They had stolen away silently in the night, and were now marching northward, probably to join Montcalm.

“I’m not surprised,” said Willet.  “We’re now too strong for him and St. Luc is not the man to waste his time and strength in vain endeavors.  I suspect that we will next hear of him near Champlain, somewhere in the neighborhood of Ticonderoga.  I think we’d better follow his trail a little distance.”

Willet himself led the band that pursued St. Luc, and it included Tayoga, Robert, Grosvenor, Black Rifle and Adams, Daganoweda and his Mohawks having left shortly before on an expedition of their own.  It was an easy enough task, as the trail necessarily was wide and deep, and the Onondaga could read it almost with his eyes shut.

“Here went Sharp Sword,” he said after looking about a while.  “I find traces of his moccasins, which I would know anywhere because I have seen them so many times before.  Here another Frenchman joined him and walked beside him for a while.  It was Jumonville, whose imprints I also know.  They talked together.  Perhaps Jumonville was narrating the details of his encounter with us.  Now he leaves St. Luc, who is joined by another Frenchman wearing moccasins.  But the man is heavy and walked with a heavy step.  It is the Canadian, Dubois, who attends upon Sharp Sword, and who is devoted to him.  Perhaps Sharp Sword is giving him instructions about the camp that they will make when the day is over.  Now Dubois also goes, and here come the great moccasins of Tandakora.  I have seen none other so large in the woods, and a child would know them.  He too talks with Sharp Sword, but Sharp Sword does not stop for him.  They walk on together, because the stride continues steady and even, just the length that a man of Sharp Sword’s height would make when walking.  Tandakora is very angry, not at Sharp Sword—­he would not dare to show anger against him—­but at the will of Manitou who would not let him win a victory over us.  He did not get much satisfaction from Sharp Sword, because he stayed with him only a very short time.  Here his trail leads away again, and Sharp Sword once more walks on alone.

“Perhaps Sharp Sword prefers to be alone.  Most men do after a disappointment, and he knows that his attack upon the boat builders has been a failure.  Sharp Sword does not like failures any more than other people do, and he wants to think.  He is planning how to win a great success, and to atone for his failure here.  I do not see anything of De Courcelles.  I do not find his trail anywhere, which shows that the wound you gave him, Dagaeoga, was severe.  He is being carried either by warriors or French soldiers on a litter.  It is far more likely to be soldiers, and here I find them, the trail of four men who walk exactly even, two by two all the time.  The rage of De Courcelles will mount very high against you, Dagaeoga, and you will have to beware of him.”

“I am ready for him,” said Robert, proudly.