.

At noon we halted to rest the horses and eat, the pickets going out of
their own accord. And I did not think it fit to give orders where none
were required in this company of Irregulars, whose discipline matched
regiments more pretentious, and whose alignment was suited to the
conditions. Braddock and Bunker Hill were lessons I had learned to
regard as vastly more important than our good Baron's drill-book.

As I sat eating a bit of bread, cup of water in the other hand. Jack
Mount came swaggering up with that delightful mixture of respect and
familiarity which brings the hand to the cap but leaves a grin on the
face.

"Well, Jack?" I asked, smiling.

"Have you noticed any sign, sir?" he inquired. Secretly self-satisfied,
he was about to go on and inform me that he and Tim Murphy had noticed
a stone standing against a tree--for I saw them stop like pointers on a
hot grouse-scent just as we halted to dismount. I was unwilling to
forestall him or take away one jot of the satisfaction, so I said:
"What have you seen?"

Then he beamed all over and told me; and the Weasel and Tim Murphy came
up to corroborate him, all eagerly pointing out the stone to me where
it rested against the base of a black ash.

"Well," said I, smiling, "how do you interpret that sign?"

"Iroquois!" said the rangers promptly.

"Yes, but are they friendly or hostile?"

The question seemed to them absurd, but they answered very civilly that
it was a signal of some sort which could only be interpreted by
Indians, and that they had no doubt that it meant some sort of mischief
to us.

"Men," I said quietly, "you are wrong. That stone leaning upon a tree
is a friendly message to me from a body of our Oneida scouts."

They stared incredulously.

"I will prove it," said I. "Jack, go you to that stone. On the under
side you will find a number of white marks made with paint. I can not
tell you how many, but the number will indicate the number of Oneidas
who are scouting for us ahead."

Utterly unconvinced, yet politely obedient, the blond giant strode off
across the road, picked up the great stone as though it were a pompion,
turned it over, uttered an exclamation, and bore it back to us.

"You see," I said, "twenty Oneida scouts will join us about two o'clock
this afternoon if we travel at the same rate that we are traveling.
This white circle traced here represents the sun; the straight line the
meridian. Calculating roughly, I should se