“But I must obey orders, Nat,” James said, smiling.

“Yes, you must obey orders, captain, no doubt.  But there’s two ways of obeying orders.  The one is to rush in front, and to do a little more than you are told.  The other is to take things quiet, and just do what you are told, and no more.  Now, my advice is, on this here expedition you go on the last plan.  If you are ordered to land first, why land first it must be.  If you don’t get orders to land first, just let them as is in a hurry land afore you.  I ain’t been teaching all these lads to know something about the woods, for the last six months, jest to see them killed off like flies, because a blundering wrong-headed colonel sends them out with two hundred and fifty ploughmen, for the redskins to see and attack jest when they fancies.”

“Very well, Nat, I will take your advice, and, for once, we won’t put ourselves in the front, unless we are ordered.”

Satisfied with this, Nat passed quietly round among the men, as they were taking their places in the boats, and told them that there was no occasion for them to row as if they were racing.

“I shall be in the captain’s boat,” he said.  “You keep close to us, and don’t you try to push on ahead.  When we are once fairly in the woods, then we will do the scouting for the rest, but there ain’t no hurry for us to begin that, till we are on shore.”

“Look at us,” Nat grumbled in James’s ear, as the boats started down the lake.  “There we are, rowing along the middle, instead of sneaking along close to the shore.  Does Parker think that the redskins are as blind as he is, and that, ’cause it’s night, a lot of big boats like these can’t be seen out in the middle of the lake?  I tell you, captain, if we ain’t ambushed as soon as we land, I will grant I know nothing of redskin ways.”

James had, in fact, before starting, suggested to Colonel Parker that it would be well to keep under the shelter of the bushes; but the officer had replied stiffly: 

“When I want your advice, Captain Walsham, I will ask for it.”

After which rebuff, James was more willing than he had hitherto been to act in accordance with the advice of the scout.  Accordingly, as they rowed down the lake, the boats with the Royal Scouts, although keeping up with the others, maintained their position in the rear of the column.

Towards daybreak, the boats’ heads were turned to shore, and, when they neared it, Colonel Parker gave the order for the men to lay in their oars, while the three boats, which happened to be in advance, were told to advance at once and land.  The boats passed through the thick curtain of trees, which hung down over the water’s edge.  A minute passed, and then three others were ordered to follow them.

“Did you hear nothing?” Nat whispered to James.

“No, I didn’t hear anything, Nat.  Did you?”

“Well, I think I did hear something, captain.  It seems to me as I heard a sort of scuffle.”