“Tandakora lies,” repeated Tayoga in calm and measured tones.  “It is true that warriors who were with them fell beneath our bullets, but they came swimming in the night, seeking to murder us while we slept, and while there is yet no war between us.  An Onondaga or a Mohawk or any warrior of the Hodenosaunee hates and despises a snake.”

The words, quiet though they were, were fairly filled with concentrated loathing.  The eyes of the huge Ojibway flashed and his clutch on the handle of his tomahawk tightened convulsively, but the fixed gaze of the hunter seemed to draw him at that moment.  He saw that Willet’s eyes were upon him, that every muscle was attuned and that the tomahawk would leap from his belt like a flash of lightning, and seeing, Tandakora paused.

The two Frenchmen looked at Tayoga, at Tandakora and at Willet.  Then they looked at each other, and being acute men with a full experience of forest life, they understood the silent drama.

“I don’t undertake to pass any judgment here,” said de Courcelles, after a pause.  “It is the word of one warrior against another, and I cannot say which is the better.  But since you are going to the Marquis Duquesne at Quebec, Mr. Lennox, the matter may be laid before him, and it is for those who make charges to bring proof.”

The words were silky, but Robert saw that they were intended to weave a net.

“We are on an official mission from the Governor of the Province of New York to the Governor General of Canada,” he said.  “We cannot be tried at Quebec for an offense that we have never committed, and for our commission of which you have only the word of a barbarian who twice tried to murder us.”

The hand of Tandakora on the handle of his tomahawk again made a convulsive movement, but the gaze of the hunter was fixed upon him with deadly menace, and another hand equally as powerful and perhaps quicker than his own was clutched around the handle of another tomahawk.  Again the Ojibway paused and chose the way of peace.

“Patience, Tandakora,” said Jumonville, taking the initiative for the first time.  “If you have suffered wrongs Onontio will avenge them.  His eye sees everything, and he does not forget his children of the western forests.”

“When we first saw him,” said Robert, “he was with the Chevalier Raymond Louis de St. Luc, who was going with belts from the Marquis Duquesne to the council of the fifty chiefs in the vale of Onondaga.  Now he has come on another course, and is here far from the vale of Onondaga.”

“We will dismiss the matter,” said de Courcelles, who evidently was for peace also.  “Since you and your friends are our guests, Mr. Lennox, we cannot treat you except as such.  Take to your blankets and you rest as safely with us as if you were sleeping in your own town of Albany.”

Willet removed his hand from the handle of his tomahawk, and, rising to his full height, stretched himself and yawned.