It may be that the red squirrels retarded the spread of the white pines northward. In regions, where these pines are not numerous, the squirrels are likely to strip every cone and eat practically every seed.
Ganawa knew of this habit of the red squirrels and he also told Ray that perhaps the winters were too long north of the Big Lake. “About thirty leagues farther north,” he told the lads, “begins the great forest of the spruce, and no white pines grow there, but only spruce-trees; and where the land is high and sandy, the jack-pine grows, the pine that keeps its little crooked cones for many years. And there is only one other tree that you would find plentiful, if [[117]]you would paddle your canoe down one of the rivers which flow into the cold salt water bay; that tree is the poplar, whose leaves whisper and talk in every little wind. The poplars grow on good soil near the rivers, where a fire has killed the other trees.”
By this time Ray was glad to slip away into his blankets. A small fire was burning in the tepee to keep the place dry and warm and also to prevent any mosquitoes from coming in at the top; for almost every year through June and July the mosquitoes are a fearful pest through the whole Great Lakes region, and they are often worse north of the lakes than south of them.
Bruce and Ganawa sat for an hour or more at the camp-fire, which Bruce kept supplied with green birch logs, while they talked over the events of the day and discussed plans for finding a clue to the whereabouts of Jack Dutton.
“We must look sharp along the river for signs of a white man’s camp,” said Ganawa, “and if we do not find any, then we must [[118]]go to another river or to some lakes where the hunting is good for fur animals. And we may find some Indians that can tell us where a white man made a camp, but this country is very big and very few Indians live in it, and only few of them travel through the region on their way to the English traders who live far to the north on the shore of the salt water.”
By this time the storm had come up from the west, not with the violence that often accompanies rainstorms on the plains and along the Missouri, but quietly, with almost no wind. Bruce poured water on the camp-fire and for a short time he stood in the darkness enjoying the view of the hills and the wild forest as it was illumined from time to time by the lightning that played back and forth on the clouds, and he listened to the thunder which rumbled and crashed and echoed from hill to hill, and it seemed as if at times the very rocks were trembling. Then a steady roaring noise began, and Bruce wondered what it was, as it seemed [[119]]to be approaching rapidly. It was a heavy rain moving eastward without any wind, and when the first big drops began to play on the tepee, Bruce slipped inside and carefully closed the tepee flap behind him.
Ray was sound asleep, and Ganawa, who had experienced many storms in a wild forest, also seemed to be asleep. But Bruce lay awake for some time listening to the play of the rain on the tepee and to its strange music on the river and in the trees, a music which people who always live in cities and white men’s houses never hear. Thus wondering and half dreaming about the vast uninhabited region, the big trout in the pool, and the strange unknown man or beast which had made the dog so madly excited, Bruce also fell asleep.
When Ray went to bed the dog had also curled up in his place and the two had been asleep now for several hours. To rain, thunder, and wind, Tawny paid no attention; they were sounds that meant nothing to him. In the morning the wild forest appeared [[120]]in all its summer glory under a clear blue sky. White-throats were whistling, the song of the hermit-thrushes rang from the thickets with its peculiar ecstasy, and the bumblebees were at work among the white flowers of the wild raspberries.
After the brush had dried off, the three campers went down to examine the trail below the big pool; but if there had been any tracks or marks, the heavy rain had obliterated them all. Tawny sniffed at the ground here and there, but found nothing to excite him. However, he seemed to know what the investigation was about, for again and again he looked at his human companions with a funny quizzical expression, as if he would say: “This is the place where he was last night. If you will just tell me where he is now, I will go after him.” [[121]]