urs, Robert," he said, "but when you think it
over it's not so queer, after all. It seems to be the rule that queer
things should come about."

"Now I don't understand you, Dave."

"Well, maybe I don't quite understand myself. But I know one thing,
Robert. St. Luc is always going to put you on your mettle, and you'll
always appear at your best before him."

"That's the way I feel about it, Dave. He aroused in me an odd mixture
of emotions, both emulation and defiance."

"Perhaps it's not so odd after all," said Willet.

Robert could not induce him to pursue the subject. He shied away from
St. Luc, and talked about the more immediate part of their journey,
recalling the necessity of finding another deer, as their supplies of
food were falling very low. Just before sunset they drew into the mouth
of a large creek and made the canoe fast. Tayoga, taking bow and quiver,
went into the woods for his deer, and within an hour found him. Then
they built a small fire sheltered well by thickets, and cooked supper.

The Onondaga reported game abundant, especially the smaller varieties,
and remarkably tame, inferring from the fact that no hunting parties had
been in the region for quite a while.

"We're almost in the country of the Hodenosaunee," he said, "but the
warriors have not been here. All of the outlying bands have gone back
toward Canada or westward into the Ohio country. This portion of the
land is deserted."

"Still, it's well to be careful, Tayoga," said the hunter. "That savage,
Tandakora, is going to make it the business of his life to hunt our
scalps, and if there's to be a great war I don't want to fall just
before it begins."

That night they dressed as much of their deer as they could carry, and
the next day they passed into Lake Champlain, which displayed all of its
finest colors, as if it had been made ready especially to receive them.
Its waters showed blue and green and silver as the skies above them
shifted and changed, and both to east and west the high mountains were
clothed in dark green foliage. Robert's eyes kindled at the sight of
nature's great handiwork, the magnificent lake more than a hundred miles
long, and the great scenery in which it was placed. It had its story and
legend too. Already it was famous in the history of the land and for
unbroken generations the Indians had used it as their road between north
and south. It was both the pathway of peace and the pathway of war, and
Robert fo