and we'd be safe from both the Hurons and
the storm!"

"Dagaeoga is right," said Tayoga.

"Well spoken!" said Willet. "Do the best work you ever did with the
paddles, or we'll find the bottom of the lake instead of the eastern
shore!"

But skill, strength and quickness of eye carried them in safety across
the lake, and they found a shore of sufficient slope for them to land
and lift the canoe after them, carrying it back at least half a mile,
and not coming to rest until they reached the crest of a high hill,
wooded densely. They put the canoe there among the bushes and sank down
behind it, exhausted. The rifles and precious ammunition, wrapped
tightly in the folds of their blankets, had been kept dry, but they were
wet to the bone themselves and now, that their muscles were relaxed, the
cold struck in. The three, despite their weariness, began to exercise
again vigorously, and kept it up until the rain ceased.

Then the second storm stopped as suddenly as the first had departed, the
darkness went away, and the great lake stood out, blue and magnificent,
in the light. Far to the south moved the long canoe, a mere black dot
in the water. Tayoga laughed in his throat.

"They rage and seek us in vain," he said. "They will continue pursuing
us to the south. They do not know that Manitou sent the second storm
especially to cover us up with a darkness in which we might escape."

"It's a good belief, Tayoga," said Willet, "and as Manitou arranged that
we should elude them he is not likely to bring them back into our path.
That being the case I'm going to dry my clothes."

"So will I," said Robert, and the Onondaga nodded his own concurrence.
They took off their garments, wrung the water out of them and hung them
on the bushes to dry, a task soon to be accomplished by the sun that now
came out hot and bright. Meanwhile they debated their further course.

"The long canoe still goes south," said Tayoga. "It is now many miles
away, hunting for us. Perhaps since they cannot find us, the Hurons will
conclude that the storm sank us in the lake!"

"But they will hunt along the shore a long time," said Willet. "They're
nothing but a tiny speck now, and in a quarter of an hour they'll be out
of sight altogether. Suppose we cross the lake behind them--I think I
see a cove down there on the western side--take the canoe with us and
wait until they go back again."

"A wise plan," said Tayoga.

In another hour their deerskins we