"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.
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