"It will delay the work of the ax. Men will be so busy with the rifle that they will have mighty little time for the ax. The trees will stop falling for a while, and the forest will cover again the places where it has been cleared away. Why, the game itself will increase!" "How long do you think we'd better stay here?" asked Robert, his eager soul anxious to be on again. "Patience! patience, my lad," replied Willet. "It's one thing that you'll have to practice. We don't want to run squarely into De Courcelles, Tandakora and their band, and meanwhile we're very comfortable here, gathering strength. Look at Tayoga there and learn from him. If need be he could lie in the same place a week and be happy." "I hope the need will not come," laughed the Onondaga. Robert felt the truth of Willet's words, and he put restraint upon himself, resolved that he would not be the first to propose the new start. He had finished breakfast and he lay on his elbow gazing up through the green tracery of the bushes at the sky. It was a wonderful sky, a deep, soft, velvet blue, and it tinted the woods with glorious and kindly hues. It seemed strange to Robert, at the moment, that a forest so beautiful should bristle with danger, but he knew it too well to allow its softness and air of innocence to deceive him. It was almost the middle of the morning when Willet gave the word to renew the march, and they soon saw they had extreme need of caution. Evidence that warriors had passed was all about them. Now and then they saw the faint imprint of a moccasin. Twice they found little painted feathers that had fallen from a headdress or a scalplock, and once Tayoga saw a red bead lying in the grass where it had dropped, perhaps, from a legging. "We shall have to pass by Tandakora's band and perhaps other bands in the night," said Tayoga. "It's possible, too," said Willet, "that they know we're on our way to the fort, and may try to stop us. Our critical time will soon be at hand." They listened throughout the afternoon for the signals that bands might make to one another, but heard nothing. Willet, in truth, was not surprised. "Silence will serve them best," he said, "and they'll send runners from band to band. Still, if they do give signals we want to know it." "There is a river, narrow but deep, about five miles ahead," said Tayoga, "and we'll have to cross it on our way to the fort. I think it is there that Tandakora will await us." "It's pretty sure to be the place," said Willet. "Do you know where there's a ford, Tayoga?" "There is none." "Then we'll have to swim for it. That's bad. But you say it's a narrow stream?" "Yes, Great Bear. Two minutes would carry us across it." "Then we must find some place for the fording where the trees lean over from either side and the shadow is deep."