The Masters of the Peaks

Masters of the Peaks, by Joseph A. Altsheler

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Title: The Masters of the Peaks A Story of the Great North Woods
Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11311]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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The MASTERS of the PEAKS
A STORY OF THE GREAT NORTH WOODS
BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
1918

FOREWORD
"The Masters of the Peaks," while presenting a complete story in itself is the fourth volume of the French and Indian War Series, of which the predecessors were "The Hunters of the Hills," "The Shadow of the North," and "The Rulers of the Lakes." Robert Lennox, Tayoga, Willet, and all the other important characters of the earlier romances reappear in the present book.

CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES
ROBERT LENNOX: A lad of unknown origin
TAYOGA A young Onondaga warrior
DAVID WILLET A hunter
RAYMOND LOUIS DE ST. LUC A brilliant French officer
AUGUSTE DE COURCELLES A French officer
FRAN?OIS DE JUMONVILLE A French officer
LOUIS DE GALISSONNI��RE A young French officer
JEAN DE M��ZY A corrupt Frenchman
ARMAND GLANDELET A young Frenchman
PIERRE BOUCHER A bully and bravo
PHILIBERT DROUILLARD A French priest
THE MARQUIS DUQUESNE Governor-General of Canada
MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL Governor-General of Canada
FRAN?OIS BIGOT Intendant of Canada
MARQUIS DE MONTCALM French commander-in-chief
DE LEVIS A French general
BOURLAMAQUE A French general
BOUGAINVILLE A French general
ARMAND DUBOIS A follower of St. Luc
M. DE CHATILLARD An old French Seigneur
CHARLES LANGLADE A French partisan
THE DOVE The Indian wife of Langlade
TANDAKORA An Ojibway chief
DAGONOWEDA A young Mohawk chief
HENDRICK An old Mohawk chief
BRADDOCK A British general
ABERCROMBIE A British general
WOLFE A British general
COL. WILLIAM JOHNSON Anglo-American leader
MOLLY BRANT Col. Wm. Johnson's Indian wife
JOSEPH BRANT Young brother of Molly Brant, afterward the great Mohawk chief, Thayendanegea
ROBERT DINWIDDIE Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia

CHARACTERS
William Shirley Governor of Massachusetts
Benjamin Franklin Famous American patriot
James Colden A young Philadelphia captain
William Wilton A young Philadelphia lieutenant
Hugh Carson A young Philadelphia lieutenant
Jacobus Huysman An Albany burgher
Caterina Jacobus Huysman's cook
Alexander McLean An Albany schoolmaster
Benjamin Hardy A New York merchant
Johnathan Pillsbury Clerk to Benjamin Hardy
Adrian Van Zoon A New York merchant
The Slaver A nameless rover
Achille Garay A French spy
Alfred Grosvenor A young English officer
James Cabell A young Virginian
Walter Stuart A young Virginian
Black Rifle A famous "Indian fighter"
Elihu Strong A Massachusetts colonel
Alan Hervey A New York financier
Stuart Whyte Captain of the British sloop, Hawk
John Latham Lieutenant of the British sloop, Hawk
Edward Charteris A young officer of the Royal Americans
Zebedee Crane A young scout and forest runner
Robert Rogers Famous Captain of American Rangers

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
IN THE DEEP WOODS
II. ON THE RIDGES
III. THE BRAVE DEFENCE
IV. THE GODS AT PLAY
V. TAMING A SPY
VI. PUPILS OF THE BEAR
VII. THE SLEEPING SENTINELS
VIII. BEFORE MONTCALM
IX. THE SIGN OF THE BEAR
X. THE FLIGHT OF THE TWO
XI. THE MYSTIC VOYAGE
XII. THE MARVELOUS TRAILER
XIII. READING THE SIGNS
XIV. ST. LUC'S REVENGE
CHAPTER I
IN THE DEEP WOODS
A light wind sang through the foliage, turned to varying and vivid hues now by the touch of autumn, and it had an edge of cold that made Robert Lennox shiver a little, despite a hardy life in wilderness and open. But it was only a passing feeling. A moment or two later he forgot it, and, turning his eyes to the west, watched the vast terraces of blazing color piled one above another by the sinking sun.
Often as he had seen it the wonderful late glow over the mighty forest never failed to stir him, and to make his pulse beat a little faster. His sensitive mind, akin in quality to that of a poet, responded with eagerness and joy to the beauty and majesty of nature. Forgetting danger and the great task they had set for themselves, he watched the banks of color, red and pink, salmon and blue, purple and yellow, shift and change, while in the very heart of the vast panorama the huge, red orb, too strong for human sight, glittered and flamed.
The air, instinct with life, intoxicated him and he became rapt as in a vision. People whom he had met in his few but eventful years passed before him again in all the seeming of reality, and then his spirit leaped into the future, dreaming of the great things he would see, and in which perhaps he would have a share.
Tayoga, the young Onondaga, looked at his comrade and he understood. The same imaginative thread had been woven into the warp of which he was made, and his nostrils and lips quivered as he drank in the splendor of a world that appealed with such peculiar force to him, a