“You may count on us both, Major Duncan.  The duty you have given us is not above our habits and experience, and I think it will be well done.  I know that the Pathfinder will not be wanting.”

“On that, indeed, it will be safe to rely.  He is a most extraordinary man, Dunham —­ one who long puzzled me; but who, now that I understand him, commands as much of my respect as any general in his majesty’s service.”

“I was in hopes, sir, that you would come to look at the proposed marriage with Mabel as a thing I ought to wish and forward.”

“As for that, Sergeant, time will show,” returned Lundie, smiling; though here, too, the obscurity concealed the nicer shades of expression; “one woman is sometimes more difficult to manage than a whole regiment of men.  By the way, you know that your would-be son-in-law, the Quartermaster, will be of the party; and I trust you will at least give him an equal chance in the trial for your daughter’s smiles.”

“If respect for his rank, sir, did not cause me to do this, your honor’s wish would be sufficient.”

“I thank you, Sergeant.  We have served much together, and ought to value each other in our several stations.  Understand me, however, I ask no more for Davy Muir than a clear field and no favor.  In love, as in war, each man must gain his own victories.  Are you certain that the rations have been properly calculated?”

“I’ll answer for it, Major Duncan; but if they were not, we cannot suffer with two such hunters as Pathfinder and the Serpent in company.”

“That will never do, Dunham,” interrupted Lundie sharply; “and it comes of your American birth and American training.  No thorough soldier ever relies on anything but his commissary for supplies; and I beg that no part of my regiment may be the first to set an example to the contrary.”

“You have only to command, Major Duncan, to be obeyed; and yet, if I might presume, sir —­ "

“Speak freely, Sergeant; you are talking with a friend.”

“I was merely about to say that I find even the Scotch soldiers like venison and birds quite as well as pork, when they are difficult to be had.”

“That may be very true; but likes and dislikes have nothing to do with system.  An army can rely on nothing but its commissaries.  The irregularity of the provincials has played the devil with the king’s service too often to be winked at any longer.”

“General Braddock, your honor, might have been advised by Colonel Washington.”

“Out upon your Washington!  You’re all provincials together, man, and uphold each other as if you were of a sworn confederacy.”

“I believe his majesty has no more loyal subjects than the Americans, your honor.”

“In that, Dunham, I’m thinking you’re right; and I have been a little too warm, perhaps.  I do not consider you a provincial, however, Sergeant; for though born in America, a better soldier never shouldered a musket.”