the camp, among them a few belonging to the Hodenosaunee, and offered
their services as scouts and skirmishers. Braddock, who loved
regularity and outward discipline, gazed at them in astonishment.

"Savages!" he said. "We will have none of them!"

The Indians, uttering no complaint, disappeared in the green forest,
with Willet and Tayoga gazing somberly after them.

"'Twas a mistake," said the hunter. "They would have been our eyes and
ears, where we needed eyes and ears most."

"A warrior of my kin was among them," said Tayoga. "Word will fly
north that an insult has been offered to the Hodenosaunee."

"But," said Willet, "Colonel William Johnson will take a word of
another kind. As you know, Tayoga, as I know, and, as all the nations
of the Hodenosaunee know, Waraiyageh is their friend. He will speak to
them no word that is not true. He will brush away all that web of
craft, and cunning and cheating, spun by the Indian commissioners at
Albany, and he will see that there is no infringement upon the rights
of the great League."

"Waraiyageh will do all that, if he can reach Mount Johnson in time,"
said Tayoga, "but Onontio rises before the dawn, and he does not sleep
until after midnight. He sings beautiful songs in the ears of the
warriors, and the songs he sings seem to be true. Already the French
and their allies have been victorious everywhere save at Fort Refuge,
and they carry the trophies of triumph into Canada."

"But the time for us to strike a great blow is at hand, Tayoga," said
Robert, who, with Grosvenor had been listening. "Behold this splendid
army! No such force was ever before sent into the American
wilderness. When we take Fort Duquesne we shall hold the key to the
whole Ohio country, and we shall turn it in the lock and fasten it
against the Governor General of Canada and all his allies."

"But the wilderness is mighty," said Tayoga. "Even the army of the
great English king is small when it enters its depths."

"On the other hand so is that of the enemy, much smaller than ours,"
said Grosvenor.

Soon after Croghan and his Indians left the camp a figure tall, dark
and somber, followed by a dozen men wild of appearance and clad in
hunter's garb, emerged from the forest and walked in silence toward
General Braddock's tent. The regular soldiers stared at them in
astonishment, but their dark leader took no notice. Robert uttered an
exclamation of surprise and pleasure.

"Black Rifle!" he said