now nothing that will keep us from being friends," replied the lad,
although he knew well what the Frenchman meant.

"Nor do I," said St. Luc. "It was merely a casual reference to the
changes that affect us all. I shall come to Albany some day, Mr. Lennox.
It is an interesting town, though perhaps somewhat staid and sober."

"If you come," said Robert sincerely, "I hope I shall be there, and it
would please me to have you as a guest."

St. Luc gave him a sharp, examining look.

"I believe you mean it," he said. "It's possible that you and I are
going to see much of each other. One can never tell what meetings time
will bring about. And now having accepted your hospitality and thanking
you for it, we must go."

He rose. Dubois, who had not spoken at all, threw over his shoulder the
heavy knapsack, and the Ojibway also stood up, gigantic and sinister.

"We go to the Vale of Onondaga," said St. Luc, turning his attention
back to Tayoga, "and as you advised I shall lay the peace belt before
the fifty sachems of the Hodenosaunee, assembled in council in the Long
House."

"Go to the southwest," said Tayoga, "and you will find the great trail
that leads from the Hudson to the mighty lakes of the west. The warriors
of the Hodenosaunee have trod it for generations, and it is open to the
son of Onontio."

The young Indian's face was a mask, but his words and their tone alike
were polite and dignified. St. Luc bowed, and then bowed to the others
in turn.

"At Albany some day," he said to young Lennox, and his smile was very
winning.

"At Albany some day," repeated Robert, and he hoped the prophecy would
come true.

Then St. Luc turned away, followed by the Canadian, with the Indian in
the rear. None of the three looked back and the last Robert saw of them
was a fugitive gleam of the chevalier's white uniform through the green
leaves of the forest. Then the mighty wilderness swallowed them up, as a
pebble is lost in a lake. Robert looked awhile in the direction in which
they had gone, still seeing them in fancy.

"How much does their presence here signify?" he asked thoughtfully.

"They would have the Hodenosaunee to forget Frontenac," replied Tayoga.

"And will the Six Nations forget him?"

"The fifty sachems in council alone can tell."

Robert saw that the young Onondaga would not commit himself, even to
him, and he did not ask anything more, but the hunter spoke plainly.

"We must wake up those fat Indian co