our plan."

"A long speech, but your tongue always moves easily, Dagaeoga, and what
you say is true. The mist increases fast, and before he goes down on the
other side of the world the Sun God will be veiled in it. Then the
night will come full of clouds, and dark. Look at Andiatarocte, and you
will see that it is so."

The far shores of the lake were almost lost in the vapors, only spots of
forest green appearing now and then, a veil of silver being over the
eastern waters. The island on which St. Luc lay encamped was growing
indistinct, and the fires there shone through a white mist.

Tayoga stood up and gazed intently at the sun, before which a veil had
been drawn, permitting his eyes to dwell on its splendors, now coming in
a softened and subdued light.

"All the omens are favorable," he said. "The heart of Areskoui has
softened toward us, knowing that we are about to go on a great and
perilous venture. Tonight Tododaho on his star will also look down
kindly on us. He will be beyond the curtain of the clouds, and we will
not see him, but I know that it will be so, because I feel in my heart
that it must be so. You and I, Dagaeoga, are only two, and among the
many on this earth two can count for little, but the air is full of
spirits, and it may be that they have heard our prayers. With the unseen
powers the prayers of the humble and the lowly avail as much as those of
the great and mighty."

His eyes bore the rapt and distant expression of the seer, as he
continued to gaze steadily at the great silver robe that hung before the
face of Areskoui's golden home. Splendid young warrior that he was,
always valiant and skillful in battle, there was a spiritual quality in
Tayoga that often showed. The Onondagas were the priestly nation of the
Hodenosaunee and upon him had descended a mantle that was, in a way, the
mantle of a prophet. Robert, so strongly permeated by Indian lore and
faith, really believed, for a moment, that his comrade saw into the
future.

But not the white youth and the red youth alone bore witness to the
great change, the phenomenon even, that Areskoui was creating. Both
Rogers and Willet had looked curiously at the sun, and then had looked
again. Daganoweda, awaking, stood up and gazed in the intent and
reverential manner that Tayoga had shown. The soul of the Mohawk
chieftain was fierce. He existed for the chase and war, and had no love
beyond them. There was nothing spiritual in his nature, bu