lm and measured tones. "It is
true that warriors who were with them fell beneath our bullets, but they
came swimming in the night, seeking to murder us while we slept, and
while there is yet no war between us. An Onondaga or a Mohawk or any
warrior of the Hodenosaunee hates and despises a snake."

The words, quiet though they were, were fairly filled with concentrated
loathing. The eyes of the huge Ojibway flashed and his clutch on the
handle of his tomahawk tightened convulsively, but the fixed gaze of the
hunter seemed to draw him at that moment. He saw that Willet's eyes were
upon him, that every muscle was attuned and that the tomahawk would leap
from his belt like a flash of lightning, and seeing, Tandakora paused.

The two Frenchmen looked at Tayoga, at Tandakora and at Willet. Then
they looked at each other, and being acute men with a full experience of
forest life, they understood the silent drama.

"I don't undertake to pass any judgment here," said de Courcelles, after
a pause. "It is the word of one warrior against another, and I cannot
say which is the better. But since you are going to the Marquis Duquesne
at Quebec, Mr. Lennox, the matter may be laid before him, and it is for
those who make charges to bring proof."

The words were silky, but Robert saw that they were intended to weave a
net.

"We are on an official mission from the Governor of the Province of New
York to the Governor General of Canada," he said. "We cannot be tried at
Quebec for an offense that we have never committed, and for our
commission of which you have only the word of a barbarian who twice
tried to murder us."

The hand of Tandakora on the handle of his tomahawk again made a
convulsive movement, but the gaze of the hunter was fixed upon him with
deadly menace, and another hand equally as powerful and perhaps quicker
than his own was clutched around the handle of another tomahawk. Again
the Ojibway paused and chose the way of peace.

"Patience, Tandakora," said Jumonville, taking the initiative for the
first time. "If you have suffered wrongs Onontio will avenge them. His
eye sees everything, and he does not forget his children of the western
forests."

"When we first saw him," said Robert, "he was with the Chevalier Raymond
Louis de St. Luc, who was going with belts from the Marquis Duquesne to
the council of the fifty chiefs in the vale of Onondaga. Now he has come
on another course, and is here far from the vale of Onond