“It was not the will of Tododaho that they should suspect our presence, but I fear that they go to a triumph.”

They rose from the thicket early the following morning, and resumed their flight, but it soon came to a halt, when the Onondaga pointed to a trail in the forest, made apparently by about twenty warriors.  The hawk eye of Tayoga, however, picked out one trace among them which all three knew was made by a white man.

“I know, too,” said the red youth, “the white man who made it.”

“Tell us his name,” said the hunter, who had full confidence in the wonderful powers of the Onondaga.

“It is the Frenchman, Langlade, who held Dagaeoga a prisoner in his village so long.  I know his traces, because I followed them before.  His foot is very small, and it has been less than an hour since he passed here.  They are ahead of us, directly in our path.”

“What do you think we ought to do, Dave?” asked Robert, anxiously.  “You know we want to go south as fast as we can.”

“We must try to go around Langlade,” replied Willet.  “It’s true, we’ll lose time, but it’s better to lose time and be late a little than to lose our lives and never get there at all.”

“The Great Bear is a very wise man,” said Tayoga.

They made at once a sharp curve toward the east, but just when they thought they were passing parallel with Langlade’s band, they were fired upon from a thicket, the bullet singing by Robert’s ear.  The three took cover in the bushes, and a long and trying combat of sharpshooters took place.  Two warriors were slain and both Willet and Tayoga were grazed by the Indian fire, but they were not hurt.  Robert once caught sight of Langlade, and he might have dropped the partisan with his bullet, but his heart held his hand.  Langlade had shown him many a kindness, during his long captivity and, although he was a fierce enemy now, the lad was not one to forget.  As he had spared De Galissonniere, so would he spare Langlade, and, in a moment or two, the Frenchman was gone from his sight.

Another dark and rainy night came, and, protected by it, they crept in silence past the partisan’s band soon leaving this new danger far behind them.  Tayoga was very grateful, and accepted their escape as a sign.

“While Manitou, who rules all things, has decreed that we must suffer much before victory,” he said, “yet, as I see it, he has decreed also that we three shall not fall, else why does he spread so many dangers before us, and then take us safely through them?”

“It looks the same way to me,” said Willet.  “The dark and rainy night that he sent enabled us to pass by Langlade and his band.”

“A second black night following a first,” said Tayoga, devoutly.  “I do not doubt that it was sent for our benefit by Manitou, who is lord even over Tododaho and Areskoui.”