 
 dog. He threw his head up high and looked 
 sharp at the campers. A minute later he 
 sprang into the thicket behind him. 
 
 "Keep perfectly still," whispered Dan; 
 "there he is again!" 
 
 The head and antlers of the buck appeared, 
 pushed out of the thick branches of white 
 cedar. He sniffed the air a minute, then 
 gave a long whistling snort and disappeared 
 in the thicket. Twice more he snorted and 
 for about five minutes they heard him stamp
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 41 
 
 and slash about in the brush. Waggles was 
 tense with subdued excitement. His hair 
 bristled and, try as he might, he couldn t help 
 uttering just the lowest kind of whine through 
 his nose. 
 
 "Let s give him a run after the buck!" 
 
 "Not by a long sight! If he starts that, 
 he s spoiled and will be chasing after deer all 
 the time." 
 
 "Do you think we ll see lots of deer and 
 moose on our trip?" 
 
 "Yes, we ought to see hundreds of them. 
 From here to Grand Portage we ll make 
 about four hundred miles as we follow the 
 bends of the long crooked lake and wind 
 about amongst the islands, and both deer and 
 moose go into the water a great deal on all 
 fine days from now till August." 
 
 "Are we going to hunt any? Our grub 
 isn t going to last long." 
 
 "We won t have time to hunt and won t 
 need to hunt. We ll get a yearling buck now 
 and then and jerk the meat and you can fish 
 all you want.
 
 42 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 "Now I must get some birch, bark and 
 spruce root to fix the canoe. 
 
 "You and Waggles can go down to the 
 lake; it s only about a hundred yards straight 
 south. See if you can get us a few fish for 
 dinner and supper and look out you don t 
 get lost." 
 
 "Can I go in swimming?" 
 
 "No, Harry. No swimming when I am 
 not with you. The lake is cold and very 
 deep and I d be worried if you went in alone. 
 We ll both go down this evening and have a 
 dip." 
 
 Harry worked his way carefully across the 
 woods to the lake. With the aid of some 
 brush he caught some minnows for bait, and 
 within a few hours he had all the bass and 
 wall-eyed pike that he and Dan could eat 
 that day. 
 
 As Harry and Waggles were slowly stroll 
 ing through the woods back to camp, the dog, 
 who was a few rods ahead of Harry, began 
 to bark furiously at something. Harry ran 
 up and found that Waggles was barking and
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 43 
 
 dancing around a porcupine. He was so 
 much interested in this new strange animal 
 that he paid no attention to Harry s calling, 
 and before Harry could pull him away, the 
 dog had closed in and the porcupine s spiny 
 tail had struck him a savage blow square 
 on the right side of his face. 
 
 Such howls of agony Waggles never let 
 out before! He jumped up in the air, he 
 rolled on the ground, he pawed at his face, 
 shrieking all the time with agony. Harry 
 tried to call him but "Waggles didn t hear. 
 
 At last Harry picked him up and ran to 
 camp with him as fast as he could. But he 
 had a hard time to hold the writhing dog, 
 and got his own arms and hands full of por 
 cupine quills. 
 
 "What in the world is up?" exclaimed 
 Dan, as the yelping dog and the crying boy 
 came near camp. 
 
 Waggles Waggles found a porcu 
 porcupine!" cried Harry between sobs. 
 
 "Dan, come, help him. Quick! It ll kill 
 him. He s all froth at the mouth !
 
 44 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Dan threw the end of a blanket over Wag 
 gles. 
 
 "Hold him down tight!" he told Harry. 
 
 Then he seized a pair of pincers and be 
 gan to pull out the spines. 
 
 It was such a terribly painful operation 
 that the poor dog couldn t help uttering many 
 a yelp of pain as the spines were pulled 
 out. 
 
 Poor Waggles looked as if he was grow 
 ing a new grizzled beard all over his face. 
 Carefully, so as not to break them, Dan 
 pulled the spines out of his nose, his mouth 
 and his tongue. Many stuck through his ear 
 flap, some had pinned his eyelids together 
 and others were in his right fore leg and 
 shoulder. At last Dan had pulled out all he 
 could find, over a hundred by actual count. 
 
 Harry gave his dog a wash in the pool and 
 put him to bed in the tent. 
 
 "I ll kill every one of those beasts I come 
 across," he vowed. "What are they good 
 for anyhow? Can they throw the quills? 
 Are they poisonous?"
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 45 
 
 "No, they can t throw them, and they 
 aren t poisonous," Dan answered. 
 
 Harry wanted to know several other 
 things about the porcupine and Dan showed 
 him the barbed ridges which make it so hard 
 to pull them out and cause them to work in 
 deeper and deeper. He told him that young 
 wild animals or animals crazed with hunger 
 sometimes attack the porcupine and then get 
 punished like Waggles. 
 
 "Once," he said, "when I was trapping 
 in northern Michigan, I found the skin of a 
 porcupine neatly slit open below and pulled 
 off and the porcupine eaten up. Trappers 
 say the fisher knows how to do this trick, but 
 I haven t seen it done. 
 
 "You had better not kill any porcupines. 
 They are harmless and glad to be let alone. 
 If you are ever starving in the woods, a 
 porcupine may save your life, because it s 
 about the only game a man can find almost 
 any day and kill with a club." 
 
 "I d rather starve than eat a porcupine." 
 
 "No, you wouldn t. A porcupine is a clean
 
 46 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 animal and eats nothing but bark and twigs 
 and leaves and such things, and if the meat 
 is parboiled it isn t bad, though it is a little 
 strong." 
 
 "Waggles took no interest in anything for 
 several days. His face swelled up as if he 
 had the mumps, his right eye was closed and 
 he walked on three legs. 
 
 1 I bet," remarked Harry, "he won t 
 tackle any more porcus, Dan. 
 
 "He will not if he has any sense. But 
 some dogs, like some humans, learn nothing 
 from experience; they are just born foolish. 
 
 "I hope we have not attracted any visitors 
 by all this noise. We ll be off early to-mor 
 row. I m anxious to get away from here."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 OFF ON A LONG CRUISE 
 
 WITH a clear sky and no wind 
 they started on their long 
 cruise next morning. As far as 
 possible they avoided the usual canoe routes, 
 but looked carefully through all the bays 
 away from the main route of travel. 
 
 "If Silver Island is not in Lake Superior," 
 reasoned Dan, "it must lie in some bay sel 
 dom visited by any one except gulls and cor 
 morants, or in some near-by lake which 
 Hamigeesek may have visited on his trip. 
 There is no use in looking for it on the regu 
 lar routes, because these have been traveled 
 by the birch bark of the Chippewas for 
 maybe a thousand years and by the white 
 fur-traders for at least a century." 
 
 In the evening Dan always carried the boat 
 ashore and hid it in the timber, while he al- 
 
 47
 
 48 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 ways made camp still farther back in the 
 timber, so their fire and smoke could not be 
 seen from the lake. 
 
 In the course of a few days they examined 
 dozens of small islands but all consisted of 
 the same hard reddish rock with nothing on 
 them but the white droppings of water 
 birds. 
 
 On the third day Dan killed a young buck 
 who was standing in shallow water as the 
 canoe rounded a curve, it was the first shot 
 they had fired on the whole trip. They 
 pulled the yearling into the canoe and 
 stopped at noon to dress their game and pre 
 pare the meat. 
 
 The meat was salted after all the bone had 
 been cut out, and was then dried and smoked 
 and cooked at the same time on a frame of 
 slender poles under which Dan kept a slow 
 fire until midnight. 
 
 "See what a big heart this little buck 
 has ! remarked Harry as Dan took out the 
 entrails. 
 
 "A deer needs a powerful heart to run
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 49 
 
 away from the wolves in winter and early 
 spring. 
 
 As Harry examined the small velvet-cov 
 ered antlers of the buck he wanted to know 
 why the does and moose cows didn t have 
 horns to drive away the wolves from their 
 fawns and calves. 
 
 "They don t need them," Dan informed 
 him. "If they have to fight a wolf or coy 
 ote, or lynx or wild cat, they strike with their 
 forefeet, and their hoofs cut like knives. But 
 wolves don t bother deer and moose much in 
 summer; they destroy big game when the 
 deep snow is covered with a thin crust which 
 makes deer and moose break through at 
 every step, but which allows the wolves to 
 run right over the snow." 
 
 "What do the bucks and bull moose use 
 their horns for?" 
 
 "For fighting each other in the rutting 
 season. At that time the bucks and bulls do 
 a lot of fighting; you may see some of them 
 at it if we are still in the woods in Septem 
 ber and October."
 
 50 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 " Wouldn t you like to be a hunter and 
 trapper, Dan?" 
 
 "No, I wouldn t. It s a cruel and bloody 
 business. I want to find that island and then 
 we 11 all go back to Detroit if Father s health 
 is good, and I ll go back to Harvard and fin 
 ish my course there. I d rather study under 
 Professor Agassiz than do anything else. I 
 would rather not trap at all, but a man can t 
 earn any money by anything else in this 
 country. 
 
 And thus the journey continued. The lads 
 were on the water from ten to twelve hours 
 daily, searching through every bay and out- 
 of-the-way channel, while a long spell of fine 
 weather allowed them to make from thirty 
 to fifty miles a day. Dan, seated in the 
 stern, picked the course and steered, Harry, 
 in the bow, worked steadily with his light 
 spruce paddle, while Waggles, who had com 
 pletely recovered from the results of his en 
 counter with the porcupine, snoozed lazily 
 among the packs in the middle, and when he 
 couldn t sleep any more, he sat up on his
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 51 
 
 haunches and watched things on shore and in 
 the air with as much interest as the boys 
 themselves, and he looked as if he would take 
 part in the conversations and discussions if 
 he only had the ability to talk. 
 
 When a big buck or a doe with her two 
 spotted fawns stood and gazed at the pass 
 ing canoe, Waggles always woke up and 
 whined as if he wanted to ask permission to 
 jump out of the boat. Sometimes he sniffed 
 the air and whined with excitement when the 
 boys could neither see nor hear nor smell any 
 thing. 
 
 "I guess he smells a wild cat or a lynx," 
 said Dan. "He certainly hates cats and 
 used to have some great cat hunts in De 
 troit, but he d last just about five seconds 
 with one of these wild forest cats." 
 
 But whenever the wind brought the strong 
 rancid odor of porcupine from shore, Wag 
 gles sidled around in his place and quivered 
 and whined and growled with excitement, 
 and one morning when the canoe passed 
 within two rods of a porcupine which had
 
 52 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 climbed out on a fallen log and was leisurely 
 pulling yellow lily leaves out of the water 
 for his breakfast, Waggles would have 
 jumped overboard if Dan had not gently 
 tapped him on the head with the paddle and 
 sharply ordered him to lie down. 
 
 "I believe that flap-eared terrier will 
 start a scrap again with the next porcupine 
 he meets," commented Dan. "If he does, 
 I 11 tie a stone to his neck and drop him in the 
 lake." 
 
 "Oh, come off now, Dan!" remonstrated 
 Harry. * You wouldn t ! 
 
 "Shucks! You don t blame him for hav 
 ing a grouch against porcupines, do you? I 
 wouldn t have a pup who s always scared 
 and can t fight anything. 
 
 "You re all right, Waggles! Great pup. 
 I ll kill the porcus for you." 
 
 "No, you won t," laughed Dan. "You 
 and your pup just steer shy of porcupines." 
 
 But one thing Waggles was afraid of, 
 much to the amusement of the boys. 
 
 Whenever one of the big white herring-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 53 
 
 gulls sailed close over or past the boat, as 
 they often did, Waggles ducked his head and 
 looked after it quizzically as if he meant to 
 ask: 
 
 "What sort of spook is that, anyhow?" 
 
 To the great eagles and fish-hawks, and 
 the big black turkey buzzards, who often 
 floated or sailed in graceful spirals high 
 overhead, the dog paid no attention; evi 
 dently they were beyond the reach of his 
 vision. 
 
 On about the tenth day out, as the boys 
 were headed into a wide open bay, the 
 weather, which had been threatening for an 
 hour, suddenly changed, and a strong north 
 wester raised big waves on the lake. 
 
 "Work hard, kid," said Dan. "We re in 
 for a squall; we must make the north shore 
 as quickly as we can." 
 
 Within fifteen minutes the white caps 
 broke over the gunwale. 
 
 "Drop the paddle, Harry, and bale her out ! 
 Quick, or we ll be swamped!" ordered Dan, 
 excitedly.
 
 54 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 And Harry, kneeling in several inches of 
 water, worked as he had never worked be 
 fore. But the storm and waves increased 
 every minute, and wave after wave splashed 
 over the gunwale. 
 
 The gale made it impossible for Dan to 
 head the canoe just right, and a big wave 
 rushed in with a swash, but the next moment 
 with a few desperate strokes, Dan pushed the 
 canoe up on a sand-beach in the lee of a high 
 bare island of rock. 
 
 " Thank God!" he exclaimed. "I surely 
 thought we d have to swim for it." 
 
 Over their paddles and a few pieces of 
 driftwood the brothers hurriedly threw their 
 tent and weighed the edges down with rocks. 
 Their canoe and packs they had already 
 pulled up out of reach of the waves. 
 
 And then the cold rain came down as if 
 the heavens had been slashed wide open. 
 The lake and the shore close by were swal 
 lowed up in the gray mass of storm-lashed 
 torrents. Even the echoes of the crashes of 
 thunder from the wall of the tall pines on
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 55 
 
 the mainland were swallowed in the up 
 roar. 
 
 The sunlit lake and forest had vanished 
 before their eyes, and the world had been 
 transformed into a furious swirling mass of 
 gray water, cut and slashed by a rapid suc 
 cession of straight flashes of lightning, fol 
 lowed immediately by sharp crashes as if 
 immense cannon balls were fired into a thick 
 stand of pines. 
 
 And still the tumult seemed to grow. 
 Louder and still louder a deep roar seemed 
 to approach from the northwest. 
 
 "What is it?" whispered Harry, turning 
 a blanched face to his brother. 
 
 And then a white stone jumped up from 
 the rock in front of them and another and 
 still more, thousands of them now, and the 
 deep deafening roar of a hailstorm enveloped 
 them and shut them in. On the tent the white 
 stones slumped and rumbled, on the rock 
 they fell with a sharp crackling, and the 
 pieces rebounded and squirmed as high as 
 the tent and over it. Into the lake they
 
 56 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 plunged and plumped, millions and millions 
 of them, with a noise the like of which Dan, 
 in all his experiences, had never heard. 
 
 In less than half an hour the fury of the 
 storm had passed, but the wind continued 
 high and shower after shower was driven up 
 from the northwest. 
 
 "What are we going to do?" asked Harry. 
 
 "We ll stay here until the world has time 
 to get quieted down again," replied Dan. 
 "There s plenty of driftwood lying around, 
 and when we can get a fire started we ll be 
 all right." 
 
 Starting a fire was not as difficult as the 
 novice in woodcraft might think. With a 
 sharp ax they had soon cut out some dry 
 chips of fatwood from an old pine. Some 
 more dry pieces were cut out of the heart of 
 a drift log, and in a little while they had a 
 fire on which any kind of fuel would burn. 
 As the old stumps and logs began to crackle 
 in the big blaze in front of their open tent, 
 the boys were soon as warm and comfortable
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 57 
 
 as they could have been in the coziest city 
 parlor. 
 
 The weather turning very cold, they kept 
 the fire burning all night, which compelled 
 Dan to get up twice to put on more wood, 
 while Harry slept soundly until Dan called 
 him in the morning. Waggles also never got 
 out from under the blanket at the foot of 
 Harry s bed all night, although he was awake 
 every time Dan moved.
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 A SPOOKY NIGHT 
 
 WHEN the boys looked around in 
 the morning, they found the 
 pockets among the rock still 
 filled with hailstones the size of walnuts, and 
 some as big as a boy s fist. After they had 
 been weatherbound on the island for two 
 days, they continued their journey and on 
 the first evening they reached the west end 
 of the largest island in the lake, Hunter s 
 Island, which is surrounded by two long and 
 narrow arms of the lake, and they made 
 camp a little inland at the west point of it. 
 
 The weather had again turned very hot 
 and having made about forty miles, they 
 turned in early. But they were more tired 
 than sleepy and for an hour they lay and 
 talked things over in a low voice. 
 
 "I feel as if we were lost," said the smaller 
 
 58
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 59 
 
 boy. "I don t see, Dan, how you can ever 
 find your way in such a mixed-up country." 
 
 "It is a mixed-up country, sure enough," 
 replied Dan. "And yet, finding your way 
 through it is not as hard as it looks. I have 
 a sketch-map of our route and I know our 
 general direction is southeast. The regular 
 portages are all well traveled and then I ve 
 been over the route twice." 
 
 "Seems to me we re ten thousand miles 
 from home and have been canoeing around a 
 year. We ll never find that little island, 
 Dan. A fellow couldn t find a mountain in 
 this mix-up of lakes and islands." 
 
 "Oh, rot, kid! We haven t missed any 
 Silver Island yet. In fact, I feel sure it isn t 
 here; it s in Lake Superior. The Indians 
 and trappers know this country better than 
 you know your coat pockets. 
 
 "We want to hurry and get to Lake Su 
 perior and that s where our search and our 
 troubles will begin in earnest." 
 
 "What s the trouble going to be?" 
 
 "The lake is as big as the ocean, and in a
 
 60 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 storm the waves run as high as a house, and 
 sometimes the fog is so thick that you can t 
 see fifty feet ahead of you." 
 
 "Is it true that the lake never gives up its 
 dead?" 
 
 "Guess it is, kid. The water is always 
 ice-cold and a body sunk in it never rises 
 again as it does in warm, shallow lakes and 
 in rivers. Now, I guess we had better go to 
 sleep." 
 
 But Harry couldn t sleep. A pale moon 
 made the canvas of the tent seem aglow as 
 with the spooky phosphorescence of fox fire. 
 A warm, gray fog filled the forest and cov 
 ered the lake, and although not a breath of 
 air was stirring, the woods were alive with 
 sounds and noises as if every wild creature 
 was moving about after the few days of cold 
 stormy weather. 
 
 Harry had at last fallen asleep when a 
 sharp noise not far from the tent made him 
 sit bolt upright. 
 
 "What was it, Dan?" he asked, wild-eyed 
 and shivering with excitement.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 61 
 
 "Ah, shame on you, kid! I should think 
 you knew the snort of a buck by this time. * 
 
 "Listen, Dan; he acts as if he were going 
 to fight us." 
 
 "Fight us, nothing. That s his danger 
 signal to every deer within hearing, and all 
 the other wild animals understand it, too. A 
 buck never shows himself after he snorts, 
 and he never fights man or dog unless he s 
 cornered or wounded." 
 
 The snorting of the deer excited a big 
 horned owl and he began to hoot his deep 
 "whoo-who-whoo, who-whoo," right over the 
 tent. 
 
 Harry gave a start. 
 
 "Whew," he whispered; "mighty glad I m 
 not a rabbit or a woodchuck ! I d be a goner, 
 sure ! 
 
 As the deep hooting of the big owl died 
 away in the distance a little screech owl ut 
 tered his low, chuckling call from a thicket, 
 and from the lake came the piercing, long- 
 drawn scream of the loon who had been 
 awakened from his slumber on the water.
 
 62 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 After awhile all was silent once more, only 
 a bat uttered its fine squeak as it fluttered 
 around the tent in search of flying insects, 
 and in the rotten logs the big grubs could 
 be plainly heard gnawing the dead wood. 
 
 Waggles had not shown any interest in 
 any of these noises. He always bristled at 
 the scent of a porcupine and lynx, but to the 
 scent and snorting of deer he had grown in 
 different. 
 
 The boys talked for another half -hour and 
 once more were both dozing off, when sud 
 denly the dog did become interested in some 
 slight noise outside. He lifted his head, 
 sniffed the air, and uttering a deep angry 
 growl, he shot out of the tent, and with a 
 combination of savage growls, snarls, shrieks 
 and barks, he fought and pursued something 
 which rapidly slipped through the under 
 brush with the dog hot on its heels. 
 
 Dan jumped into his boots, grabbed his 
 gun, and without saying a word to Harry, 
 ran after the dog, which he overtook on the 
 lake shore, still mad with fright and acting
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 63 
 
 as if he would swim after something that 
 had just taken to the water. 
 
 But Dan could see nothing, and no matter 
 how intently he listened, there was not a 
 sound. Whatever Waggles had chased, it 
 seemed to have dived to the bottom as 
 silently as might a loon. The cause of all this 
 excitement, whatever it had been, had 
 vanished like a ghost. Only the pale moon 
 light and the gray fog enveloped lake and 
 forest, the black, deep water lay before them, 
 and behind them stood the forest, dark and 
 silent. 
 
 "It beats me!" whispered Dan, as Harry 
 came running up, clad only in his boots and 
 flannel shirt. "What in the world can the 
 pup have been chasing? 
 
 "Lynx, cat or porcupine or bear wouldn t 
 have taken to the water. It might have been 
 a moose, but your pup never showed any in 
 terest in moose-scent and if it was a moose, 
 I ought to have heard it getting out on the 
 other shore; it s only a few hundred yards 
 across."
 
 64 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "I I bet, it it was a man!" whispered 
 Harry, scarcely able to speak after his run. 
 
 "We ll find out in the morning what it 
 was," said Dan, as they picked their way 
 back to the tent. "If it was a man, I know 
 who it was ! 
 
 "Who?" asked Harry. 
 
 "Le Noir, that half -breed. Everybody 
 thinks he s a scoundrel, though nobody ever 
 proved a crime on him. 
 
 "Two years ago a half -breed from Ottawa 
 went trapping with Le Noir to the Lake of 
 the Woods. Le Noir came back in the spring 
 with a big lot of fur and told that the Ottawa 
 man was drowned in a storm on Lake of 
 the Woods. Anyway, the man never came 
 back, and being a stranger, nobody went to 
 the trouble to investigate." 
 
 "Do you think Le Noir killed him?" 
 
 "That s what everybody suspects, but no 
 body has proved it." 
 
 "What could Le Noir want of us?" 
 
 "Make trouble, and get a share of the Is 
 land, if we find it. Or he might kill us and
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 65 
 
 get it all. I don t trust him out of sight. 
 He s got the shifting eye and is a sort of 
 combination bad white man and bad Indian. 
 He s a regular spy. He s probably heard 
 some rumor about Hamigeesek finding a sil 
 ver mine. I know that he was bursting to 
 find out where Hamigeesek and Sellsby had 
 gone to, and, of course, he was curious to 
 find out where we had gone as soon as he 
 learned we had left St. Frances on a trip 
 east. 
 
 If he is on our trail, we have our work 
 cut out. It will be mighty hard to lose him, 
 for he was born in the Chippewa country 
 and knows this tangle of lakes and woods a 
 great deal better than I do. Well, we ll do 
 some sharp tracking in the morning." 
 
 There was no more sleep for the boys that 
 night. Again and again they thought they 
 heard the furtive tread of Indian or half- 
 breed, but the calm sleep of Waggles reas 
 sured them that it was only the falling of a 
 rotten twig or the scurrying of some little 
 woodmouse or other harmless creature.
 
 66 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "Waggles has the advantage of us," ob 
 served Dan, as the first gray dawn made 
 things in the tent visible. "Our eyes and 
 ears are easily fooled, but you can t fool that 
 pup s nose." 
 
 As they were talking, Waggles began to 
 make some queer motions and noises. 
 
 "Look at him," chuckled Harry; "he s 
 dreaming ! 
 
 Evidently even the nerves of Waggles had 
 been unstrung by his adventure, and he was 
 living it all over again in his dream. 
 
 Lying flat on his side, his short legs and 
 his feet jerked and kicked as if he was try 
 ing hard to run. His eyes were closed, but 
 his lips twitched and he barked and yelped 
 through his nose in such a funny way that 
 Harry broke into a loud laugh and called: 
 "Cats, Waggles, cats!" at which the dog 
 sprang up with a start, to the great amuse 
 ment of both of the boys. 
 
 As soon as it was daylight, they put the 
 dog on the trail of their mysterious visitor. 
 No sign of moose or bear could be found in
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 67 
 
 the woods, and the short brush and weeds 
 gave them no other clue. 
 
 At the lake, the trail led over a small patch 
 of grass right down to the water s edge. 
 
 "Look here, Dan," Harry pointed out; 
 "here s a moccasin track and here s the 
 mark of a canoe where it was pulled out of 
 the water." 
 
 "It s Le Noir!" Dan asserted. "Hang 
 the scoundrel! He s watching us now from 
 some ambush. But we ll shake him yet. 
 Bless his soul if I ever catch him at this 
 dirty game of his!" 
 
 "Maybe it was an Indian ghost, Dan!" 
 
 "Oh, rats, Harry! I hope you don t be 
 lieve in such nonsense even if you re only a 
 kid," Dan came out bluntly. "It s only the 
 blooming cowards who see ghosts. There 
 aren t any ghosts, neither red nor white. 
 That thing last night was a live man.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LOSING THE SPY AND FINDING A QUEER ISLAND 
 
 WHILE the brothers were eating 
 breakfast, Dan unfolded his 
 plan of sending their pursuer 
 off on a wrong trail. 
 
 "I m convinced," he began, "that the 
 rogue is in hiding not far away, where he 
 can see the point of the island and both the 
 North and the South Channel. 
 
 "We ll make him think that we are going 
 to stay here all day, but we ll pull out as 
 soon as we have the ruse fixed up for him. 
 
 "I ll fire my gun near the point, and he 
 will think we shot a deer, and then comes 
 your part of the game." 
 
 "Go ahead," demanded Harry eagerly. 
 "What s my stunt?" 
 
 "After I have fired my gun, you go out on 
 the point and build a frame for drying the
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 69 
 
 meat and make a low, smoldering fire un 
 der your frame. Then I ll bring the hide of 
 our small buck and hang it on a pole where 
 he can t help seeing it. He ll be sure to 
 recognize the red of the deer. 
 
 "Then we ll also build a good smoking fire 
 a little way back from the point and he ll 
 think that s our camp-fire where we are cook 
 ing and smoking the rest of the meat." 
 
 "But how re we going to get away with 
 out his seeing us, Dan?" 
 
