The Hunters of the Hills | Page 9

deer we wish."
As they could not take it with them for tanning, they cut the skin in half,
and each wrapped in his piece a goodly portion of the body to be
carried to the canoe. Both were fastidious, wishing to get no stain upon
their clothing, and, their task completed, they carefully washed their
hands and knives at the edge of a brook. Then as they lifted up their
burdens the whining and growling in the bushes increased rapidly.
"They see that we are going," said Tayoga. "The wolf even without the
soul of a warrior in it knows much. It is the wisest of all the animals,
unless the fox be its equal. The foolish bear and the mad panther fight
alone, but the wolf, who is too small to face either, bands with his
brothers into a league, even as the Hodenosaunee, and together they
pull down the deer and the moose, and in the lands of the Ohio they
dare to attack and slay the mighty bull buffalo."
"They know the strength of union, Tayoga, and they know, too, just
now that they're safe from our weapons. I can see their noses poking
already in their eagerness through the bushes. They're so hungry and so
confident that they'll hardly wait until we get away."
As they passed with their burdens into the bushes on the far side of the
little opening they heard a rush of light feet, and angry snarling.
Looking back, Robert saw that the carcass of the stag was already
covered with hungry wolves, every one fighting for a portion, and he
knew it was the way of the forest.

CHAPTER II
ST. LUC
Willet hailed them joyfully when they returned.
"I'll wager that only one arrow was shot," he said, smiling.
"Just one," said Robert. "It struck the stag in the heart and he did not
move ten feet from where he stood."
"And the Great Bear has the fire ready," said Tayoga. "I breathe the
smoke."
"I knew you would notice it," said Willet, "although it's only a little fire
yet and I've built it in a hollow."
Dry sticks were burning in a sunken place surrounded by great trees,
and they increased the fire, veiling the smoke as much as possible.
Then they broiled luscious steaks of the deer and ate abundantly,
though without the appearance of eagerness. Robert had been educated
carefully at Fort Orange, which men were now calling Albany, and
Tayoga and the hunter were equally fastidious.
"The deer is the friend of both the red man and the white," said Willet,
appreciatively. "In the woods he feeds us and clothes us, and then his
horn tips the arrow with which you kill him, Tayoga."
"It was so ordered by Manitou," said the young Onondaga, earnestly.
"The deer was given to us that we might live."
"And that being the case," said Willet, "we'll cook all you and Robert
have brought and take it with us in the canoe. Since we keep on going
north the time will come when we won't have any chance for hunting."
The fire had now formed a great bed of coals and the task was not hard.
It was all cooked by and by and they stowed it away wrapped in the
two pieces of skin. Then Willet and Tayoga decided to examine the

country together, leaving Robert on guard beside the canoe.
Robert had no objection to remaining behind. Although circumstances
had made him a lad of action he was also contemplative by nature.
Some 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 and
heard passed before him like a moving panorama and in this shifting
belt of color Indians, Frenchmen, Colonials and Englishmen appeared.
He knew that he stood upon the edge of great events. Deeply sensitive
to impressions, he felt that a crisis in North America was at hand.
England and France were not yet at war, and so the British colonies and
the French colonies remained at peace too, but every breeze that blew
from one to the other was heavy with menace. 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 understood even better than many of those
in authority that as the Hodenosaunee went so might go the war. It was
certain that the Indians of the St. Lawrence and the North would be
with the French, but he was