The Hunters of the Hills

hem joyfully wh

y one arrow was shot

the stag in the heart and he did not

he fire ready," said Tayo

llet, "although it's only a little fi

possible. Then they broiled luscious steaks of the deer and ate abundantly, though without the appearance of eagerness. Robert

Willet, appreciatively. "In the woods he feeds us and clothes us,

Manitou," said the you

iven to us that

t have brought and take it with us in the canoe. Since we keep on goi

d by and by and they stowed it away wrapped in the two pieces of skin. Then Willet and T

me people think with effort, in others thoughts flow in a stream, and now as he sat with his back to a tree, much that he had thought an

nace. The signs were unmistakable, but one did not have to see. One breathed it in at every breath. He knew, too, that intrigue was already going on all about him, and that the Iroquois were the great pawn in the game. British and French were already playing for the favor of the powerful Hodenosaunee, and Robert under

cout they would do the work thoroughly, and he waited with patience, sitting beside the canoe, his rifle on his knees. Before hi

leep, but he was roused by the sound of a footstep. It was so distant that only an ear trained to the forest would hav

those surcharged days a stranger was an enemy until he was proved to be otherwise, and the lad was alert in every faculty. He

as neat and trim to a degree not to be expected in the forest. He bore himself in the carelessly defiant manner peculiar to the French cadets and younger sons of noble families in North America at the time, an acc

ears, a Canadian dressed in deerskin and armed with rifle, hatchet and knife. The third man was an Indian, one of the most extraordinary figures that Robert had ever seen. He was of great stature and heavy build, his shoulders and chest immense and covered with knotted muscles, disclosed to the eye, as he was bare to the waist. All the upper part of his body was painted in strange and hideous

in a manner that contained either secret or open hostility. But he faced them boldly, a gallant and defiant young figure himself, instinct w

t politely. "I did not expect to

nchman

st, since these rivers and mountains and lakes and forests ackn

d Robert, seeing the advantage of i

master, save perhaps the Hodenosaunee. But I had thought that th

e great savage flash

ferred at once that he

ribes had a hereditary

that which they felt

d swept his hand in a graceful

here. You perhaps have an equal faith that the shadow of the British flag will be over the wilderness, but it would be most u

rief expedition. They should return soon. We have food in abund

hty warrior, and his fame is great, justly earned in many a battle. My friend in deerskin is Armand Dubois, born a Canadian of good French stock, and a most valiant and trustworthy man. As for me, I am Raym

t would be laid away when it was not needed. The man's blue eyes, even when he used the easy manner of the high-bred Frenchman, were questing

d. "To you and your good friends I offer my greetings. As for myself, I am Robert Lennox, w

aze of St. Luc upon him, very intent and

t Lakes, a man to whom I owe much, one who has stood to me almost in the place of a father. The other I can truly call a brother. He is Tayoga, a young warrior o

uis de St. Luc laughed,

on in the wilderness. One prefers to talk with gentlemen. 'Tis said that the English are heavy, but

id Robert, "since I am a native of this countr

f St. Luc

heir strength from the King and the government, would resent being called anything but Frenchmen. Now, I'll wager y

said Robert,

eal pleasure, his blue eyes danc

the future to the present. Sit down, Tandakora, and you too, Dubois. Monsieur Lennox is, for the present, our

ure in food. Robert now and then glanced a little anxiously at the woods, hoping his comrades would return. He did not know exactly how to deal with the strangers an

ked the chevalier. "I don't seek to penetrate a

th success and enjoy the pleasant ways of commerce. I am not one to

use I am a soldier, and you, I judge, will become one if you are not such now

tle from his long white teeth and his eyes were those of a hunter who sought to kill for the sake of killing. But at the chiding words of St. Luc the tense muscles relaxed and he l

now audible to him, and he stood up, knowing that Ta

s are here

Ojibway remained sitting, a huge piece of deer meat in his hand. Tayoga and Willet appeared through the

ubois, from the same place, I presume, and Tandakora, a mighty Ojibway chief, who, it seems, has wandered far from his own country, on what errand I know not. Chevalier my friends of wh

ce of Tandakora at such a great distance from his tribe. But St. Luc, of course, though noticing it, ignored

are expert in the forest and the chase, and the good Dubois her

at he spoke without sincerity, and Wil

he said modestly, "and I suppose ex

ierce, so compact of hatred that he was startled and his great pulses began to beat hard. But it was only for an instant or

e mind of the chevalier was arrested by some important thought. He could almost surmise what it was, but for the present he

in his own way had the best of manners. Tayoga, as became a forest chief, was dignified, saying little, while Willet cut

r," he said. "It is a march of

ed St. Luc gravely, "b

om Onontio serves,

f were veiled. If he resented the French claim to the lands over which the Hodenosaunee h

he seas. The French king and the English king b

was s

ce at Quebec, is the friend of the Hodenosaunee.

