then do
we know that he is dead?"

Willet shook his head.

"'Tis no use, Tayoga," he said. "The lad was murdered by Garay and the
river took his body away. Why, it will be a year this coming autumn
since he disappeared, and think you if he were alive he couldn't have
come back in that time! 'Tis the part of youth to hope, and it does you
credit, but the matter is past hope now. We've all given up except you."

"When only one hopes, Great Bear, though all others have failed, there
is still hope left. Last night I saw Tododaho on his star very clearly.
He looked down at me, smiled and seemed to speak. I could not hear his
words, but at the time I was thinking of Dagaeoga. Since Tododaho sits
with the great gods, and is one of them, he knew my thoughts, and, if he
smiled when I was thinking of Dagaeoga, he meant to give me hope."

The hunter again shook his head sadly.

"You thought you saw it, because you wished it so much," he said, "or
maybe the promise of Tododaho was for the future, the hereafter."

"For the hereafter we need no special promise, Great Bear. That has
always been made to all of us by Manitou himself, but I was thinking of
Dagaeoga alive, present with us in this life, when Tododaho smiled down
on me. I hold it in my heart, Great Bear, as a sign, a promise."

Willet shook his head for the third time, and with increasing sadness,
but said nothing more. If Tayoga cherished such a hope it was a
consolation, a beautiful thing, and he was not one to destroy anybody's
faith.

"Do you know this region?" he asked.

"I was through here once with the Mohawk chief, Daganoweda," replied
Tayoga. "It is mostly in heavy forest, and, since the war has gone on so
long and the settlers have gone away, there has been a great increase in
the game."

"Aye, I know there'll be no trouble on that point. If our own supplies
give out it won't take long to find a deer or a bear. It's a grand
country in here, Tayoga, and sometimes it seems a pity to one that it
should ever be settled by white people, or, for that matter, by red
either. Let it remain a wilderness, and let men come in, just a little
while every year, to hunt."

"Great Bear talks wisdom, but it will not be done his way. Men have been
coming here a long time now to fight and not to hunt. See, Great Bear,
here is a footprint now to show that some one has passed!"

"'Twas made by the moccasin of a warrior. A chance hunter."

"Suppose we follow it, Great Be