h."

"There can be no doubt about my gladness, Lennox, if it should come
true, but the elements seem to have conspired against him, and I've
learned that in the wilderness the elements count very heavily."

"Earth, fire and water may all join against him, but at the time
appointed he will come. I know it."

The great cold, and it was hard, fierce and bitter, lasted two
days. At night the popping of the contracting timbers sounded like a
continuous pistol fire, but Willet had foreseen everything. At his
instance, Colden had made the young soldiers gather vast quantities of
fuel long ago from a forest which was filled everywhere with dead
boughs and fallen timber, the accumulation of scores of years.

Then another great thaw came, and the fickle climate proceeded to show
what it could do. When the thaw had been going on for a day and a
night a terrific winter hurricane broke over the forest. Trees were
shattered as if their trunks had been shot through by huge cannon
balls. Here and there long windrows were piled up, and vast areas were
a litter of broken boughs.

"As I reckon, and allowing for the marvels you say he can perform,
Tayoga is now in the vale of Onondaga, Lennox," said Wilton. "It's
lucky that he's there in the comfortable log houses of his own people,
because a man could scarcely live in the forest in such a storm as
this, as he would be beaten to death by flying timbers."

"This time, Will, you're wrong in both assumptions. Tayoga has
already been to the vale of Onondaga. He has spent there the half day
that he allowed to himself, and now on the return journey has left the
vale far behind him. I told you how sensitive he was to the changes of
the weather, and he knew it was coming several hours before it
arrived. He sought at once protection, probably a cleft in the rock,
or an opening of two or three feet under a stony ledge. He is lying
there now, just as snug and safe as you please, while this storm,
which covers a vast area, rages over his head. There is much that is
primeval in Tayoga, and his comfort and safety make him fairly enjoy
the storm. As he lies under the ledge with his blanket drawn around
him, he is warm and dry and his sense of comfort, contrasting his
pleasant little den with the fierce storm without, becomes one of
luxury."

"I suppose of course, Lennox, that you can shut your eyes and see him
once more without any trouble."

"In all truth and certainty I can, Will. He is lying