"It is the land of no man, because it lies between the tribes from the
north and the tribes from the south. Yet the Iroquois dare to come here
when they choose. It's the fourth time I have been on this ledge, but
before I was always with my brethren of the clan of the Bear of the
nation Onondaga."

"Well, Tayoga," said Willet, in his humorous tone, "the company has
grown no worse."

"No," said Tayoga, and his smile was invisible to them in the darkness.
"The time is coming when the sachems of the Onondagas will be glad they
adopted Lennox and the Great Bear into our nation."

Willet's laugh came at once, not loud, but with an inflection of intense
enjoyment.

"You Onondagas are a bit proud, Tayoga," he said.

"Not without cause, Great Bear."

"Oh, I admit it! I admit it! I suppose we're all proud of our race--it's
one of nature's happy ways of keeping us satisfied--and I'm free to
say, Tayoga, that I've no quarrel at having been born white, because I'm
so used to being white that I'd hardly know how to be anything else. But
if I wasn't white--a thing that I had nothing to do with--and your
Manitou who is my God was to say to me, 'Choose what else you'll be,'
I'd say, and I'd say it with all the respect and reverence I could bring
into the words, 'O Lord, All Wise and All Powerful, make me a strong
young warrior of the clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga, of the
League of the Hodenosaunee, hunting for my clan and fighting to protect