Willet, despite his long life in the woods, was a man of cultivation and refinement.  He knew and liked the culture of the cities in its highest sense.  His youth had not been spent in the North American wilderness.  He had tasted the life of London and Paris, and long use and practice had not blunted his mind to the extraordinary contrasts between forest and town.

He appreciated now to the full their singular situation, practically hanging on the side of a mighty cliff, with cruel enemies seeking them below and equally cruel enemies waiting for them above.

The crevice in which they lay was little more than a dent in the stone wall.  If either of the lads moved a foot and the evergreens failed to hold him he would go spinning a quarter of a mile straight down to the lake.  The hunter looked anxiously in the dusk at the slender barrier, but he judged that it would be sufficient to stop any unconscious movement.  Then he glanced at Robert and Tayoga and he was reassured.  They were so tired and sleep had claimed them so completely that they lay like the dead.  Neither stirred a particle, but in the silence the hunter heard their regular breathing.

The years had not made Willet a skeptic.  While he did not accept unquestioningly all the beliefs of Tayoga, neither did he wholly reject them.  It might well be true that earth, air, trees and other objects were inhabited by spirits good or bad.  At least it was a pleasing belief and he had no proof that it was not true.  Certainly, it seemed as if some great protection had been given to his comrades and himself in the last day or two.  He looked up through the evergreen veil at the peaceful stars, and gave thanks and gratitude.

The night continued to lighten.  New constellations swam into the heavenly blue, and the surface of the lake as far as eye could range was a waving mass of molten silver.  The portion of the Indian fleet that had come back from the south was passing.  It was almost precisely opposite the covert now and not more than three hundred yards from the base of the cliff.  The light was so good that Willet distinctly saw the paddlers at work and the other warriors sitting upright.  It was not possible to read eyes at such a distance, but he imagined what they expressed and the thought pleased him.  As Robert had predicted, the snugness of their hiding place with savages above and savages below heightened his feeling of comfort and safety.  He was in sight and yet unseen.  They would never think of the three hanging there in the side of the cliff.  He laughed softly, under his breath, and he had never laughed with more satisfaction.

He tried to pick out Tandakora, judging that his immense size would disclose him, but the chief was not there.  Evidently he was with the other part of the fleet and was continuing the vain search in the south.  He laughed again and with the same satisfaction when he thought of the Ojibway’s rage because the hated three had slipped once more through his fingers.