s no flash of blue or of flame among the
green leaves.

"There's a dip just ahead," said Willet, pointing to a wide ravine
filled with bushes that ran directly across the trail.

They continued their steady advance, and Robert's heart fluttered, but
when they came to the ravine they found it empty of everything save
the bushes, and the scouts and guides, plunging into it, crossed to
the other side. The light horsemen of Virginia followed, after them
Gage's regulars and then the main army drew on its red and blue
length, expecting to cross in the same way.

Robert, Tayoga and Willet, leading, entered the deep forest
again. Some chance had put young Lennox slightly in advance of his
comrades, but suddenly he stopped. A short distance ahead a figure
bounded across the trail and disappeared in the thicket. It was only a
flitting glimpse, but he recognized St. Luc, the athletic figure, the
fair hair and the strong face.

"St. Luc!" he exclaimed. "Did you see, Dave? Did you see?"

"Aye, I saw," said the hunter, "and the enemy is here!"

He whirled about, threw up his arms and shouted to the column to
stop. At the same moment, a terrible cry, the long fierce war whoop of
the savages, burst from the forest, filled the air and came back in
ferocious echoes. Then a deadly fire of rifles and muskets was poured
from both right and left upon the marching column. Men and horses went
down, and cries of pain and surprise blended with the war whoop of the
savages which swelled and fell again.

Robert and his comrades had thrown themselves flat upon the ground at
the first fire, and escaped the bullets. Now they rose to their
knees, and began to send their own bullets at the flitting forms among
the trees and bushes. Robert caught glimpses of the savages, naked to
the waist, coated thickly with war paint, their fierce eyes gleaming,
and now and then he saw a man in French uniform passing among them and
encouraging them. He saw one gigantic figure which he knew to be that
of Tandakora, and he raised his reloaded rifle to fire at him, but the
Ojibway was gone.

Surprised in the ominous forest, the British and the Virginians
nevertheless showed a courage worthy of all praise. Gage formed his
regulars on the trail, and they sent volley after volley into the
dense shades on either side, the big muskets thundering together like
cannon. Leaves and twigs and little boughs fell in showers before
their bullets, but whether they struck a