The Shadow of the North | Page 9

back to sleep. Captain Colden sat down
on a log and waited for them to state their wants. Then Robert spoke,
knowing they could not afford to delay.
"We thank you, Captain Colden," he said, "for the offer of supper and

bed, but I must say to you, sir, that it's no time for either."
"I don't take your meaning, Mr. Lennox."
"Tayoga, Mr. Willet and Black Rifle, are the best scouts in the
wilderness, and before sunset they saw smoke on the horizon. Then
they saw smoke answering smoke, and Black Rifle has seen more. The
French and Indians, sir, are in the forest, and they're led, too, by
Frenchmen."
Young James Colden was a brave man, and his eyes glittered.
"We ask nothing better than to meet 'em," he said, "At the first breath
of dawn we'll march against 'em, if your friends will only be so good as
to show us the way."
"It's not a matter of waiting until dawn, nor even of going to meet 'em.
They'll bring the battle to us. You and your force, Captain Colden, are
surrounded already."
The young captain stared at Robert, but his eyes were full of incredulity.
Several of the soldiers were standing near, and they too heard, but the
warning found no answer in their minds. Robert looked around at the
men asleep and the others ready to follow them, and, despite his
instinctive liking for Colden, his anger began to rise.
"I said that you were surrounded," he repeated sharply, "and it's no time,
Captain Colden, for unbelief! Mr. Willet, Tayoga and I saw the signals
of the enemy, but Black Rifle here has looked upon the warriors
themselves. They're led too by the French, and the best of all the
French forest captains, St. Luc, is undoubtedly with them off there."
He waved his hand toward the north, and a little of the high color left
Colden's face. The youth's manner was so earnest and his words were
spoken with so much power of conviction that they could not fail to
impress.
"You really mean that the French and Indians are here, that they're

planning to attack us tonight?" said the Philadelphian.
"Beyond a doubt and we must be prepared to meet them."
Colden took a few steps back and forth, and then, like the brave young
man he was, he swallowed his pride.
"I confess that I don't know much of the forest, nor do my men," he
said, "and so I shall have to ask you four to help me."
"We'll do it gladly," said Robert. "What do you propose, Dave?"
"I think we'd better draw off some distance from the fire," replied the
hunter. "To the right there is a low hill, covered with thick brush, and
old logs thrown down by an ancient storm. It's the very place."
"Then," said Captain Colden briskly, "we'll occupy it inside of five
minutes. Up, men, up!"
The sleepers were awakened rapidly, and, although they were awkward
and made much more noise than was necessary, they obeyed their
captain's sharp order, and marched away with all their arms and stores
to the thicket on the hill, where, as Willet had predicted, they found
also a network of fallen trees, affording a fine shelter and defense. Here
they crouched and Willet enjoined upon them the necessity of silence.
"Sir," said young Captain Colden, again putting down his pride, "I beg
to thank you and your comrades."
"You don't owe us any thanks. It's just what we ought to have done,"
said Willet lightly. "The wilderness often turns a false face to those
who are not used to it, and if we hadn't warned you we'd have deserved
shooting."
The faint whine of a wolf came from a point far in the north.
"It's one of their signals," said Willet. "They'll attack inside of an hour."
Then they relapsed into silence and waited, every heart beating hard.

CHAPTER II
THE AMBUSH
Robert now had much experience of Indian attack and forest warfare,
but it always made a tremendous impression upon his vivid and
uncommon imagination. The great pulses in his throat and temples
leaped, and his ear became so keen that he seemed to himself to hear
the fall of the leaf in the forest. It was this acute sharpening of the
senses, the painting of pictures before him, that gave him the gift of
golden speech that the Indians had first noticed in him. He saw and
heard much that others could neither hear nor see, and the words to
describe it were always ready to pour forth.
Willet and Tayoga were crouched near him, their rifles thrust forward a
little, and just beyond them was Captain Colden who had drawn a small
sword, more as an evidence of