THE TWIN BRASS GODS
Oje, who had been sitting by the fire, waiting for his supper, long
delayed by the rush of events, now arose and took the Little Brass
God into his dusky hands.
"Have you ever seen one like that before?" asked Will.
The Indian shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the body of
Antoine.
"Dead man have one!" he said.
"Like this?" asked Will.
The Indian grunted an assent.
"Then I'll tell you what took place, boys," Will said. "When
Antoine shot Pierre, he came here and took possession of the cabin
and provisioned it, He had had the Little Brass God in the cavern
where George and Thede saw it, and he thought a safer place for it
would be the cabin."
"So he moved in here and hid it!" Tommy went on. "And we boys
chased along and drove him out into the wide, wide world. Now the
question is whether he took the Little Brass God back to the cavern
or whether he left it hidden about the cabin."
"It's a hundred to one shot," Sandy observed, "that this dead East
Indian knew that the image he sought was in or about this cabin.
The first night we came here he prowled about looking for it and
tried to get one of us boys into a hypnotic trance. We don't know
how many times he has been back here since that night."
"But who sent the fellow up here after the Little Brass God,
anyway?" asked George. "How did he come to get on the track of the
ugly little devil."
"I guess that's something we'll have to find out in Chicago,"
replied Will. "All we know is that Antoine was scared to death of
him, as shown by his sudden flight from the cavern when he looked
in and saw the East Indian and his guide standing looking out at
him."
"And they chased him clear up to our burning tree!" Thede cut in.
"That's a fact," Sandy replied. "That dusky faced chap certainly
had Antoine buffaloed!"
"Well," Will went on, "the East Indian kept returning to the cabin
and Antoine kept returning to the cabin, so it's a pretty safe bet
that the Little Brass God we seek is here. Besides, the fact that
Antoine asked if the East Indian found anything proves that it is
in or about the cabin."
"Well, we're going to find it if we tear the cabin to pieces,"
Tommy said. '"As Will says, it is a sure thing it is not far away."
There was not much sleep in the cabin that night, and it was a
dreary supper the boys ate. Before daylight the Indian lay down
upon the floor in a blanket, but the other boys remained awake
until morning.
Then they began the search for the Little Brass God. They were
satisfied now that Pierre had never had possession of it, that he
had been despatched as one familiar with the woods and the ways of
Antoine, in the Sigsbee interests to secure it from the man who had
purchased it at the pawn shop. Everything pointed, as has been
stated, to Antoine's being the man who had taken it out of Chicago.
The boys searched the cabin for two days until not a sliver of the
inside remained uninvestigated. Then, after putting up their
tents, they began taking the structure down, log by log.
On the third day they found what they sought in the heart of a
rotten log. Antoine had hidden it in a secure place. Will had no
difficulty in opening the belly of the little image, and there he
found the last will of Simon Tupper, bequeathing his entire
property to Frederick Tupper.
"That settles the case, boys, so far as we are concerned," Will
said, "and I think we'd better be getting back to Chicago in order
to straighten things out."
"You talk about getting back to Chicago like we could take the
elevated and get there in an hour!" laughed Sandy. "I guess that
you forget that we've got three hundred miles of wilderness to
travel before we reach the railroad station!"
"Well, we've got our canoes, haven't we?" asked Tommy.
"Yes," Will answered, "and if we want to use the canoes, we'll have
to wait until the river opens in the spring. We can get out on the
ice all right, I guess."
At the end of two weeks the boys found themselves at a way station
on the Canadian Pacific road. After that it did not take them long
to reach Chicago. During the trip down they had rather enjoyed the
hunting and fishing. Once or twice they had caught sight of a man
whom they believed to be the guide the East Indian had secured, but
after a time the man disappeared entirely and was seen no more.
Oje accompanied them part of the way and then much to their regret,
turned back.
The finding of the will, of course, settled the Tupper estate for
good and all, and the boys were well rewarded for what they had
done.
"There's one thing I'd like to know," Will said, as they sat in Mr.
Horton's office after all the adventures of the trip had been
related, "and that is where this second Little Brass God came from,
and how this East Indian got into the Hudson Bay country in quest
of the other Brass God about as quick as we did."
"That has all been explained," the attorney replied. "From your
description, Antoine is undoubtedly the man who took the Little
Brass God in which we were interested from the pawn shop. The
evening papers of that day described the burglary of the Tupper
home and referred particularly to the taking of the Little Brass
God from the mantle in the library.
"The newspapers said at that time that the taking of the image
would doubtless result in the discovery of the burglar. In this,
the newspapers were wrong. The burglar has never been brought to
punishment.
"On the other hand, however, the taking of the Brass God led to the
recovery of two sacred ornaments belonging in a Hindu temple in
India. It seems that two prominent Hindus read the article
concerning the Little Brass God and made inquiries at police
headquarters and at all the pawn shops in the city concerning it.
The idols had been stolen years before and these men considered it
their duty to restore them to the temple if in their power to do so.
"They found one of the Little Brass Gods without difficulty, it
having been purchased a few months ago by a dealer in antiques.
They might have known of the wealth contained in the belly of the
idol, but it is certain that the dealer in antiques never did. Of
course the East Indians learned all that any one knew concerning
the destination of the image taken from the pawnshop, and so one of
them, the man who was killed, went north in quest of it.
"So far as Pierre is concerned, it is probable that he was picked
up here in Chicago and sent north by Sigsbee. Of course we shall
never know the truth of that matter, but it is plain that he is not
the man who took the idol from the pawnbrokers' shop.
"Well, that ends the case so far as we're concerned," George
replied, "and if you've got any more Boy Scout excursions in view,
Mr. Horton, I wish you'd suggest a hot climate for the next one.
It seems to me like I never would get warm again!"
"What do you think of the people who live up in the Hudson Bay
country all the year round?" asked Mr. Horton. "How would you like
to wander around there year after year, as Oje does?"
"Say that Oje's a good Indian!" Tommy exclaimed. "I tried to get
him to come on down to Chicago with me, but he said he wouldn't
live here on a bet."
"What are you going to do with the two Little Brass Gods and all
the precious stones?" asked Sandy.
"I would suggest," Mr. Horton replied, "that the two idols be
returned to the Hindu still remaining in the city, the companion of
the one who was killed, and that the jewels be returned with them."
"That's a lot of money to give away," Sandy suggested.
"There's nothing compulsory about it!" laughed Mr. Horton. "If you
boys want to run the risk of being chased up by those Hindus until
they finally get their hands on the idols, you may do so."
"Not for mine!" exclaimed Thede. "I don't want any dusky East
Indians chasing me up!"
It was finally decided to restore the two little Brass Gods with
the jewels to the Hindu. Later the body of the East Indian was
taken from its grave near James Bay and transferred to his own
country.
"There's one little commission I'd like to have you boys
undertake," Mr. Horton said, after all the details of the Tupper
case had been settled. "There's quite a bunch of trouble down here
in a coal mine that I'd like to have you boys look into."
"Is it good and warm down there?" asked George.
"Suppose you walk down a few thousand feet under ground, some day,
and make a note of the temperature!" laughed Tommy.
"Of course we want to go!" replied Will.
After a few days in Chicago, the Boy Scouts were off on their
travels again. The story of their adventures will be found in the
next volume of this series entitled.
"Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns; or, The Light in Tunnel Six."