“What can he mean?” queried Silver Rifle, as he vanished.
“He seeks something regarding your history, I think,” was the White Tiger’s reply. “The man whom we call Snowbeard was an eccentric old trader, with whom Ahdeek spent many hours. He—the boy—used to tell me that the old man had talking-papers which would tell something about a girl, who knew not who she was. Snowbeard was massacred on the same night that witnessed the extermination of the Lake Superior traders, and Ahdeek struck more than one blow of vengeance for the old man.”
“Then I pray that he may greet us in the Cave of the Winds. I will suppress my burning curiosity, and not open the ring until he returns.”
“Which will be to-morrow night, as he has said, for he is too cunning to endanger us by seeking the cave in daylight.”
The voyagers, despite the storm that burst upon the lake soon after Ahdeek’s departure, reached the Winds’ Cave and felt comparatively safe around a fire in the second chamber.
Let us follow Ahdeek.
He hurried along the coast for several miles, until the hills came to a termination, when he plunged into the wood again.
Soon again he struck the highlands, sparsely covered with trees, and at last reached a line of bare cliffs, some of which stretched their long, rough arms over the Stygian water, irritated by the storm.
On one of these cliffs Ahdeek found the ruins of a cabin, and soon stood in the midst of half-burned logs. One corner of the hut had escaped the ravages of the savage torch, and into this the half-breed suddenly dropped upon his knees.
“This is the place where Snowbeard hide talking papers,” he said in a whisper, and pretty soon he was digging in the dark earth with his tomahawk.