The Onondaga took his weapons, a supply of food, and departed, skimming over the snow with wonderful, flying strokes, while Robert settled down to lonely waiting.  It was a hard duty, but he again found solace in work, and at intervals he contemplated the mouths of the bears’ caves, now almost hidden by the snow.  Tayoga’s belief was strong upon him, for the time, and he concluded that the warriors who inhabited the bodies of the bears must be having some long and wonderful dreams.  At least, they had plenty of time to dream in, and it was an extraordinary provision of nature that gave them such a tremendous sleep.

Tayoga returned in four days, and Robert, who had more than enough of being alone, welcomed him with hospitable words to a fire and a feast.

“I must first put away my spoils,” said the Onondaga, his dark eyes glittering.

“Spoils!  What spoils, Tayoga?”

“Powder and lead,” he replied, taking a heavy bundle wrapped in deerskin from beneath his bearskin overcoat.  “It weighs a full fifty pounds, and it made my return journey very wearisome.  Catch it, Dagaeoga!”

Robert caught, and he saw that it was, in truth, powder and lead.

“Now, where did you get this?” he exclaimed.  “You couldn’t have gone to any settlement!”

“There is no settlement to go to.  I made our enemies furnish the powder and lead we need so much, and that is surely the cheapest way.  Listen, Dagaeoga.  I remembered that to the east of us, about two days’ journey, was a long valley sheltered well and warm, in which Indians who fight the Hodenosaunee often camp.  I thought it likely they would be there in such a winter as this, and that I might take from them in the night the powder and lead we need so much.

“I was right.  The savages were there, and with them a white man, a Frenchman, that Charles Langlade, called the Owl, from whom we fled.  They had an abundance of all things, and they were waxing fat, until they could take the war path in the spring.  Then, Dagaeoga, I played the fox.  At night, when they dreamed of no danger, I entered their biggest lodges, passing as one of them, and came away with the powder and lead.”

“It was a great feat, Tayoga, but are you sure none of them will trail you here?”

“The surface of the snow and ice melts a little in the noonday sun, enough to efface all trace of the snowshoes, and my trail is no more than that made by a bird in its flight through the air.  Nor can we be followed here while we are guarded by the bears, who sleep, but who, nevertheless, are sentinels.”

Tayoga took off his snowshoes, and sank upon a heap of furs in the cave, while Robert brought him food and inspected the great prize of ammunition he had brought.  The package contained a dozen huge horns filled with powder, and many small bars of lead, the latter having made the weight which had proved such a severe trial to the Onondaga.