he Onondaga put his ear to the earth.

"I hear the sounds very distinctly now," he said. "They are of a kind
not often occurring on these shores."

"What are they?" asked Robert eagerly.

"They are made by axes biting into wood. Many men are cutting down
trees."

"They're building a fort, and they're in a hurry about it or they
would not be felling trees so early in the morning."

"Your reasoning about the hurry is good, Dagaeoga. The white man will
not go into the forest with his ax at daybreak, unless the need of
haste is great, but it is not a fort they build. Mingled with the fall
of the axes I hear another note. It is a humming and a buzzing. It is
heard in these forests much less often than the thud of the ax. Ah!
I was in doubt at first, but I know it now! It is the sound made by a
great saw as it eats into the wood."

"A saw mill, Tayoga!"

"Yes, Dagaeoga, that is what it is, and now mind will tell us why it
is here. The logs that the axes cut down are sawed in the mill. The
saw would not be needed if the logs were to be used for building a
fort. The ax would do it all. The logs are being turned into planks
and boards."

"Which shows that they're being used for some purpose requiring much
finer finish than the mere building of a fort."

"Now the mind of Dagaeoga is working well. Great Bear and I have been
on the point where the new saw mill stands."

"And the timber there is fine," interrupted Willet.

"Just the kind that white men use when they build long boats for
traveling on the lakes, boats that will carry many men and armband
supplies. We know that a great army of red coats is advancing. It
expects to come up George and then probably to Champlain to meet
Montcalm and to invade Canada. It is an army that will need hundreds
of boats for such a purpose, and they must be built."

"And they're building some of 'em right here on this point, before
us!" exclaimed Robert.

Tayoga smiled.

"It is so," he said precisely. "There cannot be any doubt of it. A saw
mill could not be here for any other purpose. But if we had not come
it would be destroyed or captured before night by St. Luc."

"Come on, lads, and we'll soon be among 'em," said Willet.

From the crest of a hill they looked down upon a scene of great
activity. The sun was scarcely risen but more than fifty men were at
work on the forest with axes, and, at the very edge of the water, a
saw mill was in active operation. Along the shore, w