Our hero, with his grand physique and cleverness, was not long in mastering the tricks of the carriers.  He soon learned to build up a load and adjust a tump-line, after which practice made the carrying of a pack almost twice his own weight a not extraordinary performance.

These trips afforded Brock an opportunity to study Indian character.  He learned much from the packman and voyageur that was destined to be of great value to him in his career on the western frontier, among the outposts of civilization.

Little escaped his notice.  His faculties were sharpened by contact with these children of the wilds, whose only class-room was the forest, their only teacher, nature.  As the crushed blade or broken twig were of deepest import to the Indian scout, so no incident of his life was now too trivial for Brock to dismiss as of no importance.

CHAPTER VII.

MUTINY AND DESERTION.

Brock could hardly reconcile the degree of punishment inflicted upon the soldiers, the poorly paid defenders of the Empire, with their casual offences.  While he rebelled against the brutalities of some officers, he was powerless to prevent them.  The sentencing powers conferred by court-martial were at that time beyond belief.  A captain and two subalterns could order 999 lashes with a “cat” steeped in brine.  It is on record that on one occasion a soldier was sentenced to 1,500 lashes for “marauding.”  And there were other modes of torture.  This was close upon the heels of a period when even the slightest breaches of the civil law were punished out of all proportion to the offence.  While insisting on the strictest discipline, Brock always tempered justice with mercy.  Few men better realized the value of a pleasant word or had in such degree the rare tact that permitted familiarity without killing respect.

A terrible incident occurred in the summer of 1803 which tested all Brock’s fortitude and conception of duty.  A conspiracy to mutiny was discovered at Fort George on the Niagara River.  The methods of the commanding officer had exasperated the men until they planned mutiny on a large scale.  This included the murder of Colonel Sheaffe and the incarceration of the other officers.  A threatening remark by a soldier of the 49th was overheard.  He was arrested and put in irons.  A confession by another soldier implicated a well-known sergeant, and a message was sent to York begging Brock’s immediate presence.

Our hero landed from the schooner alone.  It was dinner hour.  The barrack-square, as Brock crossed it to the guard-house, was deserted.  In charge of the guard he found two of the suspected ringleaders.  The guard presented arms.  “Sergeant,” said the colonel of towering frame and commanding aspect, “come here.  Lay down your pike.”  The order was promptly complied with.  “Take off your sword and sash and lay them down also.”  This was done.  “Corporal O’Brien,”