"I wouldn't care to be a beaver," said Hawk Eye. "It must be tiresome to live under the ice roof of a pond. I've noticed how the beavers sport and play when the ice breaks up."

Raven Wing turned on his heel and pointed to a beaver lodge. It stood not far from the bank, its roof above the water line. Both boys were well aware that the beaver builds the doorway to his lodge well below the freezing line. As they both stood looking at the deserted lodge, Raven Wing said; "Beaver often has two openings down deep in the water.

Through these hidden entrances he drags branches and pieces of bark up to his dining room, which being above the water line, is dry and comfortable."

"Come," said Hawk Eye. "Let us go back to our canoes now. We have seen enough for today."

As they strode toward the Minnesota River, Raven Wing said; "I shall trade some of my pelts for steel traps. With these we can catch the beaver more easily than by spears."

"I will, too," said Hawk Eye.

"We will not have to bait the traps," went on Raven Wing. "Fearless Bear tells me to merely rub them with some odor or essence of which the animals are fond."

"That will be easy," grinned Hawk Eye.

Presently they rounded a bend in the little stream and came to the spot where they had beached their canoes. To their dismay they found that they had disappeared.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Moccasins and headdress.}]

CHAPTER XI

TOEPRINTS IN THE SAND

For a moment the boys stood silent and uncertain. Hawk Eye was the first to speak. "Follow me," he cried, and ran down the bank of the little stream. He soon came to a sandy point where its waters mingled with those of the Minnesota.

"Look," he said. "One of our heavy loaded canoes went aground here," and he pointed to deep marks in the sand. "And here are the toeprints of the thief who pushed them off."

"He has gone downstream with them," said Raven Wing. "His canoe was probably caught in the swift current as it rounded the point and was carried downstream before he could tow the canoes into the big river, and his towline tightened across the point and grounded our first canoe here. Then he came back and pushed it off and around the point."

"We must follow," said Hawk Eye. Keeping as close to the river as was possible, the boys set off at an easy lope. Presently they were forced to change their course, for the willows, cottonwoods, elms and soft maples that lined the banks made progress slow and difficult.

Leaving the narrow valley through which the river made continuous twists and turns, they hurried up the slope and soon found themselves on the treeless prairie, which stretched far away to the sky. As far as eye could reach not a tree could be seen. Except for great boulders of granite and limestone which dotted it here and there, the plain was covered with gra.s.s.

As they turned to follow a course parallel with that of the river, Raven Wing thoughtfully remarked:

"We are not sure that our canoes are being taken downstream."

"The thief," answered Hawk Eye, "would have to pa.s.s many Sioux villages on the banks of the river if he did otherwise. He will take the pelts to the trading post at Mendota."

"Yes, you are right," answered Raven Wing. "Why should he tow our heavy laden canoes upstream? And how would he account for their possession should he meet with any of our own people? We are two birds with broken wings. Paddles and current will carry the canoes faster than we can hope to run for any length of time."

"But we must get back our canoes," answered Hawk Eye.

Raven Wing made no answer. He slowly loosened the leather thong about his neck and opened a small doeskin bag that hung by a leather thong about his neck. Squatting down he took out the wing of a crow.

"I will make medicine," he said. After some little time he replaced the crow's wing in the doeskin bag and fastened the leather thong about his neck.

"The Great Mystery bids me remember how the river runs," he said.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE GREAT MYSTERY BIDS ME REMEMBER HOW THE RIVER RUNS,"

HE SAID.]

"And how does it run?" asked Hawk Eye.

Tightening its string until the bow was shaped like a half moon, Raven Wing laid it upon the ground. Placing an arrow, pointed outward, at the center of the curved ash wood, he said, "This arrow points to the Ever Summer Land."

Setting another arrow, with feathered end against the bowstring at a point half way between the tips, he dropped a pebble beside it and said; "This arrow points to the Land of Snows."

When a third arrow, pointed outward, with two pebbles beside it, had been placed at one tip of the bow, he said;

"Thither lies the Land of the Rising Sun."

The fourth and last arrow he laid with stone head pointing outward, at the other tip of the bow. Then, having placed three pebbles beside it, he said;

"Thither lies the Land of the Setting Sun."

"The Great Mystery is kind," remarked Hawk Eye.

"He has bid me remember my stepfather's description of the Minnesota's course," answered Raven Wing.

"And now what do you propose to do?" asked Hawk Eye.

"We will make a trail across the prairie towards the rising sun straight as the flight of an arrow. Come; let us start," answered Raven Wing.

At once both boys set off at an easy lope. Ohitika bounded ahead, flushing a flock of ground sparrows which chattered loudly at the interruption to their gra.s.sy nest building. But to the clamor of their voices and whirring wings the dog failed to see a badger which was burrowing in the sod.

As the boys pressed on, larks and blue birds filled the air with song; prairie wolves skulked away to grove and swale, and rattlesnakes glided over moist places to rocky shelter.

High up in the sky a sand-hill crane, northward bound in lonely flight, sounded a far off call.

"'Tis a good omen," cried Hawk Eye.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Brave.}]

CHAPTER XII

ACROSS THE PRAIRIE

As the sun rode slowly down the sky and pa.s.sed the barriers of the low-hanging clouds, a herd of tiny p.r.o.ng-horned antelopes scampered near for a closer view of the boys and dog.

"Down, Ohitika!" Hawk Eye commanded. "We need fresh meat," he added, turning to Raven Wing.