ds of the two big
men met in a warm clasp.

"You see I've brought the boys back to you again, Jacob," said the
hunter.

"But what reckless lads they've become," grumbled Mynheer Huysman. "I
can see the mischief in their eyes now. They wass bad enough when they
went to school here und lived with me, but since they've run wild in
the forests this house iss not able to hold them."

"Don't you worry, Jacob, old friend. These arms and shoulders of mine
are still strong, and if they make you trouble I will deal with
them. But we just stopped a minute to inquire into the state of your
health. Can you tell us which is now the best inn in Albany?"

The face of Mynheer Jacobus Huysman flamed, and his eyes blazed in the
center of it, two great red lights.

"Inn! Inn!" he roared in his queer mixture of English, Dutch and
German accent "Iss it that your head hass been struck by lightning und
you haf gone crazy? If there wass a thousand inns at Albany you und
Robert und Tayoga could not stop at one uf them. Iss not the house uf
Jacobus Huysman good enough for you?"

Robert, Tayoga and the hunter laughed aloud.

"He did but make game of you, Mynheer Jacobus," said Robert. "We will
alter your statement and say if there were a thousand inns in Albany
you could not make us stay at any one of them. Despite your commands
we would come directly to your house."

Mynheer Jacobus Huysman permitted himself to smile. But his voice
renewed its grumbling tone.

"Ever the same," he said. "You must stay here, although only the good
Lord himself knows in what condition my house will be when you
leave. You are two wild lads. It iss not so strange uf you, Robert
Lennox, who are white, but I would expect better uf Tayoga, who is to
be a great Onondaga chief some day."

"You make a great mistake, Mynheer Jacobus," said Robert. "Tayoga is
far worse than I am. All the mischief that I have ever done was due to
his example and persuasion. It is my misfortune that I have a weak
nature, and I am easily led into evil by my associates."

"It iss not so. You are equally bad. Bring in your baggage und I will
see if Caterina, der cook, cannot find enough for you three, who
always eat like raging lions."

The soldiers, who were to return immediately to Colonel William
Johnson, rode away with their horses, and Robert, Tayoga and Willet
took their packs into the house of Mynheer Huysman, who grumbled
incessantly while he and a manservant and a maidserv