While they rested for a little space where they were, Robert suddenly began to laugh.
"Is Dagaeoga rejoicing so soon ?" asked Tayoga "Why shouldn't I laugh," replied Robert, "when we have such a good jest ?" "What jest?
I see none." "Why, to think of Tandakora sitting at the foot of our peak and watching there three or four days, waiting all the time for us to die of hunger and thirst, and we far to the south.

At least he'll see that the mountain doesn't get away, and Tandakora, I take it, has small sense of humor.

When he penetrates the full measure of the joke he'll love us none the less.

Perhaps, though, De Galissonniere will not mourn, because he knows that if we were taken after a siege he could not save us from the cruelty of the savages." The hunter and the Onondaga were forced to laugh a little with him, and then, rested thoroughly, they resumed the descent, leaving their cable to tell its own tale, later on.

The rest of the slope, although possible, was slow and painful, testing their strength and skill to the utmost, but they triumphed over everything and before day were in a gorge, with the entire height of the peak towering above them and directly between them and their enemies.