Part 5 (1/2)

The guests rose to depart, after inspecting the tents and partaking of sandwiches and cocoa out on the Sunset Rock. Nyoda took them across the lake in the _Sunbeam_, the little launch that belonged to camp. Both gentlemen expressed their unbounded admiration for the physical prowess of the Winnebago girls and remarked on their splendid ability to pull together.

Professor Wheeler raved about Hinpoha's hair. ”Let me come and paint her,” he pleaded. ”Sitting out on the rocks--with the sun on that hair--O, what a picture!”

Gently but firmly, Nyoda refused permission. ”The girls have come up here for a summer all by themselves; to learn the joys of camping out and of doing things together. Such an interruption would break up the unity of their activities and lessen the influence of camp.”

Professor Wheeler begged and entreated, but in vain; Nyoda stood her ground. The most she would promise to do was to send him Hinpoha's address at the close of camp so that he might take the matter up with her parents.

Nyoda returned home very thoughtful. Hinpoha's dawning beauty was causing her many thoughtful moments of late. Not that Hinpoha was in the least vain or self-conscious; on the contrary, she was the jolliest and most natural girl in the group, and the least fastidious. That same red hair which Professor Wheeler raved over was the bane of her existence, and she had more than once threatened to cut it off when the curls became hopelessly snarled. Her chief aim in life was to have as much fun as possible and to get as many others mixed up in it as she could.

Hinpoha, haughty and proud because of her good looks, was a picture that the imagination balked at. Yet Nyoda could not help noticing that wherever the group went Hinpoha attracted by far the most attention from outsiders. All the way down from Cleveland on the train Nyoda had watched men who had scarcely taken their eyes from Hinpoha. The guardian sighed as she reflected on the problem, for she knew how difficult it would be for Hinpoha to live out the happy normal girl life which was her birthright.

When Nyoda reached camp Hinpoha and Sahwah were lying on their stomachs on the dock, rigging up a light-boat to be sent over the lake. It consisted of a flat board for a keel and voluminous sails dipped in turpentine. As Nyoda landed they set a match to the sails and shoved the boat out into the wind. It made a grand glare as it glided out over the lake and the girls cheered until the last spark had fallen hissing into the water.

”Wasn't it a grand success all the way through?” sighed Sahwah happily as they climbed the path to the tents at the sound of the first bugle. ”First we thought it was going to rain and then the sun shone; and first we thought we weren't going to have any audience and then we did anyway, and the dinner didn't burn and everything was lovely!”

The day had been pretty strenuous for most of the girls and it was not long before Nepahwin, the Spirit of Sleep, claimed them for his own. Then it was that the Dream Manitou, hovering over the Omega tent, fluttered down on Sahwah's pillow. In fancy she roamed through the virgin forest, before the white man had come to destroy the Indian lodges. She was the daughter of a Chieftain, the acknowledged leader of the other maidens. Now there was a young brave belonging to a neighboring tribe with whom she was in love, but there was enmity between her tribe and his, and he dared not ask for her hand. So they were in the habit of meeting secretly in the forest. One day when they were together they became aware of footsteps approaching, and peering through the bushes saw a number of braves belonging to the young man's tribe close upon them. So great was their hatred of her father that for them to find her would mean instant death.

”Fly! fly!” whispered her lover, ”fly to the edge of the cliff and jump for your life. My canoe is at the foot of the cliff--take it and escape while I divert the attention of these braves!”

Like an arrow from the bow she set out. Reaching the edge of the cliff, she poised for an instant, then leaped into the lake twenty feet below. As she struck the water Sahwah woke up. All about her was darkness and seeming chaos. There was a swirling about her ears and her limbs seemed detached from her body. She seemed to be rising rapidly. Suddenly her head shot clear of the enveloping gloom and she saw the moon and stars overhead. Just above her reared a black framework. Mechanically she flung out her hand and grasped solid wood. The next moment a voice rang out above her head. ”Sahwah! What are you doing?” Then a hand came over the edge of the dock and pulled her up. It was Nyoda.

Sahwah blinked at her stupidly.

”Whatever possessed you to jump off the tower?” persisted Nyoda.

”He told me to jump and I did,” said Sahwah, still in a daze.

Then suddenly her eyes fell on her nightdress, dripping at every fold. ”Where am I?” she said sharply, her teeth beginning to chatter. ”Why, _Nyoda!_”

Nyoda laughed. ”You dreamed it, dear,” she said. ”You jumped off the tower in your sleep. Come up to bed now before you take cold.” Putting her arm around the s.h.i.+vering girl, she led her up the path to the tent and tucked her in between dry blankets.

”Too much celebration,” she reflected, and then added to herself, ”It's a good thing I happened to see her.”

Nyoda had wakened in the night and lay looking out through the tent door at the lake bathed in moonlight. The diving tower was right in her line of vision, solitary and black against the moonlight. Suddenly she became aware of a figure climbing up the ladder to the top. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes and recognized Sahwah. The girl poised for an instant on the edge and then jumped into the water. Nyoda sped down the path and reached the dock just as Sahwah came up.

”And up until now,” thought Nyoda, as she dropped off to sleep again, ”I did think they were safe in their beds!”

CHAPTER IV.

IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE.

At the close of singing hour one morning the week following the Fourth-of-July celebration Nyoda rose with an air of mystery and requested the girls not to make up their beds as usual, but instead to roll their blankets in their ponchos and pile them up together. A shriek of joy went up from the girls. ”What is it, Nyoda, a canoe trip?”

Nyoda shook her head. ”You'll see,” was all she would say.

Immediately she was surrounded by the girls clamoring to be told where they were going. ”I surrender,” she said, laughing at Migwan, who was embracing her feet in supplication, ”we're going hunting.”

”Hunting what?” clamored the chorus.

”Oh, adventures and such things,” said Nyoda in an off-hand manner.

”Where are we going?” ”How are we going?” ”When are we going to start?” shouted the girls from all sides.