Chapter 14:  Scouting On Lake Champlain.

One morning, Colonel Monro sent for James.

“Captain Walsham,” he said, “there are rumours that the French are gathering at Crown Point in considerable force.  Captain Rogers is still disabled by his wound, and his band have suffered so heavily, in their last affair with the enemy, that for the time they are out of action.  It is important that I should learn the truth of these rumours, for, if they be true, I must communicate at once to the general, in order that he may get together a sufficient force to relieve us, if Montcalm comes down and lays siege to the fort.  Will you undertake the business?”

“I will do my best, sir,” James replied.  “Do you propose that I should take all my company, or only a picked party?”

“That I will leave to you, Captain Walsham.  I want trustworthy news, and how you obtain it for me matters little.”

“Then I will take only a small party,” James said.  “Fifty men would be useless, for purposes of fighting, if the enemy are numerous, while with such a number it would be hopeless to attempt to escape detection by the Indians.  The fewer the better for such an enterprise.”

On leaving the commandant, James at once summoned the two hunters to his hut, and told them the mission he had received.

“I am ready, captain, that is if you, and I, and Jonathan makes up the party.  As to going trapezing about round Crown Point with fifty soldiers, the thing ain’t to be thought of.  We should be there no more than half an hour before the Indians would know of it, and we should have no show either for fighting or running away.  No, captain, the lads are good enough for scouting about round camp here; but, as for an expedition of that sort, we might as well start with a drove of swine.”

“That is just what I thought, Nat.  One canoe may escape even the eyes of the Indians, but a dozen would have no chance of doing so.”

“We might get up the lakes,” the scout said; “but the mischief would be in the woods.  No, it never would do, captain.  If we goes, it must be the three of us and no more.  When do you think of starting?”

“The sooner the better, Nat.”

“Very well, captain, I will go and get some grub ready, and, as soon as it gets dusk, we will get the canoe into the water.”

“I suppose you can’t take me with you?” Lieutenant Edwards said, when James told him of the duty he had been requested to perform.  “It is dismal here.”

“Not exactly,” James laughed.  “What would become of the company, if it were to lose its two officers and its two scouts at a blow!  No, Edwards, you will command during my absence, and I think you will soon have more lively times here, for, if it be true that Montcalm will himself command the troops coming against us, it will be a different business altogether from the last.  And now, leave me alone for an hour.  I have some letters to write before I start.  They will be for you to send off, in case we don’t come back again.