“I should put them down at three thousand.”

“It is a big army,” Nat said.  “I should think there must be quite as many Canadians as French.  How many redskins there are, there ain’t no knowing, but we may be sure that they will have got together as many as they could.  Put ’em down at 4000, and that makes 7000 altogether, enough to eat up Fort William Henry, and to march to Albany—­or to New York, if they are well led and take fancy to it—­that is, if the colonists don’t bestir themselves smartly.

“Well, so far you have found out what you came to seek, captain.  What’s the next thing?”

“We must discover, if we can, whether they mean to go up the lakes in boats, or to march through the woods,” James replied.  “They will have a tremendous job getting any guns through the woods, but, if they are going by water, of course they can bring them.”

“Very well,” Nat replied.  “In that case, captain, my advice is, you stop in the woods, and Jonathan and I will go down past the fort to the shore, and see what provision they are making in that way.  You see, the place swarms with Canadians, and you would be sure to be spoken to.  Redskins don’t talk much to each other, unless there is some need for words, and we can go right through the French camp without fear.  The only danger is of some loping Mohawk coming up to us, and I don’t reckon there are many of ’em in the camp, perhaps nary a one.”

Although James did not like his followers to go into danger, without his sharing it, he saw that his presence would enormously add to their risks, and therefore agreed to their plan.  Withdrawing some distance into the wood, and choosing a thick growth of underwood, he entered, and lay down in the bushes, while the two scouts walked quietly away towards the camp.

Two hours passed.  Several times he heard footsteps in the wood near him, and, peering through the leaves, caught sight of parties of Indians going towards the camp, either late arrivals from Montreal, or bands that had been out scouting or hunting.  At the end of the two hours, to his great relief, he saw two figures coming from the other way through the woods, and at once recognized the scouts.  He crawled out and joined them, as they came up.

“Thank God you are back again!  I have been in a fever, all the time you have been away.”

“I wish I had known the precise place where you were hiding.  I should have made a sign to you to keep quiet; but it ain’t of no use, now.”

“What’s the matter then, Nat?”

“I ain’t quite sure as anything is the matter,” the scout replied; “but I am feared of it.  As bad luck would have it, just as we were coming back through the camp, we came upon a Mohawk chief.  He looked hard at us, and then came up and said: 

“’The Owl thought that he knew all his brothers; but here are two whose faces are strange to him.’