himself anew, but in the test of forest
war.

Tayoga having lighted the fire, the hunter cooked the food over it,
while the two youths reposed calmly. Robert watched Willet with
interest, and he was impressed for the thousandth time by his great
strength, and the lightness of his movements. When he was younger, the
disparity in years had made him think of Willet as an old man, but he
saw now that he was only in early middle age. There was not a gray
hair on his head, and his face was free from wrinkles.

An extraordinarily vivid memory of that night in Quebec when the
hunter had faced Boucher, the bully and bravo, reputed the best
swordsman of France, leaped up in Robert's mind. He had found no time
to think of Willet's past recently and he realized now that he knew
little about it. The origin of that hunter was as obscure as his
own. But the story of the past and its mysteries must wait. The
present was so great and overwhelming that it blotted out everything
else.

"The venison and the bacon are ready," said Willet, "and you two lads
can fall on. You're not what I'd call epicures, but I've never known
your appetites to fail."

"Nor will they," said Robert, as he and Tayoga helped
themselves. "What's the news from Britain, Dave? You must have heard a
lot when you were in Albany."

"It's vague, Robert, vague. The English are slow, just as we Americans
are, too. They're going to send out troops, but the French have
dispatched a fleet and regiments already. The fact that our colonies
are so much larger than theirs is perhaps an advantage to them, as it
gives them a bigger target to aim at, and our people who are trying to
till their farms, will be struck down by their Indians from ambush."

"And you see now what a bulwark the great League of the Hodenosaunee
is to the English," said Tayoga.

"A fact that I've always foreseen," said Willet warmly. "Nobody knows
better than I do the power of the Six Nations, and nobody has ever
been readier to admit it."

"I know, Great Bear. You have always been our true friend. If all the
white men were like you no trouble would ever arise between them and
the Hodenosaunee."

Robert finished his food and resumed a comfortable place against a
tree. Willet put out the fire and he and Tayoga sat down in like
fashion. Their trees were close together, but they did not talk
now. Each was absorbed in his own thoughts and Robert had much to
think about.

The war was going slowly. H