at he had learned by
natural aptitude and long practice. He went back slowly, but the grass
stems moved only a little as he went, and he was confident that he not
only had not been seen, but would not be seen. Yet he scarcely dared to
breathe--until he reached the bushes inclosing the opening in which his
comrades lay.

He paused a few moments before waking the others and filled his lungs
with air. He was surprised to find that the hands holding his rifle were
damp with perspiration, and he realized then how great the brief strain
had been. Suppose he had not seen the Indian in the bush, and had been
ambushed while on his scouting round! Or suppose he had stayed with his
comrades and had been ambushed there! But neither had happened, and,
taking Willet by the shoulder, he shook him, at the same time whispering
in his ear to make no noise. The hunter, his trained faculties at once
awake and on guard, sat up quietly, and Tayoga, who seemed to awake
instinctively at the same time, also, sat up.

"What is it, Robert?" whispered Willet.

"An Indian in the bush about two hundred yards away," replied the youth.
"I merely saw his hair and the feather in it, but it's safe to assume
that he's not the only one."

"That is so," said Tayoga. "A warrior does not come here alone."

"It can't be the band we beat off when we were in the hollow," said
Willet confidently. "They must be far south of us, even if they haven't
given up the chase."

"It is so, Great Bear," said Tayoga. "Was the warrior's head bare,
Lennox, or did he have the headdress, gustoweh, like mine?"

"I think," replied Robert, "that the feather projected something like
yours, perhaps from a cross-splint."

"Could you tell from what bird the feather came?"

"Yes, I saw that much. It was the plume of an eagle."

Tayoga mused a moment or two. Then he put two fingers to his mouth and
blew between them a mellow, peculiar whistle, much like the notes of a
deep-throated forest bird. He waited half a minute and a reply exactly
similar came.

"These," said Tayoga, "are our people," and rising and parting the
bushes, he walked, upright and fearless, toward the thicket in which
Robert had seen the warrior. Robert and Willet, influenced by boldness
as people always are, followed him with confidence, their rifles not
thrust forward, but lying in the hollows of their arms.

A dozen warriors issued from the thicket, at their head a tall man of
middle age, open and nobl