f fortune."

"Which seems to be a hit at your superior officer, but I'll pass it
over, Hugh, as you're always right at heart though often wrong in the
head."

Although the young officers talked much and with apparent lightness,
the troop marched with vigilance now. Willet and Tayoga, and Colden,
who had profited by bitter experience, saw to it. The hunter and the
Onondaga, often assisted by Robert, scouted on the flanks, and three
or four soldiers, who developed rapid skill in the woods, were soon
able to help. But Tayoga and Willet were the main reliance, and they
found no further trace of Indians. Nevertheless the guard was never
relaxed for an instant.

Robert found the march not only pleasant but exhilarating. It
appealed to his imaginative and sensitive mind, which magnified
everything, and made the tints more vivid and brilliant. To him the
forests were larger and grander than they were to the others, and the
rivers were wider and deeper. The hours were more intense, he lived
every second of them, and the future had a scope and brilliancy that
few others would foresee. In company with youths of his own age coming
from the largest city of the British colonies, the one that had the
richest social traditions, his whole nature expanded, and he cast away
much of his reserve. Around the campfires in the evening he became one
of the most industrious talkers, and now and then he was carried away
so much by his own impulse that all the rest would cease and listen to
the mellow, golden voice merely for the pleasure of hearing. Then
Tayoga and Willet would look at each other and smile, knowing that
Dagaeoga, though all unconsciously, held the center of the stage, and
the others were more than willing for him to hold it.

The friendships of the young ripen fast, and under such circumstances
they ripen faster than ever. Robert soon felt that he had known the
three young Philadelphians for years, and a warm friendship, destined
to last all their lives, in which Tayoga was included, was soon
formed. Robert saw that his new comrades, although they did not know
much of the forest, were intelligent, staunch and brave, and they saw
in him all that Tayoga and Willet saw, which was a great deal.

The heat and dryness increased, and the brown of leaf and grass
deepened. Nearly all the green was gone now, and autumn would soon
come. The forest was full of game, and Willet and Tayoga kept them
well supplied, yet their progress beca