The half-breed obeyed, and as the paddles kissed the waves once more, the lightning revealed but two Indians in the chapel!
“We dropped two,” said the white youth, triumphantly, “And now—”
He was interrupted by a cry of discovery.
“Ahdeek, what—”
“Ahdeek’s lost his shining ring,” was the startling response. “Oh, Kitchi-Manitou, where is it?”
“In the lake, Ahdeek.”
“No, no, say in the woods, White Tiger. Ahdeek swore to give it to a pale girl after a time. Here, brother, kill Ahdeek for breaking his word. Ahdeek is a bigger fool than Paupaukeewis. Pale girl never get ring now. Ahdeek ought to die for losing it,” and the half-breed hid his eyes as he groaned in all the bitterness of his soul.
“What is the mystery that enwraps this wild boy’s birth and that ring?” murmured the Destroyer, as he steered the frail boat among the rocks. “For months I have tried to fathom it, but can not. He keeps secrets well. He has said that the pale girl might come after the ring some day, and I half—no, I wholly believe that the girl in the chapel was the owner of Ahdeek’s ring, which he would have defended with the last drop of his blood.”
CHAPTER III.
THE CAVE.
It was near midnight when the two voyagers reached their cave home, whose main entrance was through a beautiful arch more than one hundred feet in hight. It lay but eight miles to the west of Chapel Rock, but the time spent by the twain while watching the strange and ghostly tableaux, which the lightning had revealed, prevented them from reaching the “castle” sooner.