One after another the distant islands in the lake sank out of sight, and the fires were merely a faint red glow on the one occupied by St. Luc.  Over the waters the vapors swept in great billows and columns.  Daganoweda drew a great breath.  The sun itself was fading.  Areskoui had shown his face long enough and now he meant to make the veil between himself and man impenetrable.  He became a mere shadow, the mists and vapors rolled up wave on wave, and he was gone entirely.  Then night came down over mountains, forest and Andiatarocte.  The last fire on St Luc’s island had been permitted to die out, and it, too, sank into the mists and vapors with the others, and was invisible to the watchers on the mainland slope.

But little could be seen of Andiatarocte itself, save occasional glimmers of silver under the floating clouds.  Not a star was able to come out, and all the lake and country about it were wrapped in a heavy grayish mist which seemed to Robert to be surcharged with some kind of exciting solution.  But the three leaders, Rogers, Willet and Daganoweda, gathered in a close council, did not yet give any order save that plenty of food be served to rangers and Mohawks alike.

Thus a long time was permitted to pass and the mists and vapors over Andiatarocte deepened steadily.  No sound came from St. Luc’s island, nor was any fire lighted there.  For all the darkness showed, it had sunk from sight forever.  It was an hour till midnight when the three leaders gave their orders and the chosen band began to prepare.  Robert had begged to be of the perilous number.  He could never endure it if Tayoga went and not he, and Willet, though reluctant, was compelled to consent.  Willet himself was going also, and so was Daganoweda, of course, and Black Rifle, but Rogers was to remain behind, in command of the force on the slope.

Thirty rangers and thirty Mohawks, all powerful swimmers, were chosen, and every man stripped to the skin.  Firearms, of necessity, were left behind with the clothes, but everyone buckled a belt around his bare body, and put in it his hatchet and hunting knife.  The plan was to swim silently for the island and then trust to courage, skill and fortune.  Buoyed up by the favor of Areskoui, who had worked a miracle for them, the sixty dropped into the water, and began their night of extreme hazard.

CHAPTER IX

ON ANDIATAROCTE

Robert, as was natural, swam by the side of Tayoga, his comrade in so many hardships and dangers, and, after the long period of tense and anxious waiting, he felt a certain relief that the start was made, even though it was a start into the very thick of peril.

Willet was on the right wing of the swimming column and Daganoweda was on the left, the white leader and the red understanding each other thoroughly, and ready to act in perfect unison.  Beneath the hovering mists and above the surface of the water, the bronze faces of the Mohawks and the brown faces of the rangers showed, eager and fierce.  There was not one among them whose heart did not leap, because he was chosen for such a task.