"No, Dagaeoga, the fort is not burning. We have come in time. The smoke
rises from the chimneys."

"I say so, too," said Willet. "Unless there's a siege on now, we're
ahead of the savages."

"There is no siege," said Tayoga calmly. "Tododaho has held the warriors
back. Having willed for us to arrive first, nothing could prevent it."

"Again, I think you're right, Tayoga," said Robert, "and now for the
fort. Let our feet devour the space that lies between."

He was in a mood of high exaltation, and the others shared his
enthusiasm. They went faster than ever, and soon they saw rising in the
moonlight the strong palisade and the stout log houses within it. Smoke
ascended from several chimneys, and, uniting, made the line across the
sky that they had beheld from afar. From their distant point of view
they could not yet see the sentinels, and it was hard to imagine a more
peaceful forest spectacle.

"At any rate, we can save 'em," said Robert.

"Perhaps," said Willet gravely, "but we come as heralds of disaster
occurred, and of hardships to come. It will be a task to persuade them
to leave this comfortable place and plunge into the wilderness."

"It's fortunate," said Robert, "that we know Colden and Wilton and
Carson and all of them. We warned 'em once when they were coming to the
place where the fort now is, and they didn't believe us, but they soon