Rangers of the forest. We fear neither heat nor cold, peril,
hardship, nor foe. We long to fight our country's battle against
the Indian savages and against the encroaching French. It has been
told us again and again that Rogers is the captain for us, and to
Rogers we have come."

"And right welcome are all such bold spirits in Rogers' camp!" was
the quick reply. "That is the spirit of the true Ranger. Nor shall
you be disappointed in your desire after peril and adventure. You
can see by tonight's experience the sort of adventure into which we
are constantly running. We scouts of the lake have to watch
ourselves against whole hordes of wily, savage Indian scouts and
spies. Some of our number are killed and cut off with each
encounter; and yet we live and thrive and prosper. And if you ask
honest John Winslow who are those who help him most during this
season of weary waiting, I trow he will tell you it is Rogers and
his bold Rangers."

By this time the whole band of Rangers had gathered round Stark's
little company, and the men were all talking together. In those
wild lands ceremony is unknown; friendships are quickly made, if
quickly sundered by the chances and changes of a life of adventure
and change; and soon the band felt as if one common spirit inspired
them.

There were three wounded men in Rogers' company; they were put upon
a sledge and well covered up. Then the party moved along to a
position at some distance from that where they had met the attack.

"The Indians will come back to find and remove their dead,"
explained Rogers. "It is better to be gone. We will encamp and
bivouac a little farther away. Then we will hold a council as to
our next move. They will not be in haste to molest us again."

The plan was carried out. The hardy Rangers hollowed out a
sheltered nook in the snow, threw up a wall of protection against
the wind, lighted a fire, and sat round it discussing the events of
the night, and exchanging amenities with their new comrades.

The two Rogerses, together with Stark, Fritz, and the silent,
watchful Charles, gathered in a knot a little apart, and Rogers
laid before them, in a few brief speeches, the situation of affairs
upon the lake.

Lake Champlain, the more northern and the larger of the twin lakes,
was altogether guarded by the French. St. John stood at its head,
and Crown Point guarded it lower down--being a great fortified
promontory, where the lake narrowed to a very small pas