The guests rose to depart, after inspecting the tents and partaking of sandwiches and cocoa out on the Sunset Rock. Nyoda took them across the lake in the _Sunbeam_, the little launch that belonged to camp. Both gentlemen expressed their unbounded admiration for the physical prowess of the Winnebago girls and remarked on their splendid ability to pull together.
Professor Wheeler raved about Hinpoha"s hair. "Let me come and paint her," he pleaded. "Sitting out on the rocks--with the sun on that hair--O, what a picture!"
Gently but firmly, Nyoda refused permission. "The girls have come up here for a summer all by themselves; to learn the joys of camping out and of doing things together. Such an interruption would break up the unity of their activities and lessen the influence of camp."
Professor Wheeler begged and entreated, but in vain; Nyoda stood her ground. The most she would promise to do was to send him Hinpoha"s address at the close of camp so that he might take the matter up with her parents.
Nyoda returned home very thoughtful. Hinpoha"s dawning beauty was causing her many thoughtful moments of late. Not that Hinpoha was in the least vain or self-conscious; on the contrary, she was the jolliest and most natural girl in the group, and the least fastidious. That same red hair which Professor Wheeler raved over was the bane of her existence, and she had more than once threatened to cut it off when the curls became hopelessly snarled. Her chief aim in life was to have as much fun as possible and to get as many others mixed up in it as she could.
Hinpoha, haughty and proud because of her good looks, was a picture that the imagination balked at. Yet Nyoda could not help noticing that wherever the group went Hinpoha attracted by far the most attention from outsiders. All the way down from Cleveland on the train Nyoda had watched men who had scarcely taken their eyes from Hinpoha. The guardian sighed as she reflected on the problem, for she knew how difficult it would be for Hinpoha to live out the happy normal girl life which was her birthright.
When Nyoda reached camp Hinpoha and Sahwah were lying on their stomachs on the dock, rigging up a light-boat to be sent over the lake. It consisted of a flat board for a keel and voluminous sails dipped in turpentine. As Nyoda landed they set a match to the sails and shoved the boat out into the wind. It made a grand glare as it glided out over the lake and the girls cheered until the last spark had fallen hissing into the water.
"Wasn"t it a grand success all the way through?" sighed Sahwah happily as they climbed the path to the tents at the sound of the first bugle. "First we thought it was going to rain and then the sun shone; and first we thought we weren"t going to have any audience and then we did anyway, and the dinner didn"t burn and everything was lovely!"
The day had been pretty strenuous for most of the girls and it was not long before Nepahwin, the Spirit of Sleep, claimed them for his own. Then it was that the Dream Manitou, hovering over the Omega tent, fluttered down on Sahwah"s pillow. In fancy she roamed through the virgin forest, before the white man had come to destroy the Indian lodges. She was the daughter of a Chieftain, the acknowledged leader of the other maidens. Now there was a young brave belonging to a neighboring tribe with whom she was in love, but there was enmity between her tribe and his, and he dared not ask for her hand. So they were in the habit of meeting secretly in the forest. One day when they were together they became aware of footsteps approaching, and peering through the bushes saw a number of braves belonging to the young man"s tribe close upon them. So great was their hatred of her father that for them to find her would mean instant death.
"Fly! fly!" whispered her lover, "fly to the edge of the cliff and jump for your life. My canoe is at the foot of the cliff--take it and escape while I divert the attention of these braves!"
Like an arrow from the bow she set out. Reaching the edge of the cliff, she poised for an instant, then leaped into the lake twenty feet below. As she struck the water Sahwah woke up. All about her was darkness and seeming chaos. There was a swirling about her ears and her limbs seemed detached from her body. She seemed to be rising rapidly. Suddenly her head shot clear of the enveloping gloom and she saw the moon and stars overhead. Just above her reared a black framework. Mechanically she flung out her hand and grasped solid wood. The next moment a voice rang out above her head. "Sahwah! What are you doing?" Then a hand came over the edge of the dock and pulled her up. It was Nyoda.
Sahwah blinked at her stupidly.
"Whatever possessed you to jump off the tower?" persisted Nyoda.
"He told me to jump and I did," said Sahwah, still in a daze.
Then suddenly her eyes fell on her nightdress, dripping at every fold. "Where am I?" she said sharply, her teeth beginning to chatter. "Why, _Nyoda!_"
Nyoda laughed. "You dreamed it, dear," she said. "You jumped off the tower in your sleep. Come up to bed now before you take cold." Putting her arm around the shivering girl, she led her up the path to the tent and tucked her in between dry blankets.
"Too much celebration," she reflected, and then added to herself, "It"s a good thing I happened to see her."
Nyoda had wakened in the night and lay looking out through the tent door at the lake bathed in moonlight. The diving tower was right in her line of vision, solitary and black against the moonlight. Suddenly she became aware of a figure climbing up the ladder to the top. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes and recognized Sahwah. The girl poised for an instant on the edge and then jumped into the water. Nyoda sped down the path and reached the dock just as Sahwah came up.
"And up until now," thought Nyoda, as she dropped off to sleep again, "I did think they were safe in their beds!"