ntenac," said

s long

e told how they heard it from their fathers. We did not have guns then, and our bows and arrows were not a mat

but his words were full of meaning. Robert glanced at St. Luc, who cou

here was bad blood between Onontio and the Hodenosaunee, but if the blood is bad must it remain bad forever? The evil was gone b

ee and Corlear

ll the game! But the children of Onontio hunt with the Indians, marry with their women, leave the forests untouched, and t

ontenac," rep

upon an old wound, but the cloud passed swiftly. I

art of Onontio beats for the Hodenosaunee, and he has sent me to say

uncommon in size, a full five feet in length, five inches wide, and covered with many thousa

St. Luc. "There is none nobler, and Onontio wou

w back and his hands

ut I am not yet a chief. My years are too few. It is a great matter of which you speak, St. Luc, and it must be laid

allow any change to show in his manner. He returned the splendid belt t

the belt, but meantime we thank you for the courtesy of yourself and your frien

re in their valley, and the sachem

e belt of peace that I shal

. St. Luc, who had cent

w turned i

, and I am French and you are English, or rather Amer

man. He felt that there was steel in his composition, and that upon occasion, and in the service

being friends," replied the lad, althou

anges that affect us all. I shall come to Albany some day, Mr. Lennox

"I hope I shall be there, and it wou

him a sharp,

ee much of each other. One can never tell what meetings time will bring about.

ew over his shoulder the heavy knapsack, and th

k to Tayoga, "and as you advised I shall lay the peace belt before the f

eads from the Hudson to the mighty lakes of the west. The warriors of the Hod

and their tone alike were polite and dignified. St

aid to young Lennox, and h

ted Robert, and he hoped th

of them was a fugitive gleam of the chevalier's white uniform through the green leaves of the forest. Then the mighty wilderness swal

resence here signify?"

denosaunee to forget Fr

e Six Nation

ems in council

commit himself, even to him, and he did not a

er white man or red man, but I can tell you, Robert, and you too, Tayoga, that I'm worried about that Frenchman coming down here among the Six Nations.

y, goes with a heavy f

mean, Tayoga?

Hodenosaunee and all white men. He has seen three s

St. Luc. Well, we'll be on our guard and now I do

tinuing their course until they came to its end. There they carried the canoe across a portage and launched it on a second lake a

high western shore was touched with flame from the setting sun. Then the surfac

," said Robert, "and I think we'd

among the trees, and wrap ourselves in our blankets. It's a good thi

hes, a small hollow protected by great trees an

this is as good as a hou

of spruce and hemlock is so wonderful I wouldn

in the dusk over the vast tangled wilderness of mountain and lake, forest and river. The twilight was still infused with the red from the setting sun,

s work and love upon that which lies between the Hudson and the vast lakes of the west. Then he rested and look

" asked Willet. "You haven't seen all the c

in the greatness of his wisdom he left it to those who were most fitted to come and take it. And in time came the tribes which Tododaho, helped by Hayowentha, often called by the English Hiawatha, formed into the

he Iroquois, and if it was left to me to decide about it they'd keep it till the crack of doom. Now

y where the great orb had shone. Into his religion a reverence for the sun, Giver of Light

with another cloth in darker blue, and the body of it bore many warlike or hunting designs worked skillfully in thread. If the weather were cold Tayoga would drape the blanket about his body much l

although he found it soft and warm enough. Willet sat on a log h

ll of the wisdom of the wilderness, and Robert may have a head stuffed with different kinds of knowledge, but you're

ncreased so much that their figures looked dim in the hollow, but he glanced at them occasionally. The big man had many friends, but young Lennox and Tayog