would rend just the same when
they sprang upon their victims, and now they were coming so close that
they might make a spring, the prodigious kind of spring that a demon
wolf could make.

It was more than Tandakora and his warriors could stand. Human beings,
white or red, they would fight, but not the wicked and powerful spirits
of earth and air which were now closing down upon them. The chief could
resist no longer. He uttered a great howl of fear, which was taken up
and repeated in a huge chorus by his warriors. Then, and by the same
impulse, they burst from the thicket, rushed into St. Luc's trail and
sped northward at an amazing pace.

Tayoga, Willet and Robert emerged from the woods, lay down in the trail
and panted for breath.

"Well, that's the easiest victory we ever gained," said Robert. "Even
easier than one somewhat like it that I won on the island."

"I don't know about that," gasped Willet. "It's hard work being an owl
and a bear and a panther and a wolf and trying, too, to be in three or
four places at the same time. I worked hardest as a wolf toward the
last; every muscle in me is tired, and I think my throat is the most
tired of all. I must lie by for a day."

"Great Bear is a splendid animal," said Tayoga in his precise, book
English, "nor is he wanting as a bird, either. I think he turned himself
into birds that were never seen in this world, and they were very
dreadful birds, too. But he excelled most as a wolf. His growling and
snapping and whining were better than that of ninety-nine out of a
hundred wolves, only a master wolf could have equaled it, and when I
stood beside him I was often in fear lest he turn and tear me to pieces
with tooth and claw."

"Tandakora was in mortal terror," said Robert, who was not as tired as
the others, who had done most of the work in the demon chorus. "I caught
a glimpse of his big back, and I don't think I ever saw anybody run
faster. He'll not stop this side of the St. Lawrence, and you'll have to
postpone your vengeance a while, Tayoga."

"I could have shot him down as he stood in the woods, shaking with
fear," said the Onondaga, "but that never would have done. That would
have spoiled our plan, and I must wait, as you say, Dagaeoga, to settle
the score with the Ojibway."

"I think we'd better go into the bushes and sleep," said the hunter.
"Being a demon is hard work, and there is no further danger from the
warriors."

But Robert, who was comparative