His fancy fairly peopled the water with hostile canoes; they were in a triple ring about him and Tayoga.

All his pulses were beating hard, yet his will, as usual, was master of his nerves, and the hand that held the paddle never shook.
"A canoe on the outer line, and from the left, is now bearing in toward us," whispered Tayoga.
"There are two men in it, as the strokes of the paddles show.

They are coming toward us.

Some evil spirit must have whispered to them that we are here.

Ah, they have stopped! What does it mean, Dagaeoga?
Listen! Did you not hear a little splash?
They think to surprise us! They keep the paddles silent and try a new trick! Hold the canoe here, Dagaeoga, and I will meet the warrior who comes!" The Onondaga dropped his rifle, hunting shirt and belt with his pistol in it, into the bottom of the canoe, and then, his knife in his teeth, he was over the side so quickly that Robert did not have time to protest.