Once or twice he thought he heard the sound of a dip of a paddle, out
on the lake, but he could not be sure of it; while from time to time he
heard the croak of a frog, sometimes near, sometimes at a distance
along the shore. He would have thought little of this, had not a slight
pressure of Jonathan's hand, against his foot, told him that these were
Indian signals.
Some hours passed before Nat made a move, then he touched Jonathan, and
sat up in the canoe. The signal was passed on to James, the paddles
were noiselessly taken up, and, without a sound that could be detected
by the most closely-listening ear, the canoe stole out again on to the
lake. Until some distance from shore they paddled very quietly, then
gradually the strokes grew more vigorous, until the canoe was flying
along at full speed up the lake, her course being laid so as to cross
very gradually towards the eastern side.
It was not until, as James judged, they must have been several miles
from the point at which they had started, that they approached the
eastern shore. They did so with the same precautions which had been
adopted on the other side, and sat, listening intently, before they
gave the last few strokes which took them to the shore.
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