It was likely that in ordinary times they would have made it
without event, but they felt now the great need of caution, since the
woods might be full of warriors of the hostile tribes. They were sure,
too, that Tandakora would find their trail and that he would not
relinquish the pursuit until they were near the villages of the
Hodenosaunee. The trail might be hidden from the Ojibway alone, but
since many war parties of their foes were in the woods he would learn of
it from some of them. So they followed the plan they had used on the
lake of traveling by night and of lying in the bush by day.
Another deer fell to Tayoga's deadly arrow, and on the third day as they
were concealed in dense forest they saw smoke on a high hill, rising in
rings, as if a blanket were passed rapidly over a fire and back again
in a steady alternation.
"Can you read what they say, Tayoga?" asked Willet.
"No," replied the Onondaga. "They are strange to me, and so it cannot be
any talk of the Hodenosaunee. Ah, look to the west! See, on another
hill, two miles away, rings of smoke also are rising!"
"Which means that two bands of French Indians are talking to each other,
Tayoga?"
"It is so, Great Bear, and here within the lands of the Hodenosaunee!
Perhaps Frenchmen are with them, Frenchmen from Carillon or some other
post that Onontio has pushed far to the south.
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