“All have taken to cover.  There is not one among them who is willing to face again the rifle of the Great Bear.”

Willet smiled with satisfaction at the compliment.  He was proud of his sharp-shooting, and justly so, but he said modestly: 

“I had a fair target, and it will do for a warning.  I think we can look for another long rest now.”

The dark period that precedes the dawn came, and then the morning flashed over the woods.  Robert, from the hollow, looking across the far shore, saw lofty, wooded hills and back of them blue mountains.  Beads of rain stood on the leaves, and the wilderness seemed to emerge, fresh and dripping, from a glorious bath.  Pleasant odors of the wild came to him, and now he felt the sting of imprisonment there among the rocks.  He wished they could go at once on their errand.  It was a most unfortunate chance to have been found there by the Indians and to be held indefinitely in siege.  The flooded river would have borne them swiftly in their canoe toward the St. Lawrence.

“Mourning, Robert?” said Willet who noticed his face.

“For the moment, yes,” admitted young Lennox, “but it has passed.  I wanted to be going on this lively river and through the green wood, but since I have to wait I can do it.”

“I feel the same way about it, and we’re lucky to have such a fort as the one we are in.  I think the savages will hang on here for a long while.  Indians always have plenty of time.  That’s why they’re more patient than white men.  Like as not we won’t get a peep out of them all the morning.”

“Lennox feels the beauty of the day,” said Tayoga, “and that’s why he wants to leave the hollow and go into the woods.  But if Lennox will only think he’ll know that other days as fine will come.”

The eye of the young Onondaga twinkled as he delivered his jesting advice.

“I’ll be as patient as I can,” replied Robert in the same tone, “but tomorrow is never as good as today.  I wait like you and Dave only because I have to do so.”

“In the woods you must do as the people who live there do,” said the hunter philosophically.  “They learn how to wait when they’re young.  We don’t know how long we’ll be here.  A little more of the deer, Tayoga.  It’s close to the middle of the day now and we must keep our strength.  I wish we had better water than that of a flooded and muddy river to drink, but it’s water, anyhow.”

They ate, drank and refreshed themselves and another long period of inaction followed.  The warriors—­at intervals—­fired a few shots but they did no damage.  Only one entered the hollow, and it buried itself harmlessly in their wooden barrier.  They suffered from nothing except the soreness and stiffness that came from lying almost flat and so long in one position.  The afternoon, cloudless and brilliant, waned, and the air in the recess grew warm and heavy.  Had it not been for the necessity of keeping guard Robert could have gone to sleep again.  The flood in the river passed its zenith and was now sinking visibly.  No more trees or bushes came floating on the water.  Willet showed disappointment over the failure of the besiegers to make any decided movement.