The powerful lenses at once brought the island very near, and trees and bushes became detached from the general mass, until he saw between them the French and Indian camp.  As Tayoga had asserted, many of the warriors were asleep on the grass.  When nothing was to be done, the Indian could do it with a perfection seldom attained by anybody else.  Tandakora was sitting on a fallen log, looking at the mainland.  As usual, he was bare to the waist, and painted frightfully.  Not far away a Frenchman was sleeping on a cloak, and Robert was quite sure that it was De Courcelles.  St. Luc himself was visible toward the center of the island.  He, too, stood upon a knoll, and he, too, had glasses with which he was studying his foe.

“The command of the water,” said Rogers, “is heavily against us.  If we had only been quick enough to build big boats of our own, the tale to be told would have been very different.”

“And if by any means,” said Willet, “we contrive to drive them from the island, they can easily retreat in their fleet to another, and they could repeat the process indefinitely.  George has many islands.”

“Then why not capture their fleet?” said Robert in a moment of inspiration.

Rogers and Willet looked at each other.

“It’s queer we didn’t think of that before,” said the hunter.

“’Twill be an attempt heavy with danger,” said Rogers.

“So it will, my friend, but have we shirked dangers?  Don’t we live and sleep with danger?”

“I was merely stating the price, Dave.  I was making no excuse for shirking.”

“I know it, old friend.  Whoever heard of Robert Rogers shunning danger?  We’ll have a talk with Daganoweda, and you, Robert, since you suggested the plan, and you, Tayoga, since you’ve a head full of wisdom, shall be present at the conference.”

The Mohawk chieftain came, and, when the scheme was laid before him, he was full of eagerness for it.

“Every one of my warriors will be glad to go,” he said, “and I, as becomes my place, will lead them.  It will be a rare deed, and the news of it will be heard with wonder and admiration in all our castles.”

He spoke in the language of the Ganeagaono, which all the others understood perfectly, and the two white leaders knew they could rely upon the courage and enthusiasm of the Mohawks.

“It depends upon the sun whether we shall succeed tonight or not,” said Tayoga, glancing up at the heavens, “and at present he gives no promise of favoring us.  The sun, as you know, Dagaeoga, is with us the Sun God, also, whom we call Areskoui, or now and then Aieroski, and who is sometimes almost the same as Manitou.”

“I know,” said Robert, who had an intimate acquaintance with the complex Pantheon of the Hodenosaunee, which was yet not so complex after all, and which also had in its way the elements of the Christian religion in all their beauty and majesty.