He drew the folds of his blanket to his chin and stretched his length before the fire.  Having made up his mind to be satisfied, Tayoga would let nothing interfere with such a laudable purpose.  Soon he slept peacefully.

“You might follow him,” said Willet.

“I don’t think I can do it now,” said Robert.  “I’ve a restless spirit.”

“Then wander about the peak, and I’ll take up my old place at the edge of the slope.”

Robert went back to the far side, where he had stretched his rope of grape vines down to the spring, and, craving their cool, fresh taste, he ate more of the grapes.  He noticed then that they were uncommonly plentiful.  All along the cliff they trailed in great, rich clusters, black and glossy, fairly asking to be eaten.  In places the vines hung in perfect mazes, and he looked at them questioningly.  Then the thought came to him and he wondered why it had been so slow of arrival.  He returned to Willet and said: 

“I don’t think you need watch any longer here, Dave.”

“Why?” was the hunter’s astonished reply.

“Because we’re going to leave the mountain.”

“Leave the mountain!  It’s more likely, Robert, that your prudence has left you.  If we went down the slope we’d go squarely into the horde, and then it would be a painful and lingering end for us.”

“I don’t mean the slope.  We’re to go down the other side of the cliff.”

“Except here and near the bottom the mountain is as steep everywhere as the side of a house.  The only way for us to get down is to fall down and then we’d stop too quick.”

“We don’t have to fall down, we’ll climb down.”

“Can’t be done, Robert, my boy.  There’s not enough bushes.”

“We don’t need bushes, there are miles of grape vines as strong as leather.  All we have to do is to knot them together securely and our rope is ready.  If we eased our way to the spring with vines then we can finish the journey to the bottom of the cliff with them.”

The hunter’s gaze met that of the lad, and it was full of approval.

“I believe you’ve found the way, Robert,” said Willet.  “Wake Tayoga and see what he thinks.”

The Onondaga received the proposal with enthusiasm, and he made the further suggestion that they build high the fire for the sake of deceiving the besiegers.

“And suppose we prop up two or three pieces of fallen tree trunk before it,” added Robert.  “Warriors watching on the opposite slopes will take them for our figures and will not dream that we’re attempting to escape.”

That idea, too, was adopted, and in a few minutes the fire was blazing and roaring, while a stream of sparks drifted up merrily from it to be lost in the dusk.  Near it the fragments of tree trunks set erect would pass easily, at a great distance and in the dark, for human beings.  Then, while Willet watched, Robert and Tayoga knotted the vines with quick and dextrous hands, throwing the cable over a bough, and trying every knot with their double weight.  A full two hours they toiled and then they exulted.