After all, he had passed the time of waiting in the easiest way, and no enemy had come.

The moon and stars were not to be seen, but instinct told him that it was not beyond midnight.
He arose to go, but a slight sound came from the lake, and he stayed.
It was merely the cry of the night bird, calling to its mate, one would have said, but Robert's attention was attracted by an odd inflection in it, a strain that seemed familiar.

He listened with the utmost attention, and when it came a second time, he was so sure that his pulses beat very fast.
Willet and Tayoga, as he had hoped in the day, were out there on the lake.

It had been foolish of him to think they would come in the full sunlight, exposed to every hostile eye.

It was their natural course to approach in the dark and send a signal that he would know.