“Not a bit of it, captain.  Dear me, how difficult it is to teach men to have patience!  I have looked upon you as a promising pupil; but there you are, just as hasty and impatient as if you had never spent a day in the woods.  Where should we run to?  We must go up the lake, for we could not pass the point, for fifty canoes would be put out before we got there.  We couldn’t land this side, because the woods are full of redskins; and if we led them for ten miles down the lake, and landed t’other side, scores of them would land between here and there, and would cut us off.

“No, lad; we have got to wait here till it’s getting late.  I don’t say till it’s dark, but till within an hour or so of nightfall.  As long as we show no signs of going, the chances is as they won’t interfere with us.  It’s a part of redskin natur to be patient, and, as long as they see as we don’t try to make off, they will leave us alone.  That’s how I reads it.

“You agrees with me, Jonathan?

“In course, you do,” he went on, as his companion grunted an assent.  “I don’t say as they mayn’t ask a question or so; but I don’t believe as they will interfere with us.

“There is a fish on your line, captain.  You don’t seem, to me, to be attending to your business.”

James, indeed, found it difficult to fix his attention on his line, when he knew that they were watched by hostile eyes, and that, at any moment, a conflict might begin.  The canoe that had come out last had shaped its course so as to pass close to those fishing outside them, and a few words had been exchanged with the occupants of each—­a warning, no doubt, as to the suspicious character of the fishing party near them.  Beyond this, nothing had happened.  The Indians in the canoe had let down their lines, and seemed as intent as the others upon their fishing.

The hours passed slowly.  Under other circumstances, James would have enjoyed the sport, for the fish bit freely, and a considerable number were soon lying in the canoe.  Nat and Jonathan appeared as interested in their work as if no other boat, but their own, were afloat on the lake.  Never once did James see them glance towards the canoes.  They did not talk much, but when they spoke, it was always in the Indian tongue.

The time seemed endless, before the sun began to sink beyond the low hills on their left.  It was an intense relief, to James, when Nat said at last: 

“The time is just at hand now, cap.  The redskins are tired of waiting.  At least, they think that they had better not put it off any longer.  They know, as well as we do, that it won’t do to wait till it gets dark.

“Do you see that canoe, that came out last, is paddling down towards us?  It looks as if it were drifting, but I have seen them dip a paddle in, several times.  The others are pulling up their lines, so as to be in readiness to join in.  Get your piece ready to pick up, and aim the moment I give the word.  They think they are going to surprise us, but we must be first with them.  Go on with your fishing, and just drop your line overboard, when you pick up your gun.”