 "That s easy. As soon as our fires are 
 smoking right, we carry our canoe half a mile 
 through the woods around the next point and 
 paddle away. 
 
 "He will think we are still in camp and 
 will not dare to show himself during the day, 
 but he ll probably come nosing around after 
 midnight. We will make a big plain trail to 
 the North Channel and as faint a trail as 
 possible to the South Channel. If he takes 
 the North Channel, as he most likely will, 
 he s lost us ; anyway, we are a day ahead of 
 him."
 
 70 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 The boys carried out this plan leisurely, 
 and with a fair wind behind them, they made 
 good time up the South Channel. 
 
 About the middle of the afternoon they en 
 tered the outlet of Long Lake which comes 
 in from the south. When they came to the 
 foot of the rapids in this outlet, they did 
 not leave the water, but pushed and carried 
 their canoe and packs up stream, and to 
 wards evening they made camp in a secluded 
 bay on the west side of Long Lake, pitching 
 their tent on a dry knoll under some small 
 birches and jack pines. 
 
 "Why didn t we go a little farther and 
 camp in that grove of Norways?" asked 
 Harry; "where there isn t any underbrush?" 
 
 But Dan informed him that it was never a 
 good plan to camp near or under big and 
 old trees. "A sudden storm may break 
 them down and lightning often strikes a big 
 tree. If one cruised these woods over care 
 fully, I don t think he would find a quarter- 
 section where at one time or another the 
 lightning hasn t struck some big tree."
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 71 
 
 "Does lightning strike one kind of tree 
 more than others?" Harry wanted to know. 
 
 "I don t think so. Some people think 
 elms attract the lightning more than other 
 trees, but I doubt it. It generally strikes 
 elms and cottonwoods and Norways and 
 white pines because they are often bigger 
 than the trees around them, but I have also 
 found spruces that had been struck." 
 
 As soon as camp was pitched, the boys 
 went for a swim in the warm lake. There 
 were very few mosquitoes, because there had 
 been very little rain during the summer, and 
 after supper the boys sat at the camp-fire 
 and enjoyed the summer evening. 
 
 The whitethroats, at this season, had al 
 most ceased singing, but the ecstasy of the 
 thrushes came still ringing from the thickets 
 around them until the sun had sunk behind 
 the pines to the west and darkness began to 
 settle over the great forest. 
 
 When the thrushes became silent and a lit 
 tle tree-frog struck up its high-pitched, rat 
 tling call, the boys rolled in, and feeling free
 
 72 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 from danger, they slept soundly until sev 
 eral hours after daylight. 
 
 "We might as well camp here a few days," 
 Dan suggested at breakfast. " There are 
 several small islands in this lake that I have 
 never looked at. We ought to find plenty 
 of moose here and we want to give Le Noir 
 time to get a good ways off the trail." 
 
 Almost two miles from shore they saw a 
 small island which presented a curious ap 
 pearance. It looked like a low white reef, 
 marked with black spots and streaks. 
 
 "The queerest dark bushes I ever saw," 
 remarked Harry. 
 
 But when they had approached within a 
 mile, they noticed that the island was just a 
 ridge of sand and big boulders, and that it 
 was inhabited by flocks of black cormorants 
 or nigger geese, as the trappers call them. 
 At least five hundred of these large birds 
 almost covered the island, sitting upright and 
 forming the large black streaks and patches 
 which the boys had at first taken for dark 
 bushes.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 73 
 
 As the canoe approached, there was a great 
 stirring among the birds. Many of the 
 adults took wing, circled silently above the 
 island and gradually scattered and dis 
 appeared in the distance. A hundred or 
 more wabbled down the rocks and swam away 
 with only their heads and necks showing 
 above the water, while two or three hundred 
 more remained on the rocks. These sat bolt 
 upright, constantly moved their long necks 
 and their long hooked bills back and forth, 
 as if they were going to fight the intruders, 
 and filled the air with a high deafening 
 cackle. 
 
 "Whew!" cried Harry, holding his nose, 
 as they walked around among the nests and 
 young of all ages; "rottenest-smelling goose- 
 coop I ever was in. Look at the lumps of 
 dead fish! "Where did they come from?" 
 
 "The nestlings threw them up, I guess," 
 ventured Dan; "it s a queer way they have 
 of defending themselves." 
 
 The island certainly was a sight! Over 
 a hundred nests crudely built of reeds and
 
 74 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 coarse feathers, were scattered over the 
 small island, each containing three or four 
 young or eggs. Many of the young were full 
 grown and sat around their nests like watch 
 dogs. 
 
 "Queerest birds I ever saw!" commented 
 Harry. "Look at their long bills and yel 
 low throat pouches ! 
 
 Some of the young did not yet have their 
 eyes open, and had no feathers. They were 
 not white, like most young birds, but were 
 covered with a blackish-brown skin. "Reg 
 ular pickaninnies!" Dan called them. 
 
 When the boys were on one end of the is 
 land, dozens of the "nigger geese" returned 
 to the other end and sat on the rocks and 
 dried their wings in the sun. 
 
 "Well, kid, let s pull away from this," re 
 marked Dan. "It s a great sight, but," and 
 he held his nose, "this is not our island. 
 
 "It s going to be a corking hot day and 
 the moose will go into the lake. Let s be 
 off for a moose hunt !
 
 CHAPTER, IX 
 
 THE MOOSE HUNT 
 
 HARRY, who had never seen a 
 moose close by, wanted to know 
 how big they were. 
 
 "As big as a horse," Dan told him. "But 
 their legs seem longer, and the great horns 
 of a big bull make him look much bigger than 
 a horse. An old moose cow looks very much 
 like a mule, but a moose hasn t any tail to 
 speak of and no real mane, although the hair 
 on the shoulder hump is pretty long, espe 
 cially in winter." 
 
 They laid out their course in such a way 
 that they had the sun behind them and the 
 wind ahead of them. 
 
 "You can t often get close if they get your 
 wind," said Dan. 
 
 "Are we going to shoot one of them?" 
 asked Harry. 
 
 75
 
 76 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "No; what for? We couldn t save more 
 than about a hundred pounds of the meat, 
 and a big moose weighs easily twelve hun 
 dred pounds or more. We ll get another 
 small deer when we need meat. It would be 
 a shame to kill one of these grand animals 
 and then let the maggots and the wolves eat 
 it." 
 
 "Why can t we kill a calf?" 
 
 "You can, if you want to ; but now we must 
 begin to watch, and if we find a calf, I ll let 
 you kill it if you want to." 
 
 Dan was now sharply scanning the shore 
 about a mile away, where swamps of white 
 cedar, tamarack, black spruce, and alder 
 were separated from the lake by only a nar 
 row ridge of high land. 
 
 "That s good moose country," he pointed 
 out. "I think I see one now. Bun your 
 eyes along the tamarack swamp just this side 
 of yonder point." 
 
 Harry looked for moose so hard that he 
 forgot to paddle. 
 
 "Don t see a thing," he replied after
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 77 
 
 awhile. "You re not fooling me? I see a 
 lot of black patches, shadows, I guess they 
 are. 
 
 "Just peel your spyers, kid. One of those 
 dark patches is a moose, and a big one too. 
 Watch the light changing on one of the 
 patches; that patch is a moose." 
 
 "I see him, I see him!" cried Harry, after 
 some more sharp spying. "He s near the 
 big dead tamarack." 
 
 Paddling fast but silently, they soon were 
 near enough to see that it was a big bull, 
 feeding in water half-way up to his flanks. 
 
 From time to time he brought up a big 
 mouthful of weeds, then he shook his head 
 so the boys could plainly hear the flapping 
 of his big ears. The water ran and dripped 
 from the weeds, and the big beast chewed 
 them slowly as an ox chews a mouthful of 
 hay. 
 
 "Stop paddling now," directed Dan; "he s 
 getting a little suspicious. If we make a 
 noise or if he gets our wind he ll go." 
 
 Again the big head and antlers disap-
 
 78 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 peared under water until for fifteen or 
 twenty seconds the big creature looked like 
 a boulder. 
 
 11 Golly," whispered Harry, "he could beat 
 me diving. No wonder that I couldn t find 
 him." 
 
 After awhile the animal walked slowly out 
 of the water and stood on the point looking 
 at the canoe, but as the canoe lay perfectly 
 quiet, he took no alarm and disappeared 
 leisurely around the point. 
 
 The boys followed him around the point 
 as fast as they could go, and there stood the 
 giant bull, broadside on, in shallow water. 
 For a few seconds he looked at the canoeists, 
 then he started for deep water across the 
 narrows. 
 
 "Look," whispered Harry; "he s a mon 
 ster!" 
 
 "Pull, kid, pull!" Dan gave the word; 
 "let s try to head him off!" 
 
 But with astonishing speed the moose 
 reached deep water and started to swim with 
 only his head and the big flat antlers show-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 79 
 
 ing above the water. Using all four legs 
 as paddles he could go faster than the canoe. 
 He rose like a monster from the deep as soon 
 as his feet touched bottom again, and with 
 long strides the powerful legs and the big 
 black hoofs churned the water into splash 
 ing and foaming swirls. With the light 
 canoe only a few yards behind, he broke 
 through the shore fringe of cedar ; for a few 
 seconds he crashed and slashed through 
 branches and underbrush, then the wild stir 
 ring sound vanished in the distance and the 
 moose was gone. 
 
 "He won t come back for a few days," 
 Dan laughed. "They are pretty shy where 
 they are disturbed. That s the reason you 
 find very few of them along a regular canoe 
 route where the traders and Indians fire at 
 them." 
 
 "I tell you," acknowledged Harry, "I 
 was scared of the beast. He d make kin 
 dling of our boat mighty quick." 
 
 "A bull moose doesn t attack a man except 
 in the rutting season," Dan replied; "but at
 
 80 
 
 that time you don t want to fool with any 
 moose that has a good pair of horns on." 
 
 As they followed the sinuous shore of the 
 lake they saw many more moose, and deer 
 also were fairly abundant. With one young 
 cow which they found swimming across a bay 
 they started a regular race and came so close 
 to her that they could almost touch her with a 
 paddle. Several times they could hear the 
 heavy breathing of the creature and could 
 plainly see the red in her large dilated nos 
 trils, but at those moments she always 
 changed her course suddenly and left her pur 
 suers behind. This exciting race continued 
 for ten or fifteen minutes, when the moose 
 struck bottom, and with a long swinging trot 
 broke for the thicket, leaving behind her a 
 trail of foaming water. 
 
 A very large cow got their wind and heard 
 them talk at the distance of a quarter of a 
 mile, and the boys could plainly see the giant 
 beast standing in an inquisitive attitude, 
 sniffing the air and moving her big ears back 
 and forth to catch the strange sounds. Evi-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 81 
 
 iently she had soon smelled and heard enough, 
 for she turned around and walked leisurely 
 into the forest. 
 
 Two big bulls they found peacefully feed 
 ing in a small bay, but when the canoe came 
 up close, they swung into the forest in dif 
 ferent directions like a couple of gambling 
 Bowery urchins at the approach of the feared 
 policeman. 
 
 For several hours, the boys were seldom 
 out of sight of either moose or deer. 
 
 "Gee," exclaimed Harry, as the two bulls 
 disappeared into a thicket of young poplars 
 and birches, "these woods are just alive with 
 game, but I haven t seen any calves yet. 
 Where are they?" 
 
 "Most of them are still kept hidden in the 
 thick mossy swamps, but I think we ll see 
 some yet. 
 
 "I think I see one now! Do you see that 
 cow about a mile ahead? There s some small 
 brown animal with her. That s her calf. 
 
 Very carefully they worked up to them un 
 til they could plainly see every movement of
 
 82 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 the animals. The big cow splashed in the 
 water with her forefeet, while her little calf 
 seemed to be afraid to go in. Now it was on 
 this side, now on that side of its mother who 
 gradually coaxed it in a little farther. 
 
 Closer and closer the canoe approached, 
 and both cow and calf stood looking at it. 
 
 "There, Harry!" said Dan; " there s your 
 chance for a shot ! 
 
 "I don t want to shoot it," Harry an 
 swered. "Let s see how close we can get to 
 it." 
 
 "All right; but be careful. There s no 
 fooling with a moose cow if she thinks her 
 calf is in danger. 
 
 "Ah, shucks," retorted Harry, whose cour 
 age with moose had grown fast during the 
 forenoon; "she can t hurt us; she s got no 
 horns anyway." 
 
 Slowly Dan pushed the canoe towards the 
 little brown calf. With glaring eyes and 
 bristling shoulder-mane the big cow stood 
 watching the canoe. Harry did not look at 
 the cow, he only saw the little brown calf
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 83 
 
 which stood gazing at the boat with the inno 
 cent curiosity of a domestic calf. Now they 
 were so close that Harry could not resist the 
 temptation to touch the staring young crea 
 ture. 
 
 The touch of a human hand seemed sud 
 denly to electrify the animal, and trembling 
 with instinctive fear, it uttered a loud bleat 
 ing bellow, and before either Dan or Harry 
 had time to think, the big enraged cow was 
 upon them in defense of her calf. With one 
 of her forefeet she struck the canoe a savage 
 blow, right in the middle, driving it to the 
 bottom. 
 
 "Out for the lake!" yelled Dan, and with 
 that he grabbed Harry by his shirt collar and 
 pulled him into deep water as fast as he could. 
 
 Swim out ! She 11 kill you if she strikes 
 you ! 
 
 The enraged moose in the meantime, by lit 
 erally trampling on the canoe, cut a dozen 
 gashing holes into it and almost broke it in 
 two in the middle. 
 
 Waggles, who had had a narrow escape
 
 84 THE SILVEK ISLAND 
 
 from being cut in two, had swum ashore in a 
 hurry, and had begun to bark savagely at the 
 enraged moose as soon as he landed. 
 
 This distracted the attention of the mad 
 cow from the bobbing canoe, and she rushed 
 furiously at "Waggles who had to dodge behind 
 trees and stumps on shore to save his life. 
 In the meantime the puzzled brown calf had 
 walked ashore and Waggles rushed savagely 
 at its heels. Again the calf uttered its ap 
 peal for help, and so quick was the response 
 of the cow that Waggles received a sharp 
 glancing blow on his back and was knocked 
 over before he knew that the big moose was 
 there. He realized that he was too small to 
 fight a mad moose, and with a few yelps and 
 barks he scurried for cover under the roots 
 of a fallen tree, from which safe retreat he 
 bobbed in and out and kept up a savage bark 
 ing. 
 
 But the moose seemed to have forgotten 
 him. Uttering a low whining sort of call, she 
 sniffed at the calf as if to make sure that it 
 was not hurt, and at the same time she started
 
 I 
 
 " SWIM OUT! SHE LL KILL YOU IF SHE STRIKES YOU! " Page 83.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 85 
 
 walking toward the woods with the frightened 
 calf huddling close to her side. 
 
 Dan and Harry had swum back to the boat 
 when the moose left it. 
 
 Dan stood speechless, looking at the canoe, 
 and by the time he recovered from his sur 
 prise, the moose had disappeared into the 
 woods. 
 
 "Well, I ll be jiggered!" he exclaimed; "if 
 that big brute didn t make kindling of the 
 whole boat!" 
 
 Harry didn t say a word, because he felt 
 that he had brought on the whole trouble by 
 touching the calf, but when Dan started to 
 pick up their floating packs and bring the gun 
 and other things up from the bottom, Harry 
 began to carry the things ashore and spread 
 them out to dry, expecting every minute a big 
 scolding from Dan. But Dan, who felt even 
 more guilty than Harry, sat down on a rock 
 and began to wring the water out of his 
 clothes. 
 
 Confound that fool moose ! " he grumbled ; 
 "who would have thought that such a big
 
 86 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 beast could move so quickly. Now we 11 have 
 to stay here till I build another canoe. You 
 can use the birch bark of this one to start 
 your camp fires."
 
 CHAPTEE X 
 
 BUILDING A CANOE AND EXPLOKING THE WILDER 
 
 NESS 
 
 DAN lost no time in getting at Ms 
 work, because he realized that spring 
 had already passed and midsummer 
 had arrived. 
 
 The progress of the season was best marked 
 by the disappearance of certain flowers and 
 the appearance of others. 
 
 The yellowish-green Clintonias which cov 
 ered the forest floor everywhere when the 
 boys started on their trip, were gone, and 
 showed only the large lily-like leaves. The 
 white carpets of dwarf cornel or partridge 
 berries, which were spread out everywhere 
 along their first trail, had lost their pure ala 
 baster and had begun to set bunches of green 
 berries. The beautiful purple Noah s ark 
 
 87
 
 88 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 and the large gorgeous pink moccasins were 
 no longer conspicuous in damp shady swamps, 
 and most of the fragrant little twin-flowers 
 or Linnaeas, had faded. 
 
 In wet, mossy bogs the curious pitcher- 
 plants began to raise their dark-purple, 
 drooping heads, each flower rising on a long 
 stalk from a whorl of water-filled, pitcher- 
 shaped leaves, which remained half-hidden 
 in cushions of pale spongy moss. 
 
 In sunny places the luscious wild strawber 
 ries lay, dark red and dead ripe, on the 
 ground, and even the raspberries were rapidly 
 changing from green to red. 
 
 The small trees of the pin cherry or bird 
 cherry were loaded with glossy crimson fruit, 
 while shad-bushes or Juneberries were bent 
 with an abundance of black or dark-blue fruit, 
 inviting both birds and bears to a midsummer 
 feast. 
 
 Even the blueberries, the most abundant 
 fruit of the North woods, began in places to 
 show dark among the low green vines. While 
 Dan worked hard on the canoe, Harry had no
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 89 
 
 trouble in providing an abundance of deli 
 cious desserts for the camp table; he also 
 caught many fine-flavored black bass, trout 
 and pike for the more substantial part of their 
 meals. If the brothers had not been bent on 
 serious business, nothing could have been 
 more enjoyable than to remain in this delight 
 ful camp all summer and enjoy the bounty of 
 wild nature. 
 
 The summer was one of those rare seasons 
 when every wild bush and vine offers a bo 
 nanza crop to whosoever will harvest and eat. 
 Bare years they are indeed, and generally 
 they follow one of those lean years when the 
 black bear cannot find pickings for a mouth 
 ful of blueberries, where in a normal year he 
 filled his capacious paunch and he has to den 
 up with only a thin coat of fat under his coat 
 of fur. In those years of starvation the fail 
 ure of wild crops may be so complete that the 
 gray squirrel stores basswood twigs instead 
 of butternuts and black walnuts, and the little 
 reds and the chipmunks go into winter-quar 
 ters short on hazel nuts and acorns, and early
 
 90 THE SILVEK ISLAND 
 
 in spring they have to eat the buds and young 
 shoots of the oaks instead of acorns. 
 
 But in the fat years, when no late frost kills 
 the blossoms and when neither too much rain 
 nor drought injures growth, every wild plant 
 from the secluded dewberry to the giant oaks 
 and pines is loaded with some kind of fruit 
 or seeds. From the time the obscure little 
 snails and slugs begin to sample the strawber 
 ries, until the bears gorge themselves on blue 
 berries, chokecherries and acorns, and the 
 wild ducks dive and dabble for the wild rice, 
 nature sets her table with a lavish hand. It 
 was in one of these fat seasons that the boys 
 had to make camp on Long Lake. 
 
 "Keep at it, kid," Dan encouraged Harry. 
 1 Gather all the berries you can find and dry 
 them in the sun. They will begin to taste 
 mighty good about the first of September. 
 The wild rice marshes look mighty fine too, 
 with their pollen-laden tassels. In Septem 
 ber, we ll add a sack of rice to our stock. 
 Wild rice and dried berries will go mighty well 
 with fish and game.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 91 
 
 "How long do you expect to be on this trip, 
 anyway, Dan?" 
 
 "Heaven only knows, Harry. If we don t 
 get along faster than we have been going, we 
 may cruise about for a year. Are you home 
 sick and tired of it?" 
 
 Not a bit of it. But I wish we could send 
 word to Father and Mother; they ll be wor 
 ried about us." 
 
 "We ll send down word to them as soon as 
 we get to our Chippewa friend, Amigoosheb, 
 on Pigeon River. I want to see him, anyway. 
 He may know something about Silver Island, 
 because he and Hamigeesek were always close 
 friends. 
 
 "You can gather berries and explore the 
 woods while I work on the canoe, but look out 
 you don t get lost. Take the pup with you; 
 he ll lead you back to camp."
 
 ON his excursions around the lake 
 Harry made many interesting dis 
 coveries. One day he came to camp 
 in great excitement. 
 
 "Dan," he said, "I ve found an eagle s 
 nest, a hundred feet up in a big pine; it s as 
 big as our tent. Come along, I want to see 
 what s in it." 
 
 "Why didn t you climb the tree?" 
 
 "I m afraid to, alone. The old eagles were 
 sailing around it and screaming." 
 
 "They won t hurt you." 
 
 "Oh, yes. You re kidding me again. You 
 said the moose wouldn t fight either. I don t 
 believe you any more. 
 
 Dan smiled and went along. 
 
 The nest was a big structure built of sticks 
 as big as a boy s arm. 
 
 92
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 93 
 
 "You can t climb that pine," said Dan; 
 "it s too big around, and there is nothing to 
 take hold of." 
 
 " I m not going to. I m going to climb that 
 spruce twenty feet away and then take a peep 
 across to the nest. Just come and give me a 
 boost." 
 
 After Harry reached the branches of the 
 spruce he went up quickly. 
 
 "You shoot the eagles if they start to fight 
 me, he called, as the big birds came circling 
 lower and lower, uttering their long shrill 
 screams. 
 
 At last, when Harry had nearly reached the 
 top of the spruce, one of the great birds with 
 a dull rush of its wings, spread as far as the 
 arms of a man, circled within twenty feet of 
 the scared boy. But just as Dan was going to 
 shoot, the big bird sailed quietly away across 
 the lake, and she and her mate watched the 
 nest from a tall dead pine. 
 
 "Golly," cried Harry, "there are three 
 young in it as big as hens; they re just get 
 ting feathers! It s the biggest nest I ever
 
 94 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 saw. It s almost flat, and so big I could lie 
 down on it ! 
 
 "They ve got a big fish in the nest! One 
 of them is going to eat him. No, he isn t 
 either. I guess he isn t hungry ! 
 
 "Oh, Dan, you ought to come up here! 
 Gee, I can see a hundred lakes. It s great, 
 Dan! It s the greatest thing I ever saw. 
 Away back where we came from and a way 
 ahead where we are going I can see a long 
 string of lakes. The water looks just like sil 
 ver. 
 
 On the way back to camp, the inquisitive 
 small boy asked many questions about eagles, 
 and Dan told him what he knew. 
 
 "These are bald eagles, as shown by the 
 white heads and white tails of the old birds. 
 They use the same nest for many years, per 
 haps as long as they live, maybe fifty years. 
 They live mostly on fish and come north as 
 soon as the lakes are open and stay here un 
 til it freezes up. If a storm has damaged 
 their nest they repair it, and every year they 
 add some more sticks to it. The young stay
 
 95 
 
 about two months in the nest, and never re 
 turn to the country where they were raised. 
 What becomes of them is hard to tell. I guess 
 most of them get killed by some fool gunners 
 who think they are great heroes when they 
 can shoot a silly young eagle. Some get 
 caught in steel traps. I know of a trapper 
 who had caught a fox, and an eagle swooped 
 down and tore the fox all to pieces." 
 
 At every meal the boys had much fun with 
 a flock of whisky-jacks or Canada jays. As 
 soon as Harry s camp-fire began to smoke the 
 jays appeared and waited anxiously for bits 
 of meat and fish to be thrown to them. In 
 spite of Dan s warning, Harry conceived and 
 carried out an original plan of taming them 
 which worked even better than he had in 
 tended. He pegged down a piece of venison 
 about ten feet from the camp-fire, and the jays 
 came to it at once. When they tried in vain 
 to fly off with the piece, they took a few hasty 
 bites out of it and left. Then Harry went and 
 moved the piece a little nearer to the camp- 
 fire. After he had repeated this maneuver
 
 96 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 several times, the jays grew so bold that they 
 took the food out of the boy s hands, and fre 
 quently when the fire was low or Harry was 
 not looking, the jays stole the meat out of the 
 frying-pan. If Harry left any venison ex 
 posed they pecked at it or carried it away; 
 even in the tent they examined everything and 
 acted in every respect as if the whole camp 
 belonged to them. 
 
 1 i These jays," observed Dan, "in their gray 
 coats and whitish hoods, remind me of holy 
 old monks, but they have Old Nick in them. 
 You can tame some more at our next camp, 
 Harry. " 
 
 "They re surely pesky fresh," Harry ad 
 mitted, "but I don t care. I wish some more 
 birds were as tame as these whisky-jacks. 
 
 "Why re they called whisky-jacks, Dan?" 
 
 "It s a corruption from Chippewa, I guess. 
 They have a bunch of other names like, moose 
 bird, meat bird, camp thief and lumber-jack. 
 
 "They are queer birds all right. Instead 
 of nesting in summer they build their nests 
 in the evergreens when the woods are still
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 97 
 
 full of snow and when the weather often falls 
 below zero." 
 
 While Harry had a fine time sleeping as 
 long as he liked, and exploring the woods in 
 company with Waggles, Dan s mind was not 
 so free from care. He often wondered if it 
 had really been Le Noir who had been follow 
 ing them and how much he knew of their plans 
 and just what his design might be. In order 
 to throw the probable spy entirely off the 
 track, Dan decided not to hurry building the 
 canoe. He worked in a place where he had 
 a clear view of the lake, but where he could 
 not be easily observed from the lake. 
 
 Sometimes, when Harry and Waggles had 
 gone on a trip and Dan was working away by 
 himself, a feeling of despair overcame him. 
 "Of all places in the world to find a certain 
 small island this country of a thousand lakes 
 and as many islands is certainly the worst 
 that could be imagined," he thought. 
 
 The question of the route they were to take 
 to Lake Superior he also often debated in his 
 mind. Should they take the easy passage
 
 98 
 
 down the Brule Eiver, or should they portage 
 over the divide into the Pigeon River. On 
 the Pigeon River route they would have to 
 make a long and hard portage of eight miles 
 past the rapids and the great falls of the 
 Pigeon. 
 
