l, captain, I have heard you say yours is an independent command,
and that you can act with the company wherever you like. While you are
here, I know you are under the orders of the colonel; but if you had
chosen to march away on any expedition of your own, you could have done
it."

"That is so, Nat; but now the siege is once begun, I don't know that I
should be justified in marching away, even if I could."

"But they are going to surrender, I tell you," Nat insisted. "I don't
see as how it can be your duty to hand over your company to the French,
if you can get them clear away, so as to fight for the king again."

"What do you say, Edwards?" James asked his lieutenant.

"I don't see why we shouldn't march away, if we could," Edwards said.
"Now that the game is quite lost here, I don't think anyone could blame
you for saving the company, if possible, and I agree with Nat that
Montcalm will find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep his Indians
in hand. The French have never troubled much on that score."

"Well, Nat, what is your plan?" James asked, after a pause.

"The plan is simple enough," Nat said. "There ain't no plan at all. All
we have got to do is to march quietly down to the lake, to take some of
the canoes that are hauled up at the mouth of the swamp, and to paddle
quietly off, keeping under the trees on the right-hand side. There
ain't many redskins in the woods that way, and the night is as dark as
pitch. We can land eight or ten miles down the lake, and then march
away to the right, so as to get clean round the redskins altogether."

"Very well, Nat, I will do it," James said. "It's a chance, but I think
it's a better chance than staying here, and if I should get into a row
about it, I can't help it. I am doing it for the best."

The corps were quietly mustered, and marched out through the gate of
the intrenchments, on the side of the lake. No questions were asked,
for the corps had several times gone out on its own account, and driven
back the Indians and French pickets. The men had, from their first
arrival at the fort, laid aside their heavy boots, and taken to
moccasins as being better fitted for silent movement in the forest.
Therefore not a sound was heard as, under Nat's guidance, they made
their way down the slope into the swamp.

Here they were halted, for the moment, and told to move with the
greatest care and silence, and to avoid snapping a bough or twig. This,
however, was the less