t have been here sooner,
but here we are."

"I knew that you would come back and bring help with you," said
Grosvenor to Robert. "I felt sure that Tayoga would guide the canoe
through every peril."

"Your confidence was not misplaced," said Robert. "He did some
wonderful work. He was as great a trailer on the water as he is on
land. Now that we are so much stronger, I wonder what St. Luc is going
to do."

But Black Rifle came in the next morning with the news that the
Chevalier and his whole force were gone.

They had stolen away silently in the night, and were now marching
northward, probably to join Montcalm.

"I'm not surprised," said Willet. "We're now too strong for him
and St. Luc is not the man to waste his time and strength in vain
endeavors. I suspect that we will next hear of him near Champlain,
somewhere in the neighborhood of Ticonderoga. I think we'd better
follow his trail a little distance."

Willet himself led the band that pursued St. Luc, and it included
Tayoga, Robert, Grosvenor, Black Rifle and Adams, Daganoweda and his
Mohawks having left shortly before on an expedition of their own. It
was an easy enough task, as the trail necessarily was wide and deep,
and the Onondaga could read it almost with his eyes shut.

"Here went Sharp Sword," he said after looking about a while. "I find
traces of his moccasins, which I would know anywhere because I have
seen them so many times before. Here another Frenchman joined him and
walked beside him for a while. It was Jumonville, whose imprints I
also know. They talked together. Perhaps Jumonville was narrating the
details of his encounter with us. Now he leaves St. Luc, who is joined
by another Frenchman wearing moccasins. But the man is heavy and
walked with a heavy step. It is the Canadian, Dubois, who attends upon
Sharp Sword, and who is devoted to him. Perhaps Sharp Sword is giving
him instructions about the camp that they will make when the day
is over. Now Dubois also goes, and here come the great moccasins of
Tandakora. I have seen none other so large in the woods, and a child
would know them. He too talks with Sharp Sword, but Sharp Sword does
not stop for him. They walk on together, because the stride continues
steady and even, just the length that a man of Sharp Sword's height
would make when walking. Tandakora is very angry, not at Sharp
Sword--he would not dare to show anger against him--but at the will
of Manitou who would not let him win a