“Did you hear something?” whispered Amos.

Du Lhut put his finger to his lips, and then in an instant was down again upon his face with his ear fixed to the ground.  He sprang up with the look of a man who has heard what he expected to hear.

“Walk on,” said he quietly, “and behave exactly as you have done all day.”

“What is it, then?”

“Indians.”

“In front of us?”

“No, behind us.”

“What are they doing?”

“They are following us.”

“How many of them?”

“Two, I think.”

The friends glanced back involuntarily over their shoulders into the dense blackness of the forest.  At one point a single broad shaft of light slid down between two pines and cast a golden blotch upon their track.  Save for this one vivid spot all was sombre and silent.

“Do not look round,” whispered Du Lhut sharply.  “Walk on as before.”

“Are they enemies?”

“They are Iroquois.”

“And pursuing us?”

“No, we are now pursuing them.”

“Shall we turn, then?”

“No, they would vanish like shadows,”

“How far off are they?”

“About two hundred paces, I think.”

“They cannot see us, then?”

“I think not, but I cannot be sure.  They are following our trail, I think.”

“What shall we do, then?”

“Let us make a circle and get behind them.”

Turning sharp to the left he led them in a long curve through the woods, hurrying swiftly and yet silently under the darkest shadows of the trees.  Then he turned again, and presently halted.

“This is our own track,” said he.

“Ay, and two Redskins have passed over it,” cried Amos, bending down, and pointing to marks which were entirely invisible to Ephraim Savage or De Catinat.

“A full-grown warrior and a lad on his first warpath,” said Du Lhut.  “They were moving fast, you see, for you can hardly see the heel marks of their moccasins.  They walked one behind the other.  Now let us follow them as they followed us, and see if we have better luck.”

He sped swiftly along the trail with his musket cocked in his hand, the others following hard upon his heels, but there was no sound, and no sign of life from the shadowy woods in front of them.  Suddenly Du Lhut stopped and grounded his weapon.

“They are still behind us,” he said.

“Still behind us?”

“Yes.  This is the point where we branched off.  They have hesitated a moment, as you can see by their footmarks, and then they have followed on.”

“If we go round again and quicken our pace we may overtake them.”

“No, they are on their guard now.  They must know that it could only be on their account that we went back on our tracks.  Lie here behind the fallen log and we shall see if we can catch a glimpse of them.”