“They are not needed,” said the Onondaga.  “You defended me with your life when I was wounded and the wolves sought to eat me, now I repay again.  There is nothing for Dagaeoga to do but to keep on perspiring, see that the blanket is still wrapped around him, and tonight I will get something in which to cook the food he needs.”

“How will you do that?”

“I will go again to my village.  I call it mine because it supplies what we need and I will return with the spoil.  Bide you in peace, Dagaeoga.  You have called me an accomplished burglar.  I am more, I am a great one.”

Robert had the utmost confidence in him, and it was justified.  When he awoke from a restless slumber, Tayoga stood beside him, holding in his hand a small iron kettle made in Canada, and a great iron spoon.

“They are the best they had in the village,” he said.  “It is not a large and rich village and so its possessions are not great, but I think these will do.  I have also brought with me some very tender meat of a young deer that I found in one of the lodges.”

“You’re all you claimed to be and more, Tayoga,” said Robert earnestly and gratefully.

The Onondaga lighted a fire in a dip, and cutting the deer into tiny bits made a most appetizing soup, which Robert’s weak stomach was able to retain and to crave more.

“No,” said Tayoga, “enough for tonight, but you shall have twice as much in the morning.  Now, go to sleep again.”

“I haven’t been doing anything but sleep for the last day or two.  I want to get up and walk.”

“And have your fever come back.  Besides, you are not strong enough yet to walk more than a few steps.”

Robert knew that he would be forced to obey, and he passed the night partly in dozing, and partly in staring at the sky.  In the morning he was very hungry and showed an increase of strength.  Tayoga, true to his word, gave him a double portion of the soup, but still forbade sternly any attempt at walking.

“Lie there, Dagaeoga,” he said, “and let the wind blow over you, and I’ll go farther into the forest to see if friend or enemy be near.”

Robert, feeling that he must, lay peacefully on his back after the Onondaga left him.  He was free from fever, but he knew that Tayoga was right in forbidding him to walk.  It would be several days yet before he could fulfill his old duties, as an active and powerful forest runner.  Yet he was very peaceful because the soreness of body that had troubled him was gone and strength was flowing back into his veins.  Despite the fact that he was lying on his back alone in the wilderness, with savage foes not far away, he believed that he had very much for which to be grateful.  He had been taken almost by a miracle out of the hands of his foes, and, when he was ill and in his weakness might have been devoured by wild beasts or might have starved to death, the most loyal and resourceful of comrades had been by his side to save him.