In a brief hour they struck the trail that Haace had found, and followed it swiftly, but with alert eyes for ambush.  Presently other little trails flowed into it, some from the east, and some from the west, and the tributaries included imprints, which obviously were those of white men.  Then the whole broad trail, apparently a force of about one hundred, curved back toward the west.

“They go to Andiatarocte,” said Daganoweda.  “Perhaps they meet another force there.”

“It’s probably so,” said Willet.  “Knowing that our army is about to advance they wouldn’t come to the southwest shore of the lake unless they were in strength.  I still feel that St. Luc is leading them, but other Frenchmen are surely with him.  It behooves us to use all the caution of which white men and red together are capable.  In truth, there must be no ambush for us.  Besides the loss which we should suffer it would be a terrible decrease of prestige for it to be known that the Mountain Wolf and Daganoweda, the most warlike of all the chiefs of the Ganeagaono, were trapped by the French and their savage allies.”

Willet spoke artfully and the response was instantaneous.  The great chest of Daganoweda swelled, and a spark leaped from his eyes.

“It will never be told of us,” he said, “because it cannot happen.  There are not enough of the French and their savage allies in the world to trap the Great Bear, the Mountain Wolf, Daganoweda, and the lads Tayoga and Dagaeoga.”

Willet smiled.  It was the reply that he had expected.  Moreover, both his words and those of the chief were heard by many warriors, and he knew that they would respond in every fiber to the battle cry of their leader.  His contemptuous allusion to the allies of the French as “savages” met a ready response in their hearts, since the nations of the Hodenosaunee considered themselves civilized and enlightened, which, in truth, they were in many respects.

Robert always remembered the place at which they held their brief council.  They stood in a little grove of oaks and elms, clear of underbrush.  The trees were heavy with foliage, and the leaves were yet green.  The dawn had not yet fully come, and the heavens, save low down in the east, were still silver, casting a silvery veil which gave an extraordinary and delicate tint to the green of foliage.  In the distance on the right was the gleam of water, silver like the skies, but it was one of the beautiful lakelets abundant in that region and not yet Andiatarocte, which was still far away.  The bronze figures of the Indians, silent and impassive as they listened to their chief, fitted wonderfully into the wilderness scene, and the white men in forest green, their faces tanned and fierce, were scarcely less wild in look and figure.  Robert felt once more a great thrill of pride that he had been chosen a member of such a company.

They talked less than five minutes.  Then Black Rifle, alone as usual because he preferred invariably to be alone, disappeared in the woods to the right of the great trail.  Three young warriors, uncommonly swift of foot, soon followed him, and three more as nimble of heel as the others, sank from sight in the forest to the left.  Both right and left soon swallowed up several of the rangers also, who were not inferior as scouts and trailers to the Mohawks.