“That’s a part of their duty,” said Willet.  “Rogers has only twenty men, but he means to make ’em appear a hundred.”

“Sounds more like two hundred,” said Robert.  “It’s the first time I ever heard one man shout as ten.”

As they drew nearer the volume of the firing seemed to increase.  Rogers was certainly carrying out his part of the work in the most admirable manner, his men firing with great rapidity and never ceasing their battle shouts.  Even so shrewd a leader as St. Luc might well believe the entire force of rangers and Mohawks, instead of only twenty men, was in front of him.  But Robert was quite sure from the amount of firing coming from the Frenchman’s position that he was in formidable force, perhaps outnumbering his opponents two to one, and the fight, though with the advantage of a flank attack by Willet and Daganoweda, was sure to be doubtful.  It seemed that Tayoga read his thought as he whispered: 

“Once more, Dagaeoga, we may leave the combat together, when it is at its height.  Remember the duty that has been laid upon us.  If the battle appears doubtful we are to flee.”

“A hard thing to do at such a time.”

“But we have our orders from the Great Bear.”

“I had no thought of disobeying.  I know the importance of our getting through, if our force is defeated, or even held.  Why couldn’t our whole detachment have gone around St. Luc just as we’ve done, and have left him behind without a fight?”

“Because if the Mountain Wolf had not been left in his front, Sharp Sword would have discovered immediately the absence of us all and would have followed so fast that he would have forced us to battle on his terms, instead of our being able to force him on ours.”

“I see, Tayoga.  Look out!”

He seized the Onondaga suddenly and pulled him down.  A rifle cracked in the bushes sixty or seventy yards in front of them, and a bullet whistled where the red youth’s head had been.  The shot came from an outlying sentinel of St. Luc’s band, and knowing now that the time for a hidden advance had passed, Willet and all of his men charged with a mighty shout.

Their cheering also was a signal to the twenty men of Rogers on the other side of the river, and they, too, rushed forward.  St. Luc was taken by surprise, but, as Robert had feared, his French and Indians outnumbered them two to one.  They fell back a little, thus giving Rogers and his twenty a chance to cross the river, but they took up a new and strong position upon a well-wooded hill, and the battle at close range became fierce, sanguinary and doubtful.

Robert caught two glimpses of St. Luc directing his men with movements of his small sword, and once he saw another white man, who, he was sure was Dubois, although generally the enemy was invisible, keeping well under the shelter of tree and bush.  But while human forms were hidden, the evidences of ferocious battle were numerous.  The warriors on each side uttered fierce shouts, rifles and muskets crackled rapidly, now and then a stricken man uttered his death cry, and the depths of the forest were illuminated by the rapid jets of the firing.