. We like each other too well,
and--in a way--our temperaments resemble too much to engender a mutual
hate. But we'll to business. Mine's a mission of mercy. I come to
receive the surrender of your friends and yourself, since continued
resistance to us will be vain!"

Robert smiled. His gift of golden speech was again making its presence
felt. He had matched himself against St. Luc before the great League
of the Hodenosaunee in the vale of Onondaga, and they had spoken where
all might hear. Now they two alone could hear, but he felt that the
test was the same in kind. He knew that his friends in the thickets
behind him were watching, and he was equally sure that French and
savages in the thickets before him were watching too. He had no doubt
the baleful eyes of Tandakora were glaring at him at that very moment,
and that the fingers of the Ojibway were eager to grasp his scalp. The
idea, singularly enough, caused him amusement, because his imagination,
vivid as usual, leaped far ahead, and he foresaw that his hair would
never become a trophy for Tandakora.

"You smile, Mr. Lennox," said St. Luc. "Do you find my words so
amusing?"

"Not amusing, chevalier! Oh, no! And if, in truth, I found them so I
would not be so impolite as to smile. But there is a satisfaction in
knowing that your official enemy has underrated the strength of your
position. That is why my eyes expressed content--I would scarcely call
it a smile."

"I see once more that you're a master of words, Mr. Lennox. You play
with them as the wind sports among the leaves."

"But I don't speak in jest, Monsieur de St. Luc. I'm not in command
here. I'm merely a spokesman a herald or a messenger, in whichever way
you should choose to define me. Captain James Colden, a gallant young
officer of Philadelphia, is our leader, but, in this instance, I don't
feel the need of consulting him. I know that your offer is kindly,
that it comes from a generous soul, but however much it may disappoint
you I must decline it. Our resistance in the night has been quite
successful, we have inflicted upon you much more damage than you have
inflicted upon us, and I've no doubt the day will witness a battle
continued in the same proportion."

St. Luc threw back his head and laughed, not loud, but gayly and with
unction. Robert reddened, but he could not take offense, as he saw
that none was meant.

"I no longer wonder at my defeat by you in the vale of Onondaga," said
the chev