in authority to sanction some more overt
movement.

One day a strange adventure befell the Rangers. Rogers and his
little flotilla of boats were here, there, and everywhere upon the
lake. Not only did they move up and down Lake George, which was
debatable ground, commanded at the different ends by a French and
English fort, but they carried boats across a mountain gorge to the
eastward, launched them again in South Bay, and rowed down the
narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain, and under cover of dark
nights would glide with muffled oars beneath the very guns of
Ticonderoga, within hearing of the sentries' challenge to each
other, and so on to Crown Point, whence they could watch the
movements of the enemy, and see their transports passing to and fro
with provisions for Ticonderoga.

Many a small boat was seized, many a large one sunk by these hardy
Rangers of the forest. They were as wily as Indians, and as sudden
and secret in their movements. The French regarded them with a
species of awe and fear. They would sometimes find an English boat
or canoe in some spot perfectly inexplicable to them. They could
not believe that anyone could pass the fortifications of
Ticonderoga unseen and unheard, and would start the wildest
hypotheses to account for the phenomenon, even to believing that
some waterway existed which was unknown alike to them and their
Indian scouts.

But to return to the adventure to which allusion has been made.

Rogers with some thirty of his Rangers was out upon one of those
daring adventures. They were encamped within a mile of Ticonderoga.
Their boats were lying in a little wooded creek which gave access
to the lake. Some of the party, headed by Rogers, had gone on
towards Crown Point by night. Stark, with a handful of trusty men,
lay in hiding, watching the movements from the fort, and keeping a
wary eye upon those who came and went, ready to pounce out upon any
straggler who should adventure himself unawares into the forest,
and carry him off captive to the English camp.

Certain tidings as to the course the campaign was likely to take
were urgently wanted by this time. The posts to the English fort
brought in no news save that it was thought better for the army on
the western frontier to remain upon the defensive, and no talk of
sending large reinforcements came to cheer or encourage them.
Winslow was impatient and resentful. He thought there were
mismanagement and lack of energy. He knew tha