Robert’s fancy was so intense and creative that, beginning by imagining these things so, he made them so.  The band therefore was sure to go on without searching the thickets on either right or left at present, and all immediate apprehension disappeared from his mind.  Tandakora and De Courcelles were in the center of the moonlight, and although knowing them evil, he was surprised to see how very evil their faces looked, each in its own red or white way.  He could remember nothing at that moment but their wickedness, and their treacherous attacks upon his life and those of his friends, and the memory clothed them about with a hideous veil through which only their cruel souls shone.  It was characteristic of him that he should always see everything in extreme colors, and in his mind the good were always very good and the bad were very bad.

Hence it was to him an actual physical as well as mental relief, when the Frenchman, the Ojibway and their band, passing on, were blotted from his eyes by the forest.  Then he turned back to the thicket in which his comrades lay, and bent over them for the purpose of awakening them.  But before he could speak or lay a hand upon either, Tayoga sat up, his eyes wide open.

“You come with news that the enemy has been at hand!”

“Yes, but how did you know it?”

“I see it in your look, and, also when I slept, the Keeper of Dreams whispered it in my ear.  An evil wind, too, blew upon my face and I knew it was the breath of De Courcelles and Tandakora.  They have been near.”

“They and their entire band passed not more than four hundred yards to the eastward of us.  I lay in the bush and saw them distinctly.  They’re trying to beat us to Fort Refuge.”

“But they won’t do it, because we won’t let ’em,” said Willet, who had awakened at the talking.  “We’ll make a curve and get ahead of ’em again.  You watched well, Robert.”

“I obeyed the strict injunctions of Tayoga,” said young Lennox, smiling faintly.  “He bade me listen so intently that I should hear the rustle of a dry leaf when a moccasin touched it a mile away in the forest.  Well, I heard it, and going whence the sound came I saw De Courcelles, Tandakora and their warriors pass by.”

“You love to paint pictures with words, Robert.  I see that well, but ’tis not likely that you exaggerate so much, after all.  I’m sorry you won’t get your share of sleep, but we must be up and away.”

“I’ll claim a double portion of it later on, Dave, but I agree with you that what we need most just now is silence and speed, and speed and silence.”

The three, making a curve toward the east, traveled at high speed through the rest of the night, Tayoga now leading and showing all his inimitable skill as a forest trailer.  In truth, the Onondaga was in his element.  His spirits, like Robert’s, rose as dangers grew thicker around them, and he had been affected less than either of his comrades by the terrible slaughter of Braddock’s men.  Mentally at least, he was more of a stoic, and woe to the vanquished was a part of the lore of all the Indian tribes.  The French and their allies had struck a heavy blow and there was nothing left for the English and Americans to do but to strike back.  It was all very simple.