ail, and nothing to alarm us that I
noted, save once when I saw another stone set upon a stone; but I knew
my Oneidas had also seen and examined it, and it had not alarmed them
sufficiently to send a warrior back to me.

It was an Oneida symbol; but, of course, my scouts had not set it up.
Therefore it must have been placed there by an enemy, but for what
purpose except to arrest the attention of an Oneida and prepare him for
later signals, I could not yet determine. Mount had seen it, and spoken
of it, but I shook my head, bidding him keep his eyes sharpened for
further signs.

Signs came sooner than I expected. We passed stone after stone set on
end, all emphasizing the desire of somebody to arrest the attention of
an Oneida. Could it be I? A vague premonition had scarcely taken shape
in my mind when, at a turn in the road, I came upon three of my Oneida
scouts standing in the center of the road. The seven others must have
gone on, for I saw nothing of them. The next moment I caught sight of
something that instantly riveted and absorbed my attention.

From a huge pine towering ahead of us, and a little to the right, a
great square of bark had been carefully removed about four feet from
the ground. On this fresh white scar were painted three significant
symbols--the first a red oblong, about eighteen inches by four, on
which were designed two human figures, representing Indians, holding
hands. Below that, drawn in dark blue, were a pair of stag's antlers,
of five prongs; below the antlers--a long way below--was depicted in
black a perfectly recognizable outline of a timber-wolf.

I rode up to the tree and examined the work. The paint was still soft
and fresh on the raw wood. Flies swarmed about it. I looked at Little
Otter, making a sign, and his scarcely perceptible nod told me that I
had read the message aright.

The message was for me, personally and exclusively; and the red man who
had traced it there not an hour since was an Iroquois, either Canienga,
Onondaga, Cayuga, or Seneca--I know not which. Roughly, the translation
of the message was this: The Wolf meant me because about it were traced
the antlers, symbol of chieftainship, and below, on the ground, the
symbol of the Oneida Nation, a long, narrow stone, upright, embedded in
the moss. The red oblong smear represented a red-wampum belt; the
figures on it indicated that, although the belt was red, meaning war,
the clasped hands modified the menace, so that