“I can hear the water running by the mouth of the cave,” he said.  “It comes from last night’s rain and flood, but what of tonight, Dagaeoga?  The skies and what they have to say mean much to us.”

“It will rain again.  I’ve been looking out.  All the west is heavy with clouds and the light winds come, soaked with damp.  I don’t claim to be any prophet like you, Tayoga, because I’m a modest man, I am, but the night will be wet and dark.”

“Then we are still under the protection of Tododaho, of Areskoui and of Manitou, greatest of all.  Let the dark come quickly and the rain fall heavily, because they will be a veil about us to hide us from Tandakora and his savages.”

All that the Onondaga wished came to pass.  The clouds, circling about the horizon, soon spread to the zenith, and covered the heavens, hiding the moon and the last star.  The rain came, not in a flood, but in a cold and steady pour lasting all night.  The night was not only dark and wet outside, but it was very chill also, though in the cave the two young warriors, the white and the red, were warm and dry on their blankets and beds of leaves.

Robert pounded more of the venison the next morning and gave Tayoga twice as much as he had eaten the day before.  The Onondaga clamored for an additional supply, but Robert would not let him have it.

“Epicure!  Gourmand!  Gorger!” said young Lennox.  “Would you do nothing but eat?  Do you think it your chief duty in this world to be a glutton?”

“No, Dagaeoga,” replied Tayoga, “I am not a glutton, but I am yet hungry, and I warn thee, O grudging medicine man, that I am growing strong fast.  I feel upon my arm muscles that were not there yesterday and tomorrow or the next day my strength will be so great that I shall take from you all the food of us both and eat it.”

“By that time we won’t have any left, and I shall have to take measures to secure a new supply.  I must go forth in search of game.”

“Not today, nor yet tomorrow.  It is too dangerous.  You must wait until the last moment.  It is barely possible that the Great Bear or Black Rifle may find us.”

“I don’t think so.  We’ll have to rely on ourselves.  But at any rate, I’ll stay in the cave today, though I think the rain is about over.  Don’t you see the sun shining in at the entrance?  It’s going to be a fine day in the woods, Tayoga, but it won’t be a fine day for us.”

“That is true, Dagaeoga.  It is hard to stay here in a hole in the rocks, when the sun is shining and the earth is drying.  The sun has brought back the green to the leaves and the light now must be wonderful on Andiatarocte and Oneadatote.  Their waters shift and change with all the colors of the rainbow.  It fills me with longing when I think of these things.  Go now, Dagaeoga, and find the Great Bear, the Mountain Wolf and Daganoweda.  I am well past all danger from my wound, and I can take care of myself.”