ch and Indians would do, and I followed them in their hurried
retreat into the north. I hid in the snowy bushes, and heard some of
their talk, too. They will not stop until they reach a village a full
hundred miles from here. The Frenchmen, De Courcelles and Jumonville
are mad with anger and disappointment, and so is the Indian chief
Tandakora."

"And well they may be!" jubilantly exclaimed Captain Colden, off whose
mind a great weight seemed to have slid. "It was splendid tactics to
burn their home over their heads. I wouldn't have thought of it
myself, but since others have thought of it, and, it has succeeded so
admirably, we can now do the work we were sent here to do."

Tayoga and Willet made snow-shoes and went out on them a few days
later, confirming the report of Black Rifle. Then small parties were
sent forth to search the forest for settlers and their families. Robert
had a large share in this work, and sometimes he looked upon terrible
things. In more than one place, torch and tomahawk had already done
their dreadful work, but in others they found the people alive and
well, still clinging to their homes. It was often difficult, even in
the face of imminent danger, to persuade them to leave, and when they
finally went, under mild compulsion, it was with the resolve to return
to their log cabins in the spring.

Fort Refuge now deserved its name. There were many axes, with plenty
of strong and skillful arms to wield them, and new buildings were
erected within the palisade, the smoke rising from a half dozen
chimneys. They were rude structures, but the people who occupied
them, used all their lives to hardships, did not ask much, and they
seemed snug and comfortable enough to them. Fires always blazed on the
broad stone hearths and the voices of children were heard within the
log walls. The hands of women furnished the rooms, and made new
clothes of deerskin.

The note of life at Fort Refuge was comfort and good cheer. They felt
that they could hold the little fortress against any force that might
come. The hunters, Willet, Tayoga and Black Rifle at their head,
brought in an abundance of game. There was no ill health. The little
children grew mightily, and, thus thrown together in a group, they had
the happiest time they had ever known. Robert was their hero. No other
could tell such glorious tales. He had read fairy stories at Albany,
and he not only brought them all from the store of his memory but he
embr