and for the present at least he'll have to quit scalp hunting.
But how he must hate us!"

"Let him hate," said Robert. "I don't care how much his hate increases,
so long as he can't lie in ambush for us. It's pretty oppressive to have
an invisible death lurking around you, unable to fend it off, and never
knowing when or where it will strike."

"But we did fend it off," said the big hunter, as he reloaded the rifle
of which he had made such good use. "And now I can see the stream
widening ahead of us, with natural meadows on either side, where no
enemy can lay an ambush. Easy now, lads! The danger has passed. That
fiend is lying in the thicket binding up his wounded shoulder as best he
can, and tomorrow we'll be in Canada. Draw in your paddles, and I'll
take mine. You're entitled to a rest. You couldn't have done better if
you had been in a race, and, after all, it was a race for life."

Robert lifted his paddle and watched the silver bubbles fall from it
into the stream. Then he sank back in his seat, relaxing after his great
effort, his breath coming at first in painful gasps, but gradually
becoming long and easy.

"I'm glad we'll be in Canada tomorrow, Dave," he said, "because the
journey has surely been most difficult."

"Pretty thick with dangers, that's true," laughed the hunter, "but we've
run past most of 'em. The rest of the day will be easy, safe and
pleasant."

His prediction came true, their journey on the river continuing without
interruption. Two or three times they saw distant smoke rising above the
forest, but they judged that it came from the camp fires of hunters, and
they paid no further attention to it. That night they took the canoe
from the river once more, carrying it into the woods and sleeping beside
it, and the next day they entered the mighty St. Lawrence.

"This is Canada," said Willet. "Farther west we claim that our territory
comes to the river and that we have a share in it. But here it's surely
French by right of long occupation. We can reach Montreal by night,
where we'll get a bigger boat, and then we'll go on to Quebec. It's a
fine river, isn't it, Robert?"

"So it is," replied Robert, looking at the vast sheet of water, blue
then under a perfectly blue sky, flowing in a mighty mass toward the
sea. Tayoga's eyes sparkled also. The young warrior could feel to the
full the splendors of the great forests, rivers and lakes of his native
land.

"I too shall be glad to see Stadaco