journey into
the south. It's good to breathe this clean air again, and the sooner we
reach the deep woods the better I'll like it. What say you, Tayoga?"

The nostrils of the Onondaga expanded, as he inhaled the odors of leaf
and grass, borne on the gentle wind.

"I have lived in the white man's house in Albany," he said, "and in our
own log house in the vale of Onondaga, and I know the English and the
French have many things that the nations of the Hodenosaunee have not,
but we can do without most of them. If the great chiefs were to drink
and dance all night as Bigot and his friends do, then indeed would we
cease to be the mighty League of the Hodenosaunee."

They traveled all that day on foot, but at a great pace, showing their
safe conduct twice to French soldiers, and so thin was the line of
settlements along the St. Lawrence that when night came they were beyond
the cultivated fields and had entered the deep woods. The three, in
addition to their weapons, carried on their backs packs containing
blankets and food, and as Willet and Tayoga put them down they drew long
breaths of relief like those of prisoners escaped.

"Home, Tayoga! Home!" said the hunter, joyfully. "I've nothing against
cities in general, but I breathed some pretty foul air in Quebec, and
it's sweet and clean here. There comes a time when you are glad no house
crosses your view and you are with the world as it was made in the
beginning. Don't these trees look splendid! Did you ever see a finer lot
of tender young leaves? And the night sky you see up there has been
washed and scrubbed until it's nothing but clean blue!"

"Why, you're only a boy, Dave, the youngest of us three," laughed
Robert. "Here you are singing songs about leaves and trees just as if
you were not the most terrible swordsman in the world."

A shadow crossed Willet's face, but it was quick in passing.

"Let's not talk about Boucher, Robert," he said. "I don't regret what I
did, knowing that it saved the lives of others, but I won't recall it
any oftener than I can help. You're right when you term me a boy, and I
believe you're right, too, when you say I'm the youngest of the three.
I'm so glad to be here that just now I'm not more'n fifteen years old. I
could run, jump, laugh and sing. And I think the woods are a deal safer
and friendlier than Quebec. There's nobody, at least not here, lying
around seeking a chance to stick a rapier in your back."

He unbuckled his sword