ut a
Scotch officer, who spoke good French, made a satisfactory reply. The
boats drifted on, and the sentinel went back to his dreams, perhaps of
the girl that he had left in France.

"Did I not tell you that Manitou had blinded the French and the
warriors, their allies, to-night?" whispered Tayoga to Robert.
"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the sentinel would have asked more,
or he would have insisted upon seeing more in the dark, but Manitou
dulled his senses. The good spirits are abroad, and they work for us."

"Truly, I believe it is so, Tayoga," said Robert.

"The French don't lack in vigilance, but they must be worn out," said
Willet. "It's one thing to sail on ships up and down a river, but it's
quite another for an army racing along lofty, rough and curving shores
to keep pace with it."

They were challenged from another point of vantage by a sentinel and
they saw him running down to the St. Lawrence, pistol in hand, to make
good his question. But the same Scotch officer who had answered the
first placated him, telling him that theirs were boats loaded with
provisions, and not to make a noise or the English would hear him. Again
was French vigilance lulled, and they passed on around the headland
above Anse du Foulon.

"The omens are ours," whispered Tayoga, with deep conviction. "Now, I
know that we shall arrive at the place to which we want to go. Unless
Manitou wishes us to go there, he would not have twice dulled the senses
of French sentinels who could have brought a French army down upon us
while we are yet in the river. And, lo! here where we are going to land
there is no sentinel!"

"Under heaven, I believe you're right, Tayoga!" exclaimed Willet, with
intense earnestness.

The boats swung in to the narrow beach at the foot of the lofty cliff
and the men disembarked rapidly. Then, hanging to rocks and shrubs, they
began to climb. There was still no alarm, and Robert held his breath in
suspense, and in amazement too. He did not know just where they were,
but they could not be very far from Quebec, and General Wolfe was
literally putting his head in the lion's mouth. He knew, and every one
around him knew, that it was now victory or death. He felt again that
tremendous thrill. Whatever happened, he would be in it. He kept
repeating that fact to himself and the thought of death was not with
him.

"The dawn will soon be at hand," he said; "I feel it coming. If we can
have only a half hour more!