Youth and the strong comrades around him gave imagination another slant, allowing it to paint wonderful deeds achieved, and victory made complete.
His eyes, which in his condition of superheated fancy enlarged or intensified everything manifold, saw a flash of light near him.

It was merely Tayoga drawing his knife from his belt and putting the blade between his teeth, where the whitish mist that served for illumination had thrown back a reflection.

He glanced farther down the swimming line and saw that many others had drawn their hunting knives and had clasped them between their teeth, where they would be ready for instant use.
Mechanically he did likewise, and he felt something flow from the cold steel into his body, heating his blood and inciting him to battle.

He knew at the time that it was only imagination, but the knowledge itself took nothing from the power of the sensation.

He became every instant more eager for combat.
It seemed that Tayoga caught glimpses of his comrade's face and with his Onondaga insight read his mind.
"Dagaeoga, who wishes harm to nobody, now craves the battle, nevertheless," he said, taking the knife from between his teeth for a moment or two.
"I'm eager to be in it as soon as I can in order to have it over as soon as we can," said Robert, imitating him.
"You may think the answer wholly true, though it is only partly so.
There come times when the most peaceful feel the incitement of war." "I believe it's the strangeness of the night, the quality of the air we breathe and that singular veiling of the sun just when we wished it, and as if in answer to our prayers." "That is one of the reasons, Dagaeoga.