“’Twas well done, lad! ’twas well done!” whispered Willet.

“Great Bear,” said Daganoweda, “we go now to the vale of Onondaga for the grand council.  Perhaps Tayoga, a coming chief of the clan of the Bear, of the great nation Onondaga, will go with us.”

“So he will,” said Willet, “and so will Robert and myself.  We too wish to reach the vale of Onondaga.  An uncommonly clever Frenchman, one Chevalier Raymond de St. Luc, has gone there.  He is a fine talker and he will talk for the French.  Our young friend here, whom an old chief of your nation has named Dagaeoga, is, as you have heard, a great orator, and he will speak for the English.  He will measure himself against the Frenchman, St. Luc, and I think he will be equal to the test.”

The young Mohawk chieftain gave Robert a look of admiration.

“Dagaeoga can talk against anybody,” he said.  “He need fear no Frenchman.  Have I not heard?  And if he can use so many words here in the forest before a few men what can he not do in the vale of Onondaga before the gathered warriors of the Hodenosaunee?  Truly the throat of Dagaeoga can never tire.  The words flow from his mouth like water over stones, and like it, flow on forever.  It is music like the wind singing among the leaves.  He can talk the anger from the heart of a raging moose, or he can talk the otter up from the depths of the river.  Great is the speech of Dagaeoga.”

Robert turned very red.  Willet laughed and even Tayoga smiled, although the compliment was thoroughly sincere.

“You praise me too much, Daganoweda,” said young Lennox, “but in a great cause one must make a great effort.”

“Then come,” said the Mohawk chieftain.  “We will start at once for the vale of Onondaga.”

They struck the great trail, waagwenneyu, and traveled fast.  The next day six Mohawks from their upper castle, Ganegahaga on the Mohawk river near the mouth of West Canada Creek, joined them and they continued to press on with speed, entering the heart of the country of the Hodenosaunee, Robert feeling anew what a really great land it was, with its green forests, its blue lakes, its silver rivers and its myriad of creeks and brooks.  Nature had lavished everything upon it, and he did not wonder that the Iroquois should guard it with such valor, and cherish it with such tenderness.  As he sped on with them he was acquiring for the time at least an Indian soul under a white skin.  Long association and a flexible mind enabled him to penetrate the thoughts of the Iroquois and to think as they did.

He knew how the word had been passed through the vast forest.  He knew that every warrior, woman and boy of the Hodenosaunee understood how the two great powers beyond the sea and their children here, were about to go into battle on the edge of their country.  And what must the Hodenosaunee do?  And he knew, too, that as the Six Nations went so might go the war in America.  He had seen too much to underrate their valor and strength, and on that long march his heart was very anxious within him.