"Are you sure of what you are saying?"
"Quite sure, Dagaeoga. But for precaution's sake you can watch well with the pistol and cover my approach."
He thrust the weapon into Robert's hand, quickly threw off his clothing and sprang into the water, swimming with strong strokes toward the dense, high bushes that lined the opposite shore. Robert watched the lithe, brown figure cleave the water, disappear in the bushes and then reappear a moment or two later, rowing a boat. All had fallen out as the Onondaga had said, and he quickly came back to the western side.
"It is a good boat," he said, "a trophy of our victory, and we will use it. Take the oars, Dagaeoga, while I put on my clothes again. Our long wait is over."
Robert sprang into the boat, while Tayoga, standing upon the bank, shook himself, making the drops fly from him in a shower.
"Which way did they go?" asked Robert.
"They crept down the stream among the bushes between the water and the cliff. They could force their bodies that way but not the boat. I felt sure they had gone after my pistol shot, because I saw some of the bushes moving a little against the wind farther down the stream. It was proof. Besides, they had to go, knowing that day would soon be here."
He reclothed himself and stepped back into the boat, taking up the second pair of oars.
"Let us return to Albany in triumph by the river," he said.
"You think there is no danger of our being fired upon from ambush?"