“We shall have to keep on wondering, but I am thinking it likely that they prevailed over the forces of St. Luc and have passed on toward Crown Point and Oneadatote.  It may be that the present area of conflict has passed north and east of us and we have little to fear from our enemies.”

“It sounds as if you were talking out of a book again, Tayoga, but I believe you’re right.”

“I think the only foes whom we may dread in the next night and day are four-footed.”

“You mean the wolves?”

“Yes, Dagaeoga.  When you left the body of the moose did they not appear?”

“They were fighting over it before I was out of sight.  But they wouldn’t dare to attack you and me.”

“It is a strange thing, Dagaeoga, but whenever there is war in the woods among men the wolves grow numerous, powerful and bold.  They know that when men turn their arms upon one another they are turned aside from the wolves.  They hang upon the fringes of the bands and armies, and where the wounded are they learn to attack.  I have noticed, too, since the great war began that we have here bigger and fiercer wolves than any we’ve ever known before, coming out of the vast wilderness of the far north.”

“You mean the timber wolves, those monsters, five or six feet long, and almost as powerful and dangerous as a tiger or a lion?”

“So I do, Dagaeoga, and they will be abroad tonight, led by the body of your moose and the portion we have here.  Tododaho, sitting on his star, has whispered to me that we are about to incur a great danger, one that we did not expect.”

“You give me a creepy feeling, Tayoga.  All this is weird and uncanny.  We’ve nothing to fear from wolves.”

“A thousand times we might have nothing to fear from them, but one time we will, and this is the time.  In a voice that I did not hear, but which I felt, Tododaho told me so, and I know.”

“Then all we have to do is to build a fire in front of the cave mouth and shut them off as thoroughly, as if we had raised a steel wall before us.”

“The danger from a fire burning all night would be too great.  While I do not think any warriors of the enemy are wandering in this immediate region, yet it is possible, and our bonfire would be a beacon to draw them.”

“Then we’ll have to meet ’em with bullets, but the reports of our rifles might also draw Tandakora’s warriors.”

“We will not use the rifles.  We will sit at the entrance of the cave, and you shall fight them with my bow and arrows.  If we are pressed too hard, we may resort to the rifles.”

Tayoga’s words were so earnest and sententious, his manner so much that of a prophet, that Robert, in spite of himself, believed in the great impending danger that would come in the dark, and the hair on the back of his neck lifted a little.  Yet the day was still great and shining, the forest tinted gold with the flowing sunlight, and the pure fresh air blowing into the cave.  There the two youths, the white and the red, took their seats at either side of the entrance.  Tayoga held his rifle across his knees, but Robert put his and the quiver at his feet, while he held the bow and one arrow in his hands.