CHAPTER III

THE TOMAHAWK


Willet awakened Robert about two o'clock in the morning--it was
characteristic of him to take more than his share of the work--and the
youth stood up, with his rifle in the hollow of his arm, ready at once.

"Tayoga did more yesterday than either of us," said the hunter, "and so
we'll let him sleep."

But the Onondago had awakened, though he did not move. Forest discipline
was perfect among them, and, knowing that it was Robert's time to watch,
he wasted no time in vain talk about it. His eyes closed again and he
returned to sleep as the white lad walked up the bank, while the hunter
was soon in the dreams that Tarenyawagon, who makes them, sent to him.

Robert on the bank, although he expected no danger, was alert. He had
plenty of wilderness skill and his senses, naturally acute, had been
trained so highly that he could discern a hostile approach in the
darkness. The same lore of the forest told him to keep himself
concealed, and he sat on a fallen tree trunk between two bushes that hid
him completely, although his own good eyes, looking through the leaves,
could see a long distance, despite the night.

It was inevitable as he sat there in the silence and darkness with his
sleeping comrades below that his thoughts should turn to St. Luc. He had
recognized in the first moment of their meeting that the young Frenchman