“What is it?” asked Robert.  “A cloud?  I hope we won’t have another storm.”

“It is no cloud,” replied Tayoga.  “It is something else that moves very fast, and it comes in our direction.  A little longer and I can tell what it is.  Now I see; it is a flight of wild pigeons, a great flock, hundreds of thousands, and millions, going south to escape the winter.”

“We’ve seen such flights often.”

“So we have, but this is coming straight toward us, and I have a great thought, Dagaeoga.  Areskoui has not only forgiven us for our unknown sin—­perhaps of omission—­but he has also decided to put help in our way, if we will use it.  You see many dwarf trees at the southern edge of the crest, and I believe that by dark they will be covered with pigeons, stopping for the night.”

“And some of them will stop for our benefit, though we have bear meat too!  I see, Tayoga.”

Robert watched the flying cloud, which had grown larger and blacker, and then he saw that Tayoga was right.  It was an immense flock of wild pigeons, and, as the twilight fell, they covered the trees upon their crest so thickly that the boughs bent beneath them.  Young Lennox and the Onondaga killed as many as they wished with sticks, and soon, fat and juicy, they were broiling over the coals.

“Tandakora will guess that the pigeons have fed us,” said Robert, “and he will not like it, but he will yet know nothing about the water.”

They climbed down in turn in the darkness and took a drink, and Robert, who explored a little, found many vines loaded with wild grapes, ripe and rich, which made a splendid dessert.  Then he took a number of the smaller but very tough stems, and knotting them together, with the assistance of Tayoga ran a strong rope from the crest down to the fountain, thus greatly easing the descent for water and the return.

“Now we can take two drinks where we took one before,” he said triumphantly when the task was finished.  “If you have your water there is nothing like making it easy to be reached.  Moreover, while it was safe for an agile fellow like me, you and Dave, Tayoga, being stiff and clumsy, might have tumbled down the mountain and then I should have been lonesome.”

Willet, who had been keeping the watch alone, was inclined to the belief that they might expect an attack in the night, if it should prove to be very dark.  He felt able, however, should such an attempt come, to detect the advance of the savages, either by sight or hearing, especially the latter, ear in such cases generally informing him earlier than eye.  But as neither Robert nor Tayoga was busy they joined him, and all three sat near the brink with their rifles across their knees, and their pistols loosened in their belts, ready for their foes should they come in numbers.