Dayohogo turned his gloomy face upon the Onondaga youth, and it was
lighted up suddenly by a smile of appreciation and pleasure.

"Tayoga of the Onundagaono," he said in measured tones, "you have spoken
well. The Onundagaono, the Keepers of the Council Fire, and the
Ganeagaono, the Keepers of the Eastern Gate, be the first tribes of the
Hodenosaunee, and better it be for a warrior of either to burn two days
and two nights in the fire than to violate in the least the ancient
customs and laws of the Hodenosaunee."

"Before we had the fight with the savage band," said Robert, "we met a
Frenchman, the Chevalier Raymond Louis de St. Luc, who was going to the
vale of Onondaga with belts from Onontio. St. Luc is a brave man, a
great orator, and his words will fall, golden and sweet like honey, on
the ears of the fifty chiefs. He will say that Champlain and Frontenac
belonged to an ancient day, that the forests have turned green and then
turned red a hundred and fifty times since Champlain and sixty times
since Frontenac. He will say that what they did was due to a false wind
that blew between the French and the Hodenosaunee, hiding the truth, and
making friends see in the faces of friends the faces of enemies. He will
say that a true wind blows now, and that it has blown away all the
falsehoods. He will say that Onontio is a better friend than Corlear to
the Hodenosaunee, and far more powerful."

The veteran Mohawk chief looked at young Lennox, and again his gaze was
one of approval, also of comprehension.

"My young white friend is already a great warrior," he said. "What he
did with Tayoga and the Great Bear proves it, but great as he is he is
even greater in the council. The words of the son of Onontio, St. Luc,