“What do you mean, Tayoga?”

“Tandakora built his fire just beyond the big bush that grows ten feet away, and sat there two hours without suspecting our presence here.”

“Now I know you are romancing, Tayoga, because I can see the twinkle in your eyes.  But I suspect that what you say bears some remote relation to the truth.”

“The hostile hunters passed while you slept, and while I slept also, but the Great Bear was all eyes and ears and he did not think it needful to awaken us.”

“What are we going to do now, Dave?”

“Eat more venison.  We must never fail to keep the body strong.”

“And then?”

“I’m not sure.  I thought once that we’d better go south to our army at Lake George with news of this big band, but it’s a long distance down there, and it may be wiser to stay here and watch St. Luc.  What do you say, Robert?”

“Stay here.”

“And you, Tayoga?”

“Watch St. Luc.”

“I was inclining to that view myself, and it’s settled now.  But we mustn’t move from this place until dark; it would be too dangerous in the day.”

The lads nodded and the three settled into another long period of waiting.

CHAPTER II

ON THE RIDGES

Late in the afternoon Willet went to sleep and Robert and Tayoga watched, although, as the hunter had done, they depended more upon ear than eye.  They too heard now and then the faint report of distant shots from the hunt, and Robert’s heart beat very fast, but, if the young Onondaga felt emotion, he did not show it.  At twilight, they ate a frugal supper, and when the night had fully come they rose and walked about a little to make their stiffened muscles elastic again.

“The hunters have all gone back to the camp now,” said Tayoga, “since it is not easy to pursue the game by dusk, and we need not keep so close, like a bear in its den.”

“And the danger of our being seen is reduced to almost nothing,” said Robert.

“It is so, Dagaeoga, but we will have another fight to make.  We must strive to keep ourselves from freezing.  It turns very cold on the mountains!  The wind is now blowing from the north, and do you not feel a keener edge to it?”

“I do,” replied Robert, sensitive of body as well as mind, and he shivered as he spoke.  “It’s a most unfortunate change for us.  But now that I think of it we’ve got to expect it up among the high mountains toward Canada.  Shall we light another fire?”

“We’ll talk of that later with the Great Bear when he comes out of his sleep.  But it fast grows colder and colder, Dagaeoga!”

Weather was an enormous factor in the lives of the borderers.  Wilderness storms and bitter cold often defeated their best plans, and shelterless men, they were in a continual struggle against them.  And here in the far north, among the high peaks and ridges, there was much to be feared, even with official winter yet several weeks away.