an
repeat the letter to Colonel Johnson, and let's hope you'll be in
time. Now good-by, and God bless you both."

Willet never displayed emotion, but his feeling was very deep as he
wrung the outstretched hand of each. Then he turned at an angle to the
east and south and disappeared in the undergrowth.

"He has been more than a father to me," said Robert.

"The Great Bear is a man, a man who is pleasing to Areskoui himself,"
said Tayoga with emphasis.

"Do you think he will get safely through?"

"There is no warrior, not even of the Clan of the Bear, of the Nation
Onondaga, of the great League of the Hodenosaunee, who can surpass the
Great Bear in forest skill and cunning. In the night he will creep by
Tandakora himself, with such stealth, that not a leaf will stir, and
there will be not the slightest whisper in the grass. His step, too,
will be so light that his trail will be no more than a bird's in the
air."

Robert laughed and felt better.

"You don't stint the praise of a friend, Tayoga," he said, "but I know
that at least three-fourths of what you say is true. Now, I take it
that you and I are to play the hare to Langlade's hounds, and that in
doing so we'll be of great help to Dave."

"Aye," agreed the Onondaga, and they swung into their gait. Robert had
received Garay's pistol which, being of the same bore as his own, was
now loaded with bullet and powder, instead of bullet and paper, and it
swung at his belt, while Tayoga carried the intermediary's rifle, a
fine piece. It made an extra burden, but they had been unwilling
to throw it away--a rifle was far too valuable on the border to be
abandoned.

They maintained a good pace until noon, and, as they heard no sound
behind them, less experienced foresters than they might have thought
the pursuit had ceased, but they knew better. It had merely settled
into that tenacious kind which was a characteristic of the Indian
mind, and unless they could hide their trail it would continue in the
same determined manner for days. At noon, they paused a half hour in a
dense grove and ate bear and deer meat, sauced with some fine, black
wild grapes, the vines hanging thick on one of the trees.

"Think of those splendid banquets we enjoyed when Garay was sitting
looking at us, though not sharing with us," said Robert.

Tayoga smiled at the memory and said:

"If he had been able to hold out a little longer he would have had
plenty of food, and we would not have ha