He looked for a canoe, one perhaps that might contain Willet and Tayoga, seeking him and keeping well beyond the aim of a lurking marksman on the shore, but he saw no shadow on the water, nothing that could be persuaded into the likeness of a boat, only wild fowl circling and dipping, and, now and then, a gleam where a fish leaped up to fall swiftly back again.  He was alone, and he must depend upon himself only.

He began to move a little, to lift one foot and then the other, careful to make no splash in the water, and the slight exercise checked the creeping chill.  Encouraged, he increased it, stopping at intervals to listen for the approach of a foe.  There was no sound and he walked back and forth a little.  Presently his eyes, trained to observe all things, noticed a change in the air.  A gray tint, so far a matter of quality rather than color, was coming into it, and his heart leaped with joy.  Absorbed in his vital struggle he had failed to reckon the passage of time.  The day was closing and blessed, covering night was at hand.  Robert loved the day and the sun, but darkness was always a friend of those who fled, and now he prayed that it would come thick and dark.

The sun still hung over the eastern shores, red and blazing, but before long it went down, seeming to sink into the lake, and the night that Robert had wished, heavy and black, swept over the earth.  Then he left the water, and stood upon dry land, the narrow ledge between the cliff and the waves, where he took off his lower garments, wrung them as nearly dry as he could, and, hanging them on the bushes, waited for the wind to do the rest.  His sense of triumph had never been so strong.  Alone and relying only upon his own courage and skill, he had escaped the fierce Tandakora and his persistent warriors.  He could even boast of it to Willet and Tayoga, when he found them again.

It was wonderful to feel safe, after great peril, and his bright imagination climbed the heights.  As he had escaped them then, so he would slip always from the snares of his foes.  It was this quality in him, the spirit of eternal hope, that appealed so strongly to all who knew him, and that made him so attractive.

After a while, he took venison and hominy from his knapsack and ate with content.  Then he resumed his clothing, now dried completely by the wind, and felt that he had never been stronger or more fitted to cope with attack.

The darkness was intense and the surface of the lake showed through it, only a fitful gray.  The cliff behind him was now a black bank, and its crest could not be seen at all.  He was eager to go, but he still used the patience so necessary in the wilderness, knowing that the longer he waited the less likely he was to meet the band of Tandakora.

He lay down in a thicket of tall grass and bushes, resolved not to start before midnight, and he felt so much at peace that before he knew he was going to sleep he was sleeping.  When he awoke he felt a little dismay at first, but it was soon gone.  After all, he had passed the time of waiting in the easiest way, and no enemy had come.  The moon and stars were not to be seen, but instinct told him that it was not beyond midnight.