nd their power was spreading continually. France was
already helping her colonists. When would England help hers?

But Robert forgot all alarm in the pleasure of the voyage. It was a
good sloop, it had a stout Dutch captain, and with a favoring wind
they sped fast southward. Pride in the splendid river swelled in
Robert's soul and he and Tayoga, despite the cold, sat together on the
deck, watching the lofty shores and the distant mountains.

But Willet, anxious of mind, paced back and forth. He had seen much
at Albany that did not please him. The Indian Commissioners were
doing little to cement the alliance with the Hodenosaunee. The
Mohawks, alone of the great League, were giving aid against the
French. The others remained in their villages, keeping a strict
neutrality. That was well as far as it went, but the hunter had hoped
that all the members of the Hodenosaunee would take the field for the
English. He believed that Father Drouillard would soon be back among
the Onondagas, seeking to sway his converts to France, and he dreaded,
too, the activity and persistency of St. Luc.

But he kept his anxieties from Robert, knowing how eagerly the lad
anticipated his arrival in New York, and not blaming him at all for
it, since New York, although inferior in wealth, size and power to
Philadelphia, and in leadership to Boston, was already, in the eye of
the prophets, because of its situation, destined to become the first
city of America. And Willet felt his own pulses beat a little faster
at the thought of New York, a town that he knew well, and already a
port famous throughout the world.

Tayoga, although he wore his Indian dress, attracted no particular
attention from Captain Van Zouten and his crew. Indians could be seen
daily at Albany, and along the river, and they had been for
generations a part of American life. Captain Van Zouten, in truth,
noticed the height and fine bearing of the Onondaga, but he was a
close mouthed Dutchman, and if he felt like asking questions he put
due Dutch restraint upon himself.

The wind held good all day long, and the sloop flew southward, leaving
a long white trail in the blue water, but toward night it rose to a
gale, with heavy clouds that promised snow. Captain Hendrick Van
Zouten looked up with some anxiety at his sails, through which the
wind was now whistling, and, after a consultation with his mate,
decided to draw into a convenient cove and anchor for the night.

"I'm sorry,