Joyous shouts came now and then and he knew that they marked the
taking of game, but about the middle of the afternoon the hunt drifted
entirely away. A little later Tayoga awoke and sat up. Then Willet
moved slightly and spoke.

"Tandakora's hunters have been all about us while you slept," he said,
"but I knew they wouldn't find us."

"Dagaeoga and I were safe in the care of the Great Bear," said the
Onondaga confidently. "Tandakora will rage if we tell him some day
that we were here, to be taken if he had only seen us. Now Lennox
awakes also! O Dagaeoga, you have slept and missed all the great
jest."

"What do you mean, Tayoga?"

"Tandakora built his fire just beyond the big bush that grows ten feet
away, and sat there two hours without suspecting our presence here."

"Now I know you are romancing, Tayoga, because I can see the twinkle
in your eyes. But I suspect that what you say bears some remote
relation to the truth."

"The hostile hunters passed while you slept, and while I slept also,
but the Great Bear was all eyes and ears and he did not think it
needful to awaken us."

"What are we going to do now, Dave?"