The Lakewood boys on the Lazy S

by L. P. Wyman

"It was hidden in a cave and to find that cave was my mission when I met the bear. You'll probably think I was very foolish to take any stock in an old legend but, as a matter of fact, I had rather more than that to go on and I was only seventeen. You see, about a year before I had gotten acquainted with an old Indian, who lived all by himself on the shore of Chesuncook Lake. His name was Aquqarenuts, meaning cross feathers, and it happened in this way. I was up there on a hunting trip with my father, late in the fall, and we came upon the old man's cabin purely by accident and found him very sick with pneumonia. We stayed and nursed him and he lived. He was very grateful and it was the following summer while I was staying a few days with him that he told me the legend I have told you. Of course, I had heard it before, but the old Indian declared that he knew it to be true and, needless to say, his words made a deep impression on my mind, especially when he assured me that he was a descendant of Wawiekumig, who, he declared, had escaped the massacre. It was a few months later, during another visit, that he told me of the hidden treasure. It seems that the knowledge of the hiding place had been handed down from one generation to another."

"Had he never looked for it?" Bob asked as he paused.

"He said he had not, explaining that gold would be of no use to him. But he, insomuch as he was the last of his race, offered to take me to the place and help me recover it. You can imagine how eagerly I accepted the offer. It was, he said, in a cave on the shore of Big Machias Lake. There was but one entrance to the cave and that was under water and one had to dive and swim through to get in."

"No wonder it was never found," Jack declared.

"Big Machias Lake is about eighty miles to the north of Chesuncook through the unbroken wilderness and we planned to be gone two weeks. Twenty miles a day through those woods was a good day's work, and he assured me that it would take several days to get the gold-and jewels out.

"For three days everything went well and, when we camped that night, he assured me that we would reach the lake the next day. But when I awoke the following morning, Aquqarenuts was gone. His blanket was there on the ground beside me and, so far as I could see, he had taken nothing with him, not even his rifle. At first I thought nothing of it, supposing that he had merely gone a short distance for some purpose and would soon be back. But when an hour had passed and he had not returned, I began to feel uneasy, and at the end of another hour I started out to look for him. I didn't find him and I never saw him again."

"But what happened?" Bob asked.

"That I never knew. All that day I searched and at night I was about the most worried and tired boy you ever saw. No, I never knew what became of him. Sometimes I have thought that he might have repented telling me about the hidden treasure but, inasmuch as he had already described the place so that I could hardly help finding if, I hardly think it likely. No, I prefer to think that some wild beast killed him and dragged him off to his lair, although I confess it hardly seems possible.

"Well, I debated with myself until long into the night, whether to go on and try to find the place by myself or to give it up and go back. I was well versed in forest lore and did not doubt my ability to find my way back. But finally I determined that I would try to find the lake, seeing that I was so near and there was always the hope that the Indian would come back. So I started early in the morning and was making fairly good time in spite of hard traveling, when, suddenly, after pushing through a dense clump of bushes, I came face to face with an enormous black bear. I know they say that a bear will run from a man, but this one must have been untrained in the way a bear should act when meeting a man for, with a deep roar she charged straight for me. Of course, she may have had a cub somewhere and that would explain her action, but I didn't see any and don't believe there was one. My rifle was strapped to my back and she was almost on me when I got it pointed and pulled the trigger. But she didn't stop and before I had time to fire again she had given me a cuff with her huge paw which sent me flying end over end. But my shot had pierced her heart and the blow was her last effort. As I picked myself up I was conscious of an intense pain in my right hip where the bear had hit me and to my dismay I found that I was unable to bear any weight on it. That it was broken I had little doubt. Imagine my situation. To be sure I was much nearer home than the place from which we had set out, but it was all of forty miles away and probably nearer fifty, and, to the best of my knowledge, there was not a soul any nearer. Fortunately I had food enough to last me for several days, so there was no danger of starving for the present at least. But I had no water, as we did not carry any, depending on brooks and springs for our supply.

"It was not a cheerful situation, but I did not lose heart. I found that the only way in which I could move was to hitch along on my left side and even so every movement caused me intense pain. But I remembered crossing a small brook about a mile back and I was resolved to reach it, if possible. I suppose I was an hour making a hundred yards. Remember, I had to drag my pack along with me and it was by no means a light one.