"Lennox, is it really you?" he asked.
"Nobody else."
"You in the flesh and not a ghost?"
"In the flesh and no ghost."
"And is that Tayoga following you?"
"The Onondaga himself."
"And he is not any ghost, either?"
"No ghost, though Tandakora's men tried hard to make him one, and took a good start at it. But he's wholly in the flesh, too."
"Then shake. I was afraid, at first, to touch hands with a ghost, but, God bless you, Robert, it fills me with delight to see you again, and you, too, Tayoga, no less. We thought you both were dead, and Colden and Carson and Grosvenor and I and a lot of others have wasted a lot of good mourning on you."
Robert laughed, and it was probably a nervous laugh of relief at having arrived, through countless dangers, upon an errand of such huge importance.