The swimming line was approaching fast, and a few more strokes would bring them to the canoes, when one of the warriors on the land suddenly came from the shelter of his tree, leaned forward a little and peered intently from under his shading hand.  He had seen at last the dark heads on the dark water, and springing back he uttered a fierce whoop.

“Now we swim for our lives and victory!” said Tayoga.

Willet and Daganoweda, attempting no farther concealment, cried to their men to hurry.  In a moment more the boarders were among the boats.  Robert shut his eyes as the knives flashed in the dusk, and the dead bodies of the sentinels were thrown into the water.  He seized the side of a long canoe, which he gladly found to be empty, pulled himself in, to discover Tayoga sitting just in front of him, paddle in hand also.  All around him men, red and white, were laying hold of canoes and boats and at the edge of the water the sentinels were attacking.

On the island a terrific turmoil arose.  Despite the rain a great fire flared up as the forces of St. Luc kindled some bonfire anew, and they heard him shouting in French and more than one Indian language to his men.  They heard also heavy splashes, as the warriors leaped into the water to defend their fleet.  A dark figure rose up by the side of the boat in which young Lennox and his comrade sat.  The knife of Tayoga flashed and Robert involuntarily shut his eyes.  When he opened them again the dark figure was gone, and the knife was back in the Onondaga’s belt.

St. Luc, although surprised again, was rallying his men fast.  The French were shouting their battle cries, the Indians were uttering the war whoop, as they poured down to the edge of the island, leaping into the lake to save their fleet.  The water was filled with dusky forms, Mohawk and Huron met in the death grasp, and sometimes they found their fate beneath the waters, held tight in the arms of each other.  Confused and terrible struggles for the boats ensued, and in the darkness and rain it was knife and hatchet and then paddles, which many snatched up and used as clubs.

Above the tumult Robert heard the trumpet tones of St. Luc cheering his men and directing them.  Once he caught a glimpse of him standing up to his knees in the water, waving the small gold-hilted sword that he carried so often, and he might have brought him down with a bullet had he carried a rifle, but he would have had no thought of drawing trigger upon him.  Then he was gone in the mist, and the gigantic painted figure of Tandakora appeared in his place for a moment.  Then the mists closed in for a second time, and he saw through it only fleeting forms and flashes of fire, when rifles and muskets were fired by the enemy.