 He decided in favor of the Pigeon River 
 route so he could have a talk with Ami- 
 goosheb about the location of Silver Island. 
 
 "With the information we have now," he 
 said to himself, "we are just about going it 
 blind." 
 
 But when Waggles and Harry returned to 
 camp all gloom was dispelled. 
 
 As for Waggles, he lived in a real dog para 
 dise. For hours at a time he would sit bark 
 ing and whining at a red squirrel, high up in 
 a tree. At other times he chased rabbits or 
 dug for mice until his face and ears were cov 
 ered with dirt and his nose was stuffed up 
 with the dark brown humus. He never 
 caught anything bigger than mice, but he 
 hunted with such optimistic enthusiasm as if 
 to say to the boys: "You can laugh at me
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 99 
 
 all you want to, some day I will catch some 
 thing big." 
 
 When he did not happen to be hunting some 
 thing, Dan or Harry had to throw sticks for 
 him, which he retrieved and shook and threw 
 about with angry growls as if they were rats. 
 
 And even when he lay flat on his side, asleep 
 on the soft moss, he furnished no little amuse 
 ment for the boys, for at those times he often 
 lived over the events of the day in his dreams. 
 He wiggled his feet, wrinkled his face and 
 barked through his nose until the laughter or 
 talk of the boys woke him up. 
 
 At the end of a week Dan had his canoe fin 
 ished and had also smoked the meat of an 
 other small buck. 
 
 Harry had kept his promise of making him 
 self useful. He had gathered a peck each of 
 raspberries and Juneberries, and had also 
 smoked a dozen fine black bass and wall-eyed 
 pike, and once more the boys and Waggles 
 continued along that most wonderful chain of 
 lakes which forms the international boundary 
 between Minnesota and Ontario.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 CAUGHT IN A FOREST FIRE 
 
 THE route of the canoeists now became 
 much more difficult. The string of 
 small and somewhat narrow lakes 
 along which they traveled are connected by 
 wild rapids and falls, sending their waters to 
 ward Lake of the Woods. 
 
 Around these rapids and falls the canoe and 
 the packs had to be carried and as Harry was 
 not strong enough to carry a heavy load they 
 had to make two trips past every rapid, and 
 their progress was rather slow. 
 
 As they traveled they kept a sharp lookout 
 for islets that might answer the description 
 of the one Hamigeesek had discovered. Some 
 answered the description fairly well, but not 
 one showed, as far as the boys could see, any 
 traces of precious metal. 
 
 Twice they saw parties of Indians return- 
 100
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 101 
 
 ing from the trading-post at Grand Portage, 
 but the Indians did not discover them, and of 
 white men they saw no indication, although 
 they kept a sharp lookout for them and ob 
 served about their own camping places the 
 same secrecy they had adopted at the begin 
 ning of their journey. 
 
 The season had turned very dry, which had 
 the good result that the boys were not trou 
 bled by mosquitoes. 
 
 "We struck it mighty fine," observed Dan. 
 "The last time I was out here it rained nearly 
 every other day, so that every little hollow 
 was full of stagnant water and the mosquitoes 
 were so thick that it was impossible to sit 
 around the camp-fire for half an hour. I had 
 to crawl into the tent as soon as I had eaten 
 my supper and close the tent mosquito-tight. 
 Every time I was awake I could hear the mos 
 quitoes singing outside, trying to get in. If 
 I left a little hole anywhere the tent was full 
 of them inside of half an hour." 
 
 On account of the drought the boys had to 
 be exceedingly careful with their camp-fires.
 
 102 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 If possible, they built them on the sand or in 
 a wet place. If that could not be done, they 
 scraped away the dry humus as much as pos 
 sible, and when they left the camp poured 
 plenty of water on the fire to make sure that 
 it would not start again and spread into the 
 woods. 
 
 As the days passed, one much like the other, 
 the brothers began to have a feeling that they 
 had been on this journey for a long, long time, 
 because much of the life in the forest had 
 changed since they started. The birds were 
 entirely silent, in fact it sometimes seemed 
 as if they all had deserted the woods. Over 
 head they frequently saw a number of fish- 
 hawks sailing at a great height above the 
 water, and occasionally they saw one with 
 folded wings shoot into the lake and rise with 
 a wriggling fish in his talons. They passed 
 several of the large nests of the fish-hawks, 
 placed conspicuously on tall, dead trees not 
 far from the water, but the nests were de 
 serted, as the young birds were already on 
 the wing, learning to catch fish as instinct and
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 103 
 
 the example of their parents taught them. 
 
 When the boys started with their new canoe, 
 a dreamy blue haze seemed to hang over the 
 lake. From day to day this haze thickened 
 until at the end of a week the air was filled 
 with the pungent odor of smoke. 
 
 "I shouldn t be surprised," said Dan, "if 
 we d run into a forest fire. I haven t seen 
 such a dry season for a long time. 
 
 "I don t see how a forest fire could get 
 started, Dan, if everybody is careful with his 
 camp-fire. 
 
 "The trouble is they aren t. A fire may 
 smolder in the muck or peat for weeks or even 
 for months, and when the season gets very dry 
 and a heavy wind springs up the dry and hot 
 air will fan the smoldering peat into a blaze 
 and you have the beginning of a forest fire 
 which nothing but a big lake or a heavy rain 
 can stop." 
 
 The haze and smoke thickened from day to 
 day until it lay over the lakes like fog and 
 made traveling difficult because the boys could 
 only see a short ways ahead, while the view
 
 104 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 of shores and lakes was completely shut off. 
 After they had slowly picked their way for 
 several days through this oppressive haze of 
 smoke they camped for Sunday on a small 
 island. Both climbed a tall tree to see if they 
 could discover any fire close by. But they 
 could see little more from the tree tops ; the 
 whole world just seemed to be wrapped up in 
 a blanket of dense, pungent smoke. 
 
 During the night conditions did not change 
 much, however, in the morning the boys 
 thought the smoke was less dense. But Dan 
 told Harry that forest fires always sort of 
 went down at night because the air was cool 
 and damp, and that they burned most furi 
 ously during the hot and windy hours of noon. 
 
 As the day grew warmer the thickness of 
 the smoke increased again, and towards noon 
 it became almost suffocating. 
 
 " Can t we get away from here?" Harry 
 asked. * * I m almost choking. 
 
 No, we can t, replied Dan. I m afraid 
 if we moved now we might literally run from 
 the frying-pan into the fire. If the wind does
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 105 
 
 not grow heavier the fire is not likely to jump 
 the channel and get on this island." 
 
 But in the early hours of the afternoon the 
 wind did increase with the heat of the day 
 and the approach of the fire. At last a loud 
 roaring crackle could be heard across the 
 channel. A lurid glare lighted up the roll 
 ing, dark clouds of smoke, and pieces of burn 
 ing, dead twigs and sticks were driven before 
 the wind like great sparks, while great masses 
 of flame shot out from the tree tops and were 
 lashed by the storm half-way across the chan 
 nel. 
 
 Great heavens ! exclaimed Dan. Don t 
 lose me now, Harry. The blaze will be on us 
 in a minute. Grab everything you can and 
 carry it out on the sand point. 
 
 Dan first ran with the canoe out to the long 
 sandy point under the lee of the island. Then 
 he pulled up the tent in a hurry, grabbed the 
 gun and the blankets and carried them out to 
 the canoe. In the meantime Harry had car 
 ried their meat and other eatables to the same 
 spot. The deafening roar and crackle came
 
 106 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 nearer and nearer, and as tliey ran with their 
 last load to the canoe, the whole island was in 
 a blaze and burning sparks, small burning 
 brush and twigs were falling all around them 
 and the smoke almost stifled the boys as they 
 stumbled along in the scorching heat. 
 
 "Are we going to burn up ? " gasped Harry, 
 badly frightened. 
 
 But Dan either did not hear him or had no 
 time to answer. He tipped the canoe on its 
 side, soaked the tent and the blankets in the 
 lake, and hurriedly threw them over the canoe. 
 
 "Now get under there," he said, as he 
 grabbed Harry by his shirt cloth, "and get 
 down flat. This ought to keep us alive." 
 
 For half an hour the fire roared and 
 crackled in the tall pines, spruces and balsams 
 of the island, and the boys had to keep their 
 faces close to the ground so as not to be suf 
 focated by the dense volume of smoke which 
 came not only from the island but from the 
 burning and burnt country behind. The fire 
 had not been merely a light running ground 
 fire, which kills the undergrowth and burns
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 107 
 
 the needles around the thick-barked trunks of 
 the big old pines, but it had grown into a de 
 structive crown fire, which leaves the green 
 forest a black waste of desolation. 
 
 The night following proved to be the most 
 miserable the boys had yet spent on their 
 whole trip. They could not go back to the 
 island because dead trunks and stumps and 
 the thick layers of humus were still burning 
 and smoldering. As the August night grew 
 cold, the fury of the fire had spent itself and 
 the smoke grew less oppressive. Although 
 there was fire and smoke all around them, it 
 was with difficulty that the shivering boys got 
 a camp-fire started on the edge of the water 
 with pieces of wood they had picked up in the 
 darkness along the shore. Then they wrung 
 out their wet blankets as well as they could, 
 rolled themselves up in front of the fire, and 
 got what rest and sleep they could after the 
 excitement of the day. 
 
 The delay caused by the forest fire made 
 the boys still more eager to travel as fast as 
 possible.
 
 108 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Of Le Noir they had discovered no sign, and 
 they felt sure that he had taken the North 
 Channel around Hunter s Island. Might he 
 not intend to see old Amigoosheb and get more 
 information about Silver Island? Dan knew 
 that he was well acquainted with the old In 
 dian. 
 
 "Kid," he said to Harry, "let s go as fast 
 as we can. I am afraid the rogue may beat us 
 to the Pigeon River and steal the information 
 we must have. He s sly enough to do it if 
 he gets half a chance."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 IN THE CHIPPEWA TEPEE 
 
 AFTEE their escape from the forest 
 fire the boys allowed themselves no 
 rest except on Sundays. Bnt so 
 great is the number of lakes and bays which 
 they felt they had to explore on the route, 
 that the yellowing of ash and birch and the 
 waning of the days told that summer had 
 gone, when at last they reached the tepee of 
 Amigoosheb, near the head of the long port 
 age of the Pigeon Eiver. 
 
 It was late on a cold and rainy afternoon 
 when Dan looked into the tepee of his Indian 
 friend, who was sitting inside of his lodge, 
 resting after an all-day hunting trip, while 
 Anego, his wife, was preparing a feast for 
 the family. Amigoosheb, when he saw the 
 two whites, arose from his seat, shook the 
 hands of his visitors and bade them to be 
 
 109
 
 110 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 seated on a bearskin behind the fire opposite 
 the tepee entrance which is considered the 
 seat of honor in a Chippewa lodge. 
 
 "You are welcome," he said. "I have 
 killed a fat deer and the meat will soon be 
 ready for a feast." 
 
 Harry was surprised to see that Amigoo- 
 sheb was half a head taller than his big 
 brother, but he liked the kindly face of the big 
 red hunter and felt at once at home in the 
 warm, cozy tepee. 
 
 Anego did not speak to the boys, but handed 
 each of the lads a pair of dry and soft moose- 
 hide moccasins, and the boys were glad to 
 take off their wet and heavy boots. 
 
 It s mighty good to see some people 
 again," Harry remarked as he tied his moc 
 casins. "It seems to me we have camped and 
 traveled alone for a year." 
 
 Having divested themselves of their wet 
 boots and coats, the boys enjoyed the comfort 
 of the red man s wigwam. The rain had in 
 creased from a drizzle to one of those steady 
 downpours which it seemed would soak every
 
 You ARK WELCOME." Page 110.
 
 OF THE CIIIPPEWA 111 
 
 leaf, sprig and root in the North woods. But 
 the shower of rain which came through the 
 smoke-hole of the roof had no visible effect on 
 the bright and cheerful fire in Amigoosheb s 
 lodge, because Anego was a good house 
 wife and had provided plenty of dry wood 
 which did not sizzle and smoke like the wood 
 of a lazy and shiftless squaw. In fact, as the 
 countless little drops and currents, like a 
 myriad of invisible spirit fingers, played their 
 soft murmuring music on the birch-bark roof 
 of the tepee, the fire seemed to grow brighter 
 and more cheerful. The kettle of venison 
 boiled lustily and Harry wondered why white 
 men did not live in tepees where there was 
 none of the bustle of the cross and overworked 
 mother from which he had sometimes fled in 
 Detroit. 
 
 Their host sat in silence and seemed ab 
 sorbed in thought, while Dan told of their 
 trip, about which Amigoosheb seemed to show 
 no curiosity, for he only uttered occasional 
 grunts and brief remarks, and Harry remem 
 bered that it is contrary to Indian etiquette
 
 112 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 to ask guests any questions about their busi 
 ness. 
 
 When the meat was done, Amigoosheb 
 placed a chunk of it in the bowl of each one 
 present and then poured a quantity of broth 
 over it. The boys used their own tin bowls, 
 knives, forks and spoons, but their Chippewa 
 hosts held the meat in their fingers and drank 
 the broth. 
 
 The meal over, Waggles and the two mon 
 grel dogs of the Indians received the bones 
 which they ate outside the tepee. Amigoo 
 sheb and his son resumed their seats and en 
 tertained their guests, and now asked the 
 news about the parents of the boys and about 
 the Indians and half-breeds they knew at Fort 
 Frances, while Anego and her two young 
 girls were busy putting the tepee in shape for 
 the night. 
 
 Some hours after the darkness of a rainy 
 night had settled over the forest, the Indians, 
 as is their custom, pulled their blankets over 
 their heads and lay down to sleep. Harry 
 and Dan covered themselves with their own
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 113 
 
 blankets and stretched out on a bear-skin 
 rug. 
 
 "It s bully to be a real Indian," thought 
 Harry, as he listened to the soft patter of 
 the rain and heard the weird call of two loons 
 as they passed over the tent, and then he fell 
 into forgetfulness as complete as that of Wag 
 gles who lay coiled up near the softly glow 
 ing fire. 
 
 Although Dan knew well the inbred aver 
 sion of an Indian to do anything in a hurry, 
 he himself was so impatient to be off in search 
 of the object of their journey that he could 
 not spend much time in a leisurely visit with 
 the family of Amigoosheb, but on the follow 
 ing day told his host of the purpose of his 
 and Harry s visit. 
 
 Amigoosheb was much interested in the 
 story Dan had to tell and he and his wife sin 
 cerely mourned the death of Hamigeesek and 
 Sellsby. 
 
 "They were both good and brave men," he 
 said. "Long ago, Hamigeesek went on the 
 war-path against the Sioux and brought home
 
 114 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 three scalps, but when he became a Christian 
 he buried the scalps. He never drank fire 
 water and once when I was sick and starving, 
 he traveled three days on snowshoes and 
 brought me moose meat and tea and I got 
 well and strong again. 
 
 "I saw the white metal Hamigeesek found. 
 He brought it from a little island in the great 
 Lake Gitchegumee, under the breast of a sit 
 ting crane." 
 
 "Under the breast of a sitting crane?" 
 Dan ventured to ask. "What did he mean 
 by that?" 
 
 "He did not say," Amigoosheb continued 
 after a brief silence. l Perhaps he meant an 
 other island or a long back of rock. There 
 are as many of those on the shore of the great 
 lake and on the island of Minong as there 
 are moose and deer in the forest. But I do 
 not know ; I did not ask him. 
 
 "Had Hamigeesek been to the Isle of Mi 
 nong, Isle Eoyale, as we call it?" Dan fol 
 lowed up eagerly. 
 
 "Yes, he had been there. He told of the
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 115 
 
 thick brush that covers the island and of the 
 gulls, the ravens, and eagles that live there. 
 No white men live there, and few Indians 
 ever visit the island because they are afraid 
 of the storms and fogs and of the great waves 
 on the big lake." 
 
 "My little brother and I must go there, 
 Amigoosheb. We must find the little island. 
 Will you help us to carry our packs and our 
 canoe over the long portage? We need a 
 friend now, for the back of my little brother 
 is not strong enough for a great burden "
 
 CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 AN UNWELCOME VISITOR 
 
 AMIGOOSHEB promised to carry 
 their canoe over the long trail. 
 " To-morrow," lie said, "when the 
 sun goes down, you shall see the shining 
 waters of Gitchegumee, the Big Lake." 
 
 Dan was jubilant and Harry danced with 
 joy and could hardly keep from shouting 
 when Dan told him that they were to camp in 
 sight of the great Lake Superior the next 
 night. 
 
 But that evening as the boys and their 
 hosts were seated around the fire in the tepee 
 waiting for supper, something happened 
 Wilich changed their whole plan. 
 
 Waggles, who apparently lay asleep near 
 the fire, raised his head and listened to some 
 noise. His nostrils quivered for a second 
 or two, and then he bolted out of the lodge 
 
 116
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 117 
 
 with his hair bristling and uttering an angry 
 growl. The two Indian dogs rushed after 
 him and then there was a commotion of three 
 dogs barking and snarling as if they were 
 having a fight with a bear. 
 
 The two white boys sprang out of the tepee 
 while their Indian hosts followed more leis 
 urely. And there stood Le Noir, shouting 
 and kicking at the dogs who sprang at him 
 viciously again and again as if he were a wild 
 beast which they would tear to pieces. Wag 
 gles was so furious that he did not heed Dan s 
 and Harry s calls until Harry grabbed him 
 by the neck and tore him away. 
 
 You keep some savage brutes in your 
 tepee, Amigoosheb," remarked Le Noir, when 
 at last the dogs had been quieted. 
 
 "It s the little tail-wagger of my friend 
 that started it, replied Amigoosheb quietly. 
 "He heard and smelled you first. My dogs 
 are friendly with nearly all visitors." 
 
 Amigoosheb and Dan spoke very little, as 
 hosts and guests sat around the fire in the 
 tepee, but Le Noir was talkative. He ex-
 
 118 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 pressed surprise at meeting Dan and Harry 
 and said he had not heard that they had left 
 Fort Frances to visit Amisgoosheb. 
 
 He told how he had started from Fort 
 Frances less than a week ago and had made a 
 quick trip of it through the North Channel 
 around Hunter s Island. He was looking, he 
 said, for a good country to trap beaver, a 
 country not so much overrun by trappers as 
 the region around Fort Frances. He had 
 heard that beaver were numerous north of the 
 Pigeon Eiver and he was on his way to ex 
 plore this region, and if he found it good he 
 meant to trap there all winter. But as he 
 knew that his friend Amigoosheb generally 
 made his summer camp at this place, he had 
 wished to visit him for a few days. 
 
 Amigoosheb thought beaver ought to be 
 plentiful up north because the Indians had 
 not trapped much in that country during the 
 last few years on account of the low prices 
 the traders had been offering for beaver 
 skins. 
 
 As soon as Dan could see Amigoosheb alone
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 119 
 
 next day, he told him what he suspected to be 
 the real cause for the appearance of Le Noir, 
 and that he had previously seen Waggles act 
 just as he did last night to Le Noir, only Le 
 Noir was able to get away without being 
 discovered. 
 
 * I am convinced, continued Dan, * that he 
 has been following us and intends to follow 
 us on our whole trip. We put him on the 
 wrong trail at Hunter s Island, but now he s 
 found us again and we ll have a hard time 
 to lose him. 
 
 "If we find the island he will claim a share 
 of it." 
 
 For a minute Amigoosheb smoked in si 
 lence. Then with a peculiar gleam in his 
 dark eyes, he began in Chippewa : Le Noir 
 is a bad man ; he is not my friend. He will 
 not claim a share of the white silver ; he will 
 want it all. If he is there when you see the 
 shine of the sun on the white metal, he will 
 murder you if he can. Then he will sink your 
 dead body in the deep lake which never gives 
 up its dead, and you and your little brother
 
 120 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 and the tail-wagging dog and your canoe will 
 never be seen again." And once more he 
 smoked in silence, while only his eyes, which 
 seemed to be piercing something at a distance, 
 showed that some strong feeling was working 
 within him. 
 
 "Never trust him," he resumed after a 
 while, l and do not spare him if you ever get 
 your right hand on his throat ; an evil spirit 
 dwells within him. But I fear him not, be 
 cause I can read his black thoughts, and if 
 you will follow my plan, I think we can send 
 him north where his false tongue said his 
 feet intended to go. 
 
 "But we must not hurry; we must be pa 
 tient. If we are impatient he will read our 
 thoughts and will follow you to the Isle of 
 Minong.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 CUNNING AGAINST CUNNING 
 
 FOB several days the native cunning of 
 Amigoosheb fought a silent battle 
 with the shrewdness of the half- 
 breed; although apparently Amigoosheb 
 thought only of entertaining his guests after 
 the manner of his red fathers. As there was 
 plenty of game and fish in camp, both guests 
 and hosts made a feast every day Indians 
 have no regular time for meals and spent 
 much time in smoking and telling stories. 
 Amigoosheb knew wonderful tales of hunt 
 ing the big moose, the fierce timber wolves, 
 and the hated wolverine; he was also well 
 versed in the traditions and legends of the 
 Chippewa nation. Le Noir had taken part in 
 the fights and intrigues of the rival fur com 
 panies, and Dan could talk by the hour about 
 
 Detroit and Boston. 
 
 121
 
 122 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Harry drank it all in and wished that he 
 and Dan and Waggles might have some real 
 narrow escapes on this trip. 
 
 "As long as all three of us just get out 
 alive, it s all bully fine," he thought. 
 
 Twice Amigoosheb took his guests to a fine 
 stream, where the speckled trout were so nu 
 merous and so hungry that they bit wildly 
 on small pieces of red flannel. Amigoosheb 
 did not fish, for fishing, according to his idea, 
 was work for women, small boys and white 
 men, but not for a dignified Chippewa 
 brave. 
 
 It was on one of these fishing trips that 
 the wily Indian managed to be alone with 
 Dan without arousing the suspicion of Le 
 Noir, and unfolded to him a plan of outwitting 
 the half-breed. 
 
 1 1 To-morrow or next day, I must go moose 
 hunting," he proceeded. "We need meat, 
 and Anego needs moose hide for moccasins. 
 It s a long trail, too long for your little 
 brother. You stay here and hunt deer close 
 by. My boy, Magwah, goes with you.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 123 
 
 "Le Noir goes with me. We find moose, 
 I make the moose a little wild. I tell Le Noir 
 he can t get him. Le Noir thinks he is a great 
 hunter and wants to get the big moose. We 
 follow him and get lost. We travel around 
 and find many beavers and stay away six or 
 seven sleeps. 
 
 "My boy, Magwah, is big and strong. He 
 will help you carry the canoe over the long 
 portage, and you paddle away to the great 
 island of Minong and find the Island of the 
 White Metal and I pray that the Great Mani- 
 tou will guide your paddles and make your 
 eyes keen. 
 
 "I have spoken. What does the son of my 
 friend think of Amigoosheb s plan?" 
 
 "It is a good plan," Dan assented warmly. 
 "But the season is so far advanced now that 
 I fear that the snowstorms and the ice will 
 make us prisoners on Minong if we go now 
 and our father and mother will think that the 
 great cold lake has swallowed us." 
 
 "I will send word to your father and I will 
 send you a message to Minong."
 
 124 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "How can you send us a message to Mi 
 nong?" 
 
 "If you have not come back when the days 
 and nights are equal, I will go to Tabahta, 
 the island white men call Pie Island. It is 
 high, and plenty of trees grow on it. "With 
 big trunks and many green boughs I shall 
 make a big black smoke which you can see on 
 Minong if the day is clear. If the gray fog 
 hides the shores of Minong, I shall wait till 
 the sun melts it away." 
 
 "What will the smoke tell us?" asked Dan 
 eagerly. 
 
 1 i One big smoke will say : All is well. Le 
 Noir has gone to trap beaver. Two smokes 
 will say: Le Noir is on your trail. Thrust 
 your hunting-knife into his black heart or 
 pierce it with a bullet. 
 
 "When you see my message, you will make 
 one big smoke on Minong opposite Pie Is 
 land. It will say to me: I have read your 
 message. " 
 
 "That s a fine plan," Dan broke in, his 
 eyes flashing and his heart beating fast.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 125 
 
 "But what will you do if you don t get an an 
 swer?" 
 
 "I shall build a wigwam on Greenstone 
 Point of Pie Island. I shall stay till the same 
 moon comes around again and I shall send 
 up one or two big smokes on every day my 
 eyes can see the dark shore of Minong." 
 
 "Shall we find meat on Minong? I do not 
 know the great island," Dan inquired. 
 
 "The streams and lakes and the bays of 
 Minong are full of fish, and in the forest runs 
 Wahbooson, the rabbit, and the lynx crouches 
 in the thickets, and Ahtik, the antlered cari 
 bou, travels on the marshes and ridges. You 
 have a gun and traps and should find plenty 
 of meat. 
 
 "If you have not returned and feasted with 
 your friends when the summer days are long 
 est, I shall again make smokes on Tabahta. 
 If I do not see your smokes before the same 
 moon returns to the summer forest, I shall 
 know that the great sea has swallowed you, 
 and Anego will weep for you and I shall go 
 and tell your father that his sons were brave,
 
 126 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 that they have fought the big waves of the 
 sea and that they will not come back to the 
 Lake-of-Much-Rain. 
 
 "We will go, Amigoosheb," said Dan with 
 a hearty handshake and a quaver in his voice, 
 "and may the God of the white man bless you 
 for the friendship you have shown us."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 INTO THE UNKNOWN 
 
 A FEW days later Amigoosheb and Le 
 Noir started northward for a moose 
 hunt, while Dan, Harry, and Mag- 
 wah went to bring in a deer they had killed 
 the day before. 
 
 Amigoosheb went out of his way several 
 miles, ostensibly to see the deer, but in real 
 ity to convince Le Noir that this story about 
 the deer was not a ruse, although Le Noir 
 had not uttered a word of suspicion. 
 
 The meat having been brought home, the 
 three lads lost no time starting on the trail 
 down the Pigeon Eiver, the falls and rapids 
 of which thundered and rushed with a wild- 
 ness and magnificence more impressive than 
 anything Harry had ever seen. 
 
