“Don’t look serious, I have no intention of falling into the hands of Montcalm’s savages.  Still, there is no doubt the expedition is a risky one, and it is just as well to be prepared.”

Just as the sun was setting, Nat came into the officer’s hut.

“Everything is ready, captain,” he said.  “I hope you have made a good dinner, for it’s the last hot meal you will eat, till you get back.  I have cooked enough meat for the next four days, and that’s about as long as it will keep good; after that, dried deer’s flesh will have to do for us.

“I expect, I tell you, we shall have to be pretty spry this time.  If they are coming down in force, they are sure to send a lot of their Indians through the woods on each side of the lake, and the water will be swarming with their canoes.  Jonathan and I have been talking it over, and trying to settle which would be the safest, to foot it all the way, or to go by water.  We concluded, as there ain’t much difference, and the canoe will be the quickest and easiest, so we had best keep to that plan.”

“I would certainly rather go that way, Nat, if you think that the danger is no greater.”

“No, I don’t think there’s much difference, captain.  At any rate, we may as well go that way.  Like enough, we shall have to tramp back by the woods.”

Half an hour later, the canoe put out.  Although they had little fear that any of the Indian canoes would be so far up Lake George, there was scarce a word spoken in the boat for some hours after starting.  Jonathan was always silent, and Nat, although talkative enough when in camp, was a man of few words when once embarked upon a serious expedition.  As for James, he had little inclination for conversation.

The enterprise was, he knew, one of extreme danger.  Had it been only a French force he was about to reconnoitre, or even one composed of French and Canadians together, he would have thought little of it; but he knew that the redskins would be roaming thickly in the forest, ahead of the army, and, much as he relied upon the skill and experience of the two scouts, he knew it would be difficult, indeed, to elude their watchful eyes.  He thought of the letters he had been writing, and wondered whether he should return to tear them up, or whether they would be read at home.

All the time he was thinking, he worked his paddle vigorously, and at a high rate of speed.  The light canoe bounded noiselessly over the water, impelled by three vigorous pairs of arms.

When they approached the narrows connecting Lake George with Lake Champlain, the boat’s head was directed towards the shore, for they could not get past Ticonderoga before daylight broke; and it was likely that a good watch would be kept, in the narrows, by the enemy; and it would be dangerous to try to effect a landing there.  The canoe was carried ashore, and hidden in some bushes, and all lay down to sleep.