glish heard disquieting rumours from all quarters, and turned
eager eyes towards England and their own colonies from whence help
should come to them, for their numbers were terribly thinned by
disease, and death in many forms had taken off pretty well a third
of their number.

Rogers himself had been attacked by smallpox, and upon his recovery
he and the large body of the Rangers betook themselves to the woods
and elsewhere, preferring the free life of the forest, with its
manifold adventures and perils, to the monotonous life in an
unhealthy fort.

But Fritz remained behind. When Rogers left he was not fit to
accompany him, having been suffering from fever, though he had
escaped the scourge of smallpox. He had felt the death of Charles a
good deal. He had become attached to the strange, half-crazed man
who had been his special comrade for so long. It seemed like
something wanting in his life when his care was no longer required by
any one person. Indeed all the Rangers missed their white-headed,
wild-eyed, sharp-eared recruit; and as the saying is, many a better
man could better have been spared.

Stark went with Rogers, too much the true Ranger now to be left
behind. Fritz intended to follow them as soon as he was well
enough. Meantime he had formed a warm friendship with two young
officers lately come to the fort with the new commander, Colonel
Monro--one of them being Captain Pringle, and the other a young
lieutenant of the name of Roche.

Colonel Monro was a Scotchman, a brave man and a fine soldier.
Those under his command spoke of him in terms of warm and loving
admiration. Fritz heard of some of his achievements from his new
friends, and in his turn told them of his own adventures and of the
life he had led during the past two years.

"We have heard of the Rangers many a time and oft," cried Roche.
"We had thought of offering ourselves to Rogers as volunteers; but
men are so sorely wanted for the regular army and the militia that
our duty seemed to point that way. But I should like well to follow
the fortunes of the hardy Rogers."

It was true indeed that men were sorely wanted at Fort William
Henry. Colonel Monro looked grave and anxious as he examined its
defences. It was an irregular bastioned square, built of gravel and
earth, crowned by a rampart of heavy logs, and guarded by ditches
on three sides, and by the lake on the north. But it was not strong
enough to stand a very heavy assault, although i