Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1925-11-13

below the rapids here, Is to the Ojib
ways place Of spirits; then sends
me here to get the fur of the upper
country. At Albany, they laugh at
this talk of Windigo and spirits keep
ing the Indians from trading here.
They even order me to send hunters
to trap the valley below us-when
they have avoided it for generations.
''rhey only betray their ignorance
by belittling Indian superstition, sir
l was followed and shot at on the Al
bany this summer for photographing
some Ojibway children. They be-
lieved the lens was an evil eye and
that the children would be be-
witched."
But they missed you!" laughed the
Frenchman. "Yes Our inspector,
Monsieur LasceIles, in his desire to
get fur Ignores the conditions here en-
tirely."
celles, Steele sensed q swift change
in Denise st. Onge. His curious eyes
caught faint color in the girls tenn
pies as she avoided his glance In a
moment she had control of herself
but he wondered if this then was the
cause Of her heartache.
"My position is most difficult, you
see," continued st. Onge. 'Laflamme
controls the upper country with his
whisky. We get considerable Little
Cturrant onI nrownio~ Diuor troda
but Michel and I have to meet them
with our goods over at Portage Lake.
There are many who fear to come to
the House Of the Windigo, on the
Spirit rapids, as they call it."
Strange your people at Albany fail
to realize this r.
"They will realize 1t now-this
summer, for we have come to, an i'm
passe, as we say In French"
How is that, sirT'
"Why, my Indians, except Michel,
who Is hard-headed Iroquois from
the Nipissing and laughs at this devil
talk, will not now go into the bush
alone. They are always seeing and
Boule, refuses to leave the post since
he found some prodigious tracks in
the muskeg and heard screaming at
night. Monsieur, our people are panic
stricken st. Onge gravely shook his
head "And now, as you say in Eng
lish, the climax is capped"
Steele leaned toward his host, keen
ly curious Of what was coming, as st.
Onge finished dramatically:
"Our fur canoe, which left here
early in July, with four men, never
eached-Albanyw
Never reached-Albany? repeated
the astonished listener. "They sent
you word. by cancer"
"Yes, they sent relief party up
river to find my men who were long
overdue They feared they had lost
their boat in the Albany rapids and
were following the shore"
"And this search party found moth
"Nothing!" ST. Onge lifted shoul-
ders and hands in eloquent gesture
Men, fur canoe; gone, wiped out.
swallowed up"
but there must have been some
thing washed up alongshore," vehe-
mently protested Steele, ''the shell OF
the canoe-small stuff-and a paddle
always comes ashore"
"NOthing" repeated the factor.
"They searched the Albany and then
the lower Wailing, for they had to
pole and track most of the way as
you know. Above the Devils mile
they found the first camp Of our peo-
pie, but below, not body, or paddle
or scrap of canoe-nothing
To Steele this was incredible
mysterious tragedy Of the fur canoe
He wished he had known what had
happened on the Wailing but a few
weeks before, when he and David
fought day by day its stir current on
the way to the post
TITS simply unbelievable, colonel"
he vigorously objected. "a swamped
canoe, broken up in a big rapid, is
bound to throw something on the
beach below. We noticed nothing,
but We were not on the lookout"
That there was more to this story
Steele was convinced; but what per-
sonal bearing could 1t have on Denise
st. Onge7
"Yet those are the facts, monsieur,
and our people are mad with fear.
Thank Heaven! Michel had a bad
ankle and was not with the boat. He
tells the Indians that the canoe and
bodies are held in the big eddy, but
doubt It,"
Steele stared at the factor, unable
to accept the sole inference to be
drawn from his hosts remark. st.
Onge was surely facetious.
"That leaves us the Windigo the
ory, colonel" he laughed, but to his
surprise his pleasantly was met by so
grave face that for an instant Steele
was In doubt of the mental balance of
the Frenchman harassed by the mis-