Robert laughed and felt better.

“You don’t stint the praise of a friend, Tayoga,” he said, “but I know that at least three-fourths of what you say is true.  Now, I take it that you and I are to play the hare to Langlade’s hounds, and that in doing so we’ll be of great help to Dave.”

“Aye,” agreed the Onondaga, and they swung into their gait.  Robert had received Garay’s pistol which, being of the same bore as his own, was now loaded with bullet and powder, instead of bullet and paper, and it swung at his belt, while Tayoga carried the intermediary’s rifle, a fine piece.  It made an extra burden, but they had been unwilling to throw it away—­a rifle was far too valuable on the border to be abandoned.

They maintained a good pace until noon, and, as they heard no sound behind them, less experienced foresters than they might have thought the pursuit had ceased, but they knew better.  It had merely settled into that tenacious kind which was a characteristic of the Indian mind, and unless they could hide their trail it would continue in the same determined manner for days.  At noon, they paused a half hour in a dense grove and ate bear and deer meat, sauced with some fine, black wild grapes, the vines hanging thick on one of the trees.

“Think of those splendid banquets we enjoyed when Garay was sitting looking at us, though not sharing with us,” said Robert.

Tayoga smiled at the memory and said: 

“If he had been able to hold out a little longer he would have had plenty of food, and we would not have had the letter.  The Great Bear would never have starved him.”

“I know that now, Tayoga, and I learn from it that we’re to hold out too, long after we think we’re lost, if we’re to be the victors.”

They came in the afternoon to a creek, flowing in their chosen course, and despite the coldness of its waters, which rose almost to their knees, they waded a long time in its bed.  When they went out on the bank they took off their leggings and moccasins, wrung or beat out of them as much of the water as they could, and then let them dry for a space in the sun, while they rubbed vigorously their ankles and feet to create warmth.  They knew that Langlade’s men would follow on either side of the creek until they picked up the trail again, but their maneuver would create a long delay, and give them a rest needed badly.

“Have you anything in mind, Tayoga?” asked Robert.  “You know that the farther north and higher we go the colder it will become, and our flight may take us again into the very heart of a great snow storm.”

“It is so, Dagaeoga, but it is also so that I do have a plan.  I think I know the country into which we are coming, and that tells me what to do.  The people of my race, living from the beginning of the world in the great forest, have not been too proud to learn from the animals, and of all the animals we know perhaps the wisest is the bear.”