“You’re right, Dave, of course.  I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself.”

“One of us thought of it, and that’s enough.  Hold my hand hard, Robert.  Don’t let your grip slip.”

By patient waiting and help from the others Willet was able to draw up two logs of fair size, and some smaller pieces which they placed carefully on the edge of the stone shelf.  Lying flat behind them, they would be almost hidden, and now they could await the coming of daylight with more serenity.

A long time passed.  The three ate strips of the deer meat, and Robert even slept for a short while.  He awoke to find a further decrease in the rain, although the river was still rising, and Tayoga and Willet were of the opinion that it would stop soon, a belief that was justified in an hour.  Robert soon afterward saw the clouds move away, and disclose a strip of dark blue sky, into which the stars began to come one by one.

“The night will grow light soon,” said Tayoga, “then it will darken again for a little time before the coming of the day.”

“And we’ve built our breastwork none too soon,” said Willet.  “There’ll be so many stars by and by that those fellows can pick out our place and send their bullets to it.  What do you think, Tayoga?  Is it just a band taking the chance to get some scalps, or are they sent out by the Governor General of Canada to do wicked work in the forest and then be disowned if need be?”

“I cannot tell,” replied the Onondaga.  “Much goes on in the land of Onontio at Stadacona (Quebec).  He talks long in whispers with the northern chiefs, and often he does not let his left ear know what the right ear hears.  Onontio moves in the night, while Corlear sleeps.”

“That may be so, Tayoga, but whether it’s so or not I like our straightforward English and American way best.  We may blunder along for a while and lose at first, but to be open and honest is to be strong.”

“I did not say the ways of Corlear would prevail.  It is not the talk of Corlear that will keep the Hodenosaunee faithful to the English side, but it is the knowledge of the fifty sachems that when Onontio is speaking in a voice of honey he is to be trusted the least.”

Willet laughed.

“I understand, Tayoga,” he said.  “You’re for us not because you have so much faith in Corlear, but because you have less in Onontio.  Well, it’s a good enough reason, I suppose.  But all Frenchmen are not tricksters.  Most of ’em are brave, and when they’re friends they’re good and true.  About all I’ve got to say against ’em is that they’re willing to shut their eyes to the terrible things their allies do in their name.  But I’ve had a lot to do with ’em on the border, and you can get to like ’em.  Now, that St. Luc we met was a fine upstanding man.”

“But if an enemy, an enemy to be dreaded,” said Tayoga with his usual gravity.

“I wouldn’t mind that if it came to war.  In such cases the best men make the best enemies, I suppose.  He had a sharp eye.  I could see how he measured us, and reckoned us up, but he looked most at Robert here.”