“I’m attached, for the present, to the rangers under Rogers.  He’s on the shores of Champlain, and he’s trying to hold back a big Indian army that means to march south and join Montcalm for an attack on Fort William Henry or Fort Edward.”

“And there’s a great Indian war band behind you, too, Dave.”

“We know it.  We saw their smoke.  We also had an encounter with some scouting warriors.”

“We know that, too, Dave.  You ambushed ’em and divided your force, one of you going to the right and the other to the left.  Two of their warriors fell before your bullets, and then they fled, carrying their slain with them.”

“Correct to every detail.  I suppose Tayoga read the signs.”

“He did, and he also told me when he rescued me that you had carried the text of the letter we took from Garay to Colonel Johnson in time, and that the force of St. Luc was turned back.”

“Yes, the preparations for defense made an attack by him hopeless, and when his vanguard was defeated in the forest he gave up the plan.”

They did not stop long, as they knew the great war band behind them was pressing forward, but they felt little fear of it, as they were able to make high speed of their own, despite the weight of their packs, and for several days and nights they traveled over peaks and ridges, stopping only at short intervals for sleep.  They had no sign from the band behind them, but they knew it was always there, and that it would probably unite at the lake with the force the rangers were facing.

It was about noon of a gleaming summer day when Robert, from the crest of a ridge, saw once more the vast sheet of water extending a hundred and twenty-five miles north and south, that the Indians called Oneadatote and the white men Champlain, and around which and upon which an adventurous part of his own life had passed.  His heart beat high, he felt now that the stage was set again for great events, and that his comrades and he would, as before, have a part in the war that was shaking the Old World as well as the New.

In the afternoon they met rangers and before night they were in the camp of Rogers, which included about three hundred men, and which was pitched in a strong position at the edge of the lake.  The Mountain Wolf greeted them with great warmth.

“You’re a redoubtable four,” he said, “and I could wish that instead of only four I was receiving four hundred like you.”

He showed intense anxiety, and soon confided his reasons to Willet.

“You’ve brought me news,” he said, “that a big war band is coming from the west, and my scouts had told me already that a heavy force is to the northward, and what is worst of all, the northern force is commanded by St. Luc.  It seems that he did not go south with Montcalm, but drew off an army of both French and Indians for our destruction.  He remembers his naval and land defeat by us and naturally he wants revenge.  He is helped, too, by the complete command of the lake, that the French now hold.  Since we’ve been pressed southward we’ve lost Champlain.”