"Then we'd better put in there, and look for game. We've got mighty
little venison."

"It is so," said Tayoga, using his favorite words of assent. Neither he
nor Robert resumed the paddle, leaving the work for the rest of the way
to the hunter, who was fully equal to the task. His powerful arms swept
the broad blade through the water, and the canoe shot forward at a
renewed pace. Long practice and training had made him so skillful at the
task that his breath was not quickened by the exertion. It was a
pleasure to Robert to watch the ease and power with which he did so
much.

The lake widened as they advanced, and through a change in the color of
the sky the water here seemed silver rather than blue. A flock of wild
ducks swam near the edge and he saw two darting loons, but there was no
other presence. Silence, beauty and majesty were everywhere, and he was
content to go on, without speaking, infused with the spirit of the
wilderness.

The cove showed after a while, at first a mere slit that only a wary eye
could have seen, and then a narrow opening through which a small creek
flowed into the lake. Willet, with swift and skillful strokes of the
paddle, turned the canoe into the stream and advanced some distance up
it, until he stopped at a point where it broadened into an expanse like
a pool, covered partly with water lilies, and fringed with tall reeds.
Behind the reeds were slanting banks clothed with dense, green foliage.
It was an ideal covert, and there were thousands like it in the
wonderful wilderness of the North Woods.