“Then he’ll think Dave is here too, because he was with us then.”

“No, he will be quite sure the Great Bear is not here.  He knows that he is too important in the defense of the camp, that, while Captain Colden commands, it is the Great Bear who suggests and really directs everything.  His sharp orders signify some sudden, new plan.  They have a fleet of canoes, and I think they are making a chain, with the links connected so closely that we cannot pass.  It is a real gauntlet for us to run, Dagaeoga.”

“And how are we to run it?”

“We must pass as warriors, as men of their own.”

“I do not look like a warrior.”

“But you can make yourself look like one, in the fog at least, enough, perhaps, to go by.  Your hair is a little long; take off your hunting shirt, and the other shirt beneath it, bare yourself to the waist, and in such a fog as this it would take the keenest of eyes, only a few yards away, to tell that you are white.  Quick, Dagaeoga!  Lay the garments on the bottom of the canoe.  Bend well upon your paddle and appear to be searching the water everywhere for the messengers who try to escape.  I will do the same.  Ah, that is well.  You look and act so much like a warrior of the woods, Dagaeoga, that even I, in the same canoe, could well take you for a Huron.  Now we will whisper no more for a while, because they come, and they will soon be upon us.”

Robert bent over his paddle.  His upper clothing lay in the bottom of the canoe, with his rifle and Tayoga’s upon the garments, ready to be snatched up in an instant, if need should come.  The cold, wet fog beat upon his bare shoulders and chest, but he did not feel it.  Instead his blood was hot in every vein, and the great pulses in his temples beat so hard that they made a roaring in his ears.

Distinct sounds now came from both left and right, the swish of paddles, the ripple of water against the side of a canoe, men talking.  They were coming to the chain that had been stretched in front of them, and their fate would soon be decided.  Now, they must be not only brave to the uttermost, but they must be consummate actors too.

Figures began to form themselves in the fog, the outline of a canoe with two men in it appeared on their right, another showed just ahead, and two more on the left.  Robert from his lowered eyes, bent over the paddle, caught a glimpse of the one ahead, a great canoe, or rather boat, containing five men, one of whom wielded no paddle, but who sat in its center, issuing orders.  Through the fog came a slight gleam of metal from his epaulets and belt, and, although the face was indistinct, Robert knew that it was Jumonville.

The officer was telling the canoes to keep close watch, not to let the chain be broken, that the messengers were close at hand, that they would soon be taken, and that their comrade who did not come back would be avenged.  Robert bent a little lower over his paddle.  His whole body prickled, and the roaring in his ears increased.