requests."

"I'll take care of him, sir, that you may depend on," the corporal said
grimly, and from that instant Nathan Beman remained silent regarding his
desire to be paid for acting the part of guide.

Because of having received this order the corporal was forced to
relinquish his position as commodore of the fleet, and thus it was that
he and his pupil were among the few who entered Ticonderoga early that
morning.

Within five minutes after Nathan had apparently been subdued, word was
passed for as many of the Green Mountain Boys as could be conveyed in
the boats to embark at once, and almost at the same moment Colonel
Easton, turning to the old man, said:

"It is your duty, Corporal 'Lige, to take passage in the same craft that
carries our leader, for the lad of whom you have charge must be kept
where Colonel Allen can speak to him at an instant's notice."

Had the men been allowed to follow their inclinations, the frail boats
which formed the fleet would have been swamped even before they pushed
off from the shore, for every member of the troop was eager to be with
the first division, and it was only after considerable difficulty in the
way of restraining the men that the different craft were properly and
safely loaded.

When the corporal and the lad who was thus virtually held prisoner
entered the boat where was Colonel Allen, Isaac followed as if it was
his right so to do.

He could not fancy any position of affairs where he would be debarred
from remaining with the man who had taken him "under his wing," and it
so chanced that in the excitement of embarking he passed aboard unheeded
by who might have checked him.

The darkness of night was just giving way to the gray light of dawn when
the little fleet put off from the shore, and without being really aware
he did so, Isaac counted the number of those who were thus afloat.

Beside the officers, there were eighty-three, including himself and
Nathan, and it was no longer reasonable to expect that those who had
been sent to Skenesborough and Panton would arrive in time to be of
assistance.

"Will they try to take the fort with so few?" he asked in a whisper of
Corporal 'Lige, and the latter added emphatically:

"If all that is told of Colonel Allen be true, he wouldn't hesitate to
make an attempt single-handed."

"But surely we cannot hope to do much, for fifty men behind a fort
should be a much larger force than ours."

"Savin' and exceptin' thes