The Hunters of the Hills | Page 5

showed after a while, at first a mere slit that only a wary eye
could have seen, and then a narrow opening through which a small
creek flowed into the lake. Willet, with swift and skillful strokes of the
paddle, turned the canoe into the stream and advanced some distance
up it, until he stopped at a point where it broadened into an expanse
like a pool, covered partly with water lilies, and fringed with tall reeds.
Behind the reeds were slanting banks clothed with dense, green foliage.
It was an ideal covert, and there were thousands like it in the wonderful
wilderness of the North Woods.
"You find this a good place, don't you, Tayoga?" said Willet, with a
certain deference.
"It suits us well," replied the young Onondaga in his measured tones.
"No man, Indian or white, has been here today. The lilies are
undisturbed. Not a reed has been bent. Ducks that have not yet seen us
are swimming quietly up the creek, and farther on a stag is drinking at
its edge. I can hear him lapping the water."
"That was wonderful, Tayoga," said Willet with admiration. "I wouldn't
have noticed it, but since you've spoken of it I can hear the stag too.
Now he's gone away. Maybe he's heard us."
"Like as not," said Robert, "and he'd have been a good prize, but he's
taken the alarm, and he's safe. We'll have to look for something else.
Just there on the right you can see an opening among the leaves, Dave,
and that's our place for landing."
Willet sent the canoe through the open water between the tall reeds,
then slowed it down with his paddle, and the prow touched the bank
gently.
The three stepped out and drew the canoe with great care upon the
shore, in order that it might dry. The bank at that point was not steep
and the presence of the deer at the water's edge farther up indicated a
slope yet easier there.

"Appears to be a likely place for game," said Willet. "While the stag
has scented us and gone, there must be more deer in the woods. Maybe
they're full of 'em, since this is doubtful ground and warriors and white
men too are scarce."
"But red scouts from the north may be abroad," said Robert, "and it
would be unwise to use our rifles. We don't want a brush with Hurons
or Tionontati."
"The Tionontati went into the west some years ago," said Tayoga, "and
but few of their warriors are left with their kinsmen, the Hurons."
"But those few would be too many, should they chance to be near. We
must not use our rifles. Instead we must resort to your bow and arrows,
Tayoga."
"Perhaps waano (the bow) will serve us," said the young chief, with his
confident smile.
"That being the case, then," said Willet, "I'll stay here and mind the
canoe, while the pair of you boys go and find the deer. You're younger
than I am, an' I'm willing for you to do the work."
The white teeth of Tayoga flashed into a deeper smile.
"Does our friend, the Great Bear, who calls himself Willet, grow old?"
he asked.
"Not by a long sight, Tayoga," replied Willet with energy. "I'm no
braggart, I hope, but you Iroquois don't call me Great Bear for nothing.
My muscles are as hard as ever, and my wind's as good. I can lift more
and carry more upon my shoulders than any other man in all this
wilderness."
"I but jested with the Great Bear," said Tayoga, smiling. "Did I not see
last winter how quick he could be when I was about to be cut to pieces
under the sharp hoofs of the wounded and enraged moose, and he
darted in and slew the animal with his long knife?"

"Don't speak of it, Tayoga. That was just a little matter between friends.
You'd do as much for me if the chance came."
"But you've done it already, Great Bear."
Willet said something more in deprecation, and picking up the canoe,
put it in a better place. Its weight was nothing to him, and Robert
noticed with admiration the play of the great arms and shoulders. Seen
now upon the land and standing at his full height Willet was a giant,
proportioned perfectly, a titanic figure fitted by nature to cope with the
hardships and dangers of the wilderness.
"I'm thinking stronger than ever that this is good deer country," he said.
"It has all the looks of it, since they can find here the food they like,
and it hasn't been ranged over for a long time by white man or red.
Tayoga, you and Robert oughtn't to be long in finding the game we