At the sound of the gun the Indian [[131]]stopped, turned his canoe and paddled down-stream as fast as he could go. Bruce and Tawny did their best to follow along the bank, but as there was no trail on that side of the stream they could not keep up with the fleeing canoe. It was with some difficulty that Bruce restrained the dog from jumping into the swift current. Several times Bruce almost kicked the dog back into the brush. “Get back, you fool dog,” he called. “You will go over the falls!” And while Bruce tried to keep the fleeing Indian in sight, he wondered if Ganawa and Ray had heard his shot and his yell, and he felt much provoked that they did not turn out to capture the fellow when he had to land above the falls.
Only once the fleeing Indian looked around and Bruce yelled in Chippewa: “Stop! Stop! Get him, Ganawa!” And again he had to restrain the madly barking dog from jumping into the treacherous smooth current just above the falls.
And then Bruce felt as if his heart was [[132]]going to stop beating. That Indian was losing control of his canoe. He was straining every muscle to land on the left bank; but, as if pulled by invisible hands, that canoe was drawn to the right and was approaching that terrible narrow chute, which is the beginning of the roaring falls. For a brief half minute Bruce watched the struggle between the man and the river. But just as Bruce expected the man and the canoe to be drawn into the chute, the Indian stood up, dropped his paddle and, with a mighty effort, sprang to a rock at the very head of the chute. He barely clung to the rock with hands and feet, but the recoil of his spring pushed the canoe into the chute, where a second or two it seemed to stand on its head, and then it disappeared. For a moment it looked as if the Indian was hurt and would not be able to move; but he recovered quickly, bounded over the rocks, and ran down the steep trail to the Big Pool.
He barely clung to the rock with hands and feet.
Page 132.
Bruce walked back swiftly to the place where he had left the canoe and crossed over [[133]]to the camp. “I bet,” he thought, “Ray and Ganawa are both asleep in the tepee.” But he was mistaken; the two had gone fishing to the mouth of a small creek. Bruce at once followed them and found them about a mile up-stream. When Ganawa heard what had happened his eyes flashed, he dropped his pole and said, “We must go and follow the man’s trail.”
On the way to camp he asked a number of questions of Bruce. “How did the Indian look? What did he wear? Did he have a gun?”
“He was short and squatty,” Bruce told. “He wore his hair sort of half-long, not in a braid. I did not get a good look at his face, but when he looked around I thought he looked like a bad man, but I thought he also looked scared.
“I was surprised to see him jump out of the canoe. He missed the rock with his feet, but clung to it with his hands. He wore moccasins, leggings, and a hunting-shirt of buckskin.” [[134]]