He himself wished to ask a score of important questions of the boys, knowing that, since they had been hidden in the oak tree during the holding of the great palaver, they must know much that he yearned to grasp. But he could wait until they were in a position of safety before making his inquiries.
"I hope we are nearly there," whispered Sandy in the ear of his brother, for, to tell the truth, the boy was nearly exhausted after the great strain of the last week, and then those two long hours up in the tree, when he could hardly breathe freely, for fear of betraying their hiding-place to the watchful enemy.
Pat O'Mara was close enough to catch the low words, or else he guessed what Sandy must have said. At any rate, he dropped back a pace or two, and managed to remark in his genial, consoling way:
"Whist now, be aisy, me boy; 'twill not be long afore we reach our distination. And thin, by the powers, ye can rist as long as ye plaise. Do be lookin' out that ye lave the trees alone, and save the skin av your nose," he added, as Sandy, forgetting to be as careful as usual, in his desire to hear what Pat had to say, ran full into a sapling that he failed to see in time, and consequently suffered to the extent of several scratches on his face.
It was almost marvellous the way those forest rangers managed to pass in and out of the dense forest like so many shuttles in the hands of an expert weaver. The moon was utterly missing now, and even the light of the stars failed to penetrate beneath that thick canopy of matted branches overhead, so that they stalked along in almost complete darkness.
But they were at home under such conditions. The woods were an open book to Kenton. He read the pages as readily as any Indian who ever crouched in the war-dance, or lifted his voice in the whoop of a foray. They used to say that Kenton possessed the eyes of a cat, so that he could see when other men were blind. And perhaps they were right, for he certainly led his little troop in and out with marvellous skill.
Some ten minutes later Bob heard the music of a waterfall ahead.
"Phat do yees think av that?" asked Pat O'Mara a moment later, as they stood on the bank of a fairly large stream, and looked up at the sheet of water that shot over the ledge above, to fall in a white tumbling mass into the pool at their feet.
"It is beautiful," observed Bob, who, however was wise enough to know that Kenton would not have brought them hither simply to admire the cataract.
"Back of that sheet of water there is a cavern," said the leader, as they stood on the shore. "I have been many times to the great Niagara, and a friendly Onondaga chief took me back to the wonderful shelf of rock that is hidden by that wall of falling water. So I suspected that there might be just such a fine hiding-place here. Many months ago, when I was up in this country on a mission for Governor Dunmore of Virginia, I investigated, and found it to be true. Follow after me and you shall see."