 Although no wind was stirring, when to 
 ward evening they reached Lake Superior, 
 
 127
 
 128 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 big rolling waves were running from north 
 east to southwest, and white-capped breakers 
 were dashing against the high steep shore, 
 pounding it with big angular rocks as with 
 gigantic sledge hammers, and in the little 
 cove, near which the boys had camped, the 
 incoming waves pushed the pebbly shingle 
 back and forth, back and forth, all night with 
 a dull grinding sound. 
 
 Oh, Dan ! exclaimed Harry. I m afraid 
 to go out on that lake! It looks as big as 
 the ocean, and the waves smash against the 
 cliffs like a thousand pile-drivers. And the 
 water smells terribly cold. 
 
 "Almost any boy would be scared of Lake 
 Superior," was Dan s quieting remark, 
 "when the waves run high. But you ought 
 to see the lake in a real storm ! 
 
 "Let s go out on that point and I will show 
 you something. 
 
 "Do you see those rocks as big as cabins, 
 lying below the cliff? Waves and frost broke 
 them off. In the next big storm the waves 
 will lift them up and dash them into smaller
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 129 
 
 rocks, or during winter, frost and ice will split 
 them and then the waves grind the small rocks 
 down to flat, rounded pebbles, and rub the 
 pebbles back and forth and make clay and 
 fine sand out of them. 
 
 That s the way the waves and storms have 
 worked ever since the big basin was filled." 
 
 "And how deep is it?" Harry wanted to 
 know. 
 
 "A thousand feet in the deepest places. It 
 goes down three or four hundred feet below 
 the level of the ocean." 
 
 "But what keeps it so terribly cold all sum 
 mer?" 
 
 You know the summers are short in this 
 country and the snow lies deep and long in 
 the forests. Most of the water that runs into 
 the lake is as cold as ice water, and the lake 
 is so deep that the waves can t stir it all and 
 the sun can t shine to the bottom." 
 
 "Can t you ever take a swim in it, Dan?" 
 
 "No, not in the open lake. Its water is 
 always clear and cool and fine to drink just 
 as you dip it out, but for swimming it feels
 
 130 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 like ice water. But you can try it if you 
 want to." 
 
 "Not I. It scares me to look at it and I 
 can smell that it s as cold as ice." 
 
 1 In warm, calm weather, Dan explained, 
 "you can swim in the little basins and coves 
 cut off from the lake. In these the sun 
 reaches the bottom and warms the water, but 
 in a storm the cold waves run over all of 
 them." 
 
 Isle Koyale, for which the lads peered 
 eagerly southeastward, although often dimly 
 visible on the horizon, was now invisible on 
 account of a bluish haze, of which it was hard 
 to tell whether it consisted of water vapor 
 or of a thin smoke from distant forest 
 fires. 
 
 Magwah, who was in no hurry to return, 
 stayed with the boys overnight, and during 
 the cold evening, all three of them wrapped 
 in blankets like Indians, sat around the camp- 
 fire and speculated on the whereabout of Ami- 
 goosheb and Le Noir, and wondered what Le 
 Noir would do when he returned to the Pigeon
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 131 
 
 Kiver and learned that Dan and Harry had 
 given him the slip. 
 
 "How will you know, Magwah," asked 
 Harry, "whether Le Noir follows us or not?" 
 as an hour later the boys lay rolled up in 
 their tent, listening to the heavy thuds and 
 splashes of the breakers and to the dull 
 grinding of the pebbles. 
 
 "Father and I have tracked moose and 
 foxes and deer," the Indian boy answered 
 with a laugh; "a man with a canoe cannot 
 creep into a hole in the bank like shaung- 
 washa, the gliding mink." 
 
 It was not until the second morning that 
 the swell had gone down enough for the two 
 brothers to make a dash for Isle Eoyale. 
 
 "We might as well head her east-north 
 east," said Dan, as they had gotten clear of 
 the rocks, "so as to strike a point about in 
 the middle of Isle Koyale opposite Pie Is 
 land. 
 
 "It s a good twenty-mile stretch, Harry, 
 so let s keep up a steady thrust, the longer 
 we are on the open lake, the greater the
 
 132 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 chance of running into a squall or a fog, which, 
 is no fun on this big body of water." 
 
 "When they were a few miles out, they found 
 the swell still much stronger than they had 
 expected, but as the waves did not run choppy 
 and white-capped, it was great fun to steer 
 their light canoe, bobbing up and down over 
 the broad crests and through the wide 
 troughs. 
 
 Not until they were within six miles of 
 Minong, which had been plainly in sight for 
 some time like a long line of dark high for 
 est, did they encounter any real danger and 
 difficulty. 
 
 For half an hour they had seen a mass of 
 gray approaching from the northeast, and 
 before the two bold sailors quite realized what 
 was going to happen, they were so completely 
 shut in by one of the dreaded fogs of the 
 great Northern lake that they could scarcely 
 see fifty yards around them. At the same 
 time they ran into a stretch of more choppy 
 waves, although there was no strong wind. 
 
 "Now, keep at it, little brother, keep at it!
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 133 
 
 The sooner we get out of this the better. I ll 
 steer her by the wind and by compass. If it 
 doesn t get stormy we ll make it; but six 
 miles in a fog is a blamed long stretch."
 
 CHAPTER XVH 
 
 BATTLING WITH WAVES AND FOG 
 
 IT was a long stretch. Little Harry 
 worked at the paddle until his arms felt 
 like strings of sore and bleeding muscles, 
 and his aching back made him think that he 
 could not sit upright much longer. 
 
 In the bottom of the boat, behind a pack, 
 lay Waggles, shivering. Up and down, up 
 and down bobbed the light craft. Now and 
 then a little cold spray sprang over the bow 
 or gunwale, the fog was getting denser and 
 changing into a cold chilling mist, which was 
 creeping through their clothes and chilling 
 their flesh like ice. 
 
 " Aren t we ever going to get there?" 
 asked Harry. "It seems to me we ve been 
 paddling a whole day ! 
 
 "We re about half through the fog, I 
 guess. Better go a little slower now." 
 
 134
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 135 
 
 "How do you know where we are, Dan?" 
 "I don t know it. I m guessing at it." 
 I I m scared, Dan ! I I think we ve 
 plumb missed the whole island," Harry at 
 last relieved himself, shivering with cold. 
 "We re lost, and we ll drown. It s getting 
 dark now!" 
 
 Oh, rot ! Harry, replied Dan. 1 1 We re 
 not lost and we can t miss the island because 
 it s forty miles long. We re still headed 
 east-northeast and will surely strike it. I 
 could steer us to Isle Eoyale by the wind even 
 if I had no compass." 
 
 But even while saying these words, Dan 
 turned the canoe almost southeast. They 
 surely had been going a long time. It 
 couldn t possibly be evening yet, and still it 
 seemed to be getting dark as Harry claimed. 
 The bobbing and swinging needle of the com 
 pass lying before him was almost useless, and 
 he had really been steering by the wind. 
 Perhaps the wind had slowly shifted north 
 ward and he had been steering along half-way 
 between the mainland and Isle Royale ! The
 
 136 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 waves were getting bigger too. If darkness 
 and a storm should catch them in this dan 
 gerous channel, they would never see another 
 sunrise. 
 
 "Get down in the bottom and roll up in a 
 blanket ! " he gruffly ordered Harry ; " so you 
 get warm. You re shivering just like the 
 pup ! 
 
 "I won t do it, Dan. I ll paddle as long as 
 you re paddling. I ll not crawl away like a 
 baby!" retorted Harry, almost choking with 
 tears, and Dan did not insist; but he spent 
 a bad half hour wondering where he was and 
 what he should do if the impenetrable dark 
 ness of a foggy night overtook them before 
 they found land. 
 
 Under the spur of this anxiety his muscular 
 arms seemed to double their strength, and, 
 with the paddle bending at every long stroke, 
 he fairly sent the light craft shooting along 
 in the troughs or on the ridges of the long 
 black swells which rose and fell mysteriously 
 under the all-enveloping gray mist. 
 
 Straight southeast he drove the bow. He
 
 OF THE CIIIPPEWA 137 
 
 forgot that he was drenched to the skin, his 
 powerful frame became pervaded by a feel 
 ing of warmth, and the sweat of his forehead 
 mingled with the drizzle of the thickening 
 mist which his large blue eyes vainly sought 
 to pierce. 
 
 With growing anxiety he strained his ears 
 to catch some faint sound from the land which 
 must be near now, unless he feared to finish 
 the thought yes, unless by some error in 
 judgment or trick of the elements, he had 
 been steering along in mid-channel, parallel 
 to the straight rocky shore of Minong. But 
 even the acute hearing of a trained hunter 
 could detect no sound of hope. Small comb 
 ers seethed on the crests of the swells and 
 broke with monotonous splashings against 
 the side or the bow of the canoe, forebod 
 ing sounds of desolation on a fog-shrouded 
 waste. 
 
 On and on they labored in silence. There, 
 what was that? Dan held his paddle and 
 listened. Yes, there was no mistake. A 
 faint sound of the piercing scream of gulls
 
 138 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 dead ahead! Dan gave a shout and almost 
 sprang up in the boat. 
 
 "Hear the gulls, Harry, the gulls!" he 
 cried. "We are near land!" 
 
 Louder and louder grew the screams, and 
 the lads slackened their speed so as not to 
 wreck the boat on concealed rocks. 
 
 The cries of the gulls became deafening, 
 but to the two brothers no song of thrush or 
 whitethroat had ever sounded so joyously 
 sweet. 
 
 Now they passed close by a small rocky 
 island, white with hundreds of gulls, and ris 
 ing like a small iceberg out of the black lake 
 and the fog. 
 
 "We can t be more than a mile from Isle 
 Eoyale," Dan rejoiced. 
 
 1 1 Steady now, the coast of Minong in some 
 places is strewn with reefs and small islands. 
 
 Give a yell, Harry. The echo will tell us 
 when we get close to land. 
 
 Again and again Harry shouted at the top 
 of his voice. 
 
 Now the echo came back, through the fog.
 
 ON AND ON THEY LABORED IN S1LKNCE. Page 137.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 139 
 
 Faint at first, but growing louder every min 
 ute, and then a wall of solid rock crowned 
 with trees and bushes, suddenly thrust itself 
 out of the fog, scarcely twenty yards ahead 
 of them. 
 
 * Thank God ! cried Dan, with barely con 
 trolled emotion, " there s Minong, the royal 
 island! No land ever looked quite so good 
 to me !
 
 CHAPTER XVHI 
 
 THB FIRST CAMP ON ISLE KOYALB 
 
 HAEEY wanted to make camp on a 
 narrow strip of sandy beach close 
 to the lake, but Dan pointed to a 
 line on the cliffs fifteen feet above them. 
 
 "Do you know why no lichens and mosses 
 grow below that line 1 " he asked. * Because 
 that s the height to which the waves dash up. 
 If we camp on this beach we might be washed 
 into the lake with our whole outfit." 
 
 They carried their equipment up through 
 a wide crevice and selected a sheltered spot 
 behind some spruces for a camp site. Their 
 canoe they deposited in the crevice, well above 
 the reach of the waves. 
 
 While Harry made supper, consisting of 
 hot tea, big chunks of broiled venison and 
 hardtack, Dan set up their small A tent, and 
 cut a lot of firewood for the night. For their 
 
 140
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 141 
 
 tea he brought out a small bag of brown sugar 
 which thus far he had concealed from Harry. 
 
 It was not until they sat down to supper 
 that the boys became aware of how hungry, 
 wet and cold they were ; but the sweet hot tea 
 and the juicy venison at once revived their 
 spirits and their energy. 
 
 "It s going to get dark early," said Dan 
 when he had finished his share of the meat. 
 "Let s put our camp in shape at once and 
 then get into some dry clothes." 
 
 So Harry washed the dishes and cut a lot 
 of balsam boughs which he dried near the fire 
 before he spread them out for their bed. 
 
 Dan cut two large back logs of green poplar 
 and then cut two green birch trees into 
 lengths of about three feet. 
 
 He selected the green poplar for back logs 
 because he knew that the abundant sap in 
 green poplar would keep the logs from burn 
 ing through too quickly. 
 
 In front of the back logs, facing the open 
 tent, he soon had going a warm steady fire 
 of green birch chunks which filled the tent
 
 142 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 with a warm ruddy glow and took the chill 
 and dampness out of things. 
 
 "Dan, this is the swellest camp I ve ever 
 been in," Harry exclaimed, when everything 
 was in shape and the boys had put on dry 
 clothes and moccasins. 
 
 "I wish Father and Mother and sister were 
 here now. I could listen all night to you and 
 Father telling stories. 
 
 "Why didn t we ever make such a camp 
 before?" 
 
 "You don t need a back-log fire on a hot 
 summer night, but on a cold autumn night it s 
 the only thing to make a camp warm and cozy, 
 especially when a man is wet and chilled clear 
 to his bones as we were in that horrible, cold 
 fog." 
 
 "Why didn t you cut up some dead and dry 
 wood?" Harry wanted to know. 
 
 "You need dry wood for cooking, but for 
 a back-log fire it burns too fast. We want 
 this fire to keep going all night, and I don t 
 believe I care to get up and feed it more than 
 twice. "
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 143 
 
 "But why did you hunt around for birch; 
 what s the matter with spruce or balsam?" 
 
 "All the evergreens contain resin and burn 
 too fast. They also make a lot of smoke and 
 leave no good bed of coal. 
 
 "What about green oak and poplar?" 
 
 They are good for back logs, but for fuel 
 they burn too slowly. You d get no heat out 
 of them and they might even go out if they 
 weren t piled up right. Dry oak is good, but 
 it s too hard to cut. Birch and hard maple 
 are the best in this country. Hickory and 
 beech are fine, but I feel sure we shall not 
 find them on Isle Eoyale. 
 
 By the time the boys were ready to go to 
 sleep, the wind had freshened and had veered 
 around to the northwest and the fog and mist 
 had changed to a cold drizzling autumn rain. 
 
 Harry stepped out of the tent to look 
 around and listen. 
 
 "Lord," he exclaimed, "I never saw such 
 black, pitchy darkness! You can t see a 
 thing ten feet from the fire. 
 
 "But I can hear the swishing and splash-
 
 144 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 ing of the waves. Ugh! I m mighty glad 
 we aren t out on that big cold lake now!" 
 
 " If we were, replied Dan, * we d probably 
 stay there for good. 
 
 "But now let s roll in; to-morrow we start 
 exploring the coast of this big island in dead 
 earnest, and it s not going to be a small and 
 easy job."
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A BEMAKKABLE DISCOVEEY AND A FATEFUL 
 MESSAGE 
 
 THEY did not start exploring the coast 
 on the next day. When Dan awoke 
 at dawn of day, the waves pounded 
 and swashed against the brown rocks below 
 the camp, the tops of the spruces were bend 
 ing in the wind, and low gray clouds, scud 
 ding fast before the northwester, poured a 
 fine cold rain over the uninhabited wilderness. 
 
 "No trip to-day," he thought. "Mighty 
 fine in this camp on solid ground. 
 
 He arose and put some wood on the fire 
 which was almost out. 
 
 "Looks like a good day for making up 
 sleep. Doesn t worry us now ; let her blow ! 
 and in five minutes he was asleep again. 
 
 Several hours later Harry woke up. 
 "Dan," he called, as he still rubbed his eyes, 
 
 145
 
 146 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "wake up! Hear the breakers, and see the 
 rain coming down. It looks like fall, almost 
 like winter. What are we going to do to 
 day?" 
 
 "Nothing, sonny! You may sleep some 
 more." 
 
 "Not I," Harry replied, as he sprang up 
 and began to dress. "I slept like a ground 
 hog, but now I m as wide-awake as a rabbit. 
 Let s dress and get breakfast. I m hungry!" 
 
 The rain and storm continued all day and 
 the boys had much time to think and talk 
 things over, for exploring the island in this 
 weather was out of the question. In many 
 places the shore was impassable because the 
 pounding waves broke high against the steep 
 cliffs, and on the main body of the island the 
 brush and trees were so laden with rain that 
 a walk of a few rods would have wet the 
 clothing of the boys through and through. 
 
 Dan cut up another poplar and a few 
 birches for the camp-fire and some dead 
 spruces for cooking, while Harry went down
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 147 
 
 the crevice and dipped some water from a 
 pocket in the rock. 
 
 Harry wondered if their mother wouldn t 
 worry a good deal about them ; because, he 
 figured, "we ve been gone now more than 
 three months, but so many things have hap 
 pened that it seems a year." 
 
 Dan, too, thought that Mother and Mar 
 garet would be worried, but he assured 
 Harry, Father knows that we can take care 
 of ourselves, and he ll tell them not to worry." 
 
 "But didn t we have a close call in that 
 fog?" asked Harry. 
 
 "Maybe we did, but that s a part of the 
 game, and Father knows that. He s not 
 afraid of taking chances. 
 
 "Do you really think," Harry wanted to 
 know, "that the Indians will find out where 
 Le Noir will go when he and Amigoosheb 
 come back from their moose hunt? Won t 
 he give them the slip ? 
 
 "Not very likely," Dan replied with a 
 smile. "One will watch the Pigeon Eiver
 
 148 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 Portage and the other will watch for him on 
 the Brule, and these are the only two ways 
 he can go if he intends to follow us. He ll 
 most likely come down the Brule, because 
 that s the easiest passage and is farthest 
 away from Amigoosheb s wigwam. 
 
 "As for shaking an Indian scout if he s 
 once on your trail, you might as well try to 
 shake your own shadow. 
 
 "A Chippewa is a born scout and trailer, 
 and Amigoosheb is the best I ever knew. He 
 would be able to lose Le Noir, but Le Noir 
 will never lose him." 
 
 1 To tell the truth, Dan, I m scared of Le 
 Noir. He s got such an ugly look. Aren t 
 you scared of him at all?" 
 
 "I might be," Dan admitted, "if he could 
 sneak up on us. But he can t as long as the 
 pup is with us. That s why I took the pup 
 along. 
 
 "You did!" exclaimed Harry; "and you 
 never told me! So my pup s good for some 
 thing anyhow! Wake up, Waggles! D you 
 hear that ?
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 149 
 
 "But, Dan, would you kill Le Noir if he 
 followed us?" 
 
 "I certainly would, before I gave him a 
 chance to kill you or me or the pup!" Dan 
 declared with his jaws set and his eyes flash 
 ing. 
 
 And Harry thought, "By George! he ll do 
 it, as he watched the face of his big brother. 
 
 "You know what I think?" Harry resumed 
 after awhile. "I think we ll starve to death 
 here if winter catches us. 
 
 "I haven t seen a sign of deer or rabbit, 
 not even of any small birds. This Isle Roy- 
 ale is sure the wildest place I ever dreamt 
 of." 
 
 "There aren t any deer or moose on the 
 island, and rabbits don t hop around much in 
 the rain, and near the coast they stay in the 
 brush. As for birds, I don t expect to see 
 many. The island is too cool and too wet. 
 There aren t enough bugs and berries here 
 to attract many birds. But some birds will 
 come after these wild mountain-ash berries 
 that are so plentiful.
 
 150 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 * But you needn t worry about starving. I 
 know there are plenty of rabbits on the island, 
 and where the rabbits are, you ll find plenty 
 of lynx; and we can find caribou, I think. 
 And I know we can catch plenty of fish, so 
 I m not worrying about starving. 
 
 I am worried about finding Silver Island. 
 If I only knew what Hamigeesek meant by 
 the Sitting Crane and whereabouts it was, 
 I d feel easier. But as it is, we are hunting 
 for a grouse chick hidden in the brush. You 
 seldom find the grayish-brown, squatting 
 little things until you almost step on them." 
 
 After a few days when the weather had 
 cleared and the lake had become calm, the 
 boys paddled northeastward along the shore. 
 They passed numerous small rocky islands 
 above which hundreds of gulls were scream 
 ing and soaring, but they discovered no point 
 or headland to which even the picturesque 
 language of the Chippewa could possibly ap 
 ply the name of Sitting Crane. 
 
 On the second morning they entered a long 
 and very narrow bay which ran two miles
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 151 
 
 into the island, and which Dan, from a crude 
 sketch by Amigoosheb, recognized as Mc- 
 Cargo s Cove. 
 
 On the shore of this fiord they made a re 
 markable discovery. For a distance of two 
 miles they found many pits from three to six 
 feet deep, and in the pits they discovered 
 metallic copper in small pieces and veins as 
 if it had grown in the rock, but in a few pits* 
 they found sheets of copper over a foot 
 square. These sheets also seemed to have 
 grown in the rock. 
 
 Around the pits lay thousands of small 
 boulders worn rough and flat on one end, 
 showing that they had been used as hammers 
 by unknown miners. 
 
 But the long lines of pits were not the only 
 discovery the boys made. Near the pits ex 
 tended long lines of small earth-mounds evi 
 dently thrown up by a forgotten race a long 
 time ago. 
 
 "What in all the world can these things 
 mean?" both of them asked with wonder; 
 "and when were these pits worked?"
 
 152 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "I never heard the Indians talk about these 
 copper mines," Dan added. 
 
 "As to the time past since the pits were 
 worked, we ought to be able to fix that pretty 
 close. Let s cut down one of the biggest 
 trees on the edge of a pit. 
 
 When two old gnarly pines had been felled, 
 they counted on one of them about two hun 
 dred and fifty rings and on the other over 
 three hundred. 
 
 "That means," Dan explained, "that for 
 about three hundred years these mines have 
 not been worked, so it s no wonder the In 
 dians have forgotten about them. Most of 
 their traditions do not go back very far." 
 
 "But do you think," asked Harry, whose 
 curiosity was now much aroused, "that a lot 
 of lazy Indians would mine copper? Don t 
 they hate that kind of work?" 
 
 "Who else could have done it? No other 
 people ever lived in this country. The West 
 ern tribes quit working here for copper when 
 the Eastern tribes came into contact with 
 white men who sold them better and cheaper
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 153 
 
 metal weapons, knives, and ornaments than 
 they could make with their crude tools from 
 the copper they mined here in their primitive 
 fashion." 
 
 "But what about these earth mounds?" 
 
 "I don t know, Harry. Let s open one of 
 them." 
 
 With two thick balsam poles cut flat at the 
 end, the boys dug into one of the small 
 mounds, but it contained no relics of any 
 kind. 
 
 "Dan, this is great sport," Harry broke 
 out as he continued to dig away with his flat 
 tened pole. "Let s stay here a week and dig 
 into every mound and pit. 
 
 "You know that I just fancy there might 
 be some silver where there s such a lot of 
 copper lying around loose. 
 
 "I m just crazy to know how the Indians 
 dug these pits in the hard rock. May be, 
 Dan, they took away the silver and left the 
 copper, and if we only knew how they dug 
 the pits we could find lots of silver ourselves 
 and wouldn t have to hunt for that island
 
 154 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 under the Sitting Crane. We ll never find it 
 anyway, Dan. It s like hunting for a marble 
 you lost on a fishing trip. If we stay here 
 and start mining we 11 run a better chance of 
 finding something than we 11 have if we chase 
 around looking for that fool island." 
 
 And Harry grew almost eloquent as he 
 continued: "Dan, you don t know if that 
 fool island is near by or a hundred miles 
 away. Let s chuck the pesky thing and dig 
 for silver right here. Maybe we ll find gold 
 too. 
 
 "I don t believe Amigoosheb knew what he 
 was talking about anyhow. That stuff about 
 an island under the breast of a crane is just 
 rot, Dan, and Hamigeesek has just been 
 stuffing Amigoosheb." 
 
 Dan did not try to argue these points with 
 Harry, for he was himself very much inter 
 ested in these old copper mines, and wondered 
 why the Indians had never told him about 
 them and why they never went there for 
 copper. 
 
 "Let s go back and look at some more of
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 155 
 
 the pits," was all he answered to Harry s 
 long talk. 
 
 Several things soon struck the attention of 
 both of the boys ; the rock did not look as if 
 it had been broken by heavy hammers and it 
 had surely not been blasted by gunpowder. 
 Besides pieces and veins of copper, small 
 stone hand-hammers and a few pieces of char 
 coal were the only things of interest they 
 found in all the pits they cleaned out. 
 
 Suddenly as Harry picked up another piece 
 of charcoal, Dan exclaimed: "I ve got it! 
 I ve got it! 
 
 They built a hot fire on the rock and then 
 blasted the heated rock by pouring water on 
 it." 
 
 "Hurrah, hurrah!" cried Harry. "Let s 
 try it, Dan; let s try it. I ll bet we ll find 
 something wonderful." 
 
 A hot fire was soon blazing on a selected 
 spot. Harry went down to the cove and 
 brought their two small kettles filled with 
 water. 
 
 When Dan had raked away the coal, Harry
 
 156 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 dashed the water on the rock, while Waggles 
 watched with a half-human curiosity. 
 
 li Crack, bing!" went the red-hot rock as 
 soon as the cold water touched it. One piece 
 barely missed Harry s face and another just 
 skimmed clear of the upright tail of Waggles 
 who immediately dropped his flag of good 
 humor to half-mast and hid under a thick 
 spruce bush. 
 
 1 Great pup ! brave pup ! Dan roared with 
 laughter. "Did you see him scoot for the 
 woods, Harry? He thought there was a 
 moose breaking out of the rock!" 
 
 Harry, who looked a little pale after setting 
 off his first blast, threw on the second kettle- 
 ful from a safer distance. 
 
 "You needn t always make fun of him," 
 he then defended his dog angrily. "He s 
 not afraid of things he knows. 
 
 "I bet you were scared yourself to pour on 
 the water, that s why you let me do it. That s 
 mighty brave of a big fellow like you ; it might 
 have killed me." 
 
 When Dan just kept laughing, Harry grew
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 157 
 
 so angry that he started throwing stones at 
 Dan. But Dan stepped behind some trees 
 and merrily called out : 
 
 "Three cheers for 1 Harry McCulloch and 
 his dog, Waggles, the great silver miners of 
 Isle Royale!" 
 
 When Harry was over his fit of anger, the 
 brothers examined their blast. The rock had 
 been blown up to the depth of a foot, and 
 several small seams of copper stood exposed. 
 They repeated their blasts several times and 
 by working on their new mine all day, drove 
 it four feet deep into the hard rock. By dint 
 of hard work they pried and hammered out 
 several small sheets and nuggets of copper, 
 but of silver or gold they discovered not even 
 a trace. 
 
