How could we mistake our great enemy, Tandakora?
It is a formidable fleet, too strong for us to resist, and, like the wise man, we hide when we cannot fight." Robert's pulses beat so hard they hurt, but he would not show any uneasiness in the presence of Tayoga, and he sat immovable in the canoe.
Nearer and nearer came the Indian fleet, partly of canoes and partly of boats, and he counted in them sixteen warriors, all armed heavily.

Now he prayed to Manitou, and to his own God who was the same as Manitou, that no thought of pushing among the reeds would enter Tandakora's head.

The fleet soon came abreast of them, but his prayers were answered, as Tandakora led ahead, evidently thinking the fugitives would not dare to hide and lie in waiting, but would press on in flight up the western shore.
"I could pick him off from here with a bullet," said Robert, looking at the huge, painted chest of the Ojibway chief.
"But our lives would be the forfeit," the Onondaga whispered back.
"I had no intention of doing it." "Now they have passed us, and for the while we are safe.

They will go on up the lake, until they find no trace of us there, and then Tandakora will come back." "But how does he know we have a canoe ?" "He does not know it, but he feels sure of it because our trail led straight to the lake, and we would not purposely come up against such a barrier, unless we knew of a way to cross it." "That sounds like good logic.

Of course when they return they'll make a much more thorough search of the lake's edge, and then they'd be likely to find us if we remained here." "It is so, but perhaps the night will come before Tandakora, and then we'll take flight upon the lake." They pushed their canoe back to the edge of the reeds, and watched the Indian boats passing in single file northward, becoming smaller and smaller until they almost blended with the water, but both knew they would return, and in that lay their great danger.