Robert felt at first a chill from the water, as Andiatarocte, set among its northern mountains, is usually cold, but after a few vigorous strokes the blood flowed warm in his veins again, and the singular exciting quality with which the mists and vapors seemed to be surcharged entered his mind also.  The great pulse in his throat leaped, and the pulses in his temples beat hard.  His sensitive and imaginative mind, that always went far ahead of the present, had foreseen all the dangers, and, physically at least, he had felt keen apprehension when he stepped into the lake.  But now it was gone.  Youth and the strong comrades around him gave imagination another slant, allowing it to paint wonderful deeds achieved, and victory made complete.

His eyes, which in his condition of superheated fancy enlarged or intensified everything manifold, saw a flash of light near him.  It was merely Tayoga drawing his knife from his belt and putting the blade between his teeth, where the whitish mist that served for illumination had thrown back a reflection.  He glanced farther down the swimming line and saw that many others had drawn their hunting knives and had clasped them between their teeth, where they would be ready for instant use.  Mechanically he did likewise, and he felt something flow from the cold steel into his body, heating his blood and inciting him to battle.  He knew at the time that it was only imagination, but the knowledge itself took nothing from the power of the sensation.  He became every instant more eager for combat.

It seemed that Tayoga caught glimpses of his comrade’s face and with his Onondaga insight read his mind.

“Dagaeoga, who wishes harm to nobody, now craves the battle, nevertheless,” he said, taking the knife from between his teeth for a moment or two.

“I’m eager to be in it as soon as I can in order to have it over as soon as we can,” said Robert, imitating him.

“You may think the answer wholly true, though it is only partly so.  There come times when the most peaceful feel the incitement of war.”

“I believe it’s the strangeness of the night, the quality of the air we breathe and that singular veiling of the sun just when we wished it, and as if in answer to our prayers.”

“That is one of the reasons, Dagaeoga.  We cannot see Areskoui, because he is on the other side of the world now, but he turned his face toward us and bade us go and win.  Nor can we see Tododaho on his star, because of the mighty veil that has been drawn between, but the great Onondaga chief who went away to eternal life more than four hundred centuries ago still watches over his own, and I know that his spirit is with us.”

“Can you see the island yet, Tayoga?  My eyes make out a shadow in the mist, but whether it’s land, or merely a darker stream of vapor, I can’t tell.”

“I am not sure either, but I do not think it is land.  The island is four hundred yards away, and the mist is so thick that neither the earth itself nor the trees and bushes would yet appear through it.”