The dawn had not yet fully come, and the heavens, save low down in the east, were still silver, casting a silvery veil which gave an extraordinary and delicate tint to the green of foliage.

In the distance on the right was the gleam of water, silver like the skies, but it was one of the beautiful lakelets abundant in that region and not yet Andiatarocte, which was still far away.

The bronze figures of the Indians, silent and impassive as they listened to their chief, fitted wonderfully into the wilderness scene, and the white men in forest green, their faces tanned and fierce, were scarcely less wild in look and figure.

Robert felt once more a great thrill of pride that he had been chosen a member of such a company.
They talked less than five minutes.

Then Black Rifle, alone as usual because he preferred invariably to be alone, disappeared in the woods to the right of the great trail.