Colden became quite uneasy for them after they had been gone some hours, and Robert, although he refused to show it, felt a trace of apprehension.  He knew their great skill in the forest, but Tandakora was a master of woodcraft too, and the Frenchmen also were experienced and alert.  As he, Colden, Wilton and Carson watched at the palisade he was in fear lest a triumphant shout from the Indian lines would show that the hunter and the Onondaga had been trapped.

But the long hours passed without an alarm and about three o’clock in the morning two shadows appeared at the palisade and whispered to them.  Robert felt great relief as Willet and Tayoga climbed silently over.

“We’re half frozen,” said the hunter.  “Take us into the blockhouse and over the fire we’ll tell you all we’ve seen.”

They always kept a bed of live coals on the hearth in the main building, and the two who had returned bent over the grateful heat, warming their hands and faces.  Not until they were in a normal physical condition did Colden or Robert ask them any questions and then Willet said: 

“Their ring about the fort is complete, but in the darkness we were able to slip through and then back again.  I should judge that they have at least three hundred warriors and Tandakora is first among them.  There are about thirty Frenchmen.  De Courcelles has taken off his bandage, but he still has a bruise where Tayoga struck him.  Peeping from the bushes I saw him and his face has grown more evil.  It was evident to me that the blow of Tayoga has inflamed his mind.  He feels mortified and humiliated at the way in which he was outwitted, and, as Tandakora also nurses a personal hatred against us, it’s likely that they’ll keep up the siege all winter, if they think in the end they can get us.

“Their camp, too, shows increasing signs of permanency.  They’ve built a dozen bark huts in which all the French, all the chiefs and some of the warriors sleep, and there are skin lodges for the rest.  Oh, it’s quite a village!  And they’ve accumulated game, too, for a long time.”

Colden looked depressed.

“We’re not fulfilling our mission,” he said.  “We’ve come out here to protect the settlers on the border, and give them a place of refuge.  Instead, it looks as if we’d pass the winter fighting for our own lives.”

“I think I have a plan,” said Robert, who had been very thoughtful.

“What is it?” asked Colden.

“I remember something I read in our Roman history in the school at Albany.  It was an event that happened a tremendously long time ago, but I fancy it’s still useful as an example.  Scipio took his army over to Africa to meet Hannibal, and one night his men set fire to the tents of the Carthaginians.  They destroyed their camp, created a terrible tumult, and inflicted great losses.”

Tayoga’s eyes glistened.

“Then you mean,” he said, “that we are to burn the camp of the French and their allies?”