The faint whine of a wolf came from a point far in the north.

"It's one of their signals," said Willet. "They'll attack inside of an
hour."

Then they relapsed into silence and waited, every heart beating hard.




CHAPTER II

THE AMBUSH


Robert now had much experience of Indian attack and forest warfare,
but it always made a tremendous impression upon his vivid and uncommon
imagination. The great pulses in his throat and temples leaped, and
his ear became so keen that he seemed to himself to hear the fall of
the leaf in the forest. It was this acute sharpening of the senses,
the painting of pictures before him, that gave him the gift of golden
speech that the Indians had first noticed in him. He saw and heard
much that others could neither hear nor see, and the words to describe
it were always ready to pour forth.

Willet and Tayoga were crouched near him, their rifles thrust forward
a little, and just beyond them was Captain Colden who had drawn a
small sword, more as an evidence of command than as a weapon. The
men, city bred, were silent, but the faces of some of them still