"I know it. Perhaps I had better stay here then."
"Waal, prehaps yew had," said the Yankee. "Gimme that hatchet. All right; now lay low and keep dark. If yew hear the painter call three times, that's me."
So silently did he move away, that Will hardly knew when he went. Lying down in the canoe, which was kept in its place by the bushes which hung low on all sides, the young man waited anxiously for the coming of his friend. An hour passed, and there came no sound to indicate the whereabouts of his strange guide. He was about to give him up, and had almost concluded to take the paddle and attempt to escape in his own way, when he heard light footsteps on the bank above. Thinking that it was Seth Spink, and that he was returning with less caution than he showed in moving away, he was about to rise and meet him, when he heard a deep voice on the bank above, which was not that of the Yankee.
"Willimack?" it said.
"I am here, great chief," replied a voice which he well knew. "What would the Prophet say to his brother chief?"
"You have done wrong, Wyandot," said the other. "You have opened the eyes of the white men, and if the young war-chief gets safe to Vincennes, we can no longer throw dust in the eyes of Harrison. This was not well."
"Willimack would have had the scalps of all, but for the tall warrior who came on the log. He opened the eyes of Floyd, and he saw blood in the eyes of the Wyandot."
"Who is the tall warrior?"
"My brother has seen him many times at Vincennes. His hair is yellow as the rays of the setting sun, and his form tall as a pine. He is very strong and bold. Who is there in the Wyandot nation, unless it be Tecumseh, who can overthrow Willimack, the Wyandot?"
"The Long Man is very strong," said the other. "He is cunning as the red fox. But, he is on the river, and my brothers above and below will give a good account of him if he try to escape."