arance, his dignity and his
manners were respected and admired. Willet sometimes sat with them,
but said little. Robert knew that he approved of his new friendships.

Willet was undoubtedly anxious. The delays which were still numerous
weighed heavily upon him, and he confided to Robert that every day
lost would increase the danger of the march.

"The French and Indians of course know our troubles," he
said. "St. Luc has gone like an arrow into the wilderness with all the
news about us, and he's not the only one. If we could adjust this
trouble with the Pennsylvanians we might start at once."

An hour or two after he uttered his complaint, Robert saw a middle
aged man, not remarkable of appearance, talking with Braddock. His
dress was homespun and careless, but his large head was beautifully
shaped, and his features, though they might have been called homely,
shone with the light of an extraordinary intelligence. His manner as
he talked to Braddock, without showing any tinge of deference, was
soothing. Robert saw at once, despite his homespun dress, that here
was a man of the great world and of great affairs.

"Who is he?" he said to Willet.

"It's Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania," replied the hunter. "I hear
he's one of the shrewdest men in all the colonies, and I don't doubt
the report."

It was Robert's first sight of Franklin, certainly not the least in
that amazing group of men who founded the American Union.

"They say," continued Willet, "that he's already achieved the
impossible, that he's drawing General Braddock and the Pennsylvanians
together, and that we'll soon get weapons, horses and all the other
supplies we need."

It was no false news. Franklin had done what he alone could do. One of
the greatest masters of diplomacy the world has ever known, he brought
Braddock and Pennsylvania together, and smoothed out the
difficulties. All the needed supplies began to flow in, and on the
tenth of an eventful May the whole army started from Wills Creek to
which point it had advanced, while Franklin was removing the
difficulties. A new fort named Cumberland had been established there,
and stalwart Virginians had been cutting a road ahead through the
wilderness.

The place was on the edge of the unending forest. The narrow fringe
of settlements on the Atlantic coast was left behind, and henceforth
they must march through regions known only to the Indians and the
woods rangers. But it was a fine army, two