"Perhaps it is a deer, and he means to get a shot with his bow and arrows?" suggested the younger brother.
"Not so, for he is not handling his bow," remarked Bob; and immediately added: "There! I saw it move myself; and, Sandy, unless I was mistaken, it must have been a canoe gliding along the other side of the tongue of land, heading outward."
Both lads immediately stepped further back among the trees. They understood that the chances were ten to one, at least, that, if they came upon any human being along the shore of the Great Lake, it must be an Indian, and therefore one to be distrusted on sight.
Though the Iroquois, or Six Nations, had always been friendly with the English, and opposed to the French Canadian trappers and traders, still, the new conditions that were beginning to arise, where the Colonies had begun to defy the king, made them separate the sheep from the goats. They favored the Tories, who remained in league with the king's policies; but were ready to take up arms against the insurgents, already beginning to call themselves Americans.
Three minutes later a canoe darted out from behind the point of land, and started along the lake, about a quarter of a mile from the shore.
"Oh! look!" said Sandy, who had the keener eyesight; "there are just five in it, Bob, and one of them is a girl!"
"Yes," replied the other, whose lips were colorless as he gazed eagerly at the moving craft, where several flashing paddles were working industriously; "just the same number as Black Beaver's band. But, Sandy, we do not know. To me it looks as if the girl might be a squaw. She is surely dressed like one, and, as well as I can see, her face seems to be that of an Indian."
"Oh! but you forget, Bob," declared the other lad, earnestly, "that we believe Black Beaver means to make our sister into a Seneca girl. Four braves and a girl—it must be those we seek!"
"Even Blue Jacket is puzzled, if I read his face rightly," said Bob. "And so all we can do is to try and keep up with the canoe until it comes ashore. Then we will soon learn the truth. I only pray that what you think may turn out to be so, for it would make our mission the easier."