elicit two.

"Our conversation has been repeated with accuracy," he said. "I do not
yet know why I have come to Albany, but I feel sure it is well that I
have come."

Mr. Huysman hustled about, his great red face glowing while fat Caterina
brought in more to eat. He insisted that the new guests sit at the table
and eat tremendously. It was a time when hospitality meant repeated
offerings of food, which in America was the most abundant of all things,
and Mr. Hardy and Mr. Pillsbury easily allowed themselves to be
persuaded.

"And now, Robert, you must tell me something more about Dave," said the
merchant as they rose from the table.

Young Lennox promptly narrated their adventures among the peaks and
about the lakes while the older men listened with breathless attention.
Nor did the story of the great hunter suffer in Robert's telling. He had
an immense admiration for Willet and he spoke of his deeds with such
vivid words and with so much imagery and embroidery that they seemed to
be enacted again there in that quiet room before the men who listened.

"Ah, that is Dave! True as steel. As honest and brave as they ever make
'em," said Master Benjamin Hardy, when he had finished. "A man! a real
man if ever one walked this earth!"

"And don't forget Tayoga here," said Robert. "The greatest trailer ever
born. He saved us more than once by his ability to read the faintest
sign the earth might yield."

"When Dagaeoga begins to talk he never knows how to stop," said Tayoga;
"I but did the things all the warriors of my nation are taught to do. I
would be unworthy to call myself a member of the clan of the Bear, of
the nation Onondaga, of the great League of the Hodenosaunee, if I could
not follow a trail. Peace, Dagaeoga!"

Robert joined in the laugh, and then the men began to talk about the
prospects of an attack upon Albany by the French and Indians, though all
of them inclined to Robert's view that Montcalm would not try it.

"As you were a prisoner among them you ought to know something about
their force, Robert," said Mr. Hardy.

"I had opportunities to observe," replied the lad, "and from what I saw,
and from what I have since heard concerning our numbers I judge that we
were at least four to one, perhaps more. But we threw away all our
advantage when we came with bare breasts against their wooden wall and
sharpened boughs."

"It is a painful thing to talk about and to think about, but Britain
never gives up.