and Tayoga assumed from the fact that they were several days
old, otherwise he could have made them out even in the more difficult
region. But when the path, despite all his searching, vanished in the air,
he began to look higher than the earth. Soon he smiled and said:

"Ah, the Great Bear is as wise as the fox and the serpent combined. He
knows that a little chance may lead to great results, and so he neglects
none of the little chances."

"I don't understand you," said Robert, puzzled.

The Onondaga bent over a bush and showed where a twig had been cut off.

"See the wound made by his knife," he said, "and look! here is another on a
bush farther on. Both wounds are partly healed, showing that the cut of the
knife was made several days ago. It occurred to the Great Bear that we
might strike his trail some time or other, and when he came to the stony
uplift upon which his moccasins would leave no sign, he made traces
elsewhere. He knew the chance of our ever seeing them was slight, and he
may have made thousands of other traces that we never will see, but the
possibility that we would see some one of the many became a probability."

"As you present it, it seems simple, Tayoga, but what an infinity of pains
he must have taken!"

"The Great Bear is that kind of a man."

The hard, rocky ground extended several miles and their progress over it
was, of necessity, very slow, as Tayoga was compelled to look with extreme
care for the signs the hunter might have left. He found the cut twigs five
times and twice footprints where softer soil existed between the rocks,
making the proofs conclusive to both, and when they emerged into a normal
region beyond they picked up his defined and clear trail once more.

"I shall be glad to see the Great Bear," said the Onondaga, "and I think he
will be as pleased to know certainly that we are alive as we are to be
assured that he is."

"He'd never desert us, and if you hadn't come to the Indian village I think
he'd have done so later on."

"The Great Bear is a man such as few men are. Now, his trail leads on,
straight and bold. He took no trouble to hide it, which proves that he had
friends in this region, and was not afraid to be followed. Here he sat on a
fallen log and rested a while."

"How do you know that, Tayoga?"

"See the prints in front of the log. They were made by the heels of his
moccasins only. He tilted his feet up until they rested merely on the
heels. The Great