The delay, in the darkness, seemed interminable before the girl stirred, raised her head, slowly sat upright. Then she lifted one slim arm and called softly to me: "Nai, my Captain!" "Nai, Thiohero!" I answered. She came creeping through the herbage and gathered herself cross-legged beside me. I took her hands warmly, and released them; and she caressed my arms and face with velvet touch. "It is happiness to see you, my Captain," she said softly. "Nai! Was I not right when I foretold your hurt at the fight near the Drowned Lands?" "Truly," said I, "you are a sorceress; and I am deeply grateful to you for your care of me when I lay wounded by Howell's house." "I hear you. I listen attentively. I am glad," she said. "And I continue to listen for your voice, my Captain." "Then--have you talked secretly with the fire-flies?" I asked gravely. "I have talked with them." "And have they told you anything, little sister?" "The fire-flies say that many green-coats and Maquas have gone to Stanwix," she replied seriously, "and that other green-coats,--who now wear _red_ coats,--are following from Oswego." I nodded: "Sir John's Yorkers," I said to Tahioni. "Also," she said, "there are with them men in _strange uniforms_, which are not American, not British." "What!" I exclaimed, startled in spite of myself. "Strange men in strange dress," she murmured, "who speak neither English nor French nor Iroquois nor Algonquin." Then, all in an instant, it came to me what she meant--what Penelope had meant. "You mean the Chasseurs from Buck Island," said I, "the Hessians!" But she did not know, only that they wore gray and green clothing and were tall, ruddy men--taller for the odd caps they wore, and their long legs buttoned in black to the hips. "Hessians," I repeated. "Hainault riflemen hired out to the King of England by their greedy and contemptible German master and by that great ass, George Third, shipped hither to stir in us Americans a hatred for himself that never shall be extinguished!" "Are their scalps well haired?" inquired Tahioni anxiously. It seemed a ludicrous thing to say, and I was put to it to stifle my sudden mirth. "They wear pig-tails in eel-skins, and stiffened with pomade that stinks from New York to Albany," said I. Then my mood sobered again; and I thought of Penelope's vision and wondered whether I was truly fated to meet my end in combat with these dogs of Germans. * * * * * The Screech-owl had made a fire. Also, before my arrival he had killed an August doe, and a haunch was now a-roasting and filling my nostrils with a pleasant odour. We spread our blankets and ate our parched corn, watching our meat cooking. "And McDonald?" I inquired of Thiohero, who sat close to me and rested her head on my shoulder while eating her parched com. "My fire-flies tell me," said she gravely, "that the outlaws travel this way, and shall hang on the Schoharie in ambush." "When?"