ing vainly
for the Willing.

At noon we crossed, piecemeal, a deep lake in the canoes, and marching
awhile came to a timber-covered rise which our French prisoners named
as the Warriors' Island. And from the shelter of its trees we saw the
steely lines of a score of low ponds, and over the tops of as many
ridges a huddle of brown houses on the higher ground.

And this was the place we had all but sold our lives to behold! This was
Vincennes at last! We were on the heights behind the town,--we were at
the back door, as it were. At the far side, on the Wabash River, was the
front door, or Fort Sackville, where the banner of England snapped in
the February breeze.

We stood there, looking, as the afternoon light flooded the plain.
Suddenly the silence was broken.

"Hooray for Clark!" cried a man at the edge of the copse.

"Hooray for Clark!"--it was the whole regiment this time. From
execration to exaltation was but a step, after all. And the Creoles fell
to scoffing at their sufferings and even forgot their hunger in staring
at the goal. The backwoodsmen took matters more stolidly, having
acquired long since the art of waiting. They lounged about, cleaning
their guns, watching the myriad flocks of wild ducks and geese casting
blue-black shadows on the ponds.

"Arrah, McChesney," said Terence, as he watched the circling birds,
"Clark's a great man, but 'tis more riverince I'd have for him if wan av
thim was sizzling on the end of me ramrod."

"I'd sooner hev the Ha'r Buyer's sculp," said Tom.

Presently there was a drama performed for our delectation. A shot came
down the wind, and we perceived that several innocent Creole gentlemen,
unconscious of what the timber held, were shooting the ducks and geese.
Whereupon Clark chose Antoine and three of our own Creoles to sally out
and shoot likewise--as decoys. We watched them working their way over
the ridges, and finally saw them coming back with one of the Vincennes
sportsmen. I cannot begin to depict the astonishment of this man when
he reached the copse, and was led before our lean, square-shouldered
commander. Yes, monsieur, he was a friend of les Americains. Did
Governor Hamilton know that a visit was imminent? Pardieu (with many
shrugs and outward gestures of the palms), Governor Hamilton had said if
the Long Knives had wings or fins they might reach him now--he was all
unprepared.

"Gentlemen," said Colonel Clark to Captains Bowman and McCarty and
Williams,