not been walking many miles. I would have followed further, but I felt
that I should come back and tell to my chief, Daganoweda, what I had
seen."

"You have done well, Haace. Some day the Panther will turn into a
chief."

The black eyes of the young warrior flashed with pleasure, but he said
nothing, silence becoming him when he was receiving precious words of
praise from his leader.

"I saw sign of the savages too," said Black Rifle. "I came upon the
coals of a dead fire about two days' old. By the side of it I found
these two red beads that had dropped from the leggings or moccasins of
some warrior. I've seen beads of this kind before, and they all come
from the French in Canada."

"Then," said Robert, speaking for the first time, "you've no doubt the
enemy is near?"

"None in the world," replied Black Rifle, "but I think they're going
west, away from us. It's not likely they know yet we're here, but so
large a band as ours can't escape their notice long."

"If they did not find that we are here," said Daganoweda proudly, "we
would soon tell it to them ourselves, and in such manner that they would
remember it."

"That we would," said Black Rifle, with equal emphasis. "Now, what do
you think, Daganoweda? Should we wake the Great Bear and the Mountain
Wolf?"

"No, Black Rifle. Let them sleep on. They will need tomorrow the sleep
they get tonight. Man lives by day in the sleep that he has at night,
and we wish the eyes of them all to be clear and the arms of them all to
be strong, when the hour of battle, which is not far away, comes to us."

"You're right, Daganoweda, right in both things you say, right that they
need all their strength, and right that we'll soon meet St. Luc, at the
head of the French and Indians, because I'm as sure as I know that I'm
standing here that he's now leading 'em. Shall we finish out the night
here, and then follow on their trail until we can bring 'em to battle on
terms that suit us?"

"Yes, Black Rifle. That is what the Great Bear and the Mountain Wolf
would say too, and so I shall not awake them. Instead, I too will go to
sleep."

Daganoweda, as much a Viking as any that ever lived in Scandinavia, lay
down among his men and went quickly to the home over which Tarenyawagon
presided. Haace, filled with exultation that he had received the high
approval of his chief, slid away among the trees on another scout, and,
in like manner, the forest swallowed up Black Rifle. Once mo