“My son,” replied Ganawa, “do you see that the air is no longer clear on the water, but only high up in the sky? I am afraid we may run into a fog and then we might not be able to find the mouth of the Agawa. The fogs on this lake are very thick.”
Ganawa’s fear was realized all too soon. In about half an hour the shore disappeared, and then even the island, which a little while ago had seemed to be very close, straight ahead of them, disappeared completely from sight.
For some little time all kept paddling in silence, and Ganawa steered against the cold breeze that had come with the fog. But soon after the breeze had failed Ganawa stopped paddling.
“Wait, my sons,” he spoke, “we must [[52]]make sure that we are going right. It is very dangerous to be lost in a fog on the Big Lake.” And then he suddenly uttered a deep rolling yell: “Hoah—hoah!”
“Hoah—hoah,” a faint echo came from their right.
“We were headed for the open lake, my sons,” remarked Ganawa. “Now paddle carefully straight ahead to our right. We must not miss the island.”
Within a few minutes Ray gave a yell, but no echo returned from his weaker and more highly-pitched voice.
Then Bruce tried it and back came the voice: “Oh—hoh!” but not very strong.
“I hear the scream of some gulls,” remarked Ganawa. “I think they are sitting on the rocks near shore. We must go slow.”
Then Ray tried it again and back came the echo quickly and clearly: “Hi-yi, hi-yi!” and a few minutes later a rather low wooded island suddenly rose out of the fog as if it had just come up from the bottom of the lake. [[53]]