CHAPTER IV.
IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE.
At the close of singing hour one morning the week following the Fourth-of-July celebration Nyoda rose with an air of mystery and requested the girls not to make up their beds as usual, but instead to roll their blankets in their ponchos and pile them up together. A shriek of joy went up from the girls. "What is it, Nyoda, a canoe trip?"
Nyoda shook her head. "You"ll see," was all she would say.
Immediately she was surrounded by the girls clamoring to be told where they were going. "I surrender," she said, laughing at Migwan, who was embracing her feet in supplication, "we"re going hunting."
"Hunting what?" clamored the chorus.
"Oh, adventures and such things," said Nyoda in an off-hand manner.
"Where are we going?" "How are we going?" "When are we going to start?" shouted the girls from all sides.
Nyoda put her hands over her ears and tapped for silence with her foot. "One at a time, please, ladies, and I will endeavor to answer any questions that may come into your minds," she said in her best lecture-room manner.
"Oh, Nyoda, tell us," begged the girls.
"Having your kind permission to speak," resumed Nyoda, "I will try to state the case briefly. Now then, one, two, three! We"re going to Balsam Lake!"
"It"s a hike!" shouted Sahwah, turning a handspring.
"Is it, Nyoda?" asked Migwan.
Nyoda nodded. "That"s it. We"re going to hike through the woods to Balsam Lake, which is a distance of about twelve miles, camp there for the night, and return to-morrow by another route."
"O Goody!" cried Sahwah, hopping up and down on one foot, "when are we going to start?"
"The first two will start at ten o"clock," said Nyoda.
"The first two!" echoed the girls. "Aren"t we all going together?"
Then Nyoda outlined her plan. Believing that the girls would collect more adventures by going in pairs instead of all together, besides the fun of following a trail marked out by leaders, she had arranged the girls two by two. The first pair, who would be the pathfinders and blaze the trail for those coming after, would leave at ten o"clock, the next pair twenty minutes later, then the next, and so on. Their ponchos would be brought in a wagon over the main road and left for them; they would buy their supplies for supper and breakfast at the last village they pa.s.sed through. Their lunches, they would carry with them. The first two were to buy potatoes and start the fire and put them in, while the rest would bring the other supplies.
"Who and who are going to be partners?" demanded Sahwah.
"Listen, while I read the list," answered Nyoda. "Sahwah and Nakwisi, Hinpoha and Migwan, Gladys and Chapa, Medmangi and myself. You will leave camp in the order I have named you.
Sahwah and Nakwisi will be the pathfinders." Sahwah seized Nakwisi around the waist and the two danced for joy.
"Who"ll take care of the camp while we"re away?" asked Chapa.
"I have arranged with a man from the village to look after things until we get back," answered Nyoda.
"What are we to carry with us?" asked Migwan.
"You will each carry a hatchet, flashlight, notebook and pencil, a camera, a roll of antiseptic gauze and a roll of surgeon"s plaster. Sahwah and Nakwisi, here is a chart of the road you are to take and a can of vermilion paint with which to mark the trail. Take all the pictures you can along the road, girls, and keep a list of the birds, animals, trees and flowers that you recognize. We will compare them afterward and the pair who has observed the most will receive a local honor. Hurry up, you pathfinders, you have only an hour to get ready!"
With a wild scramble the girls made for their tents to get their ponchos rolled and things collected. Nyoda had given them a demonstration of poncho rolling the week before so they all knew how. Gladys, however, had to have a good deal of help from Chapa before she was ready to start. Good-natured Chapa folded her blankets so the poncho extended on all sides and spread her nightgown, towel, brush and comb and toothbrush crosswise so they would roll. Now Gladys understood why Nyoda had told her especially to bring a small, loosely-stuffed pillow. It was to roll in the poncho. When it came to the actual rolling Gladys had to take a hand herself, for it takes two to roll a poncho successfully.
"Now you tie it up with a square knot," directed Chapa, when the stovepipe-like roll had been bent into a horseshoe.
"What"s a square knot?" asked Gladys.
"Why, this kind," said Chapa, dexterously tying one. Gladys tried several times, but failed to produce a square knot. "O dear," she exclaimed impatiently, "I can"t tie the crazy thing.
Why won"t the other kind do?"
"A granny knot always comes untied," explained Chapa. "Here, I"ll tie your poncho up. It"s getting late, and I want to help make the sandwiches for the girls who are starting first."
"Close your tents before you leave, girls," said Nyoda, appearing in the doorway, "it may rain while we are away. Very neatly done," she said, indicating Gladys"s poncho with its smooth ties, "you are fast learning to be a camper." Gladys said nothing about Chapa"s having done it up for her, and of course Chapa would not say so.
Promptly at ten o"clock the pathfinders marched away, looking quite explorerfied with their hatchets hanging from their belts and their Wohelo knives chained to their bloomer pockets. At twenty-minute intervals the other pairs started, Nyoda going the rounds before she left to see who had left her things in the neatest order, and whose poncho looked the best. A banner would go to the pair who kept up the best style throughout the hike.
She and Medmangi ate their lunch before starting, as they left so near noon.