"And you haven't, Dave," said Robert, with the same purpose in view.
"And you, Tayoga, you're the great Onondaga chief you always were."

"I hope to be a chief some day," said Tayoga simply, "and then, when I
am old enough, to be a sachem too, but that rests with Tododaho and
Manitou. Dagaeoga has been away a long time, and we do not know where he
went, but since he has come back out of the mists and vapors, it is
well."

"I understood your call at once," said Robert, "and as you know I gave
the reply. I came from Albany with Rogers to find you, and I found you
quicker than I had hoped. We had a meeting with hostile warriors last
night, but we beat 'em off, and we've been pushing on since then."

"Your encounter last night was what enabled us to find you so quickly,"
said Willet. "Tayoga read on the ground the whole story of the combat.
He understood every trace. He recognized the footprints of Rogers and
then your own. He always believed that you'd come back, but nobody else
did. He was right, and everybody else was wrong. You're bigger, Robert,
and you're graver than you were when you went away."

"I've been where I had a chance to become both, Dave. I'll tell you all
about it later, for here's Rogers now, waiting to shake hands with you
too."

"Welcome, old friend," said Rogers, grasping the hunter's powerful hand
in his own, almost as powerful, "and you too Tayoga. If there's a finer
lad in the wilderness anywhere, I don't know it."