ut with
uncommon brilliancy, filling the forest with a misty, silver light. Robert
now saw Tandakora and his men so clearly that it seemed impossible for them
not to see him. Once more he had the instinctive desire to press himself
into the earth, but his mind told him that absolute silence was the most
necessary thing. As he lay, he could have picked off Tandakora with a
bullet from his rifle, and, so far as the border was concerned, he felt
that his own life was worth the sacrifice, but he loved his life and the
Ojibway might be put out of the way at some other time and place.

Tayoga's Tododaho protected him once more. Two of the Indians wanted water
and they started in search of a brook which was never far away in that
region. It seemed for a moment or two that they would walk directly into
the dip, where scattered ashes lay, but the great Onondaga turned them
aside just in time and they found at another point the water they wished.
Robert's extreme tension lasted until they were back with the others.
Nevertheless their harmless return encouraged him in the belief that the
star was working in his behalf.

The Indians were in no hurry. They talked freely over their task of
dressing and quartering the deer, and often they were so near that Robert
could hear distinctly what they said, but only once or twice did they use a
dialect that he could understand, and then they were speaking of the great
victory of Oswego, in which they confirmed the inference, drawn from the
spoils, that they like Tandakora had taken a part. They were in high good
humor, expecting more triumphs, and regarded the new French commander,
Montcalm, as a great and invincible leader.

Robert was glad, then, that he was such an insignificant mote in the
wilderness and had he the power he would have made himself so small that he
would have become invisible, but as that was impossible he still trusted
in Tayoga's Tododaho. The Indian chief gave two of the warriors an order,
and they started on a course that would have brought them straight to him.
The lad gave himself up for lost, but, intending to make a desperate fight
for it, despite his weakness, his hand crept to the hammer and trigger of
his rifle. Something moved in the thicket, a bear, perhaps, or a lynx, and
the two Indians, when they were within twenty feet of him, turned aside to
investigate it. Then they went on, and it was quite clear again to Robert
that he had been right about the friend