n to cover. There is not one among them who is willing to
face again the rifle of the Great Bear."

Willet smiled with satisfaction at the compliment. He was proud of his
sharp-shooting, and justly so, but he said modestly:

"I had a fair target, and it will do for a warning. I think we can look
for another long rest now."

The dark period that precedes the dawn came, and then the morning
flashed over the woods. Robert, from the hollow, looking across the far
shore, saw lofty, wooded hills and back of them blue mountains. Beads of
rain stood on the leaves, and the wilderness seemed to emerge, fresh and
dripping, from a glorious bath. Pleasant odors of the wild came to him,
and now he felt the sting of imprisonment there among the rocks. He
wished they could go at once on their errand. It was a most unfortunate
chance to have been found there by the Indians and to be held
indefinitely in siege. The flooded river would have borne them swiftly
in their canoe toward the St. Lawrence.

"Mourning, Robert?" said Willet who noticed his face.

"For the moment, yes," admitted young Lennox, "but it has passed. I
wanted to be going on this lively river and through the green wood, but
since I have to wait I can do it."

"I feel the same way about it, and we're lucky to have such a fort as
the one we are in. I think the savages will hang on here for a long
while. Indians always have plenty of time. That's why they're more
patient than white men. Like as not we won't get a peep out of them all
the morning."

"Lennox feels the beauty of the day," said Tayoga, "and that's why he
wants to leave the hollow and go into the woods. But if Lennox will only
think he'll know that other days as fine will come."

The eye of the young Onondaga twinkled as he delivered his jesting
advice.

"I'll be as patient as I can," replied Robert in the same tone, "but
tomorrow is never as good as today. I wait like you and Dave only
because I have to do so."

"In the woods you must do as the people who live there do," said the
hunter philosophically. "They learn how to wait when they're young. We
don't know how long we'll be here. A little more of the deer, Tayoga.
It's close to the middle of the day now and we must keep our strength. I
wish we had better water than that of a flooded and muddy river to
drink, but it's water, anyhow."

They ate, drank and refreshed themselves and another long period of
inaction followed. The warriors--at interval