For a moment a confused mass of humanity swayed to and fro in the center of the cavern, then it became entangled, and a terrific shout soared to the circled roof.
It was a shout telling that the bitterest enemies the Indians ever possessed, had fallen alive into their hands.
CHAPTER IV.
FIGHTING FOR A PRIZE.
The light that broke upon the lake after the night of storm and tempest greeted a calm.
The white crested billows had returned to their strongholds, but the lake shore was strewn with their handiwork. Strong trees, which the wind had uprooted on islands, had been dashed upon the beach, and in some places tree was heaped on tree, lending a terrible aspect to the stony shore. Such storms are frequent visitors to Lake Superior, even at this late day.
In the branching top of a young fir, which lay at the edge of the water, not far from Chapel Rock, something scintillated like a diamond, in the strong light.
Its brightness would have dazzled the eyes of a beholder, and, with the belief that it was something very valuable, he would have been drawn to the spot.
As the sun climbed the eastern horizon and darted its beams over the “pulpit,” directly upon the shining “thing,” the fir-limbs moved as though something imbued with life lay beneath them, and possessed the curiosity.
The woods and shores of Superior swarmed with Indians, and it is not surprising that from the cliffs above, a red hunter riveted his eyes upon the particular spot described. Evidently the young brave had lately reached the hights, for his dress showed proofs of a long journey, and the results of a late war expedition, in the shape of a snowy scalp, hung at his deer-skin girdle.
He had approached the cliff with that proverbial caution characteristic of his people, and almost the first thing that met his gaze was the shining object among the fir boughs. He started at the unexpected sight, and when, at last, the thing resolved itself into a silver star, he rose with a cry of mingled wonder and exultation, and prepared to descend. Perhaps he had caught a glimpse of something other than the bright star, for an anxious expression overspread his face, and he looked cautiously about while he clambered down a great fissure in the cliffs. All signs of fatigue had left him now; he seemed the fresh warrior of a fortnight since, and, after walking erect toward the fir awhile, he suddenly dropped on all fours, and moved forward again, like a wary animal.