The great frame of the hunter shook with silent laughter.  But Robert, in very truth, saw the chagrin upon the faces of Tandakora and De Courcelles.  His extraordinary imagination was again up and leaping and the picture it created for him was as glowing and vivid as fact.  They had gone some distance, and then they had come back, continually searching the thickets of the opposite shore with their powerful and trained eyesight.  They had felt disappointed because they had seen no trace of the hunted, who had surely come by this time against the barrier of the river.  Frenchman and Ojibway were in a state of angry wonder at the disappearance of the three who had vanished as if on wings in the air, leaving no trail.  Then Tandakora had chanced to look down.  His eye in the dusky moonlight had caught the faint imprint of a foot on the grass, perhaps Robert’s own, and the sudden shout had been wrenched from him by his anger and mortification.  Now Robert, too, was convulsed by internal laughter.

“It was our great luck that they did not find us on the tree,” he said.

“No, it was not luck,” said Tayoga.

“How so?”

“They did not come upon the tree because Tododaho would not let them.”

“I forgot.  You’re right, Tayoga,” said Robert sincerely.

“We’ll take fresh breath here for five minutes or so,” said the hunter, “and then we’ll push on at speed, because we have not only the band of Tandakora and De Courcelles to fear.  There are others in the forest converging on Fort Refuge.”

“Great Bear is right.  He is nearly always right,” said Tayoga.  “We have passed one barrier, but we will meet many more.  There is also danger behind us.  Even now the band is coming fast.”

They did not move until the allotted time had passed.  Again Robert’s mind painted a picture in glowing colors of the savage warriors, led by Tandakora and De Courcelles, coming at utmost speed upon their trail, and his muscles quivered, yet he made no outward sign.  To the eye he was as calm as Tayoga or Willet.

An hour after the resumption of their flight they came to a shallow creek with a gravelly bed, a creek that obviously emptied into the river they had crossed, and they resorted to the commonest and most effective of all devices used by fugitives in the North American wilderness who wished to hide their trail.  They waded in the stream, and, as it led in the general direction in which they wished to go, they did not leave the water until they had covered a distance of several miles.  Then they emerged upon the bank and rested a long time.

“When Tandakora and De Courcelles see our traces disappear in the creek and fail to reappear on the other side,” said Willet, “they’ll divide their band and send half of it upstream, and half downstream, looking everywhere for our place of entry upon dry land, but it’ll take ’em a long time to find it.  Robert, you and Tayoga might spread your blankets, and if you’re calm enough, take a nap.  At any rate, it won’t hurt you to stretch yourselves and rest.  I can warn you in time, when an enemy comes.”