y
comparison. He had seen how the talk of de Courcelles had lighted a fire
in the soul of Lennox, he had seen how even Willett, the wary, had been
stirred, but he, Tayoga, had been left cold. He had read the purpose
behind it all, and never for an instant did he let himself put any faith
in de Courcelles or Jumonville.

The air of the room was heavy and fetid to Tayoga. His free spirit
detected poison in the atmosphere of Quebec, and, for the moment, he
longed to be in the great, pure wilderness, pure at least to one of his
race. He opened the window more widely and inhaled the breeze which was
coming from the north, out of vast clean forests, that no white man
save the trapper had ever entered.

He looked upward, at first toward the blue sky and its clustering stars,
and then, turning his eyes to the open space near the inn, caught sight
of two shadowy figures. The Onondaga was alert upon the instant, because
he knew those figures, thin though they seemed in the dusk. One was
Tandakora, the Ojibway, and the other was Auguste de Courcelles, Colonel
in the French army, a pair most unlike, yet talking together earnestly
now.

Tayoga was not at all surprised. He had pierced the mind of de
Courcelles and he had expected him to seek Tandakora. He watched them a
full five minutes, until the Ojibway slipped away in the darkness, and
de Courcelles turned back toward the inn, walking slowly, and apparently
very thoughtful.

Tayoga thought once of going outside to follow Tandakora, but he decided
that no good object would be served by it and remained at the window,
where the wind out of the cold north could continue to blow upon him. He
knew that the Indian and de Courcelles had entered into some conspiracy,
but he believed they could guard against it, and in good time it would
disclose itself.

There might be many hidden trails in a city like Quebec, but he meant to
discover the one that Tandakora followed. He remained an hour at the
window, and then without awaking his comrades to tell what he had seen
went back to his bed. Nor did he say anything about it when they awoke
in the morning. He preferred to keep Tandakora as his especial charge.
A coming chief of the clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga, of the
great League of the Hodenosaunee, would know how to deal with a savage
Ojibway out of the western forests.

At breakfast, Robert wondered what they would do during the coming day,
as it was not advisable to go mu