But Tayoga was sure that Mynheer Jacobus was yet expectant, and still, without making it manifest, he watched him keenly.  He noted that the big man hurried the latter part of the supper, something which the Onondaga had never known him to do before, and which, to the observant mind of the red youth, indicated an expectancy far greater than he had supposed at first.

Clearly Mynheer Jacobus was hastening, clearly he wished to be out of the room, and it was equally clear to Tayoga that he wanted to go back to his window, the one from which he could see over the grounds, and into the street beyond.

“Will you take a little wine?” he said to Robert, as he held up a bottle, through which the rich dark red color shone.

“Thank you, sir, no,” replied Robert.

“Und you, Tayoga?”

“I never touch the firewater of the white man, call they it wine or call they it whiskey.”

“Good.  Good for you both.  I merely asked you for the sake of politeness, und I wass glad to hear you decline.  But as for me, I am old enough to be your father, und I will take a little.”

He poured a small glass, drank it, and rose.

“Your old room iss ready,” he said, “und now, if you two lads will go to it, you can get a good und long night’s sleep.”

Robert was somewhat surprised.  He felt that they were being dismissed, which was almost like the return of the old days when they were schoolboys, but Tayoga touched him on the elbow, and his declaration that he was not sleepy died on his lips.  Instead, he said a polite good-night and he and Tayoga went away as they were bid.

“Now, what did he mean?  Why was he so anxious to get rid of us?” asked Robert, when they were again in their room.

“Mynheer Jacobus expects something,” replied the Onondaga, gravely.  “He expects it to come out of the night, and appear at a window of the room in which we first sat, the window that looks over the garden, and to the street behind us.”

“How do you know that?” asked Robert, astonished.

Tayoga explained what he had seen.

“I do not doubt you.  It’s convincing,” said Robert, “but I’d not have noticed it.”

“We of the red nations have had to notice everything in order that we might live.  As surely as we sit here, Dagaeoga, Mynheer Jacobus is at the window, watching.  When I lie down on the bed I shall keep my clothes on, and I shall not sleep.  We may be called.”

“I shall do the same, Tayoga.”

Nevertheless, as time passed, young Lennox fell asleep, but the Onondaga did not close his eyes.  What was time to him?  The red race always had time to spare, and nature and training had produced in him illimitable patience.  He had waited by a pool a whole day and night for a deer to come down to drink.  He heard the tall clock standing on the floor in the corner strike ten, eleven, and then twelve, and a half hour later, when he was as wide awake as ever, there was a knock at the door.  But he had first heard the approaching footsteps of the one who came and knocked, and he was already touching the shoulder of Robert, who sat up at once, sleep wholly gone from him.