“Go on, Tayoga.  As I have protected you so far on the way I shall protect you to the end.  Four hundred years ago I left my people, but my watch over them is as vigilant now as it was when I was on earth.  The nations of the Hodenosaunee shall not perish, and they shall remain great and mighty.”

The voice ceased, the face of the mighty Onondaga disappeared, Tayoga was no longer suspended without a support in the air, the forest came back, and his good comrade, Robert Lennox, stood by his side, staring at him curiously.

“Have you been in a trance, Tayoga?” asked Robert.

“No, Dagaeoga, I have not, but I can answer your question.  I not only heard Tododaho, but I saw him face to face.  He spoke to me in a voice like the wind among the pines, and he said that he would watch over me the rest of the way, and that the Hodenosaunee should remain great and powerful.  Come, Dagaeoga, all danger for us on this march has passed.”

They rose, continued their flight without hindrance, and the next morning entered the camp of Johnson.

CHAPTER XV

THE LAKE BATTLE

Robert and Tayoga approached the American camp in the early dawn of a waning summer, and the air was crisp and cool.  The Onondaga’s shoulder, at last, had begun to feel the effects of his long flight, and he, as well as Robert, was growing weary.  Hence it was with great delight that they caught the gleam of a uniform through a thicket, and knew they had come upon one of Johnson’s patrols.  It was with still greater delight as they advanced that they recognized young William Wilton of the Philadelphia troop, and a dozen men.  Wilton looked wan and hollow-eyed, as if he had been watching all night, but his countenance was alert, and his figure erect nevertheless.

Hearing the steps of Tayoga and Robert in the bushes, he called sharply: 

“Who’s there?”

His men presented their arms, and he stepped forward, sword in hand.  Robert threw up his own hands, and, emerging from the thicket, said in tones which he made purposely calm and even.

“Good morning, Will.  It’s happy I am to see you keeping such a good watch.”

Then he dropped his hands and walked into the open, Tayoga following him.  Wilton stared as if he had seen someone come back from another star.

“Lennox, is it really you?” he asked.

“Nobody else.”

“You in the flesh and not a ghost?”

“In the flesh and no ghost.”

“And is that Tayoga following you?”

“The Onondaga himself.”

“And he is not any ghost, either?”

“No ghost, though Tandakora’s men tried hard to make him one, and took a good start at it.  But he’s wholly in the flesh, too.”

“Then shake.  I was afraid, at first, to touch hands with a ghost, but, God bless you, Robert, it fills me with delight to see you again, and you, too, Tayoga, no less.  We thought you both were dead, and Colden and Carson and Grosvenor and I and a lot of others have wasted a lot of good mourning on you.”