ority to Tayoga. Instead he paid him respect where respect was due
because, born to a great place in a great race, he was equal to it. He
understood, too, why the Hodenosaunee seemed immutable and eternal to
its people, as ancient Rome had once seemed unshakable and everlasting
to the Romans, and, understanding, he kept his peace.

The lake, slender and long, now narrowed to a width of forty or fifty
yards and curved sharply toward the east. They slowed down with habitual
caution, until they could see what lay in front of them. Robert and
Tayoga rested their paddles, and Willet sent the canoe around the curve.
The fresh reach of water was peaceful too, unruffled by the craft of any
enemy, and on either side the same lofty banks of solid green stretched
ahead. Above and beyond the cliffs rose the distant peaks and ridges of
the high mountains. The whole was majestic and magnificent beyond
comparison. Robert and Tayoga, their paddles still idle, breathed it in
and felt that Manitou, who is the same as God, had lavished work upon
this region, making it good to the eye of all men for all time.

"How far ahead is the cove, Tayoga?" asked Willet.

"About a mile," replied the Onondaga.

"Then we'd better put in there, and look for game. We've got mighty
little venison."

"It is so," said Tayoga, using his favorite words of assent. Neither he
nor Robert resumed the paddle, leaving the work for the rest of the way
to the hunter, who was fully equal to the task. His powerful arms swept
the broad blade through the water, and the canoe shot forward at a
renewed pace. Long practice and training had made him so skillful at the
task that his breath was not quickened by the exertion. It was a
pleasure to Robert to watch the ease and power with which he did so
much.

The lake widened as they advanced, and through a change in the color of
the sky the water here seemed silver rather than blue. A flock of wild
ducks swam near the edge and he saw two darting loons, but there was no
other presence. Silence, beauty and majesty were everywhere, and he was
content to go on, without speaking, infused with the spirit of the
wilderness.

The cove showed after a while, at first a mere slit that only a wary eye
could have seen, and then a narrow opening through which a small creek
flowed into the lake. Willet, with swift and skillful strokes of the
paddle, turned the canoe into the stream and advanced some distance up
it, until he stopped at