There was still a mad hope that the chief spoke lies, that the maid
and Father Claude were safe. True or false, the Long Arrow would
surely talk thus; for the Iroquois were as skilled in the torments of
the mind as of the body. He was conscious that the keen voice was
going on, but he did not follow what it said. Again he was going over
and over in his mind all the chances of escape. It might be that the
youth had been moved by his offer. But at that moment he heard the
Long Arrow saying:--

" ... Even before his death the Big Buffalo must lie as he has always
lied. His tongue knows not the truth. He thinks to deceive our young
braves with talk of his furs and his lodges and his power in the land
of the white men. But our warriors know the truth. They know that the
Big Buffalo has no store of furs, no great lodges,--that he lives in
the woods with only a stolen musket, where he can by his lies capture
the peaceful hunters of the Onondagas to make them the slaves of his
Chief-Across-the-Water."

CHAPTER XVI.

AT THE LONG LAKE.

Menard again dropped to sleep. When the day had nearly reached its
middle, he was aroused by two warriors, who pulled him roughly to his
feet. The band had evidently been astir for some moments. A few braves
were extinguishing the fire with clumps of sod, while the others
packed in their blankets what had been left from the morning meal, or
looked to the spots of rust which the damp had brought to knives and
muskets. The Long Arrow came over to inspect the thongs that held
Menard's wrists; he had not forgotten his attack on his guards on the
morning of the torture. And with a precaution that brought a half
smile to the prisoner's face, he posted a stout warrior on each side,
in addition to those before and behind. Then they set out over the
hills, wading through a great tumbling meadow where their feet sank
deep into the green and yellow and white that June had spread over the
open lands of the Iroquois. Overhead the sky, though still clouded,
was breaking, giving little glimpses of clear blue.

As they neared the crest of the first hill, the Captain looked back
over his shoulder. The sun had at last broken through to the earth,
and a great band of yellow light was moving swiftly across the valley.
Before it, all the ground was sombre in its dark green and its heavy
moisture; behind lay a stretch of golden sunshine, rounding over the
farther hills in great billows of grass and flo