It began to rain by and by, not heavily, but a slow, dull, seeping fall that was inexpressibly dreary, and the thick, clammy darkness, shot with mists and vapors from the lake, rolled up to the very edge of the fires.  Robert might have joined the sleepers, as he was detached from immediate duty, but his brain was still too much heated to admit it.  Despite his experience and his knowledge that it could not be so, his vivid fancy filled forest and water with enemies coming forward to a new attack.  He saw St. Luc, sword in hand, leading them, and, shaking his body violently, he laughed at himself.  This would never do.

“What does Dagaeoga see that is so amusing?” asked Tayoga.

“Nothing, Tayoga.  I was merely ridiculing myself for looking into the blackness and seeing foes who are not there.”

“And yet we all do it.  If our enemies are not there they are at least not far away.  I have been outside with Black Rifle, and we have been into the edge of the forest.  Sharp Sword makes a big camp, and shows all the signs of intending to stay long.  We may yet lose the sawmill.  It is best to understand the full danger.  What does Dagaeoga mean to do now?”

“I think I’ll go back to the water’s edge, and help keep the watch there.  That seems to be my place.”

He found Wilton still in command of the lake guard, and Grosvenor with him.  The young Quaker had been shocked by the grim battle, but he showed a brave front nevertheless.  He had put on his military cloak to protect himself from the rain, and Robert and Grosvenor had borrowed others for the same purpose.

“We’ve won a victory,” said Wilton, “but, as I gather, it’s not final.  That St. Luc, whose name seems to inspire so much terror, will come again.  Am I not right, Lennox?”

“You’re right, Wilton.  St. Luc will come not a second time only, but a third, and a fourth, if necessary.”

“And can’t we expect any help?  We’re supposed to have command of this lake for the present.”

“I know of none.”

The three walked up and down, listening to the mournful lapping of the waves on the beach, and the sigh of the dripping rain.  The stimulus of excited action had passed and they felt heavy and depressed.  They could see only a few yards over the lake, and must depend there upon ear to warn them of a new attack that way.  The fact added to their worries, but luckily Tayoga, with his amazing powers of hearing, joined them, establishing at once what was in effect a listening post, although it was not called then by that name.  Wilton drew much strength from the presence of the Onondaga, while it made the confidence of Grosvenor supreme.

“Now we’ll surely know if they come,” he said.

A long while passed without a sign, but they did not relax their vigilance a particle, and Tayoga interpreted the darkness for them.

“There was a little wind,” he said, after a while, “but it is almost dead now.  The waves are running no longer.  I hear a slight sound to the south which was not there before.”