 "It s just as I thought," remarked Dan 
 when, dead tired from the unaccustomed 
 work, they sat at the camp-fire eating their 
 supper; "if silver or gold was found here, the 
 knowledge of it would never have been lost. 
 If these rich copper mines were near Detroit 
 they would be worth millions perhaps, but
 
 158 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 here in the uninhabited wilderness of Mi- 
 nong, they are worth nothing. 
 
 "Harry, it s Silver Island or bust! for us, 
 and day after to-morrow we are going to see 
 Amigoosheb s message." 
 
 "Are we?" asked Harry in a listless way. 
 "We ll never find Silver Island and we ll 
 never see any of Amigoosheb s smoke," and 
 with that he strolled away into a birch thicket 
 where he lay down and had a good cry, for 
 the young boy was homesick, just awfully 
 homesick. 
 
 "I wish there were some Indians here or 
 even half-breeds like Le Noir ! " he sobbed to 
 himself. "But we ll never see anything here 
 but rocks and trees and water and storms 
 and fog, not even any birds, only these horrid, 
 shrieking gulls. If I ever get home again 
 I ll never leave again!" 
 
 However, after he had enjoyed a good 
 night s sleep he felt better, and when the 
 time came to watch for Amigoosheb s signal, 
 Harry was as alert as ever. Even Waggles 
 knew that something was expected to happen.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 159 
 
 "Look at that fool pup!" Dan laughed. 
 "He acts as if Le Noir or a porcupine were 
 going to rise out of the lake. 
 
 "Dan, I wish you wouldn t always call him 
 a fool pup!" Harry objected. "If he was a 
 fool he d be asleep now." 
 
 The boys had the pile of fuel for their an 
 swer all in place before noon. On the ground 
 they had piled up dry wood ready to be 
 lighted. Over the dry stuff they had piled 
 armloads and armloads of green boughs of 
 spruce and cedar and wet rotten log, and 
 more green boughs were cut and piled up, 
 ready for use if needed. 
 
 But noon passed and another hour and an 
 other, and no smoke arose from Pie Island. 
 
 "I told you we wouldn t see any smoke," 
 said Harry in great disappointment. "I 
 wish we were home ! 
 
 "Now, Harry, remember what you prom 
 ised me and don t be a baby," Dan spoke up 
 sharply. "I told Amigoosheb we d wait a 
 month for his signal. We may not get it to 
 day or to-morrow, but if he s alive we 11 get
 
 160 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 it. If you are ever going to be a man, you ll 
 have to learn to wait! 
 
 "Amigoosheb is a pagan Indian, but he 
 stands by his friends, always! Now, you 
 keep your eyes glued on Pie Island. I m go 
 ing to lie down for a nap. Wake me up when 
 you see smoke." 
 
 Harry had been on watch about half an 
 hour when he thought he saw a faint wreath 
 of smoke rise amongst the trees of Pie Is 
 land, but the next moment it was lost in the 
 blue haze in which the island lay spread out 
 like a large dark patch low on the horizon. 
 
 In order to make sure, Harry walked a few 
 hundred yards through low brush to a higher 
 point from which he could get a better view. 
 Scarcely had he reached this point when he 
 started back on a run. l Oh, Dan, Dan ! " he 
 yelled at the top of his voice; "the smoke! 
 Amigoo" he stumbled over a root " Ami 
 goosheb s made a smoke, one big smoke!" 
 
 Dan slashed through the brush like a moose 
 and reached the point before Harry. 
 
 "Look sharp," he said when Harry arrived
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 161 
 
 all out of breath; "isn t there a little smoke 
 to the west of the big one?" 
 
 And while the brothers were watching and 
 while Waggles was doing his comical best to 
 discover the cause of his masters excitement, 
 two thick black smokes appeared over the 
 spruces and pines of Pie Island. Straight up 
 rose the dark columns in the still clear air 
 of autumn, then the tops began to spread like 
 the crowns of gigantic Norway pines that 
 would reach the sky. 
 
 "That smoke tells the message plainly 
 enough," observed Dan as he vigorously 
 struck his ax deep into an old stump. That 
 thief and murderer Le Noir is on our trail 
 again and we have to keep our eyes open and 
 our wits clear ! No more copper mining and 
 fooling around for us!"
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 PREPAKING FOB THE ENEMY 
 
 THE lads were not slow in answering 
 Amigoosheb s signal, and such a 
 thick column of smoke went up from 
 their fire that they felt sure it was plainly 
 visible on Pie Island fifteen miles away. 
 
 But where was Le Noir and what were his 
 plans? Had he seen the signal smokes of 
 Amigoosheb? If he had, he had probably 
 also surmised their meaning and had seen the 
 signal of the boys and would soon be follow 
 ing their trail with the stealth and cunning of 
 a lynx. Could they outwit him? Or could 
 they surprise him and compel him to quit 
 dogging their trail and force him to leave the 
 island? 
 
 1 Why not travel by night?" suggested 
 Harry. "We couldn t get lost on a clear still 
 night." 
 
 162
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 163 
 
 "I have thought of that, too," replied Dan; 
 "but it won t do. We could never recognize 
 Silver Island at night, and we might get 
 wrecked on concealed rocks and drown within 
 half a mile of land. A birch-bark canoe 
 doesn t stand much rock sliding. "We have 
 to do our exploring in broad daylight and 
 take our chance on fighting it out with Le 
 Noir if we ever sight him. 
 
 Isle Royale is so large that we might not 
 meet him in a year, but by accident we may 
 run into him to-morrow. 
 
 "We shall run up this north shore and 
 work around the east end of the island. If 
 he has started on the west end and is working 
 around on the south shore and I think that s 
 what he is doing we shall not meet him for 
 some time, and I feel sure that he could not 
 see our signals." 
 
 "What makes you think he has gone to the 
 west end?" 
 
 "Because that part is nearest to the mouth 
 of the Brule, and I think he d keep going the 
 way he started and work around the south
 
 164 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 shore, and I have no doubt he thinks that we 
 have gone that way too." 
 
 The next morning the brothers were astir 
 early. The sun glittered on the deep blue 
 lake, which lay as calm as a mirror under the 
 thin haze of autumn. As the canoe swiftly 
 passed many small islands which the boys 
 had already explored, gracefully soaring gulls 
 followed them for miles without moving a 
 wing. 
 
 "If we had any food to throw to them we d 
 soon have a hundred following us, remarked 
 Dan. 
 
 Harry wanted to know why they weren t all 
 nearly white, and Dan told him that the gray 
 ish-brown ones were the young of the sea 
 son. 
 
 "They fly almost as gracefully now as the 
 old ones," he said, "but you ought to see the 
 youngsters run around on the low small is 
 lands in June before they can fly. They are 
 funny-looking chicks then." 
 
 In the middle of the afternoon they reached 
 Amygdaloid Island, where the eastern end of
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 165 
 
 the island begins to be cut up into a confusion 
 of long narrow peninsulas and outlying is 
 lands, separated by a maze of channels, long 
 narrow bays and inlets. The bays and chan 
 nels are from a few rods to a mile wide but 
 run from one to ten miles in length and the 
 peninsulas, islands, and headlands and necks 
 which they separate show the same variation 
 in length and width. It would be difficult to 
 find a region where water and rock and wild 
 forests are so bewilderingly, but still so beau 
 tifully mixed and interlaced as they are at 
 the royal island of Minong. 
 
 The boys ran about two miles up the nar 
 row channel, crossed a shallow place between 
 two islands and ran back a mile to the end of 
 a bay where they made camp for the night. 
 
 "Wherever Le Noir may be," said Dan, "I 
 know he s not in this cove, so we shall have 
 as fine a camp-fire to-night as we can build; 
 but until dark we must explore. 
 
 After walking half a mile inland they came 
 to another channel only a few rods wide, but 
 at least two miles long.
 
 166 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "Now," remarked Dan, "I have the lay of 
 the land here. Beginning at the open lake 
 there is Amygdaloid Island, five miles long 
 and half a mile wide, then comes the long 
 channel, then a five-mile peninsula, then the 
 bay on which we camp, then this long ridge, 
 and here in front of us is the narrow fiord 
 which separates us from the mainland of the 
 island. 
 
 1 i Let s swim across ! urged Harry. " It s 
 not more than sixty yards." 
 
 Dan put his hand in the water. "No," he 
 said, "we mustn t risk it. It s too cold; we 
 might take cramps. 
 
 "I ll tell you what we ll do. Go and pull 
 up some spruce roots for ropes. I ll roll a 
 few of these drift logs together and in ten 
 minutes we ll go across on a raft." 
 
 Although Dan estimated the water to be 
 from twenty to thirty feet deep, they could 
 see clearly the rocks and green algae on the 
 bottom and schools of lake trout which were 
 swimming about. 
 
 The main part of the island showed the
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 167 
 
 same character as the necks they had crossed. 
 Much of the grooved and striated, brownish 
 rock was entirely bare, but from the scant 
 patches of soil, and even from the crevices 
 of the rock, grew stunted spruce, birch, pop 
 lar, and mountain-ash, while many shrubs 
 like shadbush, choke-cherry and moose maple 
 helped to conceal the wild barrenness of the 
 rock. 
 
 When they had gone scarcely half a mile, 
 they came unexpectedly to the bank of a small 
 lake. 
 
 "Well, this beats me," exclaimed Harry. 
 "Here s a lake on the island, and it s a mighty 
 pretty one too." 
 
 "Oh, this is not the only one," Dan told 
 him. "Amigoosheb told me there were more 
 than a dozen lakes on the island. He said 
 one was a heap big, six miles long with a big 
 island in it. The Indians call it Lake Siski- 
 wit and it is near the south side of the island. 
 We ll have to find it when we get around 
 there. 
 
 While they were sitting down for a few
 
 168 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 minutes some large animals walked into the 
 lake to drink. 
 
 1 Look at the big deer," said Harry. 
 
 "You re off, this time, Harry; it s a cari 
 bou. Now I know where we can find meat." 
 
 After they had returned to camp Harry 
 thought it was the wildest and most beauti 
 ful camping-place he had ever seen. 
 
 Before them lay the glassy bay, tinted red 
 and orange and purple by the changing sunset 
 sky. On both shores the trees and rocks were 
 reflected on the limpid mirror, a flock of mer 
 gansers and loons played and splashed about 
 a few hundred yards away, while far down 
 the bay two dark islands partly screened the 
 view but still allowed the eye to run along an 
 open lane and catch a glimpse of the bound 
 less lake, where, far away toward the dark 
 ening east, lake and sky seemed to blend. 
 
 And in this manner the lads continued their 
 exploration day after day and week after 
 week. No cove, no island, no ridge was 
 passed. For ten or more hours a day their 
 sharp eyes looked for the little island under
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 169 
 
 the breast of the Sitting Crane. Only on 
 Sundays they rested quietly in camp. They 
 washed and mended their clothes and talked 
 of Father and Mother and Margaret and of 
 their friend Amigoosheb and of the evil-faced 
 Le Noir. 
 
 In and out they paddled through the sinu 
 ous coves and around the finger-like head 
 lands that terminate in Lock Point. 
 
 They explored Duncan s Bay and Tobin s 
 Harbor, they paddled up and down the twen 
 ty-mile channel that ends in the beautiful and 
 well-sheltered bight of Rock Harbor. They 
 even risked their frail craft six miles out to 
 sea to examine the big hog s-back of Passage 
 Island. 
 
 As the weeks passed by the trees and shrubs 
 shed their gold and crimson autumn foliage. 
 Flocks of robins came and feasted for a few 
 days on the fiery orange fruit of the moun 
 tain-ash. Then the flocks arose and vanished 
 to the south shore of the great lake, and in 
 their wake came long lines of Canada geese 
 and flocks of ducks who only used the Eoyal
 
 170 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Island as a landmark by which to steer their 
 course southward. Still later the shrill cry of 
 flocks of snow geese was heard at night and 
 loons and mergansers from the far north as 
 sembled on the fish-teeming coves and bays 
 and inland lakes. 
 
 The boys felt that winter was close at hand 
 and that a snowstorm might sweep down upon 
 them any day. But their work was not done 
 and they pursued it with a boyish zeal and 
 relish; for, although it was now early No 
 vember, they had not found Silver Island nor 
 had they seen either the canoe or the camp- 
 fire smoke of Le Noir. 
 
 They were now exploring the great Siski- 
 wit Bay, a grand body of water between the 
 south shore of Isle Boyale and the chain of 
 narrow, outlying, rocky ridges of the. Siski- 
 wit Islands, a bay twenty miles long and six 
 miles wide. 
 
 Most of the loons and mergansers had dis 
 appeared; only the great herring-gulls, who 
 raise their young and make their summer
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 171 
 
 homes on the Siskiwit Islands, were still pres 
 ent in large numbers. 
 
 "What do you say, little brother?" asked 
 Dan, one forenoon as they pulled into a small 
 shallow bay at Fisherman s Point after 
 rounding the long shore of Siskiwit Bay; 
 11 shall we take a chance on exploring that 
 long chain of islands or shall we make a halt 
 and find a good place for winter quarters? 
 I feel that the autumn snowstorms may catch 
 us now almost any day, and it s a cinch now 
 that we shall have to winter somewhere in the 
 wild forest of Minong." 
 
 * Take a chance on the Siskiwits, Dan. "We 
 can get back to Minong in some way. 
 
 "A game kid you are, Harry! We ll try 
 it then. I see plenty of timber on the Siski 
 wits so we won t suffer for want of fuel if we 
 are marooned. And if we are caught we ll 
 wait until the bay freezes over and sled our 
 canoe across the ice to the mainland of Isle 
 Eoyale, for that big sheltered bay will surely 
 freeze over solid."
 
 CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 IN A NOETHEASTEE ON THE SISKIWITS 
 
 THE swells ran dangerously high in the 
 open lake when the brothers headed 
 their canoe boldly northeastward in 
 the direction of the Siskiwit Islands, which, 
 beginning a few miles from Fisherman s 
 Point, ran out into the open lake for twelve 
 miles, like the backs of gigantic, stranded 
 whales. 
 
 To avoid the dangerous swells, they took 
 what steamboat men nowadays call the inside 
 passage, but so expert had they become with 
 the paddles and so well they knew the moods 
 and dangers of the great fresh-water sea that 
 they calmly passed over waves and swells 
 which in the beginning of their trip they had 
 avoided under fear of death. 
 
 "What can live on these whaleback islands, 
 anyhow?" Harry wondered. 
 
 172
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 173 
 
 "Not a thing as far as I can judge, but 
 gulls," suggested Dan. "I don t think a 
 single four-footed creature lives on the whole 
 chain, not even the omnipresent wood-mice. 
 
 "They re about the most storm-swept 
 chain I ever set eyes on and if they weren t 
 well wooded in spite of being so low and nar 
 row, I d be afraid, at this time of the year, 
 to stay overnight on them." 
 
 About ten miles from Fisherman s Point, 
 on an island nameless even to this day, the 
 brothers made their camp. 
 
 Dan selected for a camp-site a little spot 
 surrounded by scrubby spruce and pine, and 
 with just enough soil on it to hold the tent 
 stakes. 
 
 "I don t like this weather much," he re 
 marked, as they went to bed with the usual 
 back-log fire throwing good cheer into their 
 tent in the otherwise oppressive solitude of 
 a desolate and uninhabitable island. 
 
 What s wrong with the weather ? I think 
 it s fine; it feels almost like spring," Harry 
 voiced his idea of it.
 
 174 THE SILVEK ISLAND 
 
 "That s just it. It s too warm for this 
 season. A clear frosty sky and a cutting 
 wind from the northwest would suit me much 
 better than these clouds and the damp breeze 
 coming from the northeast. It feels like rain. 
 And if it begins to rain from those quarters, 
 look out for snow before the rain is two hours 
 old." 
 
 It was some time after midnight when Dan 
 awoke, and the rain was pattering down in 
 large drops on the tent, and a fresh north 
 easter played with a foreboding soughing 
 over the scrubby pines and spruces. 
 
 Dan arose and drove down every tent stake, 
 put some dry wood in the tent and replen 
 ished the fire. 
 
 In the morning the snow was coming down 
 thick, and was so soft and sticky that it clung 
 to the trees and bushes, bending them down 
 under the heavy weight. From the tent the 
 boys had to scrape it because the soggy mass 
 threatened to break the tent rope. The fire 
 was out ; in fact it was buried under a layer 
 of wet snow.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 175 
 
 "Jerusalem!" cried Dan, as he kicked the 
 snow from the fireplace and uncovered the 
 wood he had piled up; "there s a foot of snow 
 on the island, and it s still coming down as 
 if the clouds themselves were falling! 
 
 * Get busy, Harry, and pile up some wood ; 
 we ll have a time getting fuel when all this 
 mush freezes to solid ice." 
 
 After an hour s lively chopping on the part 
 of Dan, and carrying and piling up on the 
 part of Harry, Dan stopped work and made 
 breakfast. 
 
 "I have an appetite now," he remarked. 
 "We have wood enough for three days, so let 
 her blow and snow, we ll be comfortable." 
 
 But about the comfort, he was much mis 
 taken. By noon it had turned bitter cold and 
 the wind was blowing a gale. The snow, 
 frozen to lumps and layers of ice, broke down 
 almost every tree on the island. With the 
 rush of the storm and the roar of the breakers 
 mingled the cracking and crashing of the 
 trees, as if an earthquake were convulsing the 
 rocky backbone of the ridge.
 
 176 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 Higher and higher rolled and foamed the 
 waves. The spray began to fly among the 
 tree tops, and by night the whole island was 
 awash with the splash of great breakers that 
 come rolling, rolling in from the black waste 
 of the storm-lashed sea. 
 
 "Good Lord, Dan!" exclaimed Harry; "if 
 you weren t here I d think the world was com 
 ing down." 
 
 "I couldn t hold it," retorted Dan; "but 
 this is the worst racket I ve ever been in. I 
 really believe our canoe would blow or wash 
 away if I hadn t piled a lot of rocks on top 
 of it." 
 
 About midnight the floor of the tent became 
 flooded, and the boys had to sit on a pile of 
 brush. Again and again a splash from a 
 breaker dashed against the tent and poured 
 streams of ice-cold water on the crouching 
 boys. At first their closely wrapped and 
 doubly-folded blankets protected them, but be 
 fore long there was no dry piece of cloth or 
 blanket in the tent. 
 Their camp-fire had been drowned out hours
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 177 
 
 ago. All night they crouched on their little 
 hummock of brush, wet to their skins and shiv 
 ering with cold, trying to dodge the drench 
 ing, icy splashes which could not be dodged. 
 
 When, after a sheer endless wait in dark 
 ness, the gray of dawn came, the lads were 
 glad to stretch their cramped legs and face 
 the uproar in the open. 
 
 Each grabbed an ax and began to chop 
 wildly to start the blood circulating through 
 his half -frozen body. Then they floundered 
 about through two feet of snow and slush un 
 til they found a spot high enough to build 
 a roaring fire and make breakfast. 
 
 Thanks to the good Lord ! Dan exclaimed 
 as if in prayer, that we lived through this 
 awful night. I surely thought for awhile we 
 would have to tie ourselves to a tree in order 
 not to be blown into the lake." 
 
 When their spirits had been revived by hot 
 tea and meat, and the blazing fire had dried 
 and warmed them, they began to enjoy the 
 grandeur of the storm. 
 
 Clouds of snow were still whipped over the
 
 178 THE SILVEB ISLAND 
 
 billows before the gale, and great waves like 
 mountain ridges rolled and rolled down the 
 rocky slopes of the island and lifted and 
 pushed the great slabs of brown rock as if 
 they were chips of wood. 
 
 "Well, we lived through this, little 
 brother!" Dan said as they returned to the 
 fire from a walk around the island; "but win 
 ter is upon us in dead earnest. We can t 
 stay here, and how we 11 ever get back to the 
 main island, I don t know."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ESCAPING FROM THE SISKIWITS 
 
 WINTER certainly had begun in 
 earnest. Even after the furious 
 gale had died down, the sea con 
 tinued to run so high that no frail bark canoe 
 could have lived in it, and before the danger 
 ous swells from the northeast died down, the 
 boisterous winds blew from another quarter. 
 
 For two weeks the boys were marooned on 
 the Siskiwits, and although a steady cold 
 northwester followed the changeable winds, 
 there was no prospect of an early escape. 
 
 From the mainland of Isle Royale, the boys 
 could see the ice grow out into the bay, but 
 on the rocky slopes of the Siskiwits, exposed 
 to the wind, no ice formed, for here the waves 
 and breakers thundered and rolled and 
 seethed and splashed, day and night, week in 
 and week out, with a deafening monotony 
 
 179
 
 180 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 which almost made the boys despair of ever 
 getting away. 
 
 Their supplies began to run low. To fish 
 in the high running sea was impossible, even 
 if the fish had not avoided the breakers near 
 shore. On the island itself, not a trace of any 
 living thing was to be found. No sign of 
 rabbit, fox or weasel; not even the track of 
 a wood-mouse. The only living thing besides 
 themselves and Waggles were small flocks of 
 screaming, shrieking gulls, whose presence 
 only added to the weird desolation and who 
 seemed to utter their piercing cries in mock 
 ery of the lads helplessness. 
 
 At last, after a period of nearly three weeks 
 of storm, there came a spell of calm and very 
 cold weather, and in one intensely cold night 
 the mass of slush and the drifting and grind 
 ing thin cakes of ice were cemented together 
 and in the morning a fringe of solid ice, a 
 quarter of a mile wide, lined the north shore 
 of the Siskiwits. 
 
 Good luck, at last ! cried Dan, when he 
 looked at the lake in the morning. "To-day
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 181 
 
 we leave these beastly whalebacks ; the ice is 
 frozen solid to the shore and the bay is 
 calm. 
 
 The lads were much in doubt whether they 
 should drag their canoe over the ice along 
 shore, or whether they should attempt to 
 launch the craft and paddle straight across 
 the bay toward the outlet of Siskiwit Lake. 
 
 Harry was in favor of trying the water 
 route. "It s a good twenty miles around on 
 the ice, and it would take us all day," he 
 urged, in objection to the ice route. 
 
 But Dan, who had examined the ice, knew 
 that half-way to the open water they would 
 break through, and he was afraid that the 
 sharp edges of the thin ice would rip their 
 canoe. 
 
 "And if that happens we might lose our 
 canoe and our whole outfit and then we would 
 be in a fine mess. We would have to stay 
 until the birch bark peels in June, and I am 
 not at all sure that we could find birches large 
 enough for a canoe. No, the ice route is the 
 only safe one."
 
 182 THE SILVEK ISLAND 
 
 To make some kind of a sled for their canoe 
 was somewhat of a problem. They had no 
 nails, and their only large cutting tools were 
 an ax and a hatchet. 
 
 They cut four short spruce logs into the 
 right shape for sleigh runners for two short 
 sleighs. The runners of each sleigh were 
 connected by two crosspieces. They burnt 
 holes through the crosspieces and into the 
 runners by using their ramrod made red hot 
 in a good fire. Then they drove stout wooden 
 pegs through the crosspieces and into the run 
 ners and the sleighs were ready for travel. 
 
 Sleighing their canoe and equipment over 
 the ice did not prove to be traveling as fast 
 as they had expected. Near the shore the 
 ice was too rough and farther out where it 
 was smooth they had to be very careful. 
 
 When night came they had only made about 
 ten miles, and they made camp on a shallow 
 and well-sheltered bay at Fisherman s Point 
 where the ice was thick and as smooth as 
 glass. 
 
 " How s that for a skating pond?" asked
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 183 
 
 Dan as he pointed to the smooth glittering 
 surface. 
 
 " I m so dog tired, Dan," Harry answered, 
 "that I don t care to look at it. I ve been 
 thinking that I d make a pretty bum arctic 
 traveler. 
 
 "You ll feel better, kid, after you pour 
 some hot tea into your stomach." 
 
 Dan made camp in a hurry as if he had 
 something on his mind. 
 
 "Fix up the grub, cookee," he then called 
 to Harry as he strode away. "I m going to 
 take a squint at the scenery from yonder high 
 ridge. I ll be back pretty quick." 
 
 "You can squint at the scenery or smell at 
 it, grumbled Harry to himself. " He s been 
 staring at the scenery all day; half the time 
 he didn t hear what I was saying. I bet he s 
 been thinking of that blue-eyed girl of his at 
 Detroit. 
 
 "Waggles, you fool pup, get out of my way ! 
 No wonder you re spry after riding in the 
 canoe and sleeping under the blanket all day. 
 Some hot tea and venison for me and then
 
 184 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 under the blankets ! You and Dan can have 
 my share of the scenery!" 
 
 "I couldn t see a thing," Dan remarked on 
 returning. 
 
 "What were you trying to see anyhow in 
 this God-forsaken desert?" 
 
 "What am I trying to see, you grouchy 
 kid? I ve been trying to see smoke, Le 
 Noir s smoke!" 
 
 "Oh, I thought you were dreaming of " 
 
 "If he s on the island, and I think he is," 
 Dan continued without apparently catching 
 Harry s thought, "he cannot be far from this 
 bay unless he has passed us or followed us 
 all this time without our once getting sight 
 of him. 
 
 "I ve peeled my eyes for him almost as 
 much as for Silver Island, but never a trace 
 have I seen of the dark-faced scoundrel ! 
 
 "But I have a feeling that he is not many 
 miles away from this point. 
 
 "And what are you going to do with him if 
 you find him?" 
 
 Bless your soul, Harry, if I only knew ! I
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 185 
 
 hope we won t meet him, but I just feel that 
 some day I ll see the smoke of his camp-fire 
 and then, we ll have to get him or he ll get 
 us!" 
 
 On the second day the boys found smooth 
 and safe ice and made such good time that 
 now Waggles was given a ride, because Harry 
 claimed Waggles couldn t run on smooth ice. 
 
 About noon the boys reached a stream of 
 considerable size which tumbled into the lake 
 through a tangle of alder, willows and moose 
 maple. 
 
 The lads stopped to explore. 
 
 "Dan!" cried Harry, "this is sure the 
 place for winter quarters ; lots of fish in this 
 stream! By George, they re trout! See 
 them run. I 11 go fishing every day ! 
 
