ight."

"And some of them will stop for our benefit, though we have bear meat
too! I see, Tayoga."

Robert watched the flying cloud, which had grown larger and blacker,
and then he saw that Tayoga was right. It was an immense flock of wild
pigeons, and, as the twilight fell, they covered the trees upon their
crest so thickly that the boughs bent beneath them. Young Lennox and
the Onondaga killed as many as they wished with sticks, and soon, fat
and juicy, they were broiling over the coals.

"Tandakora will guess that the pigeons have fed us," said Robert, "and
he will not like it, but he will yet know nothing about the water."

They climbed down in turn in the darkness and took a drink, and
Robert, who explored a little, found many vines loaded with wild
grapes, ripe and rich, which made a splendid dessert. Then he took
a number of the smaller but very tough stems, and knotting them
together, with the assistance of Tayoga ran a strong rope from the
crest down to the fountain, thus greatly easing the descent for water
and the return.

"Now we can take two drinks where we took one before," he said
triumphantly when the task was finished. "If you have your water there
is nothing like making it easy to be reached. Moreover, while it was
safe for an agile fellow like me, you and Dave, Tayoga, being stiff
and clumsy, might have tumbled down the mountain and then I should
have been lonesome."

Willet, who had been keeping the watch alone, was inclined to the
belief that they might expect an attack in the night, if it should
prove to be very dark. He felt able, however, should such an attempt
come, to detect the advance of the savages, either by sight or
hearing, especially the latter, ear in such cases generally informing
him earlier than eye. But as neither Robert nor Tayoga was busy they
joined him, and all three sat near the brink with their rifles across
their knees, and their pistols loosened in their belts, ready for
their foes should they come in numbers.

They talked a while in low tones, and then fell silent. The night had
come, starless and moonless, favorable to the designs of Tandakora,
but they felt intense satisfaction, nevertheless. It was partly
physical. Robert's making of an easy road to the water, the coming of
the pigeons, to be eaten, apparently sent by Areskoui, and the ease
with which they believed they could hold their lofty fortress,
combined to produce a victorious state of mind. Robert looke