They could defend themselves against cold, because the forest
furnished unending fuel, but rain or hail, sleet or snow would bring
severe hardship. The day, however, favored them to the utmost. It
had seemed at dawn that it could not be more brilliant, but as the
morning advanced the world fairly glowed with color. The sky was
golden save in the east, where it burned in red, and the trunks and
black boughs of the forest, to the last and least little twig, were
touched with it until they too were clothed in a luminous glow.
The besiegers seemed lazy, but Robert knew that the watch upon the
fort and its approaches was never neglected for an instant. A fox
could not steal through their lines, unseen, and yet he never doubted.
Tayoga would come, and moreover he would come at the time
appointed. Toward the middle of the morning the Indians shot some
arrows that fell inside the palisade, and uttered a shout or two of
defiance, but nobody was hurt, and nobody was stirred to action. The
demonstration passed unanswered, and, after a while, Wilton called
Robert's attention to the fact that it was only two hours until
noon. Robert did not reply, but he knew that the conditions could not
be more unfavorable.
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