 Half an hour s hard work upstream brought 
 the boys through deep snow and a tangle of 
 brush to the shore of a large lake, from which 
 the creek was the outlet and which was still 
 open in the middle. 
 
 Siskiwit Lake ! Dan exclaimed. * Plenty 
 of wood and shelter, good place from which
 
 186 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 to make long and short trips, running water 
 all the time, no fooling with melting ice or 
 snow or chopping holes through thick ice. 
 Best camping-place I ever saw, Harry. 
 " Here s where we den up for the winter."
 
 CHAPTER XXIH 
 
 SNOWED IN 
 
 DENNING up for the winter on the 
 rocky ribs of Isle Eoyale, proved, 
 however, not as simple a problem 
 as it might have been in the clay banks of the 
 Missouri. 
 
 A dugout would have been warm and easy 
 to build had there been any clay or sand into 
 which to dig. Building a small cabin of flat 
 rocks was another plan they had thought of 
 a month ago, but now every suitable rock was 
 frozen fast to the ground and covered with 
 two feet of snow. 
 
 When they had rejected both the dugout 
 and the stone cabin, Harry suggested that a 
 log cabin with a fireplace would make a mighty 
 cozy winter camp. 
 
 "It certainly would be the thing!" Dan 
 
 187
 
 188 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 assented, "if it wouldn t take us a month to 
 build it." 
 
 "Oh, shucks, Dan!" Harry asserted. "In 
 a week my grandmother could build a log 
 cabin, and you and I can do it in a day. 
 
 "You? You couldn t build a dog house in 
 a day without getting all tired out about ten 
 times! As for building a decent log cabin, 
 we would need about seventy-five logs ten 
 feet long and six inches thick. We d have to 
 drag or carry them from that spruce swamp a 
 quarter of a mile east, and with cutting fire 
 wood and doing other camp work, it would 
 take us a month. 
 
 "Then you forget, Harry, that our meat 
 will last us just about three days more, and 
 we have to do some hunting mighty soon or 
 starve. If we could live on brush and bark 
 like moose, we might build a cabin, but as it 
 is, we can t; it would take us a month." 
 
 The first day of their encampment was clear 
 and calm, and Dan took his gun and started 
 out after rabbits because he was afraid that a
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 189 
 
 spell of stormy weather might make hunting 
 impossible. 
 
 Harry was to fish for trout, but the boys 
 found to their dismay that they had lost every 
 hook in the storm on the Siskiwits. 
 
 However, the youthful fisherman was not 
 baffled. He tied small pieces of meat to a 
 string and was able to pull out the fish after 
 they had entirely swallowed the bait. Others 
 he yanked out by letting them get a good hold 
 of a piece of red flannel. These trout in Sis- 
 kiwit Creek had perhaps never seen a human 
 fisherman. They were entirely fearless, and 
 bit so greedily on Harry s meat balls and 
 were so curious about the little patches of 
 bright red flannel that within half a day 
 Harry had caught half a hundred fine fish 
 weighing from one to two pounds apiece. 
 
 "I bet I ll beat Dan in bringing in meat," 
 he thought to himself. But when he saw 
 Dan coming along the lake shore from the 
 west, he felt less sure about having secured 
 the larger amount of meat, for Dan dropped
 
 190 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 more than a dozen big white rabbits near the 
 camp-fire. 
 
 "Good gracious!" he exclaimed; "I could 
 hardly carry that load to camp ! I never saw 
 so many rabbits. I just walked along the 
 edge of the woods and picked them off as they 
 came out on the ice. All the rabbits on this 
 neck of land seemed to be moving across the 
 lake. I think I saw a hundred of them away 
 out on the ice, hopping along toward the north 
 shore of Siskiwit Lake. 
 
 "I ve heard about these snowshoe rabbits 
 migrating, but I never saw it before. 
 
 "What do you suppose makes them hike 
 out?" Harry asked. 
 
 Dan hardly knew. Maybe they had eaten 
 up many of their food bushes on the neck. 
 While cedar and hazel, rose bushes and al 
 most everything else, except spruce, alder and 
 pine, had been cut and barked and nibbled. 
 Or perhaps they knew by instinct or experi 
 ence that the northerly winds would blow so 
 much snow from the lake into the woods that 
 much of their food brush would be buried;
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 191 
 
 or, it maybe, they just followed an instinct 
 to migrate from one part of the woods to an 
 other, and naturally they all started on the 
 first fine day. 
 
 "Why, Harry! It wasn t really hunting, 
 it was just getting meat. I could have hit 
 some of them with a club, so tame they were, 
 but I m powerful glad we have both the rab 
 bits and the fish ; now we can build our wig 
 wam. 
 
 While in quest of the rabbits, Dan had 
 thought out a plan for a winter cabin. 
 
 The boys selected a well-sheltered spot 
 where the soil was thick enough to drive poles 
 into the ground. Here they first set up their 
 tent, and then they began to build a brush 
 cabin around it and over it, so as to have just 
 enough space for a man to walk around the 
 tent. They built a framework of upright 
 poles and then wove spruce boughs among 
 the poles. The slanting roof was simply a 
 spruce thatch, and was held in place by sev 
 eral poles firmly tied over it. 
 
 The whole was the work of one day and the
 
 192 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 boys felt quite proud of it. In the evening 
 when the light and heat of their customary 
 back-log fire was caught inside the tent and 
 they were warm and comfortable, Harry said 
 it would be bully to live in this brush camp 
 and he didn t care now how much it snowed 
 and how cold it got. 
 
 The brush camp, of course, needed a con 
 stant fire to keep it warm, and in order to 
 keep out the northerly winds entirely the boys 
 piled blocks of snow outside the brush, thus 
 making the camp as impenetrable to wind as 
 a brick wall. 
 
 But through the roof a good deal of heat 
 was still escaping, and the boys conceived the 
 idea of covering the roof with snow. This 
 plan did not work out as well as they had 
 expected, for when on mild days they also had 
 a good fire going, some of the snow melted 
 and the roof began to leak. 
 
 * That plan s no good, said Dan. When 
 the spring thaws begin, that roof will be leak 
 ing all the time and everything will get wet 
 and mussed and we ll have to move our tent
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 193 
 
 out of the brush cabin just when we want 
 to stay in it the most." 
 
 "But what can we do?" Harry wondered. 
 "Bark doesn t peel now, there are no deer 
 or moose on the island, and the Lord only 
 knows where the caribou are. What about 
 rabbit skins!" 
 
 "You ought to know, Harry, that they re 
 no good for covering a roof. They re both 
 too small and too thin and soft. 
 
 "I know what will do it. Lynx will. And 
 I think there are plenty of them on the island. 
 I saw several tracks when I was after the 
 rabbits." 
 
 Had Dan seen any of the animals, Harry 
 asked eagerly. Why hadn t he told about 
 them? 
 
 "No, I didn t," Dan continued. "You 
 seldom see the big fierce cats, although they 
 may be following your tracks as they often 
 do. 
 
 "Eight or ten lynx skins spread over that 
 brush roof would keep out the rain as if it 
 were shingled.
 
 194 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "We ll fix up our snowshoes and cut out a 
 trail for lynx. Catching a bunch of lynx is 
 our next piece of work, Harry. "
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE SOLITUDE OF A LONG WINTER 
 
 AS soon as the boys had put their 
 snowshoes in working order, they 
 began to cut a trail for their lynx 
 traps, of which they had half a dozen. 
 
 Dan thought it would be useless to set the 
 traps closer than at intervals of half a mile, 
 so they had to cut a trail three miles long. 
 
 They made use of all small natural open 
 ings along the western end of Siskiwit Lake, 
 then they followed a small stream where rab 
 bit trails were numerous and where they 
 found many signs and tracks of lynx. After 
 following the stream for about a mile, Dan 
 concluded, as he looked over the lay of the 
 land, "We will turn north and circle back to 
 the lake. In this way any lynx heading for 
 rabbit grounds at the west end of the lake is 
 bound to strike the trail." 
 
 195
 
 196 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 To cut out this three-mile trail so that they 
 could freely pass over it on snowshoes was 
 the most arduous piece of work they had ever 
 undertaken. 
 
 The fall of sticky snow, followed by the 
 fierce November gale, had caused a destruc 
 tion in the woods the like of which Dan had 
 never seen before. Large and old spruces 
 and balsam-firs lay broken down in the brush, 
 younger and more supple trees were bent like 
 bows and their crowns were frozen fast in 
 the hard snow. The smaller brush like alder, 
 moose maple and willows had been matted 
 into impenetrable tangles or was completely 
 buried under the frozen crust. On the whole 
 stretch of three miles an almost endless 
 amount of chopping had to be done. It would 
 have been easy to set the traps along the open 
 shore, but it would also have been useless, 
 for as Dan well knew, the furtive lynx hunts 
 silently, like a gray-brown shadow, along the 
 game trails of the dense forest. 
 
 It was near Christmas time, when at last 
 the trail was cut and the traps set out.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 197 
 
 "Well, brother," remarked Dan, as both 
 gazed into the evening camp-fire, "you and 
 the pup will have no end of time to sleep, 
 from now on. We 11 be camping at this fire 
 place for three months and it may be four 
 months before the ice leaves the bay. 
 
 "You can make up lost sleep and you can 
 pile up sleep ahead. From now until spring 
 we Ijave nothing to do but visit our traps 
 twice a week, cut enough wood for the camp- 
 fire, catch fish and rabbits and eat them up 
 and, sleep, and then sleep some more 
 that s all. 
 
 "The snow is four feet deep now, and if 
 it keeps on coming down, coming until April 
 the way it has been doing, it seems to me it 
 will reach the tree-tops and take all summer 
 to melt away. 
 
 "What do you suppose Le Noir is doing 
 now?" Harry asked abruptly. 
 
 "Just what we are doing, nothing; denned 
 up like a bear, just as we are." 
 
 "Don t you suppose he ll travel around 
 and try to find us?"
 
 198 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "Not he. This lazy life just suits a half- 
 breed." 
 
 < Why can t we look for him I I don t want 
 to just sleep and eat all winter." 
 
 "What s the use of looking for trouble! I 
 hope we may never see him again!" was 
 Dan s emphatic wish. 
 
 "If we can t keep busy we ll start some 
 thing new. Go on a caribou hunt or go ex 
 ploring the interior eastward." 
 
 That s fine, a caribou hunt, cried Harry. 
 "It would be great. Let s do it soon! And 
 why can t we make some trips westward also 
 if we have so much time?" 
 
 "I ll tell you why not," Dan replied with 
 a gleam in his eyes. "It s just as well if we 
 don t meet our friend, Le Noir, until later. 
 He wouldn t be a welcome guest at our Christ 
 mas dinner." 
 
 The following day as the boys leisurely put 
 a few finishing touches on their camp, they 
 felt for the first time the solitude of their 
 winter camp. So completely cut off were 
 they in the wild forests of Minong that they
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 199 
 
 could not even send a message to any other 
 human being. It seemed as if they were 
 alone in the world. No human eye could see 
 their camp-fire, their voices could reach no hu 
 man ear; none but God in heaven could hear 
 their prayer if want and distress should be 
 set them. 
 
 It snowed almost incessantly. To-day the 
 white crystals came down as a fine powder 
 sifted from the clouds ; the next day they came 
 in rolling, billowing masses, driven across 
 Lake Siskiwit by a roaring northwester. 
 And when the wind veered around to the 
 northeast, it seemed as if the very blankets 
 of the arctic snows were being spread over 
 the forests and rocks of Minong. 
 
 "The snow will surely reach the tree tops," 
 mused little Harry as he sat alone and looked 
 wistfully into the solitude, while Dan had 
 gone on a brief hunting trip. And in the 
 neck of the woods between Siskiwit Lake and 
 Lake Superior the great snowdrifts which 
 rolled across the ice of Lake Siskiwit did be 
 gin to reach the tops of the small mountain-
 
 200 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 ash trees on which only two months ago 
 flocks of merrily calling robins had feasted; 
 only the topmost sprays protruded, like brown 
 fingers, from the white drifts. Nature s 
 shrubbery of scarlet kinnikinic, brown hazel, 
 and alder, willow and glossy moose maple 
 was completely buried out of sight. Only 
 the dark green spires of the spruces, the 
 straight boles of the tamaracks, hung with 
 the loose tracery of leafless branches, and the 
 white trunks of old birches dividing into 
 a fine spray of pendant brown whipcords 
 seemed determined to defy the growing height 
 of the snowdrifts. 
 
 And how different the sounds that broke 
 the silence of the winter solitude, from those 
 which enliven even the wildest forests in sum 
 mer! 
 
 The roaring waves lay silent, but through 
 the long winter nights reverberated the thun 
 der of the ice, as long running cracks and 
 crevices formed in the thickening sheets of 
 both Superior and Siskiwit ; the sound seem-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 201 
 
 ingly coming from everywhere and nowhere 
 like the echoes from distant artillery. 
 
 Whenever the winds ceased sweeping 
 through the tree-tops, the music of the creek 
 became plainly audible, as its waters leaped 
 and surged babbling and gurgling over rocks 
 and boulders from Siskiwit to Superior. 
 
 The gulls were gone. Now and then a flock 
 of tiny trilling chickadees carefully searched 
 through the tree-tops as if they had lost some 
 thing very valuable; or a flock of beautiful 
 red crossbills, chirping contentedly, fed on 
 the seeds of spruces and balsams which they 
 cut out of the cones with their queer scissors- 
 like bills. The hammering of the great black 
 log-cock often resounded from the dead tree 
 trunks, and almost every night the deep gut 
 tural hoot of big owls broke the silence of the 
 forest, but all these sights and sounds only 
 deepened the feeling of solitude which often 
 sorely tempted Harry to cry with homesick 
 ness when he was left alone in the cabin. 
 
 However, there was no lack of work and
 
 202 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 exercise. Two days a week the boys put in 
 visiting their traps on the three-mile trail, an 
 other two days were spent in cutting fire 
 wood and carrying or dragging it to camp. 
 One day was needed for hunting rabbits, 
 grouse and spruce hens and for fishing, and 
 Saturdays they went exploring the shores and 
 neighborhood of the lake. 
 
 After a week of hard exercise in the cold 
 crisp air, both enjoyed Sunday as a day of 
 rest, when they had time to read from Cap 
 tain Mayne Reid s "Boy Voyageurs," the 
 only book they had in camp. Tired of read 
 ing, they talked about home and speculated 
 on the whereabouts of Le Noir and the loca 
 tion of Silver Island. 
 
 Although they visited the high ridges west 
 of Lake Siskiwit several times, and strained 
 their eyes to discover the smoke of Le Noir s 
 camp-fire, they never beheld any sign of him. 
 As far as they could tell from, what they saw 
 and heard, they were the only human beings 
 on the island. 
 
 An incident on one of their visits to their
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 203 
 
 traps nearly proved fatal to their whole ex 
 pedition. 
 
 Dan, in order to save ammunition, tried to 
 kill a big captured lynx with a club. In this 
 attempt he ventured too close to the mad 
 dened beast, which sprang at him ferociously 
 and with its steel-like claws cut four deep 
 gashes in his knee. 
 
 For awhile both lads thought Dan would 
 bleed to death. Only by cooling the wounds 
 with snow, bandaging the knee with a hand 
 kerchief and strips of flannel torn from Dan s 
 shirt, did they stanch the red flow, but it did 
 not entirely cease until Dan lay down on his 
 back and raised the wounded leg against a 
 tree. 
 
 While Dan limped home the bleeding 
 started again, and that evening the camp on 
 Siskiwit Lake was converted into a hospital, 
 Dan lying on his back with his leg raised in 
 a sling, and Harry acting as both camp cook 
 and nurse. 
 
 The next week Harry and Waggles visited 
 the traps without Dan, and Harry felt not a
 
 204 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 little proud when he dragged a forty-pound 
 lynx into camp. 
 
 " You bet I didn t try to kill him with a club. 
 I put a bullet in his head and Waggles and I 
 didn t touch him until he was stone dead. 
 
 "Yes, I m sure Waggles will never go near 
 a live lynx," Dan laughed. 
 
 By the middle of February the lads had 
 caught ten large lynxes. The skins of these 
 they sewed together with strings of lynx raw 
 hide and covered their cabin with them after 
 they had carefully scraped the snow off the 
 roof. The edges of the skins they tied down 
 with rawhide strings, and they secured the 
 whole by means of poles, and added a few flat 
 rocks from the creek. 
 
 In this way winter passed rapidly. Their 
 caribou hunt never came off, because they did 
 not need the meat, always being able to se 
 cure plenty of small game and fish, and their 
 well-eked-out supply of hominy, dried berries 
 and wild rice prevented their getting tired of 
 a steady meat diet. 
 
 But the main reason why the caribou hunt
 
 HE VENTURED TOO CLOSE TO THE MADDENED BEAST. Page 203.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 205 
 
 never came off was the difficulty of travel. 
 Almost everywhere the snow lay six feet deep, 
 and in many places it was even deeper, so 
 that the only way to travel was on snowshoes. 
 In many places the woods were so thick that 
 it would have been necessary to cut a trail. 
 But the boys were in no need of meat and 
 had no idea on what part of the island the 
 caribou wintered, so they did not attempt 
 long inland journeys over the island. 
 
 As the great spring break-up approached, 
 the boys began to watch eagerly every sign 
 of changing weather. 
 
 Their plans were all made : they would first 
 search around the west end of Isle Boyale. 
 If by that time they had not found Silver Is 
 land, they would cross over to Thunder Bay, 
 explore among the islands there and work 
 westward to the mouth of Pigeon Kiver 
 whence they had started for Isle Eoyale. 
 
 "What if we don t find Silver Island? 
 What 11 we do then?" asked Harry. 
 
 "Go home and say we can t do it," Dan 
 answered bluntly.
 
 206 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "Maybe Le Noir has already found it," 
 suggested Harry. 
 
 "Not very likely. He knows less about it 
 than we do." 
 
 "Perhaps he s quit and gone home." 
 
 "Perhaps he has, but I doubt it. He 
 couldn t finish exploring the island before 
 winter set in, but he could winter almost any 
 where on this island where small game and 
 fish are so plentiful. 
 
 "If we don t discover his canoe or his camp 
 smoke after the ice has gone out of Siskiwit 
 Bay, I ll quit thinking about him, but I can t 
 before."
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 DECOYING THE TRAILER 
 
 WHEN at last the long winter 
 broke, the face of nature changed 
 rapidly. From the open lake the 
 waves seemed to be eating up the ice, while 
 southerly winds and rains caused the snow 
 drifts to shrink visibly from day to day ; and, 
 where the winds had an unobstructed sweep, 
 they piled up the ice along the shore. 
 
 Thousands of small birds seemed to drop 
 from the sky during warm nights ; some lin 
 gered on the island for a day or two, others 
 stayed only a few hours before they disap 
 peared as mysteriously as they had come. 
 
 The flocks of great white gulls had re 
 turned. Fish-hawks and bald eagles soared 
 and screamed over Siskiwit Bay, and then 
 plunged after their prey with folded wings. 
 
 The black ravens, twice as big as crows, ut- 
 
 207
 
 208 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 tered their deep croaks and fed on whatever 
 the winds threw ashore. 
 
 Toward the end of April the whole bay 
 was open and the boys broke camp, although 
 there was still much snow left in the woods. 
 
 "We ll move a little farther east," Dan 
 revealed his plan, "and explore that part of 
 the coast more carefully than we did in No 
 vember." Harry did not see the use of this, 
 but he was so happy to be away that he made 
 no objection. 
 
 When they had gone about three or four 
 miles, Dan landed. He unloaded the canoe 
 and hid it behind some bushes. Then he took 
 up his pack and started inland. At the end 
 of half a mile he dropped the pack behind 
 a dense spruce thicket. 
 
 "This is our camp for to-night," he re 
 marked. "Perhaps we ll stay a day or two 
 longer if we like it. 
 
 Having put the camp in shape and eaten 
 dinner, Dan started back to the shore. Harry 
 was so happy to be moving again that he did 
 not notice that Dan seemed absorbed in his
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 209 
 
 own thoughts and paid little attention to the 
 questions and remarks of his younger brother. 
 
 For several days they wandered up and 
 down the shore, in, what seemed to Harry, an 
 aimless sort of way. 
 
 Quite often Dan would say : * Harry, you 
 and the pup can explore around here a bit, 
 I ll climb that high ridge and look around 
 some. Meet me here at noon, and look out 
 that you don t break your legs or your neck 
 among the rocks and fallen trees." 
 
 Harry and Waggles enjoyed this very 
 much, for it was only the second time on 
 the whole long trip that the two had been al 
 lowed to do as they pleased. 
 
 However, after a few days, Harry began to 
 wonder why Dan was wasting so much time. 
 On several occasions he found that Dan had 
 been lying nearly all day under a tree near the 
 shore reading "The Boy Voyageurs" for the 
 third time. 
 
 "I guess it s Jeanie again," Harry thought 
 to himself. "Ever since he used to go seeing 
 Jeanie, Dan s had some queer spells. Golly,
 
 210 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 I wonder if he wrote her that we were going 
 to hunt up that Silver Island! We ll never 
 find it though! And Dan can t get a letter 
 from Jeanie as long as we wander around 
 here. So why don t we move?" 
 
 On the evening of the fifth day, as they 
 were eating their supper on a high ridge from 
 which the Siskiwit Islands were in plain 
 view, Harry couldn t stand keeping still any 
 longer. 
 
 1 Dan, he asked impatiently, what are we 
 lying around here for anyway? If we don t 
 get going pretty soon, we won t get home all 
 summer and Amigoosheb will send word to 
 Father that we re dead. Why don t we get 
 a move on?" 
 
 But Dan, who had ceased eating, did not 
 answer. In fact, Harry saw now that Dan 
 was staring fixedly at something far away to 
 ward the Siskiwit Islands, and hadn t even 
 heard his question. 
 
 "Dan, what re you staring at?" Harry 
 broke out, as he stood up to get a better view. 
 "What do you see?"
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 211 
 
 1 Harry," snapped Dan, springing up, "I 
 see Le Noir s camp smoke! Confound the 
 sneak! There it is behind the bushes of the 
 farthest Siskiwit. Nobody else would go 
 there. It s Le Noir as sure as you live! 
 
 "I thought I d spy him from this point, 
 but I was almost ready to give up. It can t 
 be anybody else. He doesn t know we are 
 here because I hid our camp so well that he 
 can t see our smoke. He thinks we wintered 
 at the east end. If he thought we were close 
 by, he d never make such a big camp smoke. 
 
 "What are we going to do now?" Harry 
 ventured, after a pause. 
 
 "We ll decoy that miserable scoundrel. 
 Catch him and show him what sort of a sneak 
 ing villain he is ! We won t give him a chance 
 any longer to dog our trail. 
 
 "We ll set a trap for him and he ll have to 
 be pretty sharp or we ll get him; I ve been 
 planning it a long time." 
 
 "Gee," thought Harry to himself, "I was 
 wrong about Jeanie this time." 
 
 The boys returned to their camp from
 
 212 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 which, a plain trail already extended to the 
 place where Dan had been watching, and they 
 took pains to make the trail still plainer. 
 
 They returned on the same trail, carrying 
 their blankets, and each brought his gun, 
 knife and ax or hatchet. 
 
 Just below Dan s watching place they 
 built a good-sized camp-fire which would be 
 plainly visible across the bay, but Dan would 
 not let Harry make a blazing bonfire out of 
 it. 
 
 "A very big fire might make Le Noir sus 
 picious," was Dan s opinion, "and I want 
 him to think that we are just camping here 
 and have no idea that he is near. I know the 
 villain is as suspicious as an old wolf. He ll 
 not walk into any clumsy trap." 
 
 At the end of an hour, Dan arose. 
 
 "It s time to go now," he explained. "If 
 Le Noir saw the fire right away, he may be 
 half across the bay now. If we stay here too 
 long he might get the drop on us. At night 
 you can see people around a camp-fire long 
 before they can see you."
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 213 
 
 According to Dan s plan, Harry and Wag 
 gles were to spend the night in camp, while 
 Dan was to lie in wait under a thick clump 
 of spruces only a rod from the trail, from 
 where he could also watch the coast. 
 
 "If the black-haired murderer has seen the 
 fire, he 11 come to investigate, Dan continued 
 after a pause. He may come to-night or he 
 may come to-morrow night or the next night. 
 If he hasn t seen it he ll show himself in the 
 bay to-morrow in daylight. 
 
 "Tie a rope to that pup and don t let him 
 get away from you ! I don t want him to cut 
 up any capers which might give Le Noir a 
 chance to get his hands on you or the pup. 
 
 "If I come to the tent I ll give two low 
 whistles; if I want you to come out of the 
 tent I ll give two long yells. Keep your gun 
 handy and don t leave the tent without it, and 
 keep that pup on the rope. 
 
 All night long Dan sat or lay on his bed 
 of boughs and listened for the sound of a 
 canoe on shore or for footsteps and move 
 ments in the brush. Several times he grew
 
 214 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 sleepy and had to dash some cold water on his 
 face to keep awake. Not until the morning 
 sun sent its red rays over the bay and the 
 long low ridges of the Siskiwits did he leave 
 his lair. 
 
 As he approached the tent he gave two low 
 whistles and Waggles at once answered by a 
 growl and a bark and came rushing out of 
 the tent. A few seconds later Harry crept 
 out, gun in hand and the other end of the 
 rope tied to his ankle. 
 
 "Nothing doing, Harry," was Dan s mes 
 sage, while Harry rubbed his eyes and untied 
 the rope from his ankle. "He s not on this 
 island unless he got the better of us by some 
 kind of sharp ruse. 
 
 "Let s see how Waggles will do as a blood 
 hound, and search the shore with him for a 
 mile east and west of our fireplace. 
 
 * We might as well have breakfast first. If 
 in the meantime that half-breed cur travels 
 around a bit, it will be so much easier for 
 bloodhound Waggles to strike the trail."
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 215 
 
 "Do you think Waggles would follow Le 
 Noir s trail?" Harry wondered. 
 
 "Bless your soul, Harry, Waggles remem 
 bers the smell of Le Noir as distinctly as he 
 remembers porcupine. 
 
 "A dog never forgets his master, his game, 
 and his enemy. 
 
 Playing bloodhound on the leash was new 
 experience to Waggles and he often tangled 
 himself in the brush, but he kept his nose on 
 the ground most of the time and seemed to 
 realize that he was acting in a capacity of 
 great importance. 
 
 To rabbit tracks Waggles had learned to 
 pay no attention. Fortunately, porcupines 
 do not live on high rocky ground near a wind 
 swept shore, and of Le Noir the keen quiver 
 ing nose of the little terrier bloodhound 
 found no trace. 
 
 "He s not on Isle Eoyale," Dan decided 
 when they had completed the trip. But he s 
 seen our fire or we would have seen his smoke. 
 
 "I shall watch for him again to-night.
 
 216 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Just now I m going to crawl under those 
 spruces to get some sleep. You and Waggles 
 watch the bay but don t expose yourselves on 
 shore. Call me if you see anything. 
 
 Dan slept until noon while Harry and Wag 
 gles strolled about under cover along shore, 
 but saw nothing except gulls, loons and fish 
 ducks. There was no canoe on the water and 
 not a trace of smoke to be seen on the chain 
 of islands to the south. The boys themselves 
 built no fire on that day. 
 
 In the evening, however, they again had a 
 camp-fire going for an hour, and then Dan 
 once more retired to his hiding-place under 
 the spruces, while Harry and Waggles se 
 lected a similar sleeping place about two hun 
 dred yards up the trail within calling distance 
 of Dan s voice. 
 
 On this watch Dan, because he had enjoyed 
 a long sleep during the day, was not troubled 
 with drowsiness; and he was himself sur 
 prised at the many sounds of the night which 
 his keen sense of hearing recognized. 
 
 From the bay came an occasional long-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 217 
 
 drawn call of a loon, while from the interior 
 of the island was heard distant hooting of 
 owls. From overhead came the voices of 
 flocks of small birds which, Dan concluded, 
 were passing over the island at night on their 
 annual journey northward. In the brush he 
 heard the rustling tread of a woodchuck, and 
 even the almost inaudible scurrying of the 
 timid little wood-mice did not escape his keen 
 ears. 
 
 About midnight a breeze sprang up, which 
 caused light rippling waves to break gently 
 on the shore below him, and which he knew 
 might drown the slight noise made by the 
 landing of a canoe. 
 
 Once indeed he thought he heard a sound 
 as of a paddle touching a rock a little to the 
 east. He sat up and listened with strained 
 attention. Once more he thought he heard 
 the same sound, but again he was not sure 
 of it and then there were no other sounds 
 but the ceaseless lap-lapping of the waves. 
 
 The sky was clear, and very early a faint 
 gray light made the trunks of birch and pop-
 
 218 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 lar visible. If Le Noir was coming lie would 
 be here soon. 
 
 Dan now felt a little fatigued from the long 
 strain of attention. He wondered how many 
 more nights he would have to spend in the 
 brush like a wild beast watching for his 
 prey. 
 
 Perhaps Le Noir had given them the slip 
 by paddling away eastward under cover of 
 darkness. He might not be trying to strike 
 their trail. Possibly he had wormed enough 
 information out of Amigoosheb or some other 
 Indian to hunt for Silver Island on his own 
 hook. 
 
 "I wish to God he d come or we d know 
 where he has gone ! Dan thought. 
 
 What if he struck the trail near Harry and 
 Waggles? What would happen then? 
 
 It was almost daylight now although the 
 sun had not yet risen. A pair of rabbits 
 hopped playfully past him, but Dan recog 
 nized at once the familiar sounds made by 
 their padded feet. He was listening for the 
 slow deliberate footfall of the human hunter
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 219 
 
 and his eyes were expecting the tall dark 
 shape of a man. 
 
 Hark ! What was that ? Some large crea 
 ture was slowly coming through the brush. 
 Its movements were almost noiseless, but 
 still audible to the sensitive ears of Dan. 
 Perhaps it was a wolf or bear? No, it 
 couldn t be; there were no wolves and bears 
 on the island. 
 
 It was coming nearer now. It was a man. 
 Dan felt the loud thumping of his heart in his 
 ears. He could see the bushes move. Now 
 it stopped. It moved again! Dan forgot 
 about his thumping heart. There stood Le 
 Noir, listening and looking around. He 
 would pass about ten yards north of Dan s 
 hiding-place. 
 
 His heavy black hair, grown long and mat 
 ted through the winter and not covered by a 
 hat or cap, a black beard slightly grizzled, 
 and a coat of cub-bear skin gave him a truly 
 ferocious appearance. He had grown fat 
 during the long winter s rest. 
 
 1 What a big brute he is," thought Dan,
 
 220 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 as the half-breed moved on slowly, "with the 
 body of a bear and the face of a gorilla. 
 
 He was still too far for Dan to spring the 
 trap. 
 
 "I guess I could knock him out or throw 
 him in a rough-and-tumble fight," thought 
 Dan. "Boxing and wrestling in college gives 
 a fellow some confidence. If he didn t have 
 a knife and a gun I d like to tackle him." 
 
 Now Le Noir had come within ten yards 
 of the spruces, he changed his gun to his left 
 hand to bend aside some bush with his right. 
 
 It was the moment Dan had been watching 
 for. With a noiseless spring he stood in the 
 open, his loaded gun leveled at Le Noir s 
 broad chest: 
 
 "Drop that gun, you big sneak," he 
 shouted, "or you re a dead man!" 
 
 For a second Le Noir looked as savage as 
 a lynx in a trap, and like a wild beast, seemed 
 ready to spring upon the unexpected enemy 
 who had so completely outwitted him. Then 
 he released the hold of his left hand and the 
 gun dropped in the brush.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 221 
 
 "Drop your knife!" commanded Dan, and 
 the half-breed obeyed with a vicious scowl. 
 
 Turn and walk back to your canoe, was 
 Dan s next order. "Walk slowly and keep 
 in the open. The minute you try to dodge 
 behind a bush or tree, I fill your skin with 
 buckshot. 
 
 Then Dan gave two loud yells and in a few 
 minutes Harry and Waggles were on hand, 
 Waggles barking madly and straining on the 
 rope to get at his enemy whose scent he re 
 membered at once. 
 
 Le Noir slunk in silence to his canoe which 
 he had concealed a few hundred yards east 
 of the boys camp-fire on shore. 
 
 "Get in and be off!" Dan ordered, when 
 they reached the canoe. " If we ever see your 
 evil face again on this trip, I ll puncture your 
 skull. Here s your knife. You don t need 
 a gun ; you can live on fish for a while. 
 
 "If you land within five miles of this spot 
 you ll never make another camp. Now be 
 off!" 
 
 When Le Noir was out of gun-shot reach he
 
 222 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 uttered a string of horrible curses, oaths and 
 threats in mixed English, French, and Chip- 
 pewa. 
 
 "Take care," Dan called after him; "if 
 harm befalls any of our family you ll pay 
 for it with your life. Three men from To 
 ronto are waiting for you at Fort Frances; 
 they want to know just how Sam Donover 
 was drowned in Lake of the Woods. 
 
 * * I think he s just a big, blasted coward ! 
 declared Dan after they had been watching 
 Le Noir s canoe going steadily eastward. 
 "He will not dog our trail any more. How 
 ever, we 11 take no chances. The lake is per 
 fectly calm and it will be fine traveling by 
 moonlight. As soon as it is dark we will 
 start westward." 
 
 The lads lost no time breaking camp and 
 were ready to start as soon as the long 
 shadows of evening fell over the bay. With 
 steady strokes they proceeded down Siskiwit 
 Bay, and before midnight they rounded 
 Fisherman s Point. As the open lake be 
 yond also lay perfectly calm and no islands
 
 " DKOP YOUR KNIFE! " Page 221.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 223 
 
 were in sight they traveled along the coast 
 all night. 
 
 Not until a red tint appeared on the east 
 ern sky did they begin to look for a landing 
 place, which they found in a very small rocky 
 cove. 
 
 As they set up their tent and made break 
 fast, the whitethroats began to sing, and a 
 flock of noisy crows cawed with curiosity at 
 the visitors to their realm. 
 
 When hot tea and a liberal meal of broiled 
 trout had made them feel warm and comfort 
 able, Dan stretched himself on the blankets: 
 
 "Now, brother," he yawned, "we re out of 
 danger. Let s take a nap; I m just awfully 
 sleepy.
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI 
 
 SILVER ISLAND AT LAST 
 
 EAELY in the afternoon they were 
 under way again. The part of the 
 coast they were now exploring is the 
 most exposed of the whole island and Dan 
 feared that, if the lake again became rough, 
 they might have to lie storm-bound for a 
 week. 
 
 "So let s make speed while the waves are 
 asleep," said Dan, and just before sunset 
 they ran into the crimson-tinted waters of 
 Washington Harbor at the west end of the 
 island. 
 
 As the boys had not allowed themselves to 
 become fat and flabby in their long winter 
 camp, they felt strong and active, and in one 
 long spring day, moving about from sunrise 
 till sunset, they had convinced themselves 
 
 224
 
 THE SILVEB ISLAND 225 
 
 that no Silver Island existed in or near the 
 bays and inlets of Washington Harbor. 
 
 The weather continuing to be calm and 
 warm, they left the sheltered waters of the 
 west end early next morning and headed the 
 canoe into the open channel between Isle 
 Eoyale and the mainland of Ontario. They 
 passed only a few small islands and low reefs 
 and on the fourth evening after they had 
 trapped Le Noir, they pitched their tent on 
 the spot of their first camp of Isle Koyale, 
 having made an easy run of twenty miles 
 without danger or fatigue. 
 
 "Now sleep quick," Dan told Harry, as 
 they rolled in while it was yet daylight. "If 
 the lake is calm to-morrow we shall start at 
 daybreak on the long and dangerous run 
 across the channel to Thunder Bay. 
 
 "I m convinced that Silver Island is not 
 near Isle Boyale and God only knows if we 
 shall ever find it. 
 
 The morning broke clear and calm, and 
 like an immense mirror of tinted glass the 
 broad channel lay before them as the lads
 
 226 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 started at sunrise for Pie Island. As no 
 wind or fog interfered with them they had 
 reached its picturesque shores long before 
 the sun indicated the hour of noon. The 
 afternoon was spent in exploring several 
 small islands in the neighborhood and they 
 camped for the night on the west side of Flat- 
 land Island only about a mile from the main 
 land of Ontario. 
 
 For the first time since they started on 
 their long trip Dan felt gloomy and 
 depressed. 
 
 "Harry," he began, after he had long 
 stared into the camp-fire in silence, "I m at 
 my wits end. I begin to feel we are beaten. 
 
 "If we only knew whether Hamigeesek s 
 expression of the Sitting Crane referred to 
 a small or large landscape feature, I would 
 feel more hopeful. I can t help feeling that 
 it must refer to some large feature, because 
 the island itself looked to Hamigeesek like 
 an egg under the breast of a very large bird. 
 
 "But my head feels tired, puzzling and 
 thinking about it, and if we don t find Silver
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 227 
 
 Island somewhere between Thunder Bay and 
 the Pigeon Biver we ll have to go home and 
 tell them we re beaten. 
 
 "Let s go to bed and have a long sleep. 
 We don t have to get up early to-morrow. I 
 feel kind of sick and tired of the whole busi 
 ness and almost wish we had never started!" 
 
 Dan still felt blue and discouraged next 
 morning. The brothers ate their breakfast 
 almost in silence, but when they had put out 
 their camp-fire and were almost ready to 
 start, something occurred which made Dan 
 forget that he felt blue or tired. 
 
 Harry, who had risen to carry his pack to 
 the shore, stood as if petrified and pointed at 
 the channel : 
 
 "Look!" was all he could utter. 
 
 There was Le Noir once more paddling 
 along on the very track of the boys. Evi 
 dently he had discovered the boys on the day 
 before, but had not expected that they would 
 camp on the low shore of Flatland Island. 
 
 "Get in the canoe, take your gun, "Dan 
 whispered. "I ll settle him this time!"
 
 228 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Waggles, having at once caught the excite 
 ment, jumped into the canoe as the boys 
 pushed off. 
 
 Le Noir did not discover that he was be 
 ing pursued until the boys were within two 
 hundred yards of him. When a noise made 
 by Harry s paddle attracted his attention he 
 yelled a vile oath at his pursuers and started 
 for the Ontario shore a quarter of a mile 
 away as fast as he could go. 
 
 "Pull, Harry!" muttered Dan, as they 
 slowly gained on him. Pull ; he 11 get away 
 again ! 
 
 A few minutes later Le Noir drove his 
 canoe up on the beach. Quick as a flash, he 
 turned and hurled his hatchet at his pursuers. 
 It barely missed Harry s face, and cut a hole 
 in the bottom of their canoe. 
 
 Then like a panther he sprang behind some 
 bushes and was gone before Dan could raise 
 his gun and order him to halt, although for a 
 minute the boys could hear him utter oaths 
 and horrible threats of revenge. 
 
 When he was out of hearing and the boys
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 229 
 
 looked at each other in a dazed sort of way, 
 Harry asked : 
 
 "What did you intend to do with him, any 
 way?" 
 
 "Heavens, Harry, I don t know. I was so 
 mad and worked the paddle so hard that I 
 didn t think of that. 
 
 "But I m glad I didn t kill him. It would 
 have been a horrible thought to me. 
 
 "I m just awfully afraid he ll hurt Father 
 or Mother or sister," Harry interposed. "I 
 wish we could get home quick now ! 
 
 "He won t, Harry, in spite of all his 
 cursing. He s too much of a dirty coward. 
 
 "But if he ever does I ll have his life. In 
 this wilderness every man is his own avenger, 
 and Le Noir knows it." 
 
 Into Le Noir s canoe the boys piled a lot 
 of rock. They towed it into the channel and 
 with Le Noir s own hatchet Harry ripped it 
 open and it sank out of sight in deep water. 
 
 "He ll not follow us any more!" said Dan, 
 as he drove a paddle through the bottom of it. 
 
 After they had returned to their camping
 
 230 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 place, repaired their canoe and loaded their 
 packs, they steered a northeasterly course. 
 
 "We ll explore the islands under the big 
 peninsula at Thunder Bay," explained Dan, 
 "and if we don t find our islands there, we ll 
 have to give up for the present and start for 
 home. 
 
 When they were in the middle of the chan 
 nel between Pie Island and the peninsula, 
 Harry stopped suddenly and pointed his 
 paddle to the highland at their left: "Oh, 
 look, Dan, look!" he exclaimed, ready to rise 
 with excitement ; l there he is, there he is, the 
 Sitting Crane!" 
 
 Dan also stopped paddling, his eyes fixed 
 on the long headland. 
 
 "Good Lord, Harry, I think you ve found 
 it. As sure as you live, there s the long bill, 
 the head and the breast of the crane. 
 
 With their spirits suddenly revived, the 
 lads made their craft fairly fly from one 
 small reef to another. At the end of an hour 
 Harry gave a yell and almost jumped out of 
 the boat.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 231 
 
 "Dan, here it is, here it is; the silver, the 
 white silver right below our canoe! We ve 
 found it, we ve found it!" and the canoe 
 stopped on the rock of Silver Island, for 
 which the boys had searched more than eight 
 months.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 A VISIT TO AMIGOOSHEB. THE END OF 
 LE NOIR. HOME 
 
 DAN at first could hardly believe that 
 he was not dreaming. Only this 
 morning he had been almost ready 
 to give up in despair. 
 
 But when his eyes saw and his fingers felt 
 the lumps and seams of shining silver in the 
 white calcite vein, he was convinced. 
 
 * Thank God ! " he cried, as he embraced his 
 brother. "Harry, we ve found it! Father 
 and Mother will be happy and we 11 start for 
 home to-morrow!" 
 
 Eecovered from their first joy of discovery, 
 the boys began to explore the small rock in 
 detail. 
 
 "It certainly looks," commented Dan, as 
 he stepped off the length and width of it, 
 
 232
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 233 
 
 "like an egg under the breast of a Sitting 
 Crane, the high rocky headland of Thunder 
 Cape. 
 
 "Why, it isn t more than seventy-five feet 
 long and sixty wide, and I don t think it s ten 
 feet high. I m sure in a storm the waves roll 
 over it in great shape." 
 
 From a vein of white rock near the west 
 end of the island under four feet of water, 
 the boys, using a pole of driftwood and the 
 head of their ax, broke a number of lumps of 
 rock and silver which they intended to take 
 home as samples from their mine. 
 
 As camping on the bare rock was impos 
 sible, they made their camp on Burnt Island, 
 a low well-wooded island between Silver 
 Island and the main shore. For a long time 
 they sat at their evening camp-fire of green 
 birch logs, and talked about home and about 
 the many adventures they had met on their 
 long trip. 
 
 "I wonder if Le Noir is watching us to 
 night?" asked Harry. 
 
 "No, he isn t," answered Dan, "because
 
 234 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 since this morning he couldn t walk to any 
 place from where he can see us." 
 
 1 Do you suppose he will build another 
 canoe and try to spy on us again ! 
 
 "I don t care what he does now," Dan 
 laughed; "we ve at last beaten him at his 
 own game. 
 
 After they had been talking for some time 
 they raked a piece of ore out of the fire and 
 Harry crushed it vigorously with Dan s ax. 
 He hammered out a piece of silver and held it 
 up to Dan, saying: "We surely found the 
 silver and it s in the same kind of rock we 
 burnt and crushed at Wolf Hollow a few 
 evenings before we started on this trip." 
 
 In the morning they visited Silver Island 
 again to make sure that it was still there, be 
 cause both had a feeling that the adventure of 
 yesterday had been a dream and that by some 
 witchcraft the Island might have sunken into 
 the depth of Lake Superior overnight. 
 
 Having convinced themselves that no magic 
 had sunk their mine, they headed their canoe 
 southwestward down the coast.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 235 
 
 "This is different," remarked Dan as they 
 skipped in high spirits over the clear blue 
 water; "this is different from feeling your 
 way in a beastly fog." 
 
 The weather continued fine all day, and, 
 with a gentle northeast breeze favoring them, 
 they made a record run of forty miles and 
 camped in the evening near the mouth of the 
 Pigeon River. 
 
 Two days later they reached the camp of 
 Amigoosheb, who himself and his whole 
 family did not conceal their joy at seeing 
 their white friends again. 
 
 There were great stories to tell around the 
 tepee fire. Dan thanked his friend for send 
 ing them the smoke signals and told him how 
 without his warning they would almost surely 
 have fallen into the power of Le Noir. To 
 these stories Amigoosheb and Magwah lis 
 tened with a peculiar gleam in their eyes, but 
 Amigoosheb only replied : 
 
 "Le Noir was a bad man. He was a bad 
 white man and a bad Chippewa grown to 
 gether.
 
 236 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 "We spoke of you many, many times," he 
 continued. When the clouds dropped the 
 blankets of snow on the forest and when the 
 trees split with the great cold we wished that 
 Manitou would send you plenty of game and 
 that the glowing birch logs would keep you 
 warm. 
 
 Now your father and mother and the little 
 sister will be glad, and I do not go to make 
 another rising smoke on the high rocks of 
 Tabahta." 
 
 The boys consented to stay one day with 
 their Chippewa friends, and after a good 
 night s sleep and breakfast their host in 
 vited them to follow him into the woods 
 north. 
 
 About a mile they walked in silence ; Ami- 
 goosheb, Magwah and the two boys, but they 
 followed no trail. Then Amigoosheb sat 
 down on a fallen tree and motioned the others 
 to sit down also. 
 
 "I wish to speak to my two white friends," 
 Amigoosheb began, and Dan again noticed 
 the mysterious gleam in his eyes.
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 237 
 
 "From the Island of Tabahta I sent you a 
 message which you read on the Island of 
 Minong. Le Noir was a bad man and the 
 two smokes said that he had followed you. 
 
 1 Two sleeps ago Le Noir came to my tepee 
 and I read in his face that he had intended to 
 do evil to you, but I could not read that the 
 Great Manitou had not allowed it. 
 
 "He said he had lost his gun and his ax, 
 but I did not believe it and when I left the 
 tepee with him I put a knife under my blanket. 
 
 "When we were alone near the trout 
 stream his evil spirit came out of him. He 
 called on the white s man God to bring evil 
 upon you and upon me and my family if I 
 would not tell him all I knew about the 
 Island of Shenoah. I remained silent and he 
 sprang upon me like a mad wolf. We fought. 
 He thought I had no knife. He cut my left 
 arm, where Anego has bandaged it, but he 
 did not strike for my arm. I drove my knife 
 deep into his side and his black soul flew 
 away. 
 
 "Magwah and I buried his body there,"
 
 238 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 and lie bent apart some willows with his long 
 arms and pointed to a low and long pile of 
 flat stones. 
 
 " Never will he follow your trail again and 
 may the shaggy bears and the hungry wolves 
 scatter his bones through the forests!" 
 
 On their way to Fort Frances the lads 
 traveled as if on wings ; in fact, they rigged 
 up a sail on their canoe to increase its speed. 
 Several days of rainy and stormy weather 
 overtook them, but they pushed on in spite 
 of rain and storm. 
 
 The birds of June were singing again and 
 the flowers of spring were again in bloom, but 
 they did not listen to the birds nor look at 
 the flowers. 
 
 On the seventh evening after leaving Ami- 
 goosheb they threw their packs on the stan 
 chion floor of their mother s cabin. Had an 
 angel of God rescued her sons from the bot 
 tom of the cold inland sea, the joy of their 
 mother could not have been greater. Both 
 mother and father seemed to have forgotten 
 that the lads had gone to discover a silver
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 239 
 
 mine. Their sons, for whom they had wept 
 and grieved as dead, were alive and home 
 again. All the rest did not matter. 
 
 Little Margaret ran from Dan to Harry 
 and from Harry back to Dan, and Waggles 
 danced and whined around the room as if he 
 were performing in a ballet. 
 
 After the boys had enjoyed a week s rest, 
 Dan and his father made a quick trip to 
 Silver Island. After a thorough inspection 
 they found that the apparently rich mine 
 could not be worked without a great outlay 
 of money. The whole vein was submerged, 
 and the islet was so small and low that no 
 mine could be developed without the build 
 ing of expensive cribs and coffer-dams to 
 protect the pit or shaft from the storm-driven 
 waves. 
 
 After the legal requirements had been com 
 plied with, they sold their title to the mine 
 for a good figure, and with the money they 
 established themselves in business in Detroit, 
 where ultimately their firm grew to be one of 
 the largest and most prosperous in the city.
 
 240 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 When Harry was old enough he also became 
 a member of the firm and added to its success. 
 For the two brothers had found on their long 
 search for Silver Island something which in 
 after life proved far more valuable to them 
 than silver, undaunted courage and unflag 
 ging perseverance, and they had learned to 
 pull together against all odds. "All for one 
 and one for all," became the silent but all- 
 inspiring motto of the house. 
 
 Every spring with the first boat the house 
 of McCulloch and Sons shipped a package to 
 Amigoosheb and Anego on Pigeon River, and 
 the Chippewa and his wife were not a little 
 proud of the fine blankets it contained. Once 
 Amigoosheb came down to Detroit on the big 
 smoking and screaming canoe of the White 
 Man. Dan and Harry entertained him as 
 only two grateful youths know how to do; 
 but at the end of a week the old hunter was 
 homesick for the forest. As the boat was 
 ready to leave, the boys presented their friend 
 with the best rifle they had been able to buy 
 in Detroit, and the eyes of the old hunter
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 241 
 
 gleamed with a boyish joy as his hands tried 
 the mechanism of the gun; and of all the 
 happy people on the boat, the tall, silent 
 Chippewa hunter was the happiest. 
 
 When some ten years later the boys and 
 their parents watched the logs blazing in the 
 fireplace on Christmas eve, the boys, as they 
 had often done before, recounted many of the 
 adventures of their winter camp on Isle 
 Koyale and they had heard without envy of 
 the great wealth which a Michigan mining 
 company was taking out of Silver Island. 
 
 Then the boys mother arose quietly and 
 said in her low sweet voice: "Come now, 
 boys. You can tell us more of your Christ 
 mas rabbits at Camp Siskiwit, while you are 
 enjoying your sister s Christmas turkey. 
 Come right away; you know Margaret does 
 not like to wait."
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIH 
 
 THE HISTORY OF SILVER ISLAND 
 
 THE glamour of romance in fiction is 
 eclipsed by the actual facts of the 
 history of Silver Island, and in this 
 closing chapter of our tale, we shall hold our 
 selves to recorded history. 
 
 On the first of September, 1870, Captain 
 William B. Frue of Houghton, Michigan, 
 landed on Silver Island with a force of thirty- 
 four men and the necessary tools and 
 machinery. 
 
 The silver-bearing vein, where it crossed 
 the Island, was under four feet of water and 
 the shaft, of course, had to be sunk on this 
 vein. 
 
 The men first built a breakwater nearly six 
 hundred feet long to protect the islet against 
 the .two-hundred-mile sweep of the waves 
 from the southeast. Behind this breakwater 
 
 242
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 243 
 
 which was built of timber and stone and was 
 thirteen feet high, they built a coffer-dam 
 seventy feet in circumference, and entirely 
 enclosing the vein. This enclosed pond they 
 pumped dry by means of a steam siphon and 
 now they were ready for actual mining opera 
 tions. 
 
 This enormous amount of preparatory 
 work the men had accomplished in about 
 six weeks by working eighteen hours a day. 
 
 Mining went on now until the latter part of 
 October, when a storm tore away a third of 
 the breakwater, rolled the waves right into 
 the pit and filled it with rock. Although re 
 pairing these damages required weeks of 
 time, the men took $108,000 worth of silver 
 out of the mine that fall and the owners were 
 satisfied that they had not paid too much for 
 the Island. 
 
 Mining on the islet was, however, by no 
 means picking up riches without work. It 
 was a relentless battle of human brain and 
 muscle against the storms and battering 
 waves of Lake Superior.
 
 244 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 
 Again and again the breakwater and the 
 coffer-dam were battered down by the waves, 
 and rock and timbers carried away as if they 
 were straws and nutshells. But no waves 
 could batter down the courage of Captain 
 Frue and his men. They quarried rock on 
 the mainland and brought timber from a 
 grove of pines some miles inland, because the 
 timber near the mine had been exhausted. 
 With this material they built cribbing with a 
 base of seventy-five feet, and the breakwater 
 rose to a height of eighteen feet above the 
 lake. 
 
 When the men had completed their plans, 
 Silver Island looked very different from the 
 thousands of other low rocky islets in Lake 
 Superior. 
 
 A high wooden rampart, the interior filled 
 with stone, several houses, an engine house 
 and a shaft house resembling a high tower, 
 gave it the appearance of a sea fortress. 
 And it proved indeed a fortress which waves 
 and ice and storms bombarded in vain. In-
 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA 245 
 
 side the ramparts and down in the pit, brave 
 and hardy men carried on their work. 
 
 A harbor was built between Burnt Island 
 and the shore. Quite a mining village sprang 
 up on shore, having both a schoolhouse and 
 a church. When the mine was most prosper 
 ous, over two hundred men were employed at 
 the same time. Large lake steamers called 
 at the port and tourists landed to see the 
 wonders of Silver Island. 
 
 The valuable ore and native silver was 
 found in a fissure vein six feet wide. The 
 ore was fabulously rich, running as high as 
 $12,000 a ton, and lumps of metallic silver 
 were found weighing a hundred pounds. 
 
 At the depth of six hundred feet, the vein 
 gave out, and in 1884, when the shaft had 
 reached 1000 feet below the lake, the mine 
 and the island were abandoned. 
 
 The romantic life of the Silver Island mine 
 extended only through thirteen years, but 
 during this short time $3,089,000 in silver was 
 taken out.
 
 246 THE SILVEE ISLAND 
 
 To-day Silver Island is once more the home 
 of the white screaming gulls and the resting- 
 place of eagles and ospreys. No human be 
 ing except curious visitors and tourists is 
 ever seen on its ramparts and no smoke 
 issues from the engine house. Many a tour 
 ist on the steamers running from Port Ar 
 thur to the fiords and fishing stations of Isle 
 Eoyale, still wild and beautiful, has wondered 
 and asked, as the boat passed the bold and 
 beak-like headland of Thunder Cape, what 
 might be the story of the deserted sea for 
 tress of Silver Island. 
 
 THE END
 
 ON THE TRAIL OF THE SIOUX 
 
 The Adventures of Two Boy Scouts on 
 the Minnesota Frontier 
 
 By D. LANQE 
 Illustrated 12mo Cloth Price, Net, $1.00 Postpaid, $1.10 
 
 story was written by a prominent 
 * educator to satisfy the insistent demand of 
 active boys for an "Indian Story," as well as 
 to help them to understand what even the young 
 endured in the making of our country. The story 
 is based on the last desperate stand of the brave 
 and warlike Sioux tribes against the resistless 
 tide of white men s civilization, the thrilling 
 scenes of which were enacted on the Minnesota 
 frontier in the early days of the Civil War. 
 
 " It is a book which will appeal to young and old 
 alike, as the incidents are historically correct and 
 related in a wide-awake manner." Philadelphia 
 Press. 
 
 " It seems like a strange, true story more than 
 fiction. It is well written and in good taste, and 
 it can be commended to all boy readers and to many 
 of their elders." Hartford Times. 
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND OF 
 THE CHIPPEWA 
 
 By D. LANQE 
 Illustrated 12mo Cloth Price, Net, $1.00 Postpaid, $1.10 
 
 TJERE is a boys book that tells of the famous 
 * * Silver Island in Lake Superior from which 
 it is a fact that ore to the value of $3,089,000 
 was taken, and represents a youth of nineteen 
 and his active small brother aged eleven as 
 locating it after eight months of wild life, dur 
 ing which they wintered on Isle Royale. Their 
 success and escape from a murderous half-breed 
 are due to the friendship of a noble Chippewa 
 Indian, and much is told of Indian nature and 
 ways by one who thoroughly knows the subject. 
 
 "There is no call to buy cheap, impossible stuff 
 for boys reading while there is such a book as this 
 available*" Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 For tale by all booksellers or seat postpaid on receipt 
 of price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
 THE SILVER ISLAND 
 OF THE CHIPPEWA
 
 U. S. SERVICE SERIES 
 
 By FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER 
 
 Illustrations from photographs taken in work for U. S. Government 
 Large 12m o Cloth $1.50 per volume 
 
 "There are no better books for boys than Francis Rolt-Wheeler s 
 U. S. Service Series. " Chicago Record-Herald, 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE U. S. SURVEY 
 
 TrUS story describes the thrilling advent- 
 * ures of members of the U. S. Geological 
 Survey, graphically woven into a stirring 
 narrative that both pleases and instructs. The 
 author enjoys an intimate acquaintance with 
 the chiefs of the various bureaus in Washing 
 ton, and is able to obtain at first hand the 
 material for his books. 
 
 "There is abundant charm and vigor in the 
 narrative which is sure to please the boy readers 
 and will do much toward stimulating- their patriot, 
 ism by making them alive to the needs of conser 
 vation of the vast resources of their country." 
 Chicago News, 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FORESTERS 
 
 THE life of a typical boy is followed in all its adventurous detail the 
 mighty representative of our country s government, though young in 
 years a youthful monarch in a vast domain of forest. Replete with 
 information, alive with adventure, and inciting patriotism at every step, 
 this handsome book is one to be instantly appreciated. 
 
 " It is a fascinating romance of real life in our country, and will prove a great 
 pleasure and inspiration to the boys who read it." The Continent, Chicago. 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE U. S. CENSUS 
 
 THROUGH the experiences of a bright American boy, the author shows 
 how the necessary information is gathered. The securing of this of 
 ten involves hardship and peril, requiring journeys by dog-team in the 
 frozen North and by launch in the alligator-filled Everglades of Florida, 
 while the enumerator whose work lies among the dangerous criminal 
 classes of the greater cities must take his life in his own hands. 
 
 " Every young man should read this story from cover to cover, thereby fretting 1 
 a clear conception of conditions as they exist to-day, for such knowledge will have 
 a clean, invigorating and healthy Influence on the young growing and thinking 
 mind." Boston Globe. 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE 
 U.S.SURVEY 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 U. S. SERVICE SERIES 
 
 By FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER 
 
 Many Illustrations from photographs taken in work for U.S. Government 
 Large 12mo Cloth $1.50 per volume 
 
 " There are no better books for boys than Francis Rolt-Wheeler s U. S. 
 Service Series. " Chicago Record- Herald. 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE U. S. FISHERIES 
 
 "\TtnTH a bright, active American youth as 
 a hero, is told the story of the Fisheries, 
 which in their actual importance dwarf every 
 other human industry. The book does not 
 lack thrilling scenes. The far Aleutian Islands 
 have witnessed more desperate sea-fighting 
 than has occurred elsewhere since the days of 
 the Spanish buccaneers, and pirate craft, which 
 the U. S. Fisheries must watch, rifle in hand, 
 are prowling in the Behring Sea to-day. The 
 fish-farms of the United States are as inter 
 esting as they are immense in their scope. 
 44 One of the best books for boys of all ages, so 
 attractively written and illustrated as to fascinate 
 the reader into staying up until all hours to finish 
 it." Philadelphia Despatch. 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE U. 5. INDIANS 
 
 THIS book tells all about the Indian as he 
 really was and is; the Menominee in his 
 birch-bark canoe; the Iroquois in his wigwam in 
 the forest; the Sioux of the plains upon his war- 
 pony ; the Apache, cruel and unyielding as his 
 arid desert; the Pueblo Indians, with remains of 
 ancient Spanish civilization lurking in the fast 
 nesses of their massed communal dwellings; the 
 Tlingit of the Pacific Coast, with his totem-poles. 
 With a typical bright American youth as a central 
 figure, a good idea of a great field of national 
 activity is given, and made thrilling in its human 
 side by the heroism demanded by the little-known 
 adventures of those who do the work of "Uncle 
 Sam." 
 
 " An exceedingly interesting Indian story, because it Is true, and not mere .y 
 a dramatic and picturesque incident of Indian fife." JV. Y. Times. 
 
 "It tells the Indian s story in a way that will fascinate the youngster." 
 Rochester Herald. 
 
 For tale by ail booksellers or sent postpaid oa receipt 
 of price by the publifhert 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE 
 U.S. FISHERIES
 
 BOOKS BY EVERETT T. TOMLINSON. 
 
 THE WAR OF 1812 SERIES 
 
 Seven volumes Cloth Illustrated Price per volume, $1.25 
 
 NO American writer for boys has ever 
 occupied a higher position than Dr. 
 Tomlinson, and the "War of 1812 Series" 
 covers a field attempted by no other juvenile 
 literature in a manner that has secured con 
 tinued popularity. 
 
 The Search for Andrew Field 
 The Boy Soldiers of 1812 
 The Boy Officers of 1812 
 Teeumseh s Young Braves 
 Guarding the Border 
 The Boys with Old Hickory 
 The Boy Sailors of 1812 
 
 ST. LAWRENCE SERIES 
 
 Cloth Illustrated $1.50 per volume 
 
 THE author stands in the very front rank in ability to instruct the 
 young while entertaining them and here presents a series in his best 
 and strongest vein. A party of boys, fascinated by the glowing narrative 
 of Farkman, spend several summers in camp and on the majestic St. 
 Lawrence, tracing the footsteps of the early explorers, and having the 
 best time imaginable in combining pleasure with information. 
 
 CAMPING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 
 Or, On the Trail of the Early Discoverers 
 
 THE HOUSE-BOAT ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 
 Or, Following Frontenae 
 
 CRUISING IN THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 
 Or, A Summer Vacation in Historic Waters 
 
 For sale by mil booksellers or tent postpaid on receipt 
 of price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 PHILLIPS EXETER SERIES 
 
 By A. T. DUDLEY 
 
 Cloth, I2mo Illustrated by Charles Copeland Price per volume, $1.25 
 
 FOLLOWING THE BALL 
 
 HERE is an up-to-date story presenting American boarding-school 
 life and modern athletics. Football is an important feature, but it 
 is a story of character formation in which athletics play an important part. 
 
 " Mingled with the story of football is another and higher endeavor, giving th 
 book the best of moral tone." Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 MAKING THE NINE 
 
 r T^HE life presented is that of a real school, interesting, diversified, 
 J. and full of striking incidents, while the characters are true and 
 consistent types of American boyhood and youth. The athletics are 
 technically correct, abounding in helpfull suggestions, and the moral 
 tone is high and set by action rather than preaching. 
 
 " The story is healthful, for, while it exalts athletics, it does not overlook the 
 fact that studious habits and noble character are imperative needs for those who 
 would win success in life." Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati. 
 
 IN THE LINE 
 
 HPELLS how a stalwart young student won his position as guard, and 
 JL at the same time made equally marked progress in the formation of 
 
 character. Plenty of jolly companions contribute a strong, humorotu 
 
 element, and the book has every essential of a favorite. 
 
 " The book gives boys an interesting story much football information, and many 
 
 lessons in true manliness." Watchman, Boston, 
 
 With Mask and Mitt 
 
 WHILE baseball plays an important part 
 in this story, it is not the only element 
 of attraction. While appealing to the natural 
 normal tastes of boys for fun and interest in 
 the national game, the book, without preach 
 ing, lays emphasis on the building up of 
 character. 
 
 "No normal boy who is interested in our great 
 national game can fail to find interest and profit, too, 
 in this lively boarding school story." Interior, 
 Chicago. 
 
 WITH MASK AND MOT 
 
 AT. DUDlTf 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price 
 by the publishers, 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 PHILLIPS EXETER SERIES 
 
 By A. T. DUDLEY 
 Cloth 12mo Illustrated Price per volume, $1.25 
 
 THE GREAT YEAR 
 
 THREE fine, manly comrades, respectively captains of the football, 
 baseball, and track and field athletic teams, make a compact to sup 
 port each other so that they may achieve a "great year" of triple victory 
 over their traditional rival, "Hillbury." 
 
 THE YALE CUP 
 
 "yHE "Cup" is an annual prize given by a club of Yale alumni to the 
 * member of the Senior class of each of several preparatory schools 
 "who best combines proficiency in athletics with good standing in his 
 studies." 
 
 A FULL-BACK AFLOAT 
 
 A T the close of his first year in college Dick Melvin is induced to earn 
 ** a passage to Europe by helping on a cattle steamer. The work is not 
 so bad, but Dick finds ample use for the vigor, self control, and quick 
 wit in emergency which he has gained from football. 
 
 THE PECKS IN CAMP 
 
 HPHE Pecks are twin brothers so resembling each other that it was almost 
 * impossible to tell them apart, a fact which the roguish lads made the 
 most of in a typical summer camp for boys. 
 
 THE HALF-MILER 
 
 THIS is the story of a young man of posi 
 tive character facing the stern problem 
 of earning his way in a big school. The 
 hero is not an imaginary compound of 
 superlatives, but a plain person of flesh and 
 blood, aglow with the hopeful idealism of 
 youth, who succeeds and is not spoiled by 
 success. He can run, and he does run 
 through the story. 
 
 " It is a good, wholesome, and true-to-Iife story, 
 with plenty of happenings such as normal boys en 
 joy reading about." Brooklyn Daily Times. 
 
 For gale by all booksellers or seat postpaid on receipt of 
 price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 Making of Our Nation Series 
 
 By WILLIAM C. SPRAGUE 
 
 Large xamo, Cloth Illustrated by A. B. Shute 
 
 Price per volume, $1.50 
 
 The Boy Courier of Napoleon 
 
 A Story of the Louisiana Purchase 
 
 WILLIAM C. SPRAGUE, the notably suc 
 cessful editor of "The American Boy," 
 has given for the first time the history 
 of the Louisiana Purchase in entertaining story 
 form. The hero is introduced as a French 
 drummer boy in the great battle of Hohenlinden. 
 He serves as a valet to Napoleon and later is 
 sent with secret messages to the French in San 
 Domingo and in Louisiana. After exciting ad 
 ventures he accomplishes his mission and is 
 present at the lowering of the Spanish flag, and 
 later at that of the French and the raising ol 
 the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 "All boys and girls of our country who read this book will be delighted with it, 
 as well as benefited by the historical knowledge contained in its pages." Louis 
 ville, Ky., Times, 
 
 "An excellent book for boys, containing just enough history to mmke them hunger 
 for more. No praise of this book can be too high." Town Topic.-, Cleveland, O. 
 
 "This book is one to fascinate every intelligent American boy." Buffalo Times 
 
 The Boy Pathfinder 
 
 A Story of the Oregon Trail 
 
 THIS book has as its hero an actual character, 
 George Shannon, a Pennsylvania lad, who 
 at seventeen left school to become one of 
 the Lewis and Clark expedition. He had nar 
 row escapes, but persevered, and the story of 
 his wanderings, interwoven with excellent his 
 torical information, makes the highest type of 
 general reading for the young. 
 
 "It is a thoroughly good story, full of action and 
 adventure and at the same time carrying a bit of real 
 history accurately recorded," Uni-versalis,t Leader, 
 Boston. 
 
 "It is an excellent book for a boy to read." Nei- 
 mrfc, N. J., Advertiser. 
 
 THE BOY COURIER OF 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 HE BOY 
 HFINDER 
 
 WM C SPRAGUE 
 
 For tmle by all booksellers or tent postpaid on receipt of 
 price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 Raymond Benson Series 
 
 By CLARENCE B. BURLBIQH 
 
 Illustrated by **.. J. Bridgman Large X2mo, Cloth 
 
 $1.50 per volume 
 
 The Camp on Letter K 
 
 THE story deals with two active boys in Aroostook County close to thft 
 northeastern boundary of our country, and where smuggling across 
 Ae Canadian line has been prevalent. Equally ready in athletics, hunting, 
 or helping their families on the rich farms of that section, these good 
 chums have many exciting adventures, the most important of which 
 directly concerns the leading smugglers of the district, and an important 
 public service is rendered by the boys. 
 
 "There is an atmosphere about the whole book that is attractive to boys, and it 
 will be read by them with enthusiastic delight." Democrat and Chronidt, 
 Rocnester, N. Y. 
 
 Raymond Benson at Krampton 
 
 RAYMOND BENSON and his friend, Ned Grover, go to Krampton 
 Academy, which is no other than the noted school at New 
 Hampton, N. H., where Mr. Burleigh was fitted for college. We have 
 had good books telling of the larger and more aristocratic preparatory 
 schools, but never before one that so well told of life at a typical country 
 academy of the sort that have furnished the inspiration for so many 
 successful men. 
 
 " It is interesting from start to finish, and while rousing and full of enthusiasm, 
 is wholesome in spirit, and teaches lessons of purity and justice and manliness in 
 real life." Herald & Presbyter, 
 
 The Kenton Pines 
 
 lENTON COLLEGE" is Bowdom 
 College, beautiful in its location and 
 famous in its history. Raymond s athletic 
 abilities insure him immediate and enduring 
 prominence as a student, and the accounts of 
 athletic contests will stir the blood of any 
 one. But the book is tar more than a tale of 
 these things; it is a wonderful picture of life 
 at a smaller college, with all its fine hard 
 work, "grinds," anoi triumphs. It is a book 
 that rings true on every manly question. 
 
 This book, like the other of the series, is of a very high character, and should 
 oe an inspiration to all boys contemplating a college career." Interior. 
 
 Par Male at alt booksellers or seat postpaid on receipt or 
 price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 THE HANDY BOY 
 
 A Modern Handy Book of Practical and Profitable Pastimes 
 By A. NEELY HALL 
 
 Author of " The Boy Craftsman " and 
 "Handicraft for Handy Boys" 
 
 With nearly 600 illustrations and working drawings by 
 
 the Author and Norman P. Hall 8vo Cloth 
 
 Price, Net, $1.60 Postpaid, $1.82 
 
 A HANDY boy becomes a handy man a 
 ** skilled mechanic, a practical business 
 man, a thorough, accurate worker. That is 
 why it is so important to encourage the boy to 
 become handy. "The Handy Boy" has been 
 written with a view to instructing the boy in 
 the ways of doing things handily, by applying 
 handy methods to the making and doing of 
 hundreds of worth-while things in which he is 
 intensely interested. Such instruction as it 
 contains can be put to immediate use; and 
 this naturally appeals to the boy s sense of the 
 practical and is of infinitely more value to him 
 than instruction which cannot possibly be of 
 any use for years to come, because knowledge 
 
 once applied is not easily forgotten. 
 
 Besides developing handiness, "The Handy Boy" will encourage the 
 
 boy to think for himself and to use his ingenuity ; and it will instill in him 
 
 an ambition to make the best possible use of his time so that he may grow 
 
 up prepared to do something and be something. 
 
 " Mr. Hall s book is just the thing to put into the growing boy s hand to keep 
 him successfully and happily employed." Des Afoines Capital. 
 
 " The best book of its kind that has yet been published." Boston Trantcript. 
 
 "There is scarcely any boy from twelve to sixteen or seventeen that will not be 
 delighted with such a book, and no one would fail to receive much valuable infor. 
 mation from it." Presbyterian. 
 
 "Here is a book that should be in the library of every healthy, ambitious 
 American boy." Buffalo Commercial. 
 
 " No other volume contains such a variety of wholesome, instructive, and enteK 
 taining material, nor presents so many ways of making use of the things at hand." 
 Chicago Advance. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of 
 price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 HANDICRAFT FOR HANDY BOYS 
 
 Practical Plans for Work and Play with 
 Many Ideas for Earning Money 
 
 By A. NEELY HALL 
 
 Author of "The Boy Craftsman" 
 
 With Nearly 600 Illustrations and Working-drawings by 
 
 the Author and Norman P. Hall gvo Cloth 
 
 Net, $2.00 Postpaid, $2.25 
 
 THIS book is intended for boys who 
 want the latest ideas for making 
 things, practical plans for earning money, 
 up-to-date suggestions for games and 
 sports, and novelties for home and school 
 entertainments. 
 
 The author has planned the suggestions 
 on an economical basis, providing for the 
 use of the things at hand, and many of 
 the things which can be bought cheaply. 
 Mr. Hall s books have won the confi 
 dence of parents, who realize that in 
 giving them to their boys they are pro 
 viding wholesome occupations which will 
 encourage self-reliance and resourceful 
 ness, and discourage tendencies to be extravagant. 
 
 Outdoor and indoor pastimes have been given equal attention, and 
 much of the work is closely allied to the studies of the modern grammar 
 and high schools, as will be seen by a glance at the following list of 
 subjects, which are only a few among those discussed in the 500 pages of 
 text: 
 
 MANUAL TRAINING; EASILY-MADE FURNITURE; FITTING UP A 
 BOY S ROOM; HOME-MADE GYMNASIUM APPARATUS; A BOY S 
 WIRELESS TELEGRAPH OUTFIT; COASTERS AND BOB-SLEDS; 
 MODEL AEROPLANES; PUSHMOBILES AND OTHER HOME-MADE 
 WAGONS; A CASTLE CLUBHOUSE AND HOME-MADE ARMOR. 
 
 Modern ingenious work such as the above cannot fail to develop 
 mechanical ability in a boy, and this book will get right next to his heart. 
 
 "The book is a treasure house for boys who like to work with tools and have 
 a purpose in their working." Springfield Union. 
 
 "It is a capital book for boys since it encourages them in wholesome, useful 
 occupation, encourage* self-reliance and resourcefulness and at the same time 
 discourages extravagance. 1 Brooklyn Times. 
 
 " It is all in this book, and if anything has got away from the author we do 
 not know what it is." Buffalo News. 
 
 For A*/e by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of 
 postpaid price by the publishers 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., Boston 
 
 CRAFT 
 FOR 
 
 HANDY 
 BOYS
 
 THE 
 BOY 
 CRAFTS 
 MAN 
 
 THE BOY CRAFTSriAN 
 
 Practical and Profitable Ideas for a Boy s 
 Leisure Hours 
 
 By A. NEELY HALL 
 
 Illustrated with over 400 diagrams and 
 working drawings 8vo Price, net, $1.60 
 Postpaid, $1.82 
 
 J7VERY real boy wishes to design and make 
 * things, but the questions of materials and 
 tools are often hard to get around. Nearly all 
 books on the subject call for a greater outlay of 
 money than is within the means of many boys, 
 or their parents wish to expend in such ways. 
 In this book a number of chapters give sugges 
 tions for carrying on a small business that will 
 bring a boy in money with which to buy tools 
 and materials necessary for making apparatus 
 and articles described in other chapters, while 
 the ideas are so practical that many an industrious boy can learn what he 
 is best fitted for in his life work. No work of its class is so completely 
 up-to-date or so worthy in point of thoroughness and avoidance of danger. 
 The drawings are profuse and excellent, and every feature of the book is 
 first-class. It tells how to make a boy s workshop, how to handle tools, 
 and what .:an be made with them; how to start a printing shop and con 
 duct an amateur newspaper, how to make photographs, build a log. cabin, 
 a canvas canoe, a gymnasium, a miniature theatre, and many other things 
 dear to the soul of youth. 
 
 We cannot Imagine a more delightful present for a boy tkan this book. 
 Churchman, N. T. 
 
 Every boy should have this book. It s a practical book it gets righ* next to 
 the boy s heart and stays there. He will have it near him all the time, and on every 
 page there is a lesson or something that will stand the boy in good need. Beyond 
 a doubt in its line this is one of the cleverest books on the market. Providence 
 News, 
 
 If a boy has any sort of a mechanical turn of mind, his parents should see that 
 he has this book. Boston Journal. 
 
 This is a book that will do boys good. Buffalo Express, 
 
 The boy who will not find this book a .nine of joy and profit must be queer)? 
 constituted. Pittsburgh Gazette. 
 
 Will be a. delight to the boy mechanic. Watchman, Boston 
 
 An admirable book to give a boy. Ntwark News, 
 
 Ttofrooo* is the best yet offered for its targe number of practical aad pioiaabM 
 Ideas. Milwcuikee Free Press. 
 
 Farents ought to know of this book. Nen> Tork Glob*. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid OH receipt 
 price by the publishers, 
 
 tOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
 
 FIVE CHUMS SERIES 
 
 By NORMAN BRAINERD 
 12mo Cloth Illustrated $1.25 each 
 
 WINNING HIS SHOULDER STRAPS 
 
 WINNING HIS 
 LSIKAPS 
 
 NORMAN BRAINERD 
 
 A ROUSING story of life in a military school 
 ** by one who thoroughly knows all its features. 
 Bob Anderson, the hero, is a good friend to tie to, 
 and each of his four particular friends is a worthy 
 companion, with well-sustained individuality. 
 Athletics are plentifully featured, and every boy 
 is a natural fellow, who talks and acts like a 
 bright, up-to-date lad in real life. 
 
 1 The story throughout is clean and wholesome, 
 nd will not fail to be appreciated by any boy reader 
 who has red blood in his veins." Kennebcc Journal, 
 
 WINNING THE EAGLE 
 PRIZE 
 
 "THE hero not only works his way at Chatham Military School after his 
 * father s financial misfortune, but has the pluck to try for a prize 
 which means a scholarship in college. It is very hard for a lad of his 
 make-up to do the requisite studying, besides working and taking a 
 prominent part in athletics, and he is often in trouble, for he 
 scorns to evade responsibility. His four friends are loyal to the fullest 
 extent, and all comes right in the end. 
 
 "Athletics play a prominent part in the story and the -whole is delightfully 
 stimulating in the fine ideals of life which it sets before its young readers." 
 Chicago News. 
 
 WINNING 
 THE JUNIOR CUP 
 
 A CUP is to be presented by the Junior class to the 
 ** one of the two lower classes that they con 
 sider the manlier in muscles and morals, and the 
 manliest one in the class is to be its custodian. 
 The resolute individuality of big, athletic "Stub" 
 Barrows has caused him to be an unlikely candi 
 date. Nevertheless, he enters the contest, and by 
 uncommon will power and stability of character 
 brings his aspiration to a triumphant reality. 
 
 : The book is of more than usual excellence in an 
 
 WINNING THE 
 JUNIOR CUP 
 
 NORMAN BRAINERD 
 
 abundant output of boys stories of uniformly high 
 
 standard. It has grip without being "yellow." The descriptions of games are 
 
 more than ordinarily lifelike and stirring." N, IT. Sun. 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.. Boston
 
 INTKRL 
 
 FOUR WEEK 
 NON-REN 
 
 Fc 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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