wed so fast that he would have forced us to battle on his
terms, instead of our being able to force him on ours."

"I see, Tayoga. Look out!"

He seized the Onondaga suddenly and pulled him down. A rifle cracked in
the bushes sixty or seventy yards in front of them, and a bullet
whistled where the red youth's head had been. The shot came from an
outlying sentinel of St. Luc's band, and knowing now that the time for a
hidden advance had passed, Willet and all of his men charged with a
mighty shout.

Their cheering also was a signal to the twenty men of Rogers on the
other side of the river, and they, too, rushed forward. St. Luc was
taken by surprise, but, as Robert had feared, his French and Indians
outnumbered them two to one. They fell back a little, thus giving Rogers
and his twenty a chance to cross the river, but they took up a new and
strong position upon a well-wooded hill, and the battle at close range
became fierce, sanguinary and doubtful.

Robert caught two glimpses of St. Luc directing his men with movements
of his small sword, and once he saw another white man, who, he was sure
was Dubois, although generally the enemy was invisible, keeping well
under the shelter of tree and bush. But while human forms were hidden,
the evidences of ferocious battle were numerous. The warriors on each
side uttered fierce shouts, rifles and muskets crackled rapidly, now
and then a stricken man uttered his death cry, and the depths of the
forest were illuminated by the rapid jets of the firing.

The sudden and heavy attack upon his flank compelled St. Luc to take the
defensive, and put him at a certain disadvantage, but he marshaled his
superior numbers so well that the battle became doubtful, with every
evidence that it would be drawn out to great length. Moreover, the
chevalier had maneuvered so artfully that his whole force was now drawn
directly across the path of the rangers and Mohawks, and the way to
Johnson was closed, for the time, at least.

An hour, two hours, the battle swayed to and fro among the trees and
bushes. Had their opponent been any other than St. Luc the three
leaders, Willet, Rogers and Daganoweda, would have triumphed by that
time, but French, Canadians and Indians alike drew courage from the
dauntless Chevalier. More than once they would have abandoned the field,
but he marshaled them anew, and always he did it in a manner so skillful
that the loss was kept at the lowest possible figure.

The