He spoke cheerfully, and the others responded in like fashion.  Action gave them a mental and physical tonic, and bracing their weak bodies they started in the direction allotted to each.  Robert forgot, for a little while, the terrible hunger that seemed to be preying upon his very fiber, and, as he started away, showed an elasticity and buoyancy of which he could not have dreamed himself capable five minutes before.

Westward stretched forest, lofty in the valley, high on the slopes and everywhere dense.  He plunged into it, and then looked back.  Tayoga and Willet were already gone from his sight, seeking what he sought.  Their experience in the wilderness was greater than his, and they were superior to him in trailing, but he was very hopeful that it would be his good fortune to find the game they needed so badly, the game they must have soon, in truth, or perish.

The valley was deep in slush and mire, and the water soaked through his leggings and moccasins again, but he paid no attention to it now.  His new courage and strength lasted.  Glancing up at the heavens he beheld a little rift in the western clouds.  A bar of light was let through, and his mind, so imaginative, so susceptible to the influences of earth and air, at once saw it as an omen.  It was a pillar of fire to him, and his faith was confirmed.

“Areskoui is turning back his face, and he smiles upon us,” he said to himself.  Then looking carefully to his rifle, he held it ready for an instant shot.

He came to the westward edge of the valley, and found the slope before him gentle but rocky.  He paused there a while in indecision, and, then glancing up again at the bar of light that had grown broader, he murmured, so much had he imbibed the religion and philosophy of the Iroquois: 

“O Areskoui, direct me which way to go.”

The reply came, almost like a whisper in his ear: 

“Try the rocks.”

It always seemed to him that it was a real whisper, not his own mind prompting him, and he walked boldly among the rocks which stretched for a long distance along the slopes.  Then, or for the time, at least, he felt sure that a powerful hand was directing him.  He saw tracks in the soft soil between the strong uplifts and he believed that they were fresh.  Hollows were numerous there, and game of a certain kind would seek them in bitter weather.

His heart began to pound hard, too heavily, in fact, for his weakened frame, and he was compelled to stop and steady himself.  Then he resumed the hunt once more, looking here and there between the rocky uplifts and in the deep depressions.  He lost the tracks and then he found them, apparently fresher than ever.  Would he take what he sought?  Was the face of Areskoui still inclining toward him?  He looked up and the bar of light was steadily growing broader and longer.  The smile of the Sun God was deeper, and his doubts went away, one by one.