"We'll be there in half an hour, and we'll know what's going forward," said Willet.
"We'll know before then," said Grosvenor confidently. "Our marvelous
Indian friend here will tell us when we're half way."
Tayoga smiled, but said nothing, and they started again, Willet, as usual, leading, and the Onondaga bringing up the rear. The spire of smoke thickened and darkened, and, to Robert and Grosvenor, it seemed most friendly and alluring. It appeared to rise from a little point of land thrust into the lake but they could not yet see its base, owing to an intervening hill. Just before they reached the crest of the hill Tayoga said:
"Wait a moment, Great Bear. I think I hear a sound from the place where the smoke rises, and we may be able to tell what it means."
They stopped promptly, and the Onondaga put his ear to the earth.
"I hear the sounds very distinctly now," he said. "They are of a kind not often occurring on these shores."
"What are they?" asked Robert eagerly.
"They are made by axes biting into wood. Many men are cutting down trees."
"They're building a fort, and they're in a hurry about it or they would not be felling trees so early in the morning."
"Your reasoning about the hurry is good, Dagaeoga. The white man will not go into the forest with his ax at daybreak, unless the need of haste is great, but it is not a fort they build. Mingled with the fall of the axes I hear another note. It is a humming and a buzzing. It is heard in these forests much less often than the thud of the ax. Ah! I was in doubt at first, but I know it now! It is the sound made by a great saw as it eats into the wood."