“Their plan isn’t a bad one for what they want to do,” said the hunter.  “A master mind must be directing them.  I am confirmed in my opinion that St. Luc is there.”

“I’ve been sure of it all the time,” said Robert; “it seems that fate intends us to be continually matching our wits against his.”

“It’s a fact, and it’s strange how it’s come about,” said the hunter thoughtfully.

Robert looked at him, hoping he would say more, but he did not continue the subject.  Instead he said: 

“That they know what they’re doing is shown by the fact that we must move.  All the area of the lake about us will be lighted up soon.”

The two bonfires were now lofty, blazing pyramids, and a third farther north began also to send its flames toward the sky.

The surface of the lake glowed with red light which crept steadily toward the little island, in the shadow of which the three scouts lay.  It became apparent that they had no time to waste, if they intended to avoid being trapped.

“Push out,” said Willet, and, with strong sweeps of the paddle, Robert and Tayoga sent the canoe from the shelter of the boughs.  But they still kept close to the island and then made for another about a hundred yards south.  The glow had not yet come near enough to disclose them, while they were in the open water, but Robert felt intense relief when they drew again into the shelter of trees.

The bonfire on the western shore was the largest, and, despite the distance, he saw passing before the flames tiny black figures which he knew to be warriors or French, if any white men were there.  They were still feeding the fire and the pyramid of light rose to an extraordinary height, but Robert knew the peril was elsewhere.  It would come on the surface of the lake and he shifted his gaze to the gray waters, searching everywhere for Indian canoes.  He believed that they would appear first in the north and he scoured the horizon there from side to side, trying to detect the first black dot when it should show over the lake.

The waters where his eyes searched were wholly in darkness, an unbroken black line of the sky meeting a heaving surface.  He looked back and forth over the whole extent, a half dozen times, and found nothing to break the continuity.  Hope that the warriors of Tandakora were not coming sprang up in his breast, but he put it down again.  Although imagination was so strong in him he was nevertheless, in moments of peril, a realist.  Hard experience had taught him long since that when his life was in danger he must face facts.

“There’s another island about a half mile away,” he said to Willet.  “Don’t you think we’d better make for it now?”

“In a minute or two, lad, if nothing happens,” replied the hunter.  “I’d like to see what’s coming here, if anything at all comes.”

Robert turned his gaze back toward the north, passing his eyes once more to and fro along the line where the dusky sky met the dusky lake, and then he started a little.  A dot detached itself from the center of the line, followed quickly by another, another and others.  They were points infinitely small, and one at that distance could have told nothing about them from their appearance only, but he knew they were Indian canoes.  They could be nothing else.  It was certain also that they were seeking the three.