me. Yet he showed the stoicism that he had
learned in a forest life. While the Indians bound his wrists tightly
with rawhide thongs he stood up and looked them squarely in the face.

One of the warriors took his rifle and examined it with a pleased
eye. Another appropriated his pistol and a third helped himself to his
knife and hatchet.

"I've four shillings in an inside pocket," said Robert. "If you want
'em, take 'em."

But the warriors did not understand English and shook their heads.
Evidently they were satisfied with the spoil they had taken already.

"Which way?" asked Robert.

They replied by leading him to the northwest. He was hopeful at first
that Tayoga might rescue him as he had done once before, but the
warriors were wary and powerful, and three, too, were too many for the
Onondaga alone to attack. The thought passed and by an effort of the
will he resigned himself to his immediate captivity. They did not mean
to take his life, and while there was no hope for the present there
was plenty of it for the future. He could be in a far worse case. His
unfailing optimism broke through the shell of mortification, and he
became resolutely cheerful.

"Which way, my friends?" he said to the warriors.

But again they understood no English and shook their heads.

"Don't plume yourself too much on that rifle," he said, speaking to
the warrior who had taken his favorite weapon. "You have it for the
present, but when I escape for the second time I mean to take it with
me. I give you fair warning."

The warrior, who seemed to be good natured, shook his head once more,
and grinned, not abating at all his air of proprietorship so far as
the rifle was concerned.

"And you with the pistol," continued the prisoner, "I beg to tell
you it's mine, not yours, and I shall claim it again. What, you don't
understand? Well, I'll have to find some way to make you comprehend
later on."

The three warriors walked briskly and Robert, of course, had no choice
but to keep pace with them. They indicated very conclusively that they
knew where they meant to go, and so he assumed that a hostile camp was
not very far away. Resolved to show no sign of discouragement, he held
his head erect and stepped springily.

About three miles, and he saw a gleam of uniforms through the trees,
a few steps more and his heart gave a leap. He beheld a group
of Indians, and several Frenchmen, and one of them, tall, young,
distinguished, was St. Luc.