a fire and a feast.

"I must first put away my spoils," said the Onondaga, his dark eyes
glittering.

"Spoils! What spoils, Tayoga?"

"Powder and lead," he replied, taking a heavy bundle wrapped in
deerskin from beneath his bearskin overcoat. "It weighs a full fifty
pounds, and it made my return journey very wearisome. Catch it,
Dagaeoga!"

Robert caught, and he saw that it was, in truth, powder and lead.

"Now, where did you get this?" he exclaimed. "You couldn't have gone
to any settlement!"

"There is no settlement to go to. I made our enemies furnish the
powder and lead we need so much, and that is surely the cheapest way.
Listen, Dagaeoga. I remembered that to the east of us, about two days'
journey, was a long valley sheltered well and warm, in which Indians
who fight the Hodenosaunee often camp. I thought it likely they would
be there in such a winter as this, and that I might take from them in
the night the powder and lead we need so much.

"I was right. The savages were there, and with them a white man, a
Frenchman, that Charles Langlade, called the Owl, from whom we fled.
They had an abundance of all things, and they were waxing fat, until
they could take the war path in the spring. Then, Dagaeoga, I played
the fox. At night, when they dreamed of no danger, I entered their
biggest lodges, passing as one of them, and came away with the powder
and lead."

"It was a great feat, Tayoga, but are you sure none of them will trail
you here?"

"The surface of the snow and ice melts a little in the noonday sun,
enough to efface all trace of the snowshoes, and my trail is no more
than that made by a bird in its flight through the air. Nor can we be
followed here while we are guarded by the bears, who sleep, but who,
nevertheless, are sentinels."

Tayoga took off his snowshoes, and sank upon a heap of furs in the
cave, while Robert brought him food and inspected the great prize of
ammunition he had brought. The package contained a dozen huge horns
filled with powder, and many small bars of lead, the latter having
made the weight which had proved such a severe trial to the Onondaga.

"Here's enough of both lead and powder to last us throughout the
winter, whatever may happen," said Robert in a tone of intense
satisfaction. "Tayoga, you're certainly a master freebooter. You
couldn't have made a more useful capture."

Each, after the invariable custom of hunters and scouts, carried
bullet molds, and they wer