ed," quoth Stark, full of
energy and enterprise as usual. "It will puzzle the enemy to find
the route we have taken. Lie you here close and keep watch and
ward, and I will fetch succour from the fort before the French have
time to seek us out."

This was good counsel, and Rogers followed it. Stark, after a quick
journey across the ice, brought sledges and soldiers from the fort,
and in a few more days the Rangers were brought back in triumph to
their huts without Fort William Henry, where they were content to
lie idle for a short while, recovering from their wounds and
fatigues. Hardly a man had escaped uninjured; and some were very
dangerously wounded, and died from the effects of the injuries
received. Fritz himself had a slight attack of fever resulting from
the wound which he had scarcely noticed in the heat of battle.
Stark was almost the only member of the company who had come forth
quite unscathed, and he was the life of the party during the next
spell of inaction, telling stories, setting the men to useful
tasks, making drawings of the French forts for the guidance of the
English, and amusing the whole place by his sudden escapades in
different directions.

The Rangers were further cheered by a letter of thanks from General
Abercromby, lately sent out from England, recognizing their gallant
service, and promising that it should be made known to the King.

But the adventures of the winter were not over, although the days
were lengthening out, and the blustering rains and winds of March
had come. The snow was greatly lessened; but a spell of frost still
held the lake bound, and the rigours of the season were little
abated.

It was St. Patrick's Day; and as some of the soldiers in Fort
William Henry were Irish, they had celebrated the anniversary by a
revel which had left a large proportion more or less drunk and
incapable. Their English comrades had followed their lead with
alacrity, and the Fort was resounding with laughter and song.

But the Rangers in the huts outside were on the alert and as Stark
remarked with a smile, they must keep watch and ward that night,
for nobody else seemed to have any disposition to do so.

Major Eyre, in pity for the forlorn condition of his men, had not
restrained them from amusing themselves in their own fashion upon
this anniversary. It was well, however, that there were some
sleepless watchers on the alert that night; for as the grey dawn
began to break, a sound was he