He bent his head a little to listen.  All the legends and beliefs of his race, passed from generation to generation, crowded upon him.  Tododaho leaning down from his star surely heard his prayer.  Tayoga shivered a little, not from cold or fear, but from emotion.  The mystic spell was upon him.  Far above him in the limitless void little wreaths of vapor united about a great shining star, taking the shape of a man, the shape of a great chief, wise beyond all other chiefs that had ever lived, and he distinctly saw the wise serpents, coil on coil, in Tododaho’s hair.  They were whispering in his ear, and bending his head a little farther he heard the words of the serpents which the rising wind brought, repeated, from the lips of Tododaho: 

“Fear not, O young warrior of the Onondagas!  Tododaho leaning down from his star hears thy pious appeal!  Tododaho, for more than four hundred years, has watched over the great League, night and day!  Let the fifty sachems, old in years and wisdom, walk in the straight path of truth, and let the warriors follow!  Let them be keepers of the faith, friends to those who have been their friends, sage in council, brave in battle, and they shall hold their green forests, their blue lakes and their silver rivers!  And to thee, Tayoga, I say, thou shalt encounter many dangers, but because thy soul is pure, thou shalt have great rewards!”

Then the wind died suddenly.  The leaves hung motionless.  The vapors about the great shining star dissolved, the face of Tododaho, with the wise serpents, coil on coil in his hair, disappeared, and the luminous heavens were without a sign.  But they had spoken.

Tayoga trembled, but again it was from emotion.  Tododaho had sent his words of promise on the wind, and they had been whispered in his ear.  Great would be his dangers but great would be his rewards.  He was uplifted.  His heart exulted.  His deeds would be all the mightier because of the dangers, and he would never forget that he had the promise of Tododaho, greatest, wisest and noblest of the chiefs of the Hodenosaunee, who had gone to a shining star more than four hundred years ago.

He sat down under one of the trees and sleep remained far from him.  He still listened with all the power of his sensitive hearing for any sound that might come in the forest, and after awhile he took his bow and quiver from their case, putting his quiver over his shoulder.  He covered his rifle with the leaves, and holding the bow in his hand stole away among the trees.

The faintest of sounds had come to him, and Tayoga did not doubt its nature.  It was strange to the forest and it was hostile.  The mystic spell was still upon him, and it heightened his faculties to an extraordinary degree.  He had almost the power of divination.  A hundred yards, and he crouched low behind the trunk of a great oak.  Then as the moonlight fell upon a small opening just ahead he saw them, Tandakora and two warriors.