Robert, Willet and Tayoga could have had horses to ride, but against the protests of Grosvenor and their other new English friends they declined them.  They knew that they could scout along the flanks of an army far better on foot.

“In one way,” said Willet, to Grosvenor, “we three, Robert, Tayoga and I, are going back home.  The lads, at least have spent the greater part of their lives in the forest, and to me it has given a kindly welcome for these many years.  It may look inhospitable to you who come from a country of roads and open fields, but it’s not so to us.  We know its ways.  We can find shelter where you would see none, and it offers food to us, where you would starve, and you’re a young man of intelligence too.”

“At least I can see its beauty,” laughed Grosvenor, as he looked upon the great green wilderness, stretching away and away to the far blue hills.  “In truth ’tis a great and romantic adventure to go with a force like ours into an unknown country of such majestic quality.”

He looked with a kindling eye from the wilderness back to the army, the greatest that had yet been gathered in the forest, the red coats of the soldiers gleaming now in the spring sunshine, and the air resounding with whips as the teamsters started their trains.

“A great force!  A grand force!” said Robert, catching his enthusiasm.  “The French and Indians can’t stand before it!”

“How far is Fort Duquesne?” asked Grosvenor.

“In the extreme western part of the province of Pennsylvania, many days’ march from here.  At least, we claim that it’s in Pennsylvania province, although the French assert it’s on their soil, and they have possession.  But it’s in the Ohio country, because the waters there flow westward, the Alleghany and Monongahela joining at the fort and forming the great Ohio.”

“And so we shall see much of the wilderness.  Well, I’m not sorry, Lennox.  ’Twill be something to talk about in England.  I don’t think they realize there the vastness and magnificence of the colonies.”

That day a trader named Croghan brought about fifty Indian warriors to the camp, among them a few belonging to the Hodenosaunee, and offered their services as scouts and skirmishers.  Braddock, who loved regularity and outward discipline, gazed at them in astonishment.

“Savages!” he said.  “We will have none of them!”

The Indians, uttering no complaint, disappeared in the green forest, with Willet and Tayoga gazing somberly after them.

“’Twas a mistake,” said the hunter.  “They would have been our eyes and ears, where we needed eyes and ears most.”

“A warrior of my kin was among them,” said Tayoga.  “Word will fly north that an insult has been offered to the Hodenosaunee.”

“But,” said Willet, “Colonel William Johnson will take a word of another kind.  As you know, Tayoga, as I know, and, as all the nations of the Hodenosaunee know, Waraiyageh is their friend.  He will speak to them no word that is not true.  He will brush away all that web of craft, and cunning and cheating, spun by the Indian commissioners at Albany, and he will see that there is no infringement upon the rights of the great League.”