new it was no fancy. With extraordinary assurance the man had come
there to rifle the drawer--for what purpose Robert knew not.

He ran to the window, but saw nothing save the peaceful night, the
waving trees and the quiet lawn lying beyond. Then he walked to the
chest and examined the third drawer, noticing new scratches around the
lock. There was not the slightest doubt that Garay had been trying to
open it.

He went to the door, resolved to tell Mr. Huysman at once of the attempt
upon the chest, but he stopped irresolute. The low sounds of talk still
came from the dining-room. He was only a boy and his was a most
improbable tale. They might think he had been dreaming, though he knew
full well that he had seen straight and true. And then Garay was gone,
leaving no trace. No, he would not interrupt Mr. Huysman now, but he
would talk it over with Tayoga.

He found the Onondaga standing among the trees, gazing with rapt vision
at his star.

"Did Tododaho speak to you?" asked Robert.

"He did," replied Tayoga earnestly.

"What did he say?"

"That the great war will go on, and that you and I and the Great Bear,
who is away, will encounter many more perils. The rest is veiled."

"And while we take our ease, Tayoga, our enemies are at work."

"What does Dagaeoga mean?"

"I went into the room containing the chest of drawers, the story of
which you read, and found there Garay, the spy, trying to open it."

"Dagaeoga does not dream?"

"Oh, I thought for a moment or two that I did, but it was reality. Garay
escaped through the open window, and, on the lock of the third drawer,
were scratches that he left where he had been working with a sharp tool.
Come, Tayoga, and look at them."

The two went into the house. Robert lighted a lamp for better light, and
Tayoga knelt before the drawer, giving it a long and close examination.

"Garay is a very clever man," he said at last, "much cleverer, perhaps,
than we gave him the credit of being."

"I think so too," said Robert.

"As events show, he came into this house to obtain the papers in this
drawer, and you and I feel quite certain that those papers concern you.
And as you saw him and the slaver together, it indicates that they have
some plot against you, what I know not. But the papers here have much to
do with it."

"Do you think I should speak of it to Master Jacobus and Mr. Hardy now?"

"I think not, Dagaeoga. Whatever is the mystery about you it is evident
t