him now: and to the swirl of it he dropped off into a dreamless,
healthy sleep.

CHAPTER III.

TICONDEROGA.

At the alarm-post next morning the men were in high spirits again.
Everyone seemed to be posted in the day's work ahead. The French
had thrown up an outwork on the landward end of the ridge; an
engineer had climbed Rattlesnake Mountain at daybreak and conned it
through his glass, and had brought down his report two hours ago.
The white-coats had been working like niggers, helped by some
reinforcements which had come in overnight--Levis with the Royal
Roussillon, the scouts said: but the thing was a rough-and-ready
affair of logs and the troops were to carry it with the bayonet.
John asked in what direction it lay, and thumbs were jerked towards
the screening forest across the river. The distance (some said) was
not two miles. Colonel Beaver, returning from a visit to the
saw-mill, confirmed the rumour. The 46th would march in a couple of
hours or less.

At breakfast Howe's death seemed to be forgotten, and John found no
time for solemn thoughts. Bets were laid that the French would not
wait for the assault, but slip away to their boats; even with Levis
they could scarcely be four thousand strong. Bradstreet, having
finished his bridge, had started back for the landing-stage to haul a
dozen of the lighter bateaux across the portage and float them down
to Lake Champlain filled with riflemen. Bradstreet was a glutton for
work--but would he be in time? That old fox Montcalm would never let
his earths be stopped so easily, and to pile defences on the ridge
was simply to build himself into a trap. A good half of the officers
maintained that there would be no fighting.

Well, fighting or no, some business was in hand. Here was the
battalion in motion; and, to leave the enemy in no doubt of our
martial ardour, here were the drums playing away like mad. The echo
of John's feet on the wooden bridge awoke him from these vain shows
and rattlings of war to its real meaning, and his thoughts again kept
him solemn company as he breasted the slope beyond and began the
tedious climb to the right through the woods.

The scouts, coming in one by one, reported them undefended: and
the battalion, though perforce moving slowly, kept good order.
Towards the summit, indeed, the front ranks appeared to straggle and
extend themselves confusedly: but the disorder, no more than
apparent, came from the skirmishers