ack and
forth in the effort to keep warm. It was evident that the Onondaga had
told the truth, and that the face of Areskoui was in very fact turned
from them.

Robert awaited the word, looking now and then at Willet, but the
hunter hung on for a long time. The leaves fell in showers before the
storm, making a faint rustling like the last sigh of the departing,
and the snow, driven with so much force, stung his face like hail when
it struck. He was anxious for a fire, and its vital heat, but he was
too proud to speak. He would endure without complaint as much as his
comrades, and he knew that Tayoga, like himself, would wait for the
older man to speak.

But he could not keep, meanwhile, from thinking of the French and
Indians beside their vast heaps of glowing coals, fed and warmed to
their hearts' content, while the three lay in the dark and bitter cold
of the wilderness. An hour dragged by, then two, then three, but the
storm showed no sign of abating. The sinister screaming of the wind
did not cease and the snow accumulated upon their bodies. At last
Willet said:

"We must do it."

"We have no other choice," said Tayoga. "We have waited as long as we
could to see if Areskoui would turn a favoring face upon us, but his
anger holds. It will not avail, if in our endeavor to escape the
tomahawk of Tandakora, we freeze to death."

The fire decided upon, they took all risks and went about the task
with eagerness. Ordinary men could not have lighted it under such
circumstances, but the three had uncommon skill upon which to draw.
They took the bark from dead wood, and shaved off many splinters,
building up a little heap in the lee of a cliff, which they sheltered
on the windward side with their bodies. Then Willet, working a long
time with his flint and steel, set to it the sparks that grew into a
blaze.

Robert did not stop with the fire. Noticing the vast amount of dead
wood lying about, as was often the case in the wilderness, he dragged
up many boughs and began to build a wall on the exposed side of the
flames. Willet and Tayoga approving of the idea soon helped him, and
three pairs of willing hands quickly raised the barrier of trunks and
brush to a height of at least a yard.

"A happy idea of yours, Robert," said the hunter. "Now we achieve two
ends at once. Our wall hides the glow of the fire and at the same time
protects us in large measure from the snow and wind."

"I have bright thoughts now and then,"