But the victors bore many scars.  More men had been lost, and their force suffered a sharp reduction in numbers.  The three leaders, still in their boats, conferred.  Daganoweda was in favor of landing and of pushing the pursuit to the utmost, even to the walls of Crown Point on Champlain, where the fugitives would probably go.

“There’s much in favor of it,” said Willet.  “There’s nothing like following a beaten enemy and destroying him, and there is also much to be said against it.  We might run into an ambush and be destroyed ourselves.  Although we’ve paid a price for it, we’ve a fine victory and we hold command of the lake for the time being.  By pushing on we risk all we’ve won in order to obtain more.”

But Daganoweda was still eager to advance, and urged it in a spirited Mohawk speech.  Rogers himself favored it.  The famous leader of rangers had a bold and adventurous mind.  No risk was too great for him, and dangers, instead of repelling, invited him.

Robert, as became him, listened to them in silence.  Prudence told him that they ought to stay on the lake, but his was the soul of youth, and the fiery eloquence of Daganoweda found an answer in his heart.  It was decided at last to leave a small guard with the fleet, while rangers and Mohawks to the number of fifty should pursue toward Oneadatote.  All three of the leaders, with Black Rifle, Tayoga and Robert, were to share in the pursuit, while a trusty man named White was left in command of the guard over the boats.

The fifty—­the force had been so much reduced by the fighting that no more could be mustered—­climbed the lofty shore, making their way up a ravine, thick with brush, until they came out on a crest more than a thousand feet above the lake.  Nor did they forget, as they climbed, to exercise the utmost caution, looking everywhere for an ambush.  They knew that St. Luc, while defeated, would never be dismayed, and it would be like him to turn on the rangers and Mohawks in the very moment of their victory and snatch it from them.  But there was no sign of a foe’s presence, although Daganoweda’s men soon struck the trail of the fleeing enemy.

They paused at the summit a minute or two for breath, and Robert looked back with mixed emotions at Andiatarocte, a vast sheet of blue, then of green under the changing sky, the scene of a naval victory of which he had not dreamed a few days ago.  But the lake bore no sign of strife now.  The islands were all in peaceful green and the warlike boats were gone, save at the foot of the cliff they had just climbed.  There they, too, looked peaceful enough, as if they were the boats of fishermen, and the guards, some of whom were aboard the fleet and some of whom lay at ease near the edge of the water, seemed to be men engaged in pursuits that had nothing to do with violence and war.

Tayoga’s eyes followed Robert’s.

“Andiatarocte is worth fighting for,” he said.  “It is well for us to be the rulers of it, even for a day.  Where will you find a more splendid lake, a lake set deep in high green mountains, a lake whose waters may take on a dozen colors within a day, and every color